The portable keyboard that hides a full Windows PC borrows your tablet’s screen

Hero Devices wants to turn the screen you already own into a real Windows computer, with a slim keyboard that carries the entire PC inside. It includes a full-size trackpad and looks almost exactly like the bottom half of a laptop.

Putting a computer into a keyboard is not a new idea. We’ve seen it in budget options like the Raspberry Pi 400, and earlier this year HP brought the concept to business users with its Windows-based EliteBoard G1a. At the other end of the spectrum, devices like Sightful’s Spacetop have experimented with ditching the laptop screen in favor of AR glasses.

The Hero Keyboard sits somewhere between the two, designed to connect to any display that’s nearby. That includes the iPad or Android tablet that’s probably already in your bag.

The logic is pretty simple: if you travel with a tablet and a laptop, you’re paying for (and carrying) two screens. The Hero Keyboard wants to be the missing half of that setup, and it has some clever tricks to make the layout feel less like a workaround.

Inside, the keyboard/trackpad runs an Intel Core Ultra 5 125H processor with 14 cores and speeds up to 4.5 GHz, paired with 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and a 512 GB NVMe SSD. That drive sits behind a removable bottom panel held in place by eight standard screws, so you can swap out more storage later. Hero Devices would also like to point out that this is a full licensed copy of Windows 11, not an emulator or streaming shell.

The keyboard measures 11.8 mm (0.46 in) thick, weighs 720 g (25 oz), and features a backlit US layout, a precision trackpad, and a dedicated Copilot key. There are eight ports in total, including USB-C, USB-A, and Ethernet, and you can drive two displays at up to 4K 60Hz. A 50.8Wh battery is rated for up to nine hours of use, and a 100W USB-C charger comes in the box.

To connect to tablets and phones, the Hero Keyboard uses a wired USB-C link it calls the Hero Port, which the company says offers zero-latency video without relying on Wi-Fi. A companion Hero app, coming soon for iPadOS 17+ and Android 7+, adds touch and stylus input. When Windows is off, the device simply functions as a Bluetooth keyboard and trackpad for the tablet itself.

The Hero Keyboard Founders Edition is priced at $999. Pre-orders opened on October 20, with the first limited batch scheduled to ship in Q4 2026 to the US and Canada. For an additional $50, the optional Sidekick case carries the keyboard PC and an 11-inch iPad together, then unfolds into a tablet stand. Hero Devices says that combination weighs about 1.2 kg (2.6 lb) total.

Beyond tablets, Hero Devices is positioning the keyboard as a portable brain for any screen. You can connect it to a monitor on your desk, a TV for gaming on the couch, or a pair of augmented reality glasses like those from Xreal to enjoy a big, private screen on the go.

There are some open questions. Windows on an 11-inch screen needs a lot of scaling (Hero Devices recommends 200 to 250%), the iPhone doesn’t yet support the Hero app, and a cable between the keyboard and tablet won’t be as neat as a laptop hinge. Still, for anyone who already has a capable tablet, the Hero Keyboard makes a compelling argument that your next laptop only needs half of one.

Source: Hero Devices