Carrying more computers than you want is familiar. There is a personal phone, maybe a MacBook, and then a separate Windows laptop “just for work” or a Linux box for coding. Phone-as-PC ideas have been floating around for years, but they usually stop at a half-baked desktop mode that feels more like a demo than something you would actually use for hours at a stretch.
NexPhone is an Android 16 handset built on Qualcomm’s QCM6490, a long-term-support chip Qualcomm says will be backed through 2036. That is rare in phone marketing, but it matters when the device is also your computer. It has 12 GB of RAM, 256 GB of storage with microSD expansion, a 6.58-inch 120 Hz display, a 5,000 mAh battery, dual rear cameras, dual SIM, wireless charging, and MIL-STD-810H plus IP68/IP69K ruggedization.
Designer: Nex Computing
NexOS lets you treat the phone as three machines in one. On its own, it is a clean Android system with no bloatware. Plug it into a monitor, and you can switch into Android desktop mode or full Debian-based Linux with hardware acceleration, sharing folders between them. If you opt in, you can also boot Windows 11 on Arm, turning the phone into a tiny Windows PC when docked.
NexPhone builds a custom Windows Mobile UI on top of Windows 11, a grid-style launcher inspired by old Windows Phone tiles to make the OS less painful on a small screen. For desktop use, the phone ships with a five-port USB-C hub that fans out to HDMI, keyboard, mouse, and power. Any desk with a monitor becomes your workstation with a single cable, and you pick up at home where you left off at the office.
Windows 11 on Arm still has app compatibility gaps and relies on emulation for many x86 programs, which can hurt performance and battery life. Multi-booting Android, Linux, and Windows adds complexity that appeals to enthusiasts more than casual users. Putting phone, PC, and laptop brain into one device also means a single point of failure, and the rugged build does not remove the need for backups and a fallback plan.
With the optional NexDock laptop shell, you can plug in and get a 14.1-inch display, keyboard, and trackpad in airport lounges or coffee shops without carrying a full laptop. It is designed for people who already juggle multiple OSes and want to consolidate, but not for those hoping to escape complexity. The promise to support the device for a decade is either visionary or risky, depending on how seriously you take startup hardware commitments.
NexPhone is less about convincing everyone to ditch laptops and more about giving the Linux-comfortable, multi-OS crowd a serious shot at carrying one device instead of three. It treats the phone, the OS stack, and the docking experience as one design problem. Whether that holds up depends less on the specs and more on whether the software behaves like three clean experiences instead of one messy compromise.
