@MattHatton @decryption having used phone as computer devices since *cough* windows phones, they are OK at a pinch, but...
The windows phone (Nokia something something) had a great camera, and when plugged in, usable Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, decent keyboard and mouse. Let down by not honouring typical keyboard shortcuts in the applications, so required you to use the mouse more than you would otherwise. Was a useful gimmick, and it was enough for proving a point.
Samsung Dex still works just as well - which is to say it is clunky.
@decryption @MattHatton not disagreeing.
That said, the Nokia did run Windows 10 on a phone nearly a decade ago.
Wasn't the full x64 binary, obviously, but was the same OS API, and the shite that is the AI snapdragon "tell me how to cook pasta because I am a father who is unexpectedly stuck at home with my kids without my missus" devices that officeworks and hardly normal advertise evolved from that.
Good? Probably not. Relevant? Also probably not.
Could Apple run the full OS on either hardware if they wanted - yeah, they could.
I guess that was the point that I was trying to make. It has been done before.
@BernardSheppard @decryption the 10 years ago thing is big bit.
A lot has changed over that time.
Not just in terms of phone hardware, but in device use. Portability, plug and playing is much more of a thing now (thanks hot-desking and WFH). The wider environment is riper for a device that you can have in your pocket a lot of the time, but also throw into a dock and hookup to be an actual computer.
Also, I'd generally reckon Apple has a better chance of doing this well compared to Microsoft. For many reasons, but mostly because the control they have over the hardware.
@MattHatton @decryption yeah, agreed.
The biggest problem that I recalled when I tried it, though, was answering a call; not that you couldn't do it, but if you wanted to have a confidential conversation in an open plan office then you would have to undock your phone to walk away and hope that those apps were as resilient as desktop apps when undocking.
@BernardSheppard @decryption I would suspect there is a lot of that scenario that is much less of a problem these days.
Even down to, your bluetooth earbuds/headset work at quite a distance now so you can just walk off into a corner to take the call.