5 ms·

>This looks like it will help a lot of students and families who are on a budget. If you can just plug your phone into a screen you do not need to buy a separa

>This looks like it will help a lot of students and families who are on a budget. If you can just plug your phone into a screen you do not need to buy a separate laptop anymore. Except that android phones with display output are mostly flagships with flagship prices. But 50 Euros on the used market got me a retired corporate HP/Dell laptop with 1080p screen, intel 8th gen i5 quad core, 8GB RAM and 256GB NVME on which I put Linux. Way better for studying and productivity than my android phone hooked up to the TV. It's a nice feature to have as a backup in case my laptop dies, but I wouldn't daily drive an android phone as a desktop computer for productivity.

gf000 9mo ago
A 2-3 generation old pixel on the second hand marker is not expensive at all though. And you easily add a mouse/keyboard just fine to it.
- jeffbee 9mo ago
  Note that such capabilities were added to the 8 after it launched. When they launched it they did not even mention that it contains displayport alt mode.
- joe_mamba 9mo ago
  >A 2-3 generation old pixel on the second hand marker is not expensive at all though. Sure but at around 300 bucks is still way over 50 bucks. And even if you get a used Pixel 8, having separate phone and computer adds a priceless layer of redundancy and flexibility. If someone steals my phone, I don't want to also loose my work PC with it.
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
  - cogman10 9mo ago
    You are also buying a soon to be unmaintained device which will fall out of security support. That $50 PC can run linux with the latest kernel for the next 20 years (maybe longer).
    - joe_mamba 9mo ago
      There's lineageOS for outdated pixel device, but I think you loose device attestation if you flash that, so your banking, payment and digital-ID apps won't work anymore which is kind of important features for a lot of people. I still think separating a phone for phone apps and a PC for productivity, is the best choice even if that PC is a 20 year old rustbucket from the dumpster, it will still do more tasks than a phone. You can't learn photoshop on a phone.
      - cogman10 9mo ago
        The lineageOS kernel isn't guaranteed to be super up to date. It's often based on the manufacturer's kernel. There's also possibly binary blobs involved which can't be checked or updated.
        joe_mamba 9mo ago
        If your device is on the official supported list then it will always be up to date to a point. You're not gonna get android 16 on 10+ year old phones.
        Zak 9mo ago
        Allow me to present LineageOS 23 for the Nexus 5: https://xdaforums.com/t/rom-unofficial-lineageos-23-0-for-nexus-5-hammerhead.4776691/ https://xdaforums.com/t/rom-unofficial-lineageos-23-0-for-ne... That's Android 16 on a 13 year old phone. It looks to be a little glitchy and it takes some work to install, but it's possible.
      - IncreasePosts 9mo ago
        Your banking app might not work but your bank probably also offers a web page that you can just load up in your browser
        bossyTeacher 9mo ago
        There is a growing trend among banks to keep the web app usable only for emergency purposes (notify bank that your phone got stolen or lost and authorize the installation of the bank on a new phone) and only allow functionality on their mobile apps.
  - jabwd 9mo ago
    "work pc" -- random 50 dollar fire hazard running Linux. Anyway, those Android phones though they are obviously going to be the unreliable part in this story.
  - butlike 9mo ago
    I'm right there with relating to this mindset, however, I recently (in the past 2 weeks) got to experience restoring a new phone from backup without the old one present, and it's becoming essentially a non-issue. I can't think of a single thing that wasn't restored from cloud backup.
- semi-extrinsic 9mo ago
  Isn't Pixel 10 the first one with fully supported desktop mode? I remember I was very confused when buying a Pixel 7 to replace my (then 3 year old) Huawei P30 Pro, and the inferior camera + lack of desktop mode made it feel like a net downgrade.
  - ThePointed 9mo ago
    I use it on my Pixel 8 Pro too It's a toggle in Developer options, Local Desktop.
  - adrian_b 9mo ago
