- Yeah, phones are pretty cool,
but sometimes you just need a bigger screen.
Looking at all the different services we use
on our pocket computers,
here's a handy little guide
on how you can connect to a TV or monitor
and enjoy a larger viewing or working experience.
Let's get big.
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Okay. Casting, screen mirroring, screen sharing.
As these tips move on,
we're gonna try and go from the broadest,
the most common use,
down to the narrowest and most technical.
The general idea, as your major needs are met,
there could still be some specialty situations
where more specific tools are required.
So if you're looking at something on your phone
and you wanna see that on a bigger display,
what do you do?
Maybe you don't need to use your phone at all.
If you have a fairly recent smart TV
or some kind of streaming box,
the streaming services you're already using
might just be built into your TV.
Grab your remote, scan for the same content, push play,
and there you go.
But if you're watching a channel like ours,
you're probably a bit more interested
in getting up a little higher tech than that.
This is where casting comes into play.
If you're watching content on your phone,
you can push a little button in the streaming app
and that will send the content to your TV.
This requires some kind of smart thing,
either on or inside your TV.
In our house, we use Chromecasts.
But Apple TV, Rokus, Fire TV
all should have solutions your phone can see
as a casting destination.
Our older LG TV brand LG Software,
and my phone could still see it as a screen to cast to.
Casting satisfies the vast majority
of streaming video, photo, and audio services.
When we're consuming content like videos,
we don't need fancy screen sharing capabilities.
We push the casting button and the video service stops,
sending the stream to your phone,
and redirects it to your TV.
Super simple.
Now then, from time to time,
we really need to share our phone screen.
Apps that don't just throw a photo or a video to a TV.
We want the full app, all of the interface,
everything in that app to be viewable.
Our phones are crazy, insanely powerful.
Something like this can easily rival a lower cost
or an older laptop.
So it's not out of the question
that someone might want to use that power
on a bigger screen.
Screen sharing wirelessly,
it works, but we definitely experience some lag.
Mirroring a display over wifi
using Apple casting or Google casting,
we can get that image up on a TV,
but I've had varying degrees
of success with using that image for practical work.
One example, I used to travel a lot.
You'd end up in a hotel or an Airbnb.
You just want to trek with a phone.
You want to keep your pack light.
I try open up a word document, get some writing done,
and I'd throw that to a TV.
Sometimes that's fast enough to keep up with typing.
Sometimes it lags so bad
that even typing can be problematic.
For screen sharing situations wirelessly,
the more practical solutions are apps like PowerPoint.
In PowerPoint,
you can send the finished presentation to the TV,
but you see the PowerPoint interface on your phone screen.
PowerPoint slide is usually a static panel,
so lag isn't as much of an issue
in the middle of a presentation.
So what do we do when we wanna share that screen
and we want the most responsive interface?
We gotta use a cable.
Now, as far as I know,
and someone please correct me in the comments
if I might have this wrong,
all recent iPhones going back at least five or six years
can use a lightning adapter
to send out an HDMI video signal.
The Android situation is a little trickier
where mostly only premium phones
can send out a video signal.
You have to see if your phone supports USB 3.
A lot of budget options stop at USB 2.
With the exception of the Google Pixel line of phones,
all of the other premium Androids that I've reviewed
with USB 3 ports have supported video out
over this connector.
As more TVs and monitors include a USB-C port,
you might not need any adapters.
On my new monitor for my desktop,
direct connection over one cable, no adapters,
and the monitor will charge my phone when it's plugged in.
If your TV or display doesn't have a USB-C port,
a simple USB-C laptop dock
can be picked up for a decent price,
and it'll also give your phone additional USB ports
and a memory card reader.
You have to own a more expensive Android phone
to really use all of those features
but there is no one lightning connector way
to get all of those features working on an iPhone.
iPhone's gotta go dongle by dongle.
All right, we've got our phone.
We've connected it to the TV.
A lot of folks are gonna complain
that a portrait phone user interface
on a landscape screen looks kind of funny.
But obviously, when we turn that app to landscape mode,
that's gonna look a lot better.
Another difference between the Android and iOS camps,
iPhones only support video output.
You can't really send any other data over an HDMI signal.
On a premium Android, this will also support touch screens,
and there's a whole new generation
of portable touch displays
that can connect to an Android phone over one cable.
Being able to connect and share information wirelessly
is cool, it feels high tech.
But going with a cable,
it's kind of like your broadband connection.
The best way to improve performance
and reduce lag is just plugging that sucker in.
There's a reason why hardcore gamers
and E-sports competitors
don't use Wi-Fi during their competitions
and they just use ethernet jacks.
But once we've got that image up on the screen,
one of the main drawbacks to these solutions,
now most of our phones are taller and skinnier than our TVs.
So the phone is gonna produce letter boxing
on a standard TV.
But even with some black bars,
there's a lot of work or gaming that you can accomplish.
The most advanced version of this idea,
a handful of Android phones
will support an alternative desktop mode
when connected to a TV.
It looks a lot like Windows or a Chromebook.
It fills the whole TV screen.
Even when you're using mobile apps,
it improves your ability to get a higher level of work done
powered by your phone.
If you want a deeper dive on using your phone
as more of a desktop or laptop replacement,
drop us some comments down below.
Between Tshaka and I,
we've had a lot of experience
playing with these different options.
And there you have it,
the funnel of screen casting and screen sharing
from easiest to the most narrow, technical,
hardcore, power user kind of usage.
And have you played with screen sharing on your phone?
Have you tried hooking up one of your pocket computers
to a larger display?
Drop us some comments down below.
As always, thanks so much for watching,
for sharing these videos, subscribing to the channel,
and checking out our home site.
For Reviews.org, I'm Juan Carlos Bagnell, aka SomeGadgetGuy,
and I will catch you all on the next video.