Stop treating your Android phone like just a phone—here's what it can really do with USB-C

Published Sep 2, 2026, 3:30 PM EDT Nick Lewis is an editor at How-To Geek. He has been using computers for 20 years --- tinkering with everything from the UI to the Windows registry to device firmware. Before How-To Geek, he used Python and C++ as a freelance programmer. In college, Nick made extensive use of Fortran while pursuing a physics degree. Nick's love of tinkering with computers extends beyond work. He has been running video game servers from home for more than 10 years using Windows, Ubuntu, or Raspberry Pi OS. He also uses Proxmox to self-host a variety of services, including a Jellyfin Media Server, an Airsonic music server, a handful of game servers, NextCloud, and two Windows virtual machines. He enjoys DIY projects, especially if they involve technology. He regularly repairs and repurposes old computers and hardware for whatever new project is at hand. He has designed crossovers for homemade speakers all the way from the basic design to the PCB. Nick enjoys the outdoors. When he isn't working on a computer or DIY project, he is most likely to be found camping, backpacking, or canoeing. Android phones, especially the most expensive models, are pretty capable devices. They have as much RAM as some laptops, and their processors are often as fast as laptop CPUs from a few generations ago. Their only real limitation is input: at best, you have a single USB-C port. Thankfully, USB-C is pretty capable. If you find a device that supports Android, you can actually connect a huge range of different devices to them. Drawing tablets Graphics tablets turn your phone into a portable art studio If you've ever tried drawing on a regular phone using your finger, you know it isn't a great experience. Even if you're good at it, it doesn't compare to a dedicated graphics tablet, like a Wacom. Most phones will allow you to connect a screen less graphics tablet and use it to draw, and devices that support video over USB-C even allow you to use a drawing tablet with a screen. If you're just trying it out as a hobby, it is a way to get into it without springing for a full PC setup or a larger tablet. . Audio interfaces Interfaces give you studio audio in your The microphones built into most modern phones are fine, good, even, but they don't handle a candle to studio microphones. If you want to connect a microphone to your phone, you can attach an audio interface over USB, which functionally allows you to attach a mic with an XLR port to a phone, a guitar, bass, or any number of other instruments. If you're trying to record sounds outdoors, a podcast or music on the move, or anything else, it is actually a reasonable option. You just need to mix it with the right apps, like FL Studio Mobile or Band lab. The big downside is power. If your phone is providing phantom power to a microphone (+48V) over USB-C and powering the interface itself, you're going to drain down your battery very quickly. Many audio interfaces allow you to attach a separate power supply to run phantom power; I'd recommend finding that if you can, it'll do wonders for your recording time. You could also use a powered USB hub. MIDI devices Keyboards and pad controllers let you make music with your phone Credit: Nick Lewis / How-To Geek Tapping on a tiny glass screen is a poor substitute for something with actual keys or buttons. Fortunately, a surprising number of MIDI devices, like a keyboard or pad controller, will work if you connect them to your phone over USB-C. As with audio interfaces, keep an eye on power draw. Controllers with a ton of LED lighting will be taxing on your battery. If you combine a MIDI controller and an audio interface on the same powered hub, you've effectively created a miniature studio! External SSDs Portable drives give you an incredible amount of storage Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek It feels like modern phones barely come with enough storage for regular use, especially if you shoot photos in RAW. If you're any kind of creator that uses their mobile a lot, video and audio recordings can easily use up all the space on your phone. Cloud storage can help alleviate that, but who wants to back up 100GB of 4K video over cellular data? I certainly don't. High-speed USB-C SSDs allow you to offload your files to external storage, sparing your phone's storage space for your day-to-day needs instead. In some cases, you can even write video or audio directly to the USB SSD, which saves you the trouble of manually transferring every single file. If you're working with 4K footage, that is well worthwhile. Don't trust cheap flash drives if this is anything more than a very casual hobby. They have terrible sustained write speeds (which will be a problem for UHD video) and they're not especially reliable if they see a lot of use. You wouldn't want a speed bottleneck to cause you to lose part of a video, or a failed flash drive to delete a day's work, after all. USB microphones A dedicated mic is a quick and easy upgrade If a full audio interface is too much for your application, you can always attach a dedicated USB-C microphone instead. There are specialty devices from serious mic manufacturers like Rode, Shure, and Audio Technica specifically designed to fill this niche. If you've never done a side-by-side comparison between your phone's microphone and a dedicated mic, you'll likely be surprised by the difference—it's huge. Software support is pretty good too. In the times that I've tested USB-C microphones, most apps on modern smartphones will automatically switch to the external device without requiring anything from you. Your phone is a miniature computer USB-C allows a simple Android phone to function as much more than a phone. Whether you're using it with a drawing tablet for art, an external SSD for 4K videography, or a MIDI controller for music, your phone isn't just an accessory—it can power the entire setup. If you're buying new, try to stick to products that advertise compatibility with Android. While many generic USB devices can be made to work with Android, you'll save yourself a lot of trouble if they're compatible out of the box.