    According to Google's help site, no Pixel has a desktop mode (like you can find at Motorola, Samsung and others). The latest Pixel models have DisplayPort, but their operating system only provides screen mirroring or app window mirroring on an external monitor. Unlike Pixel, the phones with a true desktop mode can display multiple windows on the monitor, and presumably they can have a selectable resolution for the monitor. I assume that for screen mirroring the monitor is used at the same resolution as the phone screen, i.e. either 1080 lines or only slightly more. Moreover, while the help site states that DisplayPort exists in Pixel 8 and newer, Google does not bother to advertise the existence of this feature in its online shop, where there is no mention about this in the phone specifications.
    - gf000 9mo ago
      > operating system only provides screen mirroring or app window mirroring on an external monitor That's not true. It's probably written that way, because this is still an experimental feature so it is indeed not "supported", but it does work, you just have to toggle a few settings inside developer options. And in this desktop mode it could make use of my 2k desktop screen, though it is quite buggy (it is a pixel 8 device, for reference)
      - adrian_b 9mo ago
        Good to know, but the fact that the knowledge about the possibility of connecting an external monitor is very well hidden on the Google site and the existence of a true desktop mode is even better hidden from any potential Google customers, does not inspire confidence. From this state of affairs I cannot be sure that if I bought a Google Pixel it would really be usable with a monitor, as such hidden features could be removed at any time. Other smartphone vendors clearly specify for their phones whether e.g. they support DisplayPort 1.4, so that they can use a monitor at a decent resolution, and whether they have a desktop mode.
- backscratches 9mo ago
  Only pixel 8 and up have DP. So 2 generations old. I guess soon it will be 3rd gen.
- realusername 9mo ago
  Old pixels don't have HDMI output, I learned it the hard way when the screen of my Pixel 3a died.
okokwhatever 9mo ago
Do you understand how much are 50 bucks in a third world country? I mean, Android phone is not the cheapest solution for the poor (obviously) but it helps a lot having this kind of features for a family.
- joe_mamba 9mo ago
  >Do you understand how much are 50 bucks in a third world country? Yes I do, no need to patronize us with that since even in 3rd world countries people have access to old computers from ewaste imports at a reasonable price, we don't all live in straw mudhuts wearing loincloths swinging from branch to branch. Now tell me which 50 euro phone ships with display output and is readily available. AFAIK Oneplus 7T I had is the cheapest with that feature but still over 50 and official SW goes to Android 12. Not sure if flashing lineage will still keep display output feature. Then there's the issue of availability in 3rd world countries, where it might be easier to find some scrapped Dell optiplex with a core 2 duo, or a beat up Acer from the windows 7 era for cheap at your local market versus a cheap android with display output capabilities being more of a unicorn. Sure you'll find your Pixel 8s and or Samsung S24s too, but those imports don't come cheap there, compared to the masses of lesser known cheap chinese phones but those don't have display output and their software is shit. Plus, if you go that route of Pixel 8 as a pc, you still need the budget for an external display, mouse and keyboard and your battery will wear out much faster. So then why not get a cheap laptop which has all the peripherals? Plus 2, old phones age very poorly performance wise, they slow down a lot due to thermal paste and battery degradation and nobody makes quality OP 7T batteries anymore to do a swap and get back to out of the box performance. What you find on Aliexpress now are fakes or poor quality clones. While a laptop is much easier to repair and maintain as parts wear out or break.
  - drecked 9mo ago
    This is mistaken in a few way. 1. In 3rd world countries everyone has a phone, usually android, no matter how poor the are. Irrespective of whether or not it has desktop capabilities. So any phone purchase is already part of their baseline expenses. 2. Any desktop/laptop purchase, even if it is $1, is an extra $1. 3. The screens/keyboards/mouse again will not likely be purchased by individuals themselves. They will have “Internet cafes”, libraries, schools, etc where those screens will be provided.
nutjob2 9mo ago
You don't wired need display output, just WiFi. Motorola's Smart Connect desktop uses Miracast for using TVs and the like as desktop monitors as well as wired. I got my moto g84 5G with 8/256 GB for about 170 euros new and it supports it (not wired). Seems to work fine.
- joe_mamba 9mo ago
  Is it any good? Last time I tried miracast the framerate and video quality was total garbage due to shit compression. Barely worked for streaming youtube videos to the TV but no way I could do it for productivity.
