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Comment by causi | Hacker News Reader

Are they still arbitrarily disabling HDMI-out to force us to buy a Chromecast?

You're confusing "not implementing" with "disabling". There is no default-enabled HDMI out on any SoC. Rather you have to wire it up and enable it, which includes paying the HDMI licensing fees (and also test that it actually works)

My bad.

"Are they still denying us basic functionality that's been part of smartphone USB ports since MHL in 2011 for the express purpose of making us buy crap we don't want?"

You're the only person I've heard of using HDMI out of their cell phone USB port. So, I can definitely see a vendor deciding not to provide it and not pay a license for that technology on every handset they sell.

Implementing DisplayPort is free. The royalty fee for HDMI is five cents per device.

Every Samsung S Series phone has Samsung Dex which allows you to connect your phone to a TV or monitor via HDMI and have a full desktop OS experience. It's pretty great and they've been offering it for years now. You can also connect iPhones to TVs and monitors with the Apple A/V adapter.

If google wants to make phones people buy, they should at least match their competitors features.

A Pixel phone with this feature would be reason enough for me to upgrade from a Pixel 3a. Just let me play games via HDMI out and a bluetooth gamepad.

Hell, I'd buy whatever Chromecast Super Mega Ultra they wanted to sell me as long as it gave me lag-free mirroring. You can't game on a half second delay.

Yes

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