Hello,
Optional, preliminary read:
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/9775-pixel-8-desktop-mode-guide-and-personal-experience
Setup:
- Pixel 8
- Standing upright in USB-C phone docking station, in this case: Device from Targus: Product Name: "Universal DeX Phone Workstation / DEX", Model: AWU420.
- External display. (In my case: One of several contemporary widescreen displays. Example specs: Setup A: 1920x1200 @ 60Hz; Setup B: 3680x2160 @ 60Hz; AFAIK running RGB mode with 8-bit per color channel)
- External usb keyboard and mouse
- (intended, none working!) audio output via external display (forwarding to external loudspeakers); alternative was via dedicated USB DAC (Mixer: Yamaha AG06) connected to dock.
- GOS 2025070800, i.e. first Android 16 in stable channel. (Yeah! And thx alot!)
Primary Objective:
Using an
- external, widescreen displays moderately effective,
- in real, usable(*) landscape mode,
- while keeping the device secure and stable.
Coverage / personal Experience:
Apparently, even with Android 16 (in non-developer mode), this means being content with physical keyboard + mouse, which both work almost perfectly, and 1 external screen with ordinary, very limited screen mirroring. The latter "somehow" works in portrait mode, i.e. on a small "stripe" of the external screen; "Landscape" sort of works via workaround (see below) with hefty letterboxing.
Preferable, one would also be able to use (better) desktop mode, including options like screen extension + being able to configure in detail which screens should be active (when connected) and which disabled. (Like, well, on contemporary desktop OSs.)
My presumption (as of 2025-07-11):
If it's possible to cover that preference at all, it's still gated behind Developer Options, which are not recommended for productive use. Please correct me if I am wrong.
When I experimented few months ago (Android 15), even with Developer Options, the usage had many bugs, instabilities, and ugly parts (e.g. windows getting persistently stuck, completely unusable apps). I aborted the experiment rather quickly. (Details maybe on request; probably out-of-scope here.)
Question 1 / Consideration:
Anyway, if someone has got more insider info, e.g. from reviewing latest upstream code changes, "well-informed sources", or through own configuration, I'd be happy to learn about it.
My level of information: Capabilities of android to become desktop-ready have been improved considerably, but I don't know where we stand exactly. Are we shortly before a major breakthrough in Desktop Mode? Did it even happen with Android 16 "under the hood" and it's just a relatively short time away from becoming published?
Secondary Objective:
- Optimizing usable screen area on the external monitor.
- Fullscreen without distortion would be great. Note: I'm aware that differing aspect rations between native pixel display -- in my case: Pixel 8's 20:9 (s. https://store.google.com/product/pixel_8_specs ) -- versus external display will probably complicate fullscreen. Unless there were options to enforce specific, external resolutions and aspect ratios, which I don't know yet. Do you know more?
- Second best solution was a cleanly scaled display output, reaching vertical or horizontal screen borders with the least amount of black unused area -- in desired orientation. Currently, the phone defaults to an almost comical portrait mode that effectively just uses a small, middle stripe of a typical (non-rotated, i.e. staying in landscape mode) widescreen monitor. And "fools" you, if you dare the Rotate-Option from External Display Setup (*).
- Again, for reasons given in several older threads, I'd strongly prefer to keep Developer Options disabled. Unless there is qualified, preferable official, comments that it was fine and stable for the stated purpose, now.
BTW:
Regarding desktop mode (or screen mirroring) in general, I'd like to refer to the following thread, again, which contains a fine, comprehensive guide and prior experience report:
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/9775-pixel-8-desktop-mode-guide-and-personal-experience
Digression: Rotate vs. "Landscape Mode" -- Pitfall and Workaround
(*): Why I am harping on real, usable landscape mode and are "not entirely satisfied" with what I found:
Menu Settings > Connected Devices > External Display has an option to "Rotate" the screen 90°/180°/270°. However, what might appear as the option to configure Portrait or Landscape, at first, does not what a user might naively expect. It just stupidly rotates all display output without any reorientation of menus, icons, texts, input fields, or even the orientation of the mouse pointer -- so that the displayed screen "lies on its side" (or is upside down). Consequently, you had to pivot your external monitor to portrait mode, too, to still be able to use the devices properly. Or tilt your head sideways (for the 90°/270° rotation), or go in a handstand (for the 180° rotation), respectively, . :-D
While I was writing and playing around, I confirmed a workaround for enforcing "landscape mode" on external display. (Additional kudos to https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/8542-rotation-lock-to-landscape ):
- Ensure Auto-Rotate screen is disabled:
1.1 Settings > Display
1.2 Scroll to section Other display controls at the bottom of the menu.
1.3 Slider Auto-rotate screen should be disabled.
- Ensuring Home Screen Rotation is enabled:
2.1 Go to Home Screen
2.2 Long press empty area on Home Screen > Home settings
2.3 Slider: Allow home screen rotation: Activate
- Tilt the phone sideways into landscape mode:
--> Should provoke a small overlay button with stylized rotating rectangle in the screen corner, left/downwards of the USB-C port.
4 Press this button.
--> This will put the phone and image on external display into functional landscape.
NOTE: If you are using a phone dock that holds the phone upright, above workaround comes with some ugliness in one or the other way:
- Either you have to force the phone into landscape, first, and then dock -- while locked in the wrong orientation -- and subsequently enable external screen (shown as Popup-Window asking you to "Mirror display"), so that the external monitor's image is put into desired "landscape mode", too.
- Or -- if you already docked while in default portrait mode before Step 3 -- you have to tilt that whole phone + dock + cables conglomerate sideways w/o disturbing it to provoke the screen rotation button, press it and put the hardware stack back, afterwards.
Question 2: Any out-of-the-box way to manually enforce screen orientation in a better way?
Tertiary / Bonus Objectives
- Sound output via HDMI or external USB DAC. Own experience: Tried to setup, failed. No idea if possible. Only managed to get audio via dock's TRS jack socket.
- Using multiple external displays. I neither expected nor attempted that. If possible at all, I presume it required different docking hardware with multiple display ports. (Targus AWU420 only has single HDMI out only.) I still could imagine a theoretical daisy-chain display configuration but have no knowledge whether existing hardware allowed that.
In this context, I'd like to mention past conversation between Carlos-Anso and calpurtmun on dual displays (s. https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/9775-pixel-8-desktop-mode-guide-and-personal-experience/31 ) There, you'll find a link to android.com, cited by Carlos-Anso: https://source.android.com/docs/core/display/multi_display/displays#more_displays
The latter suggests AOSP should generally be capable to drive multi-(external)-monitor setups. Rumors / hearsay tell me that Samsung -- and what they advertise as DeX -- could have an implementation for that. However, i can't confirm that personally nor found any reports of fellow GOS users having achieved that with GOS, yet.
Question 3: Did anyone get audio via Displayport/HDMI or multiple external displays working? O
To summarize:
If anyone has general improvements for such a setup, knows answers to my inline questions above or has further ideas: Feel free. It was great if our experience with screen mirroring or actual "desktop mode" can be improved, and I look forward to your comments.
TL;DR
Bimmy describes their setup (Pixel 8 + Dock + Peripherals), their objectives to use external display effectively - while maintaining a secure, stable system - and asks for improvements or further ideas on external monitor setups / "desktop-computer-like usage".