  - cromka 9mo ago
    Same here. The only way to make streaming between devices is the way Apple does it, directly, not via Access Point.
    - LoganDark 9mo ago
      Doesn't Apple do it by having the AirPlay receiver be its own access point? LAN in comparison indeed isn't ideal.
    - jeroenhd 9mo ago
      Mirecast (when done properly) is basically a video stream over a peer-to-peer WiFi Direct connection. H.264+AAC/AC3/PCM audio sent over RTSP/RTP using a standard IPv4 stack. Better codecs are available on newer devices. Two modern WiFi 6 devices can stream gigabits per second that way if configured right, there's no need for the typical low FPS, lag, and desynchronised audio from a protocol standpoint. For some reason, a lot of implementations (especially on the receiving end) suck at this. The latency seems to be terrible and TVs and displays seem to care more about reassembling old frames than about showing the latest good signal. However, it's not all that different from what Apple is doing. Miracast over ethernet/via an access point is something different (something I've never really seen used myself).
adrian_b 9mo ago
Actually many ridiculously expensive "flagship" smartphones do not have DisplayPort and some do not have even USB 3. The chances to find DisplayPort in what nowadays have become medium-price smartphones, i.e. $500 to $600, are about as good as finding DisplayPort in a "flagship".
- joe_mamba 9mo ago
  Which flagships (other than Apple), don't ship with display output? AFAIK Samsung, Google and all major Chinese brands have display output on their flagships.
LoganDark 9mo ago
> Except that android phones with display output are mostly flagships with flagship prices. My Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE was like $80 in 2015 and had a mini HDMI. I expect nowadays most phones can output display over USB-C.
- jeroenhd 9mo ago
  Some "flagship" and higher-end-midtier phones cheap out on the USB connection. USB 2 over USB-C with USB-PD for fast charging. No video out, slow data transfers. Maybe when desktop mode becomes more common there will be an incentive to fix the shitty USB situation. Cheap phones probably won't really have the power to effectively multi-task so I imagine cheap models would rather disable the feature than leave the user with a bad UI.
  - LoganDark 9mo ago
    > USB 2 over USB-C with USB-PD for fast charging. Sometimes you're lucky to even have conformant USB-PD. For example, OnePlus for a while had "Warp charging" and the phones wouldn't accept high power over regular USB-C PD.
    - jeroenhd 9mo ago
      USB-PD support has been made a requirement for GPlay Android. Manufacturers don't need to support USB-PD for their crazy 200W charging circuits, but it's been a while since you had the choice between 5-10W USB2.0 and 80W Warp Charge.
- jml7c5 9mo ago
  Surprisingly, no. It's a "premium" feature these days.
nosrepa 9mo ago
I'm ignorant on this topic, can you not just plug a USB dock with HDMI out in any android phone and get a display out? I do it all the time on the previous three pixel phones I've had, but I didn't know that this was limited to those?
- thebruce87m 9mo ago
  USB-C is only a connector/socket - a device having a USB-C socket does not guarantee much beyond being able to plug a USB-C connector into it. Some USB-C devices only use the port for charging for example. Others might only support USB 2.0. Getting a display out from something with USB-C socket needs the device to support something called DP Alt Mode. Note that cables matter too - you can have a DP alt mode enabled monitor and phone, but if you have the wrong cable it won’t work. Welcome to the future.
  - 2III7 9mo ago
    It is understandable that every cable doesn't have to and shouldn't support every feature. USB cables would be insaney overpriced in that case. For simple charging you don't need a high speed 40gbps cable that can connect an external GPU. To mitigate the confusion, all simple charging cables should be universally labeled as such and all high speed cables should also have some markings that indicate the maximum speed of the cable or something similar.
    - thebruce87m 9mo ago
      It’s understandable, but the reality is that many people like my 82 year old mother will use the wrong cable and have no clue why it’s not working.
    - hulitu 9mo ago
      > all simple charging cables should be universally labeled as such labeling hurts profits.
jeroenhd 9mo ago
