You left your laptop at piece of work, and you have an urgent study that needs completing and emailing to your boss. Information technology's the beginning night of your holidays.

What should you practice?

Well, if your documents are stored in the cloud, yous could cease off the study using your smartphone. But forget virtually tapping abroad at that little screen---you can connect a keyboard and mouse. Connect information technology into the hotel room TV, terminate off the report, email information technology, and enjoy the rest of your vacation.

It's as easy as that---with the correct device. Here's how to plow your phone into a laptop.

Why Use Your Phone as a Figurer?

Having a portable estimator in your pocket at all times---for whatever eventuality---makes sense. Unfortunately, pockets aren't big plenty for even the most compact ultrabooks. Smartphones, on the other hand, sideslip into a pocket with ease.

This means that y'all tin use a smartphone as a desktop – a substitute PC for use in an emergency. The limits of the small screen are no longer a problem, thank you to wireless HDMI solutions like Chromecast.

The real magic of this context-enlightened dynamic, still, is in the presentation of a desktop UI (user interface). Once displayed on a uniform TV, you won't be looking at the telephone'southward current UI. Instead, a traditional, familiar desktop is presented.

How to Convert Your Mobile Phone Into a Reckoner

We've looked by and large at solutions that require a desktop UI (Android excepted). And iOS is conspicuous by its absenteeism. Merely it'south fair to say that y'all don't actually need this. Later all, your phone already has an operating arrangement, and probably supports a mouse already.

To plough your phone into a PC, y'all demand:

  • Bluetooth keyboard and mouse
  • Alternatively, a USB keyboard and mouse and a USB-OTG cablevision
  • A display supporting wireless HDMI or screen mirroring

Alternatively, you tin can use a dock with back up for HDMI, USB, and SD cards. An instance of this is the Anker USB-C 7-in-1 Hub.

1. Samsung Devices Boast the DeX Desktop Mode

Perhaps the best of all options to turn an Android telephone into estimator in 2022 and across is exclusive to Samsung owners. With a Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+, Note 8 or later, y'all accept the DeX characteristic. Activated from the notification tray, DeX is essentially a desktop environment for Android.

Simply connect your phone to a nearby wireless HDMI-ready brandish, connect the input devices, and yous're fix to work. DeX gives yous access to all the usual Android productivity apps, in windowed manner. Our guide on using a Samsung Galaxy phone or tablet as a PC explains this in more depth.

Samsung DeX is the best way to turn your phone into a computer. If you own a suitable device, now is the time to check information technology out.

ii. Use Your Smartphone every bit a Linux PC With Ubuntu Impact

Ubuntu Affect is a Linux-based operating system for smartphones. Managed by the UBports team, Ubuntu Impact runs on the various devices.

Officially, Ubuntu Bear on runs (and is supported) on:

  • Volla Phone
  • Fairphone 2
  • LG Nexus 5 (2013)
  • OnePlus Ane
  • PinePhone

However, many other phones tin run Ubuntu Touch on. A key feature of Ubuntu Touch is the Convergence system. Like Samsung DeX, this is a desktop environment, activated when the phone is connected to an external display.

When the telephone is connected over wireless HDMI to a Idiot box, the UI is a total Ubuntu desktop. The operating system comes pre-installed with diverse tools, including LibreOffice. Having a mobile telephone that can be used as a figurer desktop at a moment's notice is splendid for productivity!

3. Turn Android Phone into Desktop Estimator With Maru Bone

In 2016, Android overtook Windows as the most-used consumer operating system on the planet. It makes sense, therefore, to explore its potential as a desktop OS.

Maru OS is an Android fork that currently but runs on a few models. So, if you lot can get hold of the Nexus 5 (2013) or Nexus 5X (2015), Nexus 6P, or original Google Pixel handsets, you should go skillful results. These are phones that can be picked up on eBay or other used electronics suppliers for a very low price.

This is a full operating system that must exist installed in identify of or aslope Android.

See our guide to installing Maru Bone on Android to utilise your own phone equally a small PC.

4. Use an Android Telephone as a PC With a Desktop Launcher App

Various desktop launchers accept been released for Android. Most of these have fallen by the wayside, but one that is in agile evolution is Taskbar.

Withal, yous probably wouldn't install this alone. Rather, you should apply it in conjunction with Android's hugger-mugger desktop manner to get the best results.

In one case that is configured, you tin install Taskbar and connect your phone to a USB-C hub. With a keyboard, mouse, and even some external storage connected, no one would always know that yous had essentially converted your phone into a desktop reckoner.

Download: Taskbar ($one.99)

5. How to Utilize Android Phone equally a Desktop With Chromecast

If it all seems a bit fiddly, expensive, or a combination of the two, then consider the easy option. Demand to access your Android phone'south word processor in an emergency? Well, you can quickly utilise an Android phone like a PC if you lot accept:

  • A USB-C or Bluetooth keyboard and mouse
  • A Chromecast or (other mirroring solution) plugged into your TV

Simply load up the document that needs attention, connect a keyboard, and share your display over Chromecast. If you're planning on this as a solution, and then yous should take a look at our guide to turning a standard smartphone into a PC.

six. Catechumen an Old Windows Telephone Into a Inexpensive PC

If yous've heard of Windows 10 Mobile or Windows Phone, you lot probably know that it is dead. And then dead that old phones can be picked upwards for under $70 on eBay. While largely useless in terms of apps, some models accept good cameras.

But hidden in these dirt-cheap one-time smartphones is a undercover mode: a Windows desktop. Three phones were released with Continuum:

  • HP Elite 3
  • Lumia 950
  • Lumia 950 Twoscore

Thanks to an early version of the Continuum technology (which currently manages the switch betwixt desktop and tablet modes on hybrid Windows laptops), you can connect your telephone to a brandish and see a Windows desktop environment.

You get admission to the apps installed on it, like Microsoft Office, and use the telephone for calls while connected. A Bluetooth keyboard and mouse can be continued, but the mobile keyboard can also be used. The display can even be employed as a laptop-mode touchpad.

Note: Windows 10 Mobile and Windows Phone are no longer maintained or updated. As such, employ of this method may expose you lot to online attacks or vulnerabilities in the Os and software.

Why Aren't You lot Using Your Smartphone as a PC?

You take vii ways to plough your telephone into a PC. So why do then few people employ their devices in this way. Is it the complexities of wireless HDMI? Or the lack of a physical keyboard?

Whatsoever the instance, in that location'south a skillful run a risk you have a suitable phone that can exist used like a laptop. Meanwhile, corporations with shrinking IT budgets are very interested in the handheld desktop form factor. If you're non using a desktop-capable smartphone device now, you soon could be.

While smartphones make versatile productivity devices in desktop style, they don't fulfill every purpose. Demand something more powerful and just as portable? Consider a lightweight laptop instead.

The seven Lightest Laptops in 2021

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About The Author

Christian Cawley (1578 Articles Published)

Deputy Editor for Security, Linux, DIY, Programming, and Tech Explained, and Really Useful Podcast producer, with extensive feel in desktop and software back up. A correspondent to Linux Format magazine, Christian is a Raspberry Pi tinkerer, Lego lover and retro gaming fan.

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