• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechGoogle

The $99 Peripheral that Turns Your Smartphone Into a Laptop

By
David Z. Morris
David Z. Morris
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
David Z. Morris
David Z. Morris
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 14, 2016, 4:20 PM ET
Andromium Inc.

There’s a good chance your smartphone has more processing power than a 1985 Cray-2 Supercomputer. What it doesn’t have is a display big enough for a spreadsheet, or a keyboard good for more than cramped fumbling.

Enter the Superbook, currently available for $99 through a Kicksterter campaign. It looks like a slim laptop, but it doesn’t have its own storage or processor. Instead, it gets its power and data connection from your Android phone, via a simple USB cable and a free app. In addition to the keyboard and screen, the Smartbook has a battery, which will last 8 hours and actually charge your phone as you use it.

Together, a phone and the Smartbook are plenty for basic word processing, email, and web browsing—all most people really need.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

There have been a few tries at phone-laptop crossovers, including by major players like Motorola, but none have proven durable. The Smartbook, created by Andromium Inc., seems to have circled back around at the right moment. It has raised over $2.1 million from 12,800 backers so far in its ongoing campaign.

That success may be because smartphones are now truly powerful enough to provide a PC-like experience. The Android environment also now provides a nearly complete application ecosystem, with everything from games to accounting apps to CAD software.

For more on mobile tech, watch our video.

The Smartbook campaign is even a turnaround for Andromium itself, which tried in early 2015 to fund a similar, but less successful project. The Andromium dock was intended to connect to an external keyboard and monitor, turning a phone into a desktop, rather than a laptop. The more portable form factor, clearly, has a lot more appeal.

There is a major common thread between the two projects, though. The Andromium team, which includes alums of Google and Y Combinator, is strongly motivated to help users in developing countries, where smartphones (mostly Android-based) are becoming increasingly common, but both PCs and wi-fi connectivity are still rare. As part of the current campaign, you can donate a Superbook to the Nelson Mandela Long Walk to Freedom Education Project’s #Freedom2Learn, which promotes computing accessibility in Africa.

At press time, the Superbook Kickstarter campaign has five days left. The Superbook is projected to ship to backers in February of 2017.

About the Author
By David Z. Morris
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Commentary
Yes, you're getting a bigger tax refund. Your kids won't thank you for the $3 trillion it's adding to the deficit
By Daniel BunnJanuary 26, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Despite running $75 billion automaker General Motors, CEO Mary Barra still responds to ‘every single letter’ she gets by hand
By Preston ForeJanuary 26, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
An unusual Fed ‘rate check’ triggered a free fall in the U.S. dollar and investors are fleeing into gold
By Jim EdwardsJanuary 26, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Monday, January 26, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJanuary 26, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Tuesday, January 27, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJanuary 27, 2026
22 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Real Estate
Ryan Serhant thinks the American Dream was just a 'slogan created by banks,' but it was really about FDR, the Great Depression, and an economic crisis
By Sydney Lake and Nick LichtenbergJanuary 26, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.


Latest in Tech

Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of self-driving software company Waabi
Startups & VentureVenture Capital
Waabi raises up to $1 billion and partners with Uber to deploy 25,000 robotaxis as the race to dominate self-driving heats up
By Jeremy KahnJanuary 28, 2026
24 minutes ago
EuropeSAP
SAP boss Christian Klein has seen the AI future. What you say will be more important than what you type 
By Kamal AhmedJanuary 28, 2026
43 minutes ago
NewslettersTerm Sheet
As vet bills jump 40% in recent years, startup Snout raises $110 million for its ‘membership’ model to defray costs
By Allie GarfinkleJanuary 28, 2026
53 minutes ago
NewslettersFortune Tech
Amazon tears down Go in brick-and-mortar reset
By Alexei OreskovicJanuary 28, 2026
1 hour ago
Photo of Elon Musk
Big TechX
New filings exposing Elon Musk’s financials for X in the U.K. show revenue plummeted 58% in 2024
By Lily Mae LazarusJanuary 27, 2026
13 hours ago
People walk outside of a WeWork office building in London.
Future of WorkOffice Culture
Amazon and JPMorgan led the Fortune 500 in returning to the office 5 days a week. Now they’re leading a coworking comeback
By Jacqueline MunisJanuary 27, 2026
14 hours ago