Nex Computer, a company that makes hardware designed to turn your phone into a laptop, is working on something new: the NexPhone. It’s a midrange phone that’s designed to double as your computer and comes with Android and Linux installed, both of which will offer desktop experiences when plugged into a monitor.

But the NexPhone’s best trick is that it can dual-boot into Windows 11, essentially becoming a full Windows PC when hooked up to a display — and also offers a mobile UI that pays tribute to Windows Phone when it’s unplugged. It’s a delightfully geeky attempt to answer the age-old question: Why can’t your smartphone just be your whole dang computer?

This isn’t Nex Computer’s first attempt to make a computer that’s not a computer. The company worked on a concept designed around Intel’s short-lived Compute Card. Currently, it sells the NexDock, a 14-inch laptop shell designed as a dock for phones that run a desktop environment over USB-C, which mainly means Samsung phones at the moment. But Android 16 is bringing that kind of support to more devices, including the NexPhone. Additionally, the NexPhone will offer Linux as an option, which is all the rage right now. It runs as an app on the phone, so you can just straight up use it on the tiny phone screen if you want, which is wild and probably not advisable.

1/3Windows when you want it…

Then there’s the Windows Phone of it all. You need to reboot and start up the phone in Windows mode to use it, and when you do, you’re greeted by a familiar interface. NexDock founder Emre Kosmaz tells me that they had to build a mobile UI using progressive web apps since Microsoft stopped supporting its Windows Subsystem for Android in March 2025.

But mainly, the NexPhone is designed as a little machine to run Windows on a bigger screen when you want it, rather than a Windows Phone revival. Kosmaz demonstrated it connected to a monitor using DisplayLink, but says that once they finishing writing the driver the phone will run it over plain ‘ol USB-C.

The NexPhone uses a Qualcomm QCM6490 chipset designed for IoT applications, which Kosmaz tells me they chose it because of its native support for Android, Linux, and Windows. The phone itself is rugged; meeting the MIL-STD-810H standard and rated both IP68 and IP69 for dust and water resistance. There’s a 5,000mAh battery, a 64-megapixel rear camera, and even wireless charging.

So is this the phone that can finally replace your computer? We won’t know for a while — Nex Computer expects to ship the NexPhone in Q3 of 2026 for $549. The company is taking refundable $199 reservation deposits starting today.

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• Allison Johnson