While everyone thinks that apple ecosystem does many things- many people in the windows and android side felt left out. I too was trying to find a good mix of products that makes working with multiple devices easy and the cross syncing of them.
If you are like me and the most used device being a windows computer/Laptop and Androids this guide could serve well to you to create an apple like ecosystem without the apple things or cost included.
Stay till the end to see how all these devices tie together.
The main part
My primary work device, the laptop is a Lenovo legion 5, running windows 11 and pop OS. Pretty much of my work gets done in this. My phone, flashy at first look, Nothing Phone 1 with a custom android ROM. This can be a good combo to start with- I too did start with this combo, bought some supporting devices and added to my army of tools to improve my workflow and wellness. Being a student and with limited income, i wanted to build a system that will be cheap and efficient and travel friendly too.
Rest of my devices being the Nothing ear (a), Samsung galaxy Tab S9 FE, Samsung Galaxy watch 4 Classic, Portronics Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse. Each device in this list was properly selected for my use and budget. I stay in a college hostel with limited table real estate and I travel on most weekends. Most of these devices are centred around all these needs to be satisfied.
Isn’t the tab a waste of money?
No. My take is that it is not a laptop replacement device, any tab including iPad is not going to be (atleast for now). Its good as a second display, to research things and jot down notes, really good for watching films and shows, distracting myself from phone. And for me, it helps to do certain things more efficiently and i’d be carrying this around while travelling around to get things done without carrying an brick weighing device in bag, not to mention the poor battery life of the laptop.
The watch and Nothing Ear (a) - Why?
For the watch i use mostly for tracking my walks,runs and steps, casually listens to music on it, setting timers are the things i do. The Nothing ear, i bought for its advertised to be good ANC(noise cancellation) feature. Well it stands up to the mark but not that consistent with the ANC part. But it has really good quality audio and is comfortable to wear.
The syncing part
The part youve all been excited for maybe, The entire syncing and sharing experience centeres around 2 extra software. QuickShare(yes the one that’s baked into android’s. Formerly known as Nearby share) and Phone link- Which again is baked into windows.
My syncing takes part in 3 main parts-
- Sharing browser tabs between devices- reading articles in a tablet feels so well. My browser of choice is Microsoft Edge- i do use edge on my tab too, so i can share tabs between both and sync across my phone too.
- The clipboard sharing - I use Phone link(the one that has lot of intresting features and is baked into windows) the copy paste experience is pretty seamless, my phone and tab is connected via it, so anytime i copy anything its there to paste on the other. But i do not keep my phone connected always as i dont use the copy pasting as much.
- Sharing files Finally we have something on the android and windows side like the airdrop. The Quick share, it has an windows app too, so every time i want to share a file i do share it via quickshare from my phone or tab- quick and fast.
Bonus: The keyboard and mouse i use has multiple bluetooth device support- so i switch to my laptop and tab frequently to get the things done.
Thats pretty much all i do for the syncing and sharing part and how i use the devices around for the things i do.
If you have any suggestions to include- feel free to reach out to me.