Resell the 8GB of RAM and buy an even better phone then? That's 150 euros of value right there. Then use the money on a reputable second hand store to buy a used S20 5G 128GB for 150 euros, or a S22 128GB for 145, maybe an S21 Ultra 5G 256GB for 139, and you've got yourself a valiant workstation already (Samsung DeX works great out of the box, no need to wait for Google here). I can also find an S20+ 5G 128GB for 75 euros with display damage (but that doesn't matter when you hook it up to a monitor). On another website I can find an S20+ 5G with cracks in the edges of the touch screen for 50 euros. That's 12GiB of RAM, 128GiB of storage, a 3200x1440p@120Hz screen and 5G connectivity built in. You're gonna need a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard (that's like what, 5 euros?) to hook it up to the TV but then you're good.
- bigwheels 9mo ago
  Where is the $150 euros coming from? 8GB of brand new DDR3 or DDR4 is available for $20-$30 from Amazon / Fleabay, and once he sells it the laptop will no longer work.
  - bloqs 9mo ago
    Phones also have ram
  - jeroenhd 9mo ago
    That's the standard price for 8GB DDR4 RAM in the local major web shop. I'm sure there are cheaper options out there, but people are willing to pay more than that to get a shipping date before October.
    - ndriscoll 9mo ago
      I'm seeing plenty of 8 GB DDR4 SODIMMs on ebay for ~$20-30. AFAIK laptop RAM was not hit in the same way since it's not really readily reusable in other types of computer, and laptops don't generally have unused slots to just plop in more RAM.
- heavyset_go 9mo ago
  Why buy a used phone that will stop receiving updates, can't be fixed or upgraded and can't run whatever you want on it when you can use a real computer instead?
nicoburns 9mo ago
> Except that android phones with display output are mostly flagships with flagship prices. Might well be that this becomes a lot more common on cheaper phones if it becomes a popular feature though. A display port output isn't currently that useful, so it's something it makes sense to cut from budget models. But if this desktop functionality becomes popular that calculus may change.
- prmoustache 9mo ago
  I am pretty sure brands would rather sell you additionnal devices, like tablets or chromebook (will they be called androidbooks?) than make budget models able to do so.
heresie-dabord 9mo ago
> Except that android phones with display output are mostly flagships with flagship prices. There are exceptions. For example, the Motorola Edge has DP Alt Mode. https://uperfect.com/blogs/wikimonitor/list-of-smartphones-with-displayport-alt-mode https://uperfect.com/blogs/wikimonitor/list-of-smartphones-w...
nfriedly 9mo ago
The moto g100 is a good example of a midrange phone with decent specs, including video output. It launched at $400, and can be bought for around $200 these days. It has a Snapdragon 870, 8gb RAM, 128gb storage, a microSD slot, headphones jack, and a big enough battery to last 2 days. It's a little chunky, and it's not waterproof, but beyond that it's just about everything I ever wanted in a phone. Motorola, of course, has already abandoned it. But it still gets up-to-date Android via Lineage OS and other community made ROMs.
- joe_mamba 9mo ago
  How did they abandon it? It release october last year according to google. >but beyond that it's just about everything I ever wanted in a phone. I get that, but none of this answers my question of why people should use that to a TV, instead of a PC, other than to flex? It really isn't more practical, nor saving you money and you're still limited to the apps of android ecosystem rather than the windows/linux one.
  - nfriedly 9mo ago
    > How did they abandon it? It release october last year according to google. Oh, geez, I didn't realize they abandoned it so hard they even recycled the name! I was referring to the 2021 g100: https://m.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g100-10791.php https://m.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g100-10791.php - it looks like the 2025 recycle lacks video output :/ https://m.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g100_5g_(china)-14228.php https://m.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g100_5g_(china)-14228.p... As for why anyone should do it, I'm not really arguing that anyone should. I was just trying to point out that it's more affordable than you might think. (Although it can't beat the deal you got on your laptop.) I think it might make sense if you already have a laptop dock with a screen and a keyboard at home and at school/work, and your needs were fairly lightweight, and you really valued portability. Or as you suggested, it could just serve as a backup device in case your main laptop gets broken or whatever.
- butlike 9mo ago
  Who has the time? I just want to get a new phone and be on my way. The last thing I want to do is download a community OS and/or roms on Day 1

