Razer’s Project Linda transforms a phone into a laptop

Razer is best known for creating some of the best gaming hardware in the world that include some top-shelf peripherals, notebooks and, of late, the Razer smartphone that has been specifically designed for gamers. It’s practically become a tradition now with Razer showcasing their latest design concepts at every show such as the triple-display rig dubbed Project Valerie last year. At CES 2018, Razer displayed their latest concept device, a dock that transforms their Razer Phone into a laptop dubbed Project Linda.

While smartphones are becoming more capable every year with performance approaching notebooks, they’re still limited by the size of their displays and the lack of a keyboard. Project Linda addresses that by acting as a dock for the Razer Phone to turn it into a laptop complete with a keyboard and larger display.

The concept of a smartphone dock that transforms into a laptop isn’t by any means new as other vendors like Asus have explored it years ago with their Padfone S but Project Linda looks like the most refined development of the concept so far.

The reason for the somewhat squarish design for the Razer phone is immediately apparent with Project Linda as the phone neatly docks in face-up where a touchpad would be with the phone’s touchscreen display acting as a touchpad in itself or as a secondary screen. Once you’ve slotted the phone in, a docking button slides in a USB Type-C connector into the Razer Phone’s charging dock to lock it in place.

Externally, Project Linda has the dimensions of a Razer Blade Stealth 13 along with a machined aluminium chassis, a full sized keyboard and a 13.3-inch Quad HD touchscreen though it lacks its own computing hardware, instead relying on the Razer Phone for pixel crunching power and it still runs Android under the hood. Project Linda isn’t there just to offer a larger display and a keyboard though. A 53.6Wh battery allows users to charge the Razer Phone up to three times and it has an additional 200GB of built-in storage.

As it stands, Project Linda is an intriguing offering and extends the functionality and performance of the Razer Phone though the caveat of having to own the phone first may limit its chances in a fast-paced market where new smartphones hit the market every year. There’s no confirmation on when, or if Project Linda will ever make its way to the market but it’s certainly something that we’ll be keeping an eye on.