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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)
this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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yay, locked down unrepairable computers owned by a us company that aids in war and surveillance!
We are talking about Android, not Apple.
Android phones can be user repaired and repaired by third parties without Googles permission.
depends on what you need repaired. and upgrades are a big no too.
It's either Linux phone or fighting in the trenches a losing battle against one the most powerful companies in history. Android offering a desktop mode is good if taken in the context of running an open source software on hardware you own.
yeah, it's nice in that context.
in fact, it's something that could have been a thing for a while, they had phones doing this in 2012ish.
How? They allow users to install 3rd party ROMs and GrapheneOS
They're not the best, but far from the worst. I've done multiple repairs on mine without much issue. There are first party parts and guides available on iFixit.
I guess?
You'd be hard pressed to find a manufacturer that doesn't
This feature is a positive change. Enabling people to minimize the number of devices they need has the potential to significantly reduce the amount of ewaste people generate, and makes desktop features more accessible to people who can't afford multiple devices.
android is pretty locked down, and being locked down further this year to allow only google-sanctioned software. following this trend will see actually unlocked and repairable computers replaced by locked phones. pixels are better than average but not available everywhere.
are the ifixit guides gonna help me replace the busted storage chip that renders my phone unbootable? i can just replace it for cheap on my laptop.
this is literally the biggest issue here. relying on a country that doles out sanctions and bombings like it's parking tickets.
and increasing reliance on google and the aforementioned empire for underpowered computing is not a positive at all.
There are a lot of assumptions baked into everything you're saying. It's really not that deep. Google Pixels make up a tiny fraction of total mobile market share. This isn't the start of some doomsday scenario where the only computers available are Google Pixels. You're allowed to buy what you want. I need a phone anyway. All of them are kinda shit from an openness/repairability standpoint. And personally I'd rather have one device than two if I can.
This is a much larger issue that has little to do with anything we're talking about
This does not apply to GrapheneOS, which again you are allowed to install to these devices. Plus they allow use of the linux terminal which people have been experimenting with to run full linux apps (https://www.androidauthority.com/run-desktop-linux-apps-on-android-how-to-3586539/)