I have decided to revisit a personal experiment that I did a few years back. The purpose of it was to see if I could get by with just using my phone. It would server as all my phone things, but also my ereader, media device and even my computer. In other words, it would be my ODTRTA, or One Device to Rule Them All.

The reason for this was I felt like I had too much stuff. I have a laptop computer, a Samsung tablet, a Kindle, my SuperNote, my Neo2 and my phone. You could say that I am a bit of a tech hoarder. And, there was a lot of redundancy. I wanted to declutter and simplify my life.

Also, there is the fact that I work in IT so I spend most of my days setting in front of a computer. That means, I often don’t want to use a computer for my personal stuff. But I like to write.

The goal of this is to find a way to do as much as I can with the least amount of stuff. Also this will make my work set up much more portable. If I want to go to a coffee shot to write, I don’t have to lug my laptop with me. I just have to take much smaller things. So here I am.

The First Time

When I did my first attempt at this, I was using a LG phone with a dual screen case. I was doing a lot of bible studies at the time, so having two screens really helped. Once the research was over, I would do my draft on my Neo2 and then transfer it back over to the phone for editing and cleaning up. For the first part, the research, it worked great. I have an input app called Graffiti Pro, which gives you a gesture input field like the old Palm Pilots. (I still use and love this app.) The second half, editing and clean-up, things started to fall apart.

A phone screen is just too small for good word processing. After a short period of time, I decided that my phone was just a little too limited so I went back to my normal system. I wouldn’t say that the experiment was a failure, I just learned that it was not the best option. I could make it work, but there were better tools out there.

So why am I trying this again?

It all comes down to the fact that I got a new phone; a Samsung S24 Ultra. That, and an article that I read made me think it was time to try this again.

The article was by a tech blogger who said that he tried just using his phone as his computer for a short time. He did this because there is an app that some Samsung devices have called Dex. Basically, with Dex, you can connect your phone to an external monitor, and with Dex you get a desktop set up.  It is kind of like a cross between the Android OS and Chrome OS.

With Dex, you get a taskbar and windows. You can even have up to 5 apps running at the same time. (You can have more than 5 open at any time, but only 5 can be active. Any more will be minimized down to the task bar.) So, now I can use my phone like a computer. This makes it far more capable than my old LG.

On top of this, most modern flagship phones, like the S24 Ultra, have more horsepower than many cheap laptops and Chromebooks. It really is a powerful tool that just fits in your pocket.

The article showed me what my phone is capable of and inspired me to give this whole concept of being computerless another go. So, that is what I am going to do.

My Loadout

I should start by saying that I am not going to use my phone all by itself. I am going to pair it with some other devices, but the phone will be the center of it all. So, what else am I going to use?

Besides my phone, I am going to use my SuperNote. This is an e ink tablet that works as a digital notebook. I got this device back when I was in college for taking notes during class. It works really well and I love it. I have always loved writing in notebooks and have often carried one around with me. I have shelves full of ones that I have filled up. But I want to be kinder to the environment. So a digital notebook is the way to go.

Next is my phone, which I have already mentioned so there is not much more to say about it.

Finally, there is my Neo2. This is basically a digital typewriter. It is a keyboard with a built-in dot matrix screen. It runs off of AA batteries and lasts for a very long time. As a digital device it can do things like creating a document and spell checking. There is no formatting options and the dictionary for spell check is fairly basic, but at the end of the day, it is a good tool for the first draft. One final note, these devices are no longer being made, so you can only find them second hand. That being said, you can usually get on in really good condition for around $60.

How I will put all this together

So what does it look like to put this system together? When it comes to writing, I almost always start with an outline. I find having a well organized path for my writing is a really good idea. Normally, I like to use a note taking app to make my outline. Right now I am using Obsidian. This is done on my phone.

Once I have an outline, I will go to my SuperNote and handwrite a pre-draft. All that I am doing is just getting my ideas down. It really is a one shot kind of thing. I don’t care how good it is, or how much of it will end up in the final product. I am just laying down my ideas. Like the Neo2, there are no distractions on my SuperNote. Even though it is a digital device, at the end of the day, it’s just a notebook.

As a side note, if what I am working on requires some research, I will use the SuperNote for that and then send the document to my phone so that I can use it as a reference while I am writing.

Once I have the pre-draft done, I will type out the actual document on the Neo2. This is effectively my first draft, however, I will continue to edit the same document so I really draft and then edit.

Once the draft is complete, I will do a quick spell check on the Neo2. I’m a horrible speller, so doing more than one spell check is a must for me. Since the dictionary on the device is very basic and there is no grammar checking, this ends up being a very general pass. Google Doc (my word processor of choice) does the real heavy lifting. After this, it is time to put the document on my phone.

The Neo2 is not a connected device. However, There is an interesting thing that it can do. Using a printer cable, I can connect the Neo2 to my phone, a computer or even my SuperNote. Those devices see the Neo2 as a keyboard. There is a send button. When you press it, the Neo2 will “type” the document onto whatever it is hooked up to. This is a very fast and smooth process. It is not 100% perfect, and I do have to clean up the document, but that is part of the process.

Once I have the document cleaned up to the point that I am ready to post it, I simply use the WordPress app to upload it to my site. From the app, I can also add any artwork.

This is all a work in process and this post is the first that I have done using this method. I will post an update after I have had a chance to use this a while and let everyone know how it is going. I am hopeful that it will work much better. Dex is going to be a major advantage I think. For now, thanks for reading. 

Namaste.