Hey,
I like the composition of the Lapdock Kit! Sadly the kit is not worth for European customers due to the taxes =(
For a while I followed these topics here in the forums:
In the post Purism write that charging the Librem5 is no problem and the kit can be used productive. What about the heat, power consumption nowadays? Are there some improvements in the kernel or so? Some current live posts from other users would be helpful.
Well I know what I am buying next for myself 
One thing I am not clear on - do you need to put anything on the phone itself for it to stick to the magnetic arm? My wife has a metal circle on stuck on her phone case to get it to stay on the magnetic mount in her car. I am wondering if that is needed here, or if the magnetic arm sticks straight to the phone.
Yes, I too would love any updates on thermals, power consumption, charge times, suspend, etc. I know there’s been improvements since the last blog posts about these.
Compliments on what looks like a great idea!
Thank you, I just fixed it.
Yes the magnetic mount requires you to place a small metal circle on the back of the Librem 5 case because the back of the phone case is plastic.
As far as power consumption, we’ve certainly continued to make improvements there, however when you are docked and the Librem 5 is driving an additional display, it does use more resources than when it is sitting idle or when used undocked.
So with power consumption and heat, it really depends on what you are doing. If you are watching videos and doing other resource-intensive things, and the Librem 5 was docked with a relatively low battery, it will not only generate extra heat because it’s pulling in extra current to charge quickly, it is also using a lot of power to play videos etc. On the other hand if it is mostly fully charged and you aren’t doing anything particularly straining, it would draw less power and therefore generate less heat.
That said, I’ve experienced, and heard anecdotal reports from others that the Librem 5 seems to dissipate heat better when upright on the magnetic mount, compared to sitting flat.
All that said, it’s possibly been long enough since our last battery life blog post that we should consider doing a new one, possibly featuring the Lapdock Kit as well.
Thank your for the great explanation about heat transfer and battery charge. =)
At this point, I am thinking about these two topics:
Do you think it is possible to supply the Librem5 by the lapdock’s battery directly like a docking station or external power supply will do? So the idea is to use the lapdock’s battery only instead of the phone’s battery.
Not without removing the battery. Otherwise the battery charge controller is going to want to charge the internal battery if it is present (and needs charging). However, when you are docked, you are in essence relying on the lapdock’s battery. It is what drains while it maintains the charge (or increases the charge depending) of the L5 battery. If you don’t plug in the lapdock to its own charger, ultimately its battery will drain and it will shut off, but if you docked with a fully-charged L5, it will still be fully charged when the lapdock battery runs out.
Okay, so if I did get it right the current sitution is:
An external power supply charges the lapdock’s battery --> the lapdock’s battery charges the phone’s battery --> the phone’s battery is discharged because of useage
isn’t it a bad situation for both batteries? Wouldn’t it be better to have the ability to supply both, the phone and the lapdock, simultanious by the external power supply without charging? Or charging the phone to a threshold lower than 100%?
I am not an electrical engineer, so I don’t know much about the ability of hard- and software 
Just some thoughts for the future =)
You could do this and connect to the Nexdock with an hdmi cable instead but then you’re dealing with more and more cables and devices to rig up to keep it going. If the Nexdock had a higher output than 500 mA it wouldn’t be as big a deal, mind you then the dock’s batter would get sucked down faster as well. I just manage my usage on the phone to keep it in a situation where the Librem 5 get’s to 100% charge and then it’s just maintaining at that level so it should allow more juice to go into the Nexdock’s battery.
You can disable power delivery over USB-C from the Nexdock to the Librem 5 if you want (it’s a menu option you can access on its touchscreen), but whether the Librem 5 is docked or just plugged into a wall charger the charging/discharging scenario would be the same. From the electrical engineer side I don’t exactly know the power flows in a circumstance when the Librem 5 is on (requiring power) but also charged and plugged into a power source.
I personally would just rather sacrifice the Nexdock’s current battery life in favor of my Librem 5 being fully charged when I unplug it, regardless.
I have two questions about the NexDock:
Is it possible to connect it to a wired network (RJ45/Ethernet)?
Is the battery replaceable and if so can it be done by the customer?
Yes if you attach a USB-C Ethernet adapter to the open USB-C input port on the front right.
I’m not sure. They don’t market it as such and don’t sell replacement batteries on their site. There are screws on the bottom of the case so it seems to be removable, but I haven’t tried to take mine apart.
Thanks Amarok,
So it is replacable but it’s not the easiest task to do.
Thanks Kyle, but I have one more question:
Can this port can be used at the same time when it’s docked?
I believe he is talking about the USB-C port on the NexDock. There are 3 USB-C ports:
So your phone will be docked in port 1 and the USB-C to ethernet port will be using port 3
Actually is there a way to buy (or just links) for USB cable and magnetic attachment that comes with Lapdock ?
I found:
I would like to know if anyone else had experience with these specific products, also looks like phone needs to have metal plate stuck to back.
[EDIT]: Both of these seem to work fine.
I would like cable to be bit more flexible ((phone needs to be bit away from screen)
Phone weight is enough that if u keep nexdock below eye level opening screen further will make it go flat
I really like the idea of the lapdock kit.
It is sad that there is no Ethernet port. Adding additional adapters seems silly. That would be my feedback for the next generation of the lapdock. Adding a RJ45 socket for Ethernet. Maybe an expandable one like it is done in the Librem 14, so that the lapdock can stay flat.
The lapdock must have some WiFi device included. As far as I understand it is possible to connect to the touchscreen and keyboard via bluetooth and to the monitor via Miracast/Screen cast. I think the latter works similar to ad-hoc WLAN. I wonder what’s with the touchpad. Not sure if the L5 could make any use of that capability. I guess the bluetooth keyboard and maybe touchscreen connection should work. I remember there was some work on an implementation for Linux. IIRC it works similar to HDMI over WiFi. This was years ago and it was difficult and has been given up. I am not sure what the biggest problems were: technical or dealing with proprietary technology maybe with unfree licensing. That is sad. Imagine to quickly share your Linux device’s screen to a TV or beamer! I did not research if there is a new approach in the pipeline, but it would definitely be worth the work.
https://nexdock.com/support-nexdock-360/support-wireless-smartphones/
I have two questions, @Kyle_Rankin.
Can we please get a detailed picture of the lapdock’s keyboard? Crazy that even nexdock.com doesn’t provide some.
Is the keyboard deactivated, when using the lapdock in tablet mode? Otherwise I could imagine that I would accidentally doing keyboard input all the time while holding the device or laying it on my knee or so.
I could be wrong but I am saying “no”.
There are two different products: NexDock 360 and NexDock Wireless. The former is wired only and I am asserting based on the original blog post that it is the former that is in this offering.
It is still a valid question though to wonder what the state of Linux support is for the Wireless version of the product (specifically the display over WiFi). It’s a little bit too expensive to be the one trying to answer that question …
