It’s pretty amazing how powerful our smartphones have become these days, and with some tweaking, they can even handle tasks they may not have been originally designed for. Running full operating systems, for example, is definitely possible, though your experience will definitely be less than ideal even if you connect the handheld to an external monitor. But what if the phone was actually designed to run some sort of desktop-like OS? All you need, then, is a keyboard, a touchpad, and this slider case that ties them all together.
That’s the unique experience that this Note10+ Slider Terminal Case is trying to provide. It’s definitely not the first of its kind, but it sure is one of the sleekest-looking DIY cases. It won’t turn you into a novel-writing wizard with such a small and cramped keyboard, but it could let you perform some power user tasks that will make you look like some sci-fi hero with a cool sliding phone prop.
Designer: AdmiralSym
Launched in 2019, the Samsung Galaxy Note10+ is hardly a powerhouse by today’s standards. In fact, the whole point of this design was originally to use the phone for remotely accessing servers using some rather technical apps available on Android. That said, Samsung’s flagship phones have always had one superpower that very few phones have: the desktop-like Android experience known as DeX.
This 3D printed slider case leverages that feature since its user interface is always horizontal. The case is actually an enclosure for two separate devices: the Galaxy Note10+ itself and the ripped guts G60S Pro Bluetooth Air Mouse keyboard. There’s nothing technically special about this keyboard and it’s one of the many designs that puts a touchpad to the right of the keyboard. That said, the case is designed specifically for that model, so other similar keyboards might not work with this design.
The 3D design has been made available to the public, so it’s possible for others to follow suit if they have the exact same phone and keyboard. They could also attempt to modify the design to fit their needs, but that presumes familiarity with 3D modeling and printing. There’s very little modification to be done for the keyboard, other than removing the PCB from its shell and snapping it to the custom 3D printed bezel. One other note, however, is that the Galaxy Note10+ has to be rooted (for those familiar with Android internals) in order to use DeX mode without having to connect the phone to an external display.
Once upon a time, slider phones were quite the fad, offering BlackBerry-esque QWERTY keyboards that could be hidden away when not in use. Of course, those tiny keys proved to be more cumbersome than they’re worth, especially in an age when human brains have evolved to accept the reality of tactile-less virtual keyboards. Still, this blast from the past is quite a treat for Android fans, offering a usable design that gives an old phone a new purpose in life.
