Realme Book PC Connect
Credit: Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
  • The upcoming Realme Book will have a PC Connect feature.
  • This will allow you to mirror your smartphone screen on a Realme laptop.
  • It’s the latest case of an OEM adopting this kind of feature, joining Huawei and Xiaomi.

It feels like the Realme Book laptop has been on the way for ages now, but the company will finally launch the device in India on August 18. It seems like the new laptop is now called the Realme Book Slim, and it’s also packing another key feature that’s becoming common on rival devices.

A source familiar with the matter told Android Authority that the Realme Book will be equipped with a so-called PC Connect feature. As the name suggests, this feature will let you connect your phone to the PC via Wi-Fi Direct, mirroring your mobile display on the larger screen. This would therefore allow you to access your phone’s apps, make calls, and more via your laptop instead while still having access to your usual PC software if need be. Check out a clip we’ve obtained below.

The clip also reveals that PC Connect will allow users to quickly share files across smartphone and laptop. The clip also mentions ‘Smart Application Integration,’ which ostensibly means relevant phone files (e.g. documents and slides) can quickly be opened with your desired PC apps.

This is just the latest example of smartphone/PC connectivity today, as we’ve previously seen Huawei and more recently Xiaomi offer similar capabilities. Microsoft has also joined the fray with its Your Phone companion app for Windows. It’s worth noting though that Huawei’s implementation relies on NFC rather than Wi-Fi Direct, allowing you to put your phone on the trackpad to quickly get up and running.

Unfortunately, OEM-specific solutions aren’t generally compatible with devices from other OEMs, and our source notes that this is the case with the Realme Book PC Connect feature too. That is, it only works with a Realme smartphone and a Realme laptop.

In saying so, we would definitely like to see Google offer a native solution in Android and release a companion app for Windows. This way, you’d theoretically only need a recent Android device and any Windows 10 laptop. Do you think Google should offer an official phone/PC pairing solution? Let us know via the poll above.