gf000 9mo ago

A 2-3 generation old pixel on the second hand marker is not expensive at all though. And you easily add a mouse/keyboard just fine to it.

jeffbee 9mo ago
Note that such capabilities were added to the 8 after it launched. When they launched it they did not even mention that it contains displayport alt mode.
joe_mamba 9mo ago
>A 2-3 generation old pixel on the second hand marker is not expensive at all though. Sure but at around 300 bucks is still way over 50 bucks. And even if you get a used Pixel 8, having separate phone and computer adds a priceless layer of redundancy and flexibility. If someone steals my phone, I don't want to also loose my work PC with it.
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
- cogman10 9mo ago
  You are also buying a soon to be unmaintained device which will fall out of security support. That $50 PC can run linux with the latest kernel for the next 20 years (maybe longer).
  - joe_mamba 9mo ago
    There's lineageOS for outdated pixel device, but I think you loose device attestation if you flash that, so your banking, payment and digital-ID apps won't work anymore which is kind of important features for a lot of people. I still think separating a phone for phone apps and a PC for productivity, is the best choice even if that PC is a 20 year old rustbucket from the dumpster, it will still do more tasks than a phone. You can't learn photoshop on a phone.
    - cogman10 9mo ago
      The lineageOS kernel isn't guaranteed to be super up to date. It's often based on the manufacturer's kernel. There's also possibly binary blobs involved which can't be checked or updated.
      - joe_mamba 9mo ago
        If your device is on the official supported list then it will always be up to date to a point. You're not gonna get android 16 on 10+ year old phones.
        Zak 9mo ago
        Allow me to present LineageOS 23 for the Nexus 5: https://xdaforums.com/t/rom-unofficial-lineageos-23-0-for-nexus-5-hammerhead.4776691/ https://xdaforums.com/t/rom-unofficial-lineageos-23-0-for-ne... That's Android 16 on a 13 year old phone. It looks to be a little glitchy and it takes some work to install, but it's possible.
    - IncreasePosts 9mo ago
      Your banking app might not work but your bank probably also offers a web page that you can just load up in your browser
      - bossyTeacher 9mo ago
        There is a growing trend among banks to keep the web app usable only for emergency purposes (notify bank that your phone got stolen or lost and authorize the installation of the bank on a new phone) and only allow functionality on their mobile apps.
- jabwd 9mo ago
  "work pc" -- random 50 dollar fire hazard running Linux. Anyway, those Android phones though they are obviously going to be the unreliable part in this story.
- butlike 9mo ago
  I'm right there with relating to this mindset, however, I recently (in the past 2 weeks) got to experience restoring a new phone from backup without the old one present, and it's becoming essentially a non-issue. I can't think of a single thing that wasn't restored from cloud backup.
semi-extrinsic 9mo ago
Isn't Pixel 10 the first one with fully supported desktop mode? I remember I was very confused when buying a Pixel 7 to replace my (then 3 year old) Huawei P30 Pro, and the inferior camera + lack of desktop mode made it feel like a net downgrade.
- ThePointed 9mo ago
  I use it on my Pixel 8 Pro too It's a toggle in Developer options, Local Desktop.
- adrian_b 9mo ago
  According to Google's help site, no Pixel has a desktop mode (like you can find at Motorola, Samsung and others). The latest Pixel models have DisplayPort, but their operating system only provides screen mirroring or app window mirroring on an external monitor. Unlike Pixel, the phones with a true desktop mode can display multiple windows on the monitor, and presumably they can have a selectable resolution for the monitor. I assume that for screen mirroring the monitor is used at the same resolution as the phone screen, i.e. either 1080 lines or only slightly more. Moreover, while the help site states that DisplayPort exists in Pixel 8 and newer, Google does not bother to advertise the existence of this feature in its online shop, where there is no mention about this in the phone specifications.
  - gf000 9mo ago
    > operating system only provides screen mirroring or app window mirroring on an external monitor That's not true. It's probably written that way, because this is still an experimental feature so it is indeed not "supported", but it does work, you just have to toggle a few settings inside developer options. And in this desktop mode it could make use of my 2k desktop screen, though it is quite buggy (it is a pixel 8 device, for reference)
    - adrian_b 9mo ago
      Good to know, but the fact that the knowledge about the possibility of connecting an external monitor is very well hidden on the Google site and the existence of a true desktop mode is even better hidden from any potential Google customers, does not inspire confidence. From this state of affairs I cannot be sure that if I bought a Google Pixel it would really be usable with a monitor, as such hidden features could be removed at any time. Other smartphone vendors clearly specify for their phones whether e.g. they support DisplayPort 1.4, so that they can use a monitor at a decent resolution, and whether they have a desktop mode.
backscratches 9mo ago
Only pixel 8 and up have DP. So 2 generations old. I guess soon it will be 3rd gen.
realusername 9mo ago
Old pixels don't have HDMI output, I learned it the hard way when the screen of my Pixel 3a died.

