SPACEdeck Is Half Cyberdeck, Half Phone Case, All Style

It’s been at least a few hours since Hackaday last featured a cyberdeck, so to avoid the specter of withdrawal, we present you with [Sp4m]’s SPACEdeck, a stylish phone-based cyberdeck!

The case features a great message in an even better font.The SPACEdeck takes a Samsung Galaxy S24 and puts it into a handsome clamshell case with a wireless keyboard, turning the phone into a tiny-screened laptop that urges you not to panic. Is The Hitchiker’s Guide to The Galaxy available on the Playstore? Well, the e-book of the novel surely is, and having access to Wikipedia comes close. The design is building off (or out from, as the case may be) a 3D-printed phone case for the S24 by Digital Proto.

Given that the Galaxy S24 has more horsepower than the ancient Macbook we’re writing this on, this setup is probably going to be more useful than you might think, especially when paired with Termux to give you the full power of Linux.

Like some modern laptops, the screen can rotate 180 degrees for when the keyboard isn’t needed. The case will also allow for Nintendo Switch2 joycon integration, but that’s a work in progress for now. The connection points will also be modular so other accessories can be used. All files will be released once [Sp4m] is happy with how the Joycons are holding on, hopefully with a license that will allow us to remix this for other phones.

Given the supercomputers in our pockets, it’s really a wonder we don’t see more android-based cyberdecks, but most seem to stick to SBCs. Lately it seems the slabtop form-factor has been equally popular for cyberdecks, but it’s hard to beat a clamshell for practicality.

18 thoughts on “SPACEdeck Is Half Cyberdeck, Half Phone Case, All Style

  1. There have been exactly 3 actual cyberdecks since January 2023 posted on HaD, and 2 of them were steamdecks.

    Pick a new word.
    That one is taken and doesn’t mean what you keep using it for.

    1. Oh? Which 3 of the 30 postings tagged “cyberdeck” do you consider “actual”?

      Do we have to go back to thrashing out what constitutes an real cyberdeck? Because that was a dumb series of comments the first time ’round.

      Even Gibson wasn’t terribly clear on the definition, so let it rest.

    2. OK, I’ll bite: what is your definition of cyberdeck?

      If you want to cite Neuromancer, I’d say exactly zero of the cyberdecks ever posted to Hackaday qualify as Cyberspace Decks, since you can’t use them to jack into the matrix via neural interface.

  2. A keyboard case for a smartphone is a ‘deck now? We are REALLY stretching the definition a bit now

    Props to the creator still, they created whatever they wanted. Who cares what we call it

  3. I like the idea. It’s smart using a phone for a computer and screen combination

    It makes me wish we had more options for mobile os’s. Android, as flexible as it is, is so locked down compared to a desktop OS. I’d love to see mobile Ubuntu garner wide compatibility, and phones become more easily jailbroken.

    Until then we will have tons of e-waste and less cyber decks.

    1. I have a Fold2 with a broken touchscreen, it would be nice if Samsung Dex would work on the screen, although I here if you root and change the build.prop to “tablet” DeX may run on the internal screen.

  4. It only just occurred to me that the hitchhiker’s guide was Douglas Adams forecasting Wikipedia. I know other people had already come up with similar predictions of an internet-like system. (Pynchon, in Vineland, and numerous real-world attempts to put together compendia of all known facts in a searchable form.) But Adams and his idea of individual people adding, editing, and revising a compendium of information, seems to more directly predict Wikipedia itself.

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