Android N’s hidden DPI setting activates a tablet UI on your phone

Although they can be a bit unwieldy at times, we love the added screen real estate having a larger sized smartphone offers. Being able to see more on screen is a huge draw for us and needless to say, we were beyond excited to learn that Android N would bring a new Display size setting. The setting allows users to enlarge or shrink the UI based on their preference, so whether you want to see more information on screen, or just make things easier on the ‘ol eyes — Android N finally gives you that option.

But did you know there’s an additional setting tucked away inside Android N’s hidden Developer options that allows you to tweak and fine tune the DPI settings even further? It’s called Smallest width and by making the value larger, you can shrink the display size beyond the normal “small” setting. Of course, you’ll need to unlock the Developer options first. Here are the steps:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Scroll down to About phone
3. Tap Build number 7 times (you’ll see a prompt counting down taps to unlock
4. Press back to go back into main Settings menu
5. Select Developer options which now appears at the bottom of Settings
6. Scroll down and select Smallest width (under the Drawing category)
7. Your current DPI setting will be displayed — write that down somewhere
8. Change the value to whatever you like (the bigger the number, the smaller the UI)

For our Nexus 6P, the smallest display size setting normally available was 484 dp (small). By changing the smallest width setting to 560, the UI looked we were holding a tiny Nexus 7. The crazy part is how it actually activated the tablet UI in some apps.

It’s worth noting that this will sometimes break compatibility with some apps, with some users reporting that Android Pay was no longer functioning after messing around with the setting. The good news is that it’s super quick and easy to go back, just change the value back to the normal settings and you’re good to go.

The best part about this little trick is normally you’d need root to fine tune your DPI settings, with this feature now available in Android N’s developer options, there’s just one more reason to keep your device stock.

[via Reddit]