okokwhatever 9mo ago

Do you understand how much are 50 bucks in a third world country? I mean, Android phone is not the cheapest solution for the poor (obviously) but it helps a lot having this kind of features for a family.

joe_mamba 9mo ago
>Do you understand how much are 50 bucks in a third world country? Yes I do, no need to patronize us with that since even in 3rd world countries people have access to old computers from ewaste imports at a reasonable price, we don't all live in straw mudhuts wearing loincloths swinging from branch to branch. Now tell me which 50 euro phone ships with display output and is readily available. AFAIK Oneplus 7T I had is the cheapest with that feature but still over 50 and official SW goes to Android 12. Not sure if flashing lineage will still keep display output feature. Then there's the issue of availability in 3rd world countries, where it might be easier to find some scrapped Dell optiplex with a core 2 duo, or a beat up Acer from the windows 7 era for cheap at your local market versus a cheap android with display output capabilities being more of a unicorn. Sure you'll find your Pixel 8s and or Samsung S24s too, but those imports don't come cheap there, compared to the masses of lesser known cheap chinese phones but those don't have display output and their software is shit. Plus, if you go that route of Pixel 8 as a pc, you still need the budget for an external display, mouse and keyboard and your battery will wear out much faster. So then why not get a cheap laptop which has all the peripherals? Plus 2, old phones age very poorly performance wise, they slow down a lot due to thermal paste and battery degradation and nobody makes quality OP 7T batteries anymore to do a swap and get back to out of the box performance. What you find on Aliexpress now are fakes or poor quality clones. While a laptop is much easier to repair and maintain as parts wear out or break.
- drecked 9mo ago
  This is mistaken in a few way. 1. In 3rd world countries everyone has a phone, usually android, no matter how poor the are. Irrespective of whether or not it has desktop capabilities. So any phone purchase is already part of their baseline expenses. 2. Any desktop/laptop purchase, even if it is $1, is an extra $1. 3. The screens/keyboards/mouse again will not likely be purchased by individuals themselves. They will have “Internet cafes”, libraries, schools, etc where those screens will be provided.

nutjob2 9mo ago

You don't wired need display output, just WiFi. Motorola's Smart Connect desktop uses Miracast for using TVs and the like as desktop monitors as well as wired. I got my moto g84 5G with 8/256 GB for about 170 euros new and it supports it (not wired). Seems to work fine.

