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Your Pixel can now double up as a full Android PC with nothing more than a USB-C cable (www.androidauthority.com)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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This has been hidden in developer options for a while now, but they're now releasing it officially. Limited to Pixel 8 and newer devices and no 4k yet.

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[–] 166 points 8 months ago* (24 children)

Your Pixel

Limited to Pixel 8 and newer devices and no 4k yet.

Oh, so your Pixel, but not my Pixel.

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  • [–] 11 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    sad pixel 5 noises

    I've been waiting for a camera bump free upgrade, the 10a might be it but I'm reluctant to continue up the phone size escalator.

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  • [–] [S] 21 points 8 months ago* (4 children)

    My guy if you use that phone for anything remotely sensitive you should get a new one. It hasn't received security updates in over 2 years. The 8a is about $200 refurbished with 6 more years of updates and you won't notice the bump if you use a case.

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago* (3 children)

    I don't use a case and I use Lineage. I'm not really concerned. I already need to crop the top of the screen in developer settings just so that I can reach the notification bar, I'm not really enthusiastic about getting something even bigger.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I'm not sure if lineage has this option, but on my Pixel 8, at least, there's an option in system -> gestures called One-handed mode. If you use gesture navigation, it lets you swipe down on the navigation bar to either drag the top of the screen into reach or open the notification drawer. You can also map it to the accessibility button (and put it in the navigation bar) if you use the 3-button navigation.

    I'm sure you're content with your solution, but I just wanted to throw this out here in case you wanted to try something new. ^.^

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah I've tried those but it seems like such a hack. Weirdly, the one handed "pull screen into reach" doesn't allow you to swipe down across the notifications bar to open notifications, in that mode it only registers swipes that start from below the notifications bar. And the floating button gets a little unwieldy since it overlaps with the volume popup. And in the "show notifications" mode, the button opens notifications but doesn't let you close them (once you press it twice for the "control center" it no longer does anything)

    Not to mention it doesn't really help with the phone itself being uncomfortable to hold. I'm trying my best to vote with my wallet, but that has meant sticking with a Pixel 2 up until a few years ago, and the Pixel 5 was my "only 2mm taller" compromise - I completely overlooked the fact that the Pixel 2 screen starts like 1cm from the top while the Pixel 5 screen starts nearly at the top. The Pixel 10a is almost 10mm taller, so I'm not sure if I'll be sold on it.

    I actually bought a OnePlus 6 something (t?) at one point fully intending to give in to a bigger screen but I hated it and returned it.

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  • [–] 9 points 8 months ago (9 children)

    Yeah, I have a pixel 7 and was disappointed on vacation to learn that its USB-C port can't do video when I wanted to plug it into a hotel room TV.

    I don't get why this is a Pixel thing at all and not an Android thing though. Shouldn't any Android OS device that can do full video output over USB-C be able to do this?

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Video out is frustratingly uncommon. Samsung, some Sony's, and only very recently Pixels. Google was vocally against video out for a long time. And SD cards (gotta pay for drive). You were expected to roll the dice with whether Chromecast works with a random TV and wifi combination.

    Pixels were popular for two reasons: the camera and "basic black rectangle" device (RIP Nexus).

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    Yeah, Chromecast has been kind of a disaster for Google imho, in that it never got widespread adoption in TVs. If they'd pushed an open standard they might've been able to get that over the finish-line and get buy-in from 3rd parties. But instead every smart TV and smart phone has its own video streaming approach, it seems.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    I am confused.

    In developer options in basic android you can simply enable the feature right?

    My old Sony xperia 5 ii can do that and it definitely isn't a Sony feature...

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    There's hardware required to shunt the display out the USB port and since it's not a super in demand feature they usually don't implement it. As such the software for looking nice while doing it isn't as developed.

    But yes, it's been in developer settings for years, and was usable if your hardware supported it.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago* (3 children)

    The 4 (iirc) also had USBC video out but google removed that functionality only to now have a reason to sell you a new phone. I hope its actually good and they publish source for it as part of AOSP, otherwise this news is fucking useless.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (2 children)

    There were stability issues with the video out. People love to assume malice but most of the time there was actually good reasons

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    Thats nonsense, there are plenty of phones and tablets with usbc video output. Its been a feature for like a decade. Other companies have had working desktop modes for a long time and google just abandoned their work on it until they decided they could use it as a marketing feature. They probably just didnt want the pixel to cut into the chromebook marketshare.

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