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It's funny, as my phone (A 2022 Moto Razr) can work as PC, if I plug it into a monitor with it's USB-C port. I can plug it into a monitor, and plug a mouse and
by CMDBob 2y ago
It's funny, as my phone (A 2022 Moto Razr) can work as PC, if I plug it into a monitor with it's USB-C port. I can plug it into a monitor, and plug a mouse and keyboard into the monitor's inbuilt USB-C hub, and it works just fine. Has a desktop mode and everything! If the monitor doesn't have a hub in it, I can use the phone as a mouse/touchpad! Plus, if the monitor supports it, it'll even keep it charged rather than using the battery!
And I don't just use it as a gimmick, I use a HDMI/USB-C cable to use it with my TV as a streaming/light gaming setup. Nice to be able to plug it in, kick off a streaming app or Youtube, or play some Minecraft or something on my TV in bed, all comfy.
- Nursie 2y agoI had a Huawei P20 Pro that did much the same back in 2018. I never really used it for much, a bit of light browsing and really just as a gimmick, buit yeah, there was a desktop of sorts and you could use all the apps, and the touchpad/mouse thing worked. You could attach a bluetooth keyboard too, IIRC. Kindof a shame my iphone doesn't do this (I assume, I haven't tried), but I'm not sure if I'd use it.
- haltcatchfire 2y agoiPhone has good support for peripherals, hubs and external displays, but lacks a desktop mode.
- Nursie 2y agoOh interesting, I suppose I have had it wirelessly project to the tv before... I might give it a go when I upgrade to a USB-C model.
- swiftcoder 2y agoWhich is quite frankly weird, given that the iPad has fairly robust mouse/keyboard support at this point, and at least some nods towards window management
- amelius 2y agoGreat, can I plug a USB drive in, and use it?
- rcarmo 2y agoYes, if it's USB-C. You won't like the experience though.
- easton 2y agoYes: https://support.apple.com/en-sg/guide/iphone/iph95baac91f/ios https://support.apple.com/en-sg/guide/iphone/iph95baac91f/io... Works fine. I don't know if you can format drives, but you can definitely read and write to external disks and network shares.
- rcarmo 2y agoActually, I use my iPhone with a USB-C/HDMI cable, the Remote Desktop client and a Bluetooth keyboard when traveling. Some apps will let you use an additional display just fine.
- Nursie 2y agoOK so I've now tried this with a new USB-C iphone. Yeah it's painful to use! You can set up a mouse, and use a physical keyboard for input, but it doesn't attempt to do any more than mirror the screen onto the external device by default. Huawei's desktop mode was limited, but I think you're right - you can say the iphone has good device compatibility, but there's not a good way to use it docked. Not that the android ones were 'good', but they made an attempt!
- rjh29 2y agoAll high end Samsung phones can do this as well (DEX).
- boomskats 2y agoNot the ones that compete with the aforementioned Razr, unfortunately.
- wkat4242 2y agoThe latest Z Fold6 can do DeX but its a bit hidden, not official.
- rjh29 2y agoThe Fold4 switches to dex as soon as you connect a monitor. I wonder why they made it harder to use?
- wkat4242 2y agoOoops. Sorry. I meant the Z Flip 6. Not the fold. The folds have always had fully supported DeX. The Flips did not have a DP-capable USB-C port until the Flip 5, and still did not support DeX due to thermals. But the Flip 6 has it with a developer option, but only the "new" DeX. Sorry for the confusion on my side. I thought of the Flip as the OP mentioned the Motorola Razr which is positioned against that, not the Fold.
- jajko 2y agoCan confirm, S22 ultra when plugged into Dell docking box (or whatever its called, not a typical docking station, it just connects with laptop via thick USB-C cable) works out of box, with mouse and keyboard. Firefox with ublock origin works very well for example. The only thing is it doesn't adjust automatically to native screen resolution (1600p in my case). But its still just an Android, even with full filesystem access it feels vastly subpar to normal desktop PC if I need more than just browsing or other android apps.
- water-your-self 2y agoWhat temperature does your phone reach when you do this for an hour?
- david-gpu 2y agoPhones perform thermal throttling before getting too hot. The question thus becomes: how does it perform after one hour?
- EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 2y agoNot great) Tried replacing my laptop with a Samsung phone+monitor combination on a trip, didn't really work out. Phones are not built for continuous load.
- david-gpu 2y agoYeah, I used to work on what was eventually sold as the Meta Quest VR headset and we all knew that thermal throttling would be a major sticking point. Thankfully my job was all about reducing rendering latency to prevent people from getting nauseous, so thermal throttling was outside of my scope.
- wkat4242 2y agoThe official DeX docks have a fan built in. This helps a lot especially if you take the phone out of the case. I need to do so anyway because the usb doesn't go in deep enough without it.
- EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 2y agodock + fan + monitor already weights more than a laptop ..
- wkat4242 2y agoUmm yeah but I don't travel with those. I keep them on site. And just plug in my phone when I get there. I have one set up at every place I am a lot.
- austinjp 2y agoInteresting, I wouldn't mind an Android phone that can do similar, but I'm not looking for a clamshell. For anyone else who, like me, is naive about such things, the key search terms seem to be: DisplayPort alternate mode over USB-C. Support seems patchy.
- jakub_g 2y agoFWIW, apparently Google shipped software support for DP Alt Mode for Pixel 8 and newer a few months ago.
- herbst 2y agoI hate USB-C for laptop charging ports, to fragile for regular use. However I build a few things recently and I love the simplicity. - External Touch Screen - only needs one cable, usbc, for picture, sound, touch, power! ... (DP mode you mentioned required) - As power source. My caravan computer (Dell wyse 5070) uses usbc as power source with a cheap DC slot adapter. My laptop charges in usb-c from 60w or more. - We have 2 Rolands (p-1, s-1) both can use their usbc cable for direct audio in AND out which just works on Linux. - For the Roland's I can use my phone as sound DAW or source, or both. I can also attach the touch screen, ... All using the same (cheap and available) cable. Which is amazing and took my whole life to get to.