joe_mamba 9mo ago
Is it any good? Last time I tried miracast the framerate and video quality was total garbage due to shit compression. Barely worked for streaming youtube videos to the TV but no way I could do it for productivity.
- cromka 9mo ago
  Same here. The only way to make streaming between devices is the way Apple does it, directly, not via Access Point.
  - LoganDark 9mo ago
    Doesn't Apple do it by having the AirPlay receiver be its own access point? LAN in comparison indeed isn't ideal.
  - jeroenhd 9mo ago
    Mirecast (when done properly) is basically a video stream over a peer-to-peer WiFi Direct connection. H.264+AAC/AC3/PCM audio sent over RTSP/RTP using a standard IPv4 stack. Better codecs are available on newer devices. Two modern WiFi 6 devices can stream gigabits per second that way if configured right, there's no need for the typical low FPS, lag, and desynchronised audio from a protocol standpoint. For some reason, a lot of implementations (especially on the receiving end) suck at this. The latency seems to be terrible and TVs and displays seem to care more about reassembling old frames than about showing the latest good signal. However, it's not all that different from what Apple is doing. Miracast over ethernet/via an access point is something different (something I've never really seen used myself).

adrian_b 9mo ago

Actually many ridiculously expensive "flagship" smartphones do not have DisplayPort and some do not have even USB 3. The chances to find DisplayPort in what nowadays have become medium-price smartphones, i.e. $500 to $600, are about as good as finding DisplayPort in a "flagship".

joe_mamba 9mo ago
Which flagships (other than Apple), don't ship with display output? AFAIK Samsung, Google and all major Chinese brands have display output on their flagships.

LoganDark 9mo ago

> Except that android phones with display output are mostly flagships with flagship prices. My Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE was like $80 in 2015 and had a mini HDMI. I expect nowadays most phones can output display over USB-C.

jeroenhd 9mo ago
Some "flagship" and higher-end-midtier phones cheap out on the USB connection. USB 2 over USB-C with USB-PD for fast charging. No video out, slow data transfers. Maybe when desktop mode becomes more common there will be an incentive to fix the shitty USB situation. Cheap phones probably won't really have the power to effectively multi-task so I imagine cheap models would rather disable the feature than leave the user with a bad UI.
- LoganDark 9mo ago
  > USB 2 over USB-C with USB-PD for fast charging. Sometimes you're lucky to even have conformant USB-PD. For example, OnePlus for a while had "Warp charging" and the phones wouldn't accept high power over regular USB-C PD.
  - jeroenhd 9mo ago
    USB-PD support has been made a requirement for GPlay Android. Manufacturers don't need to support USB-PD for their crazy 200W charging circuits, but it's been a while since you had the choice between 5-10W USB2.0 and 80W Warp Charge.
jml7c5 9mo ago
Surprisingly, no. It's a "premium" feature these days.

nosrepa 9mo ago

I'm ignorant on this topic, can you not just plug a USB dock with HDMI out in any android phone and get a display out? I do it all the time on the previous three pixel phones I've had, but I didn't know that this was limited to those?

thebruce87m 9mo ago
USB-C is only a connector/socket - a device having a USB-C socket does not guarantee much beyond being able to plug a USB-C connector into it. Some USB-C devices only use the port for charging for example. Others might only support USB 2.0. Getting a display out from something with USB-C socket needs the device to support something called DP Alt Mode. Note that cables matter too - you can have a DP alt mode enabled monitor and phone, but if you have the wrong cable it won’t work. Welcome to the future.
- 2III7 9mo ago
  It is understandable that every cable doesn't have to and shouldn't support every feature. USB cables would be insaney overpriced in that case. For simple charging you don't need a high speed 40gbps cable that can connect an external GPU. To mitigate the confusion, all simple charging cables should be universally labeled as such and all high speed cables should also have some markings that indicate the maximum speed of the cable or something similar.
  - thebruce87m 9mo ago
    It’s understandable, but the reality is that many people like my 82 year old mother will use the wrong cable and have no clue why it’s not working.
  - hulitu 9mo ago
    > all simple charging cables should be universally labeled as such labeling hurts profits.

