When Microsoft attempted to blur the lines between a desktop computer and a mobile phone the result was Windows 8, an operating system almost universally loathed and critically panned from all angles.

Years of familiarity with a start menu and desk analogue were swept aside in favour of colourful live tiles and other finger-friendly targets. If there’s one thing that people don’t like, it’s change and with Windows 8 Microsoft changed too much too quickly and the world kicked back.

But Microsoft holds a vision that goes beyond fancy icons. It sees a world where there is no longer any distinction between the computer in our pocket and the bigger beast lurking at home or the office.

Over three years since those initial reviews of Windows 8 made their scornful appearance, are we finally seeing a new era in modern computing?

HP would certainly like to believe so. A company more widely known for its near infinite line of printers has just revealed the Elite X3.

What looks for all the world like a run of the mill smartphone, albeit one with a particularly large screen, the X3 holds a little trick up its oversized sleeve.

Plug this Windows 10 phone into the included hub and thanks to a technology built in to the operating system called Continuum, your phone becomes your desktop – as long as there is a spare keyboard, mouse and monitor lying about, that is.

Modern smartphones contain an enormous amount of computing power. Measurements that were once the reserve of powerful PCs are now routinely used to promote that little marvel in your pocket.

Processing levels are counted by the gigahertz so it seems to make sense that all that power should be put to a more challenging task than playing Angry Birds.

With the Elite X3, HP is trying to portray its vision of the future and it is certainly appealing. When you only have one device that serves as both phone and computer you are never without instant access to your important information.

The photograph you took last week is just a couple of swipes away. The email with your banking password is at your fingertips (it probably shouldn’t be) as, for that matter, is your bank.

Everything you need is readily available because your phone is your personal computer.

It sounds entirely familiar, doesn’t it? And so it should.

The X3 is bridging a gap in the modern world that doesn’t actually exist. Thanks to the Internet and that overused phrase, ‘cloud computing’ we all have ready access to everything we need already.

It sounds enticing to carry our digital world around with us but it is not only unnecessary, it is a potential security liability.

When the X3 is made available this summer it will come with a companion device that looks like a laptop but is actually functionally useless without the phone to serve as its central brain. The concept reminds me a lot of something Blackberry attempted to convince the world it needed some years ago.

We didn’t need it then and we don’t need it now.

The entire point is that we have long since moved away from a world where there is any need to have physical access to our precious files and documents. There will always be a subset of people who feel uneasy about storing life in the ether and for whom the idea of actually carrying everything around holds an appeal but they are not the mainstream and the concept of a single piece of hardware that serves all our needs is destined to be short-lived.