Because I have to do serious work, and I can't friggen do it all on my android phone, which I indeed have. OK?

@David1955 Eyesight, finger size or RAM problem?

@FrayedBear Now you're trolling me. How could you?

@David1955 No David just genuinely curious as to your need for laptop. . . I have about half a dozen sitting rotting from I3 to I7 chips, Windows 2000 through to the one using apps, netbooks running dual MS Windows (have you got half an hour to wait for our boot) and AVLinux that loads in 30 seconds and is a full suite running from hard drive totally loaded into RAM but because I've now found that I can do all I need on the Android smartphone they sit rotting waiting to be again used when I need to burn cd's! About the only used besides boatanchors and portable dvd players that I can think of.

My fingers are stumpy, my eyesight needing bottle bottom lenses but the phone has been my sole used hardware for the last three years.

Admittedly I no longer need spreadsheets or formatted letters needing addressing to thousands from a contact's database - it should however still be achievable as MS Office and Open Office have been ported to the Android.

The Android chips are now fast and RAM is large. Admittedly on board storage through SD card and built in memory is still limited to about 0.35 Gb. but external drives now work just as well as SD cards.

@FrayedBear Well, look, the simple answer is space and functionality. Phones are too fiddly for serious lengthy work, the screens are small, and I have a galaxy Note (though it's an old one). Actually, the way forward I see is for tablets replacing computers. I recently bought a new Samsung tab and it's great (no ipads or anything Apple any more for me) and it almost replaces a laptop, now there is DEX on it. Almost but not quite. Chromebook combines the ease of use of a laptop with a simpler OS plus Android and now Linux as well. But I can see the possibility of a portable tablet being able to do my needs, with a small detachable keyboard, but not just yet. The Chromebook has the integration of Chrome OS/Android/Linux which I like at the moment. That's the complete answer to your question. If you and others can do it all by phone, that's great. but I'm not able to do that.

@David1955 I get your point. Five years ago I could not balance on one leg nor use a tablet. Now I can do the first very well even with a recent prosthetic knee, the second has bounced off smartphone use which has remained my preferred vehicle as I'm a one finger typist or dictation user and although needing bottle bottom lenses my vision at five inches is perfect - a 6" screen occupies about 30% of field of vision.

@David1955 is this the type of DEX that you refer to? -
[play.google.com]

@FrayedBear no.i mean this.
[lifewire.com]

@David1955 Have you installed all that is needed to run the Open Office suite onto a tablet or smartphone and then played with it?
You may be surprised as to what you have. Watch the video at
[play.google.com]

@David1955 I will explore the app on in your lifewire video on my S8+ or Tab A. Thanks for that.

@FrayedBear Yes. I have open office suite on my Galaxy tab. You can also open word files with MS word. On my chromebook I have Libre office running Linux. works well. Serious work I do on Chromebook.