jeroenhd 9mo ago

Resell the 8GB of RAM and buy an even better phone then? That's 150 euros of value right there. Then use the money on a reputable second hand store to buy a used S20 5G 128GB for 150 euros, or a S22 128GB for 145, maybe an S21 Ultra 5G 256GB for 139, and you've got yourself a valiant workstation already (Samsung DeX works great out of the box, no need to wait for Google here). I can also find an S20+ 5G 128GB for 75 euros with display damage (but that doesn't matter when you hook it up to a monitor). On another website I can find an S20+ 5G with cracks in the edges of the touch screen for 50 euros. That's 12GiB of RAM, 128GiB of storage, a 3200x1440p@120Hz screen and 5G connectivity built in. You're gonna need a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard (that's like what, 5 euros?) to hook it up to the TV but then you're good.

bigwheels 9mo ago
Where is the $150 euros coming from? 8GB of brand new DDR3 or DDR4 is available for $20-$30 from Amazon / Fleabay, and once he sells it the laptop will no longer work.
- bloqs 9mo ago
  Phones also have ram
- jeroenhd 9mo ago
  That's the standard price for 8GB DDR4 RAM in the local major web shop. I'm sure there are cheaper options out there, but people are willing to pay more than that to get a shipping date before October.
  - ndriscoll 9mo ago
    I'm seeing plenty of 8 GB DDR4 SODIMMs on ebay for ~$20-30. AFAIK laptop RAM was not hit in the same way since it's not really readily reusable in other types of computer, and laptops don't generally have unused slots to just plop in more RAM.
heavyset_go 9mo ago
Why buy a used phone that will stop receiving updates, can't be fixed or upgraded and can't run whatever you want on it when you can use a real computer instead?

nicoburns 9mo ago

> Except that android phones with display output are mostly flagships with flagship prices. Might well be that this becomes a lot more common on cheaper phones if it becomes a popular feature though. A display port output isn't currently that useful, so it's something it makes sense to cut from budget models. But if this desktop functionality becomes popular that calculus may change.

prmoustache 9mo ago
I am pretty sure brands would rather sell you additionnal devices, like tablets or chromebook (will they be called androidbooks?) than make budget models able to do so.

heresie-dabord 9mo ago

> Except that android phones with display output are mostly flagships with flagship prices. There are exceptions. For example, the Motorola Edge has DP Alt Mode. https://uperfect.com/blogs/wikimonitor/list-of-smartphones-with-displayport-alt-mode https://uperfect.com/blogs/wikimonitor/list-of-smartphones-w...

nfriedly 9mo ago

The moto g100 is a good example of a midrange phone with decent specs, including video output. It launched at $400, and can be bought for around $200 these days. It has a Snapdragon 870, 8gb RAM, 128gb storage, a microSD slot, headphones jack, and a big enough battery to last 2 days. It's a little chunky, and it's not waterproof, but beyond that it's just about everything I ever wanted in a phone. Motorola, of course, has already abandoned it. But it still gets up-to-date Android via Lineage OS and other community made ROMs.

joe_mamba 9mo ago
How did they abandon it? It release october last year according to google. >but beyond that it's just about everything I ever wanted in a phone. I get that, but none of this answers my question of why people should use that to a TV, instead of a PC, other than to flex? It really isn't more practical, nor saving you money and you're still limited to the apps of android ecosystem rather than the windows/linux one.
- nfriedly 9mo ago
  > How did they abandon it? It release october last year according to google. Oh, geez, I didn't realize they abandoned it so hard they even recycled the name! I was referring to the 2021 g100: https://m.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g100-10791.php https://m.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g100-10791.php - it looks like the 2025 recycle lacks video output :/ https://m.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g100_5g_(china)-14228.php https://m.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g100_5g_(china)-14228.p... As for why anyone should do it, I'm not really arguing that anyone should. I was just trying to point out that it's more affordable than you might think. (Although it can't beat the deal you got on your laptop.) I think it might make sense if you already have a laptop dock with a screen and a keyboard at home and at school/work, and your needs were fairly lightweight, and you really valued portability. Or as you suggested, it could just serve as a backup device in case your main laptop gets broken or whatever.
butlike 9mo ago
Who has the time? I just want to get a new phone and be on my way. The last thing I want to do is download a community OS and/or roms on Day 1