Today’s mobiles are so powerful and versatile that it’s worth wondering if their potential isn’t wasted performing “only” mobile functions. The Samsung DeX mode, which allows you to turn your mobile into a computer by connecting it to a screen, a mouse and a keyboard, was an attempt to answer this question. And the Pixels would soon have something similar.
According to the latest leak of Google’s next mobile, the company is working on a desktop mode for pixel 8, which would be activated when connecting a large screen to the device; In this mode, Android 14 would have a different and more similar interface to Windows and other computer operating systems.
It’s not exactly a new concept, but so far manufacturers haven’t risked embrace it fully; Samsung itself offers a somewhat limited experience with DeX, although in recent years other brands have jumped on the idea, such as Motorola and its “Ready For” mode.
The Pixel will be a computer
The concept would be very simple: you just have to connect the mobile to a monitor, using a USB-C cable; even if the execution is anything but simple. For the mobile to send the video signal through the cable, Google had to implement support for USB DisplayPort, an alternative mode that takes advantage of the USB-C standard to use the available connectors for something other than power. or data transfer. In DisplayPort mode, USB-C behaves like the video connection of the same name found on most modern computer monitors.
In DisplayPort mode, a mobile or tablet with a USB-C connection is able to send the video signal, as if it were an HDMI port; and a monitor with a USB-C connection is able to receive the signal and display it on the screen. For practical reasons, it is as if the mobile had another port dedicated only to the video output. This USB-C mode was discovered in the Android 14 betas, so its implementation already seems safe.
Android desktop mode
The other piece of the puzzle is in office mode, something the reader may not know that already exists since Android 10, although in practice it is used by almost no one and is a tool used more by developers than by the average user. When an Android mobile detects that it is connected to a large screen, it is possible to switch to desktop mode, in which applications appear as separate windows on a desktop. Everything you’d expect from a desktop system is here, including window management, multitasking and a button in the bottom left corner to launch apps.
It’s much simpler than Windows 11, for example, but it can be used to work more comfortably with mobile. The same leak claims that Google is improving desktop mode, to do this more complete and similar to a computer; the mode would be activated automatically when connecting the mobile to a USB-C cable connected to a monitor.
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