Last Updated on June 29, 2025 by pg@petergamma.org
Since Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org invested a lot of time in installing LibreOffice on the Pinephone:
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=16614
without ever using it, he found a solution with Softmaker for Android, an usb-c adapter which has an integrated micro SD card reader which work, scrpy, etc:
https://petergamma.org/category/mobile-office
Today I was looking for a screen for a Raspberry Pi. Then I suddenly found the Samsung DeX solution which makes out of Samsung phones a desktop device, which is shown at the beginning of the following video:
Although I avoid products from Google as much as possible, I currently use Google Pixel 6 Pro phones, because they can be re flashed as privacy phones, and have a screen which is almost 7 inch. This is a size which allows easily to work with Softmaker Office on the phone screen.
And I found that similar to the Samsung DeX solution, Android offers now also a desktop mode.
For instance for Google phones starting from the Google Pixel 8, as shown in the following video:
What is shown in this video should be enough for my purpose. I decided never to have my private files on a server from Google. I had those always on a SD card which could be shared between phone and PC. And with the above adapter this still worked, although it is a bit complicated.
Google desktop mode and usb-c adapter wich SD card reader is also a very complicated solution. So I will most probably turn to a private cloud which is a NextCloudPi.
As a solution for my privacy problem, I tested NextCloudPi on a Raspberry Pi 4 according to the following solution:
And I came to the conclusion, that this is a cloud in which i trust. Since this NextCloud is on a Raspberry Pi 4, which fits well in a pocket. And I think there is where private data should be stored, and not on a server from Google Inc., in which i do not trust.
To find a suitable touch sreen which supports also usb-c in, was quiet some work. I found two screens on Aliexpress which support this:
1.
WIMAXIT M1331C V2 13.3Inch 100% sRGB 1920x1080P IPS HDR Portable USB-C HDMI Monitor for Laptop,Cellphones
2.
Waveshare 13.3inch High Resolution HDMI Capacitive Touch Display,10-Point Touch,1920×1080,Type-C/HDMI Display Interface
Digitec Switzerland sells Waveshare screens. But I did not find one there which support usb-c as monitor input. Waveshare has a lot of models. And it is tricky to find one which really supports usb- in.
And on www.berrrybase.ch, I found the
3:
Waveshare 14 Zoll Touch Display, 2K, 2160×1440, HDMI, Type-C, DP, Optical Bonding, 178° Blickwinkel
for 180 SFR.
4.
It’s not easy to find a small, high-quality monitor that has touch support. But touch is great for Raspberry Pi and smartphones over usb – c. Here I finally found such a device also at Digitec.ch
Joy-it Joy-View 13, 1920 x 1080 Pixel, 13: 236 SFR
I spent the whole day to study this solution. But what I reported here is what I originally wanted to do with my Pinephone.
But I never really was happy with my Pinephone. Neither as an Office solution or a privacy phone. The Pinephone in principle would have fitted for my needs. But there is no community for it. And what I describe here solve my problem now with an Android phone, for instance a Google Pixel 8 Pro.
PS: We do not know if Softmaker Office works with the above Android desktop mode. We haven t tested it yet. Sooner or later we want to get rid of the Android phone in the above setup anyway. And replace it by a single board computer. A Raspberry Pi zero 2 w would currently be the best alternative. But LibreOffice starts too slow on it. We could use Abiword and Gnumeric instead. But I have tested it. And these apps are too basic for my purpose. If softmaker office for Android does not work in desktop mode, we can still use NextCloudPi to sync our data as a personal cloud. And there is a desktop version for Softmaker Office available. And the above shown adapter works great in principle. The usb-c adapter works for ethernet, SD card reader and charging.