Gadgets: Portal Phone

There's no denying that there are a ton of Portal fans out there, and some of them love to show off just how much they love it. Now, it's entirely possible to make your Android-powered smartphone look like this. If you don't mind taking the time to dig into your device.


Reddit user "itsnickk", who designed this particular interface, said he did it “For science.” In fact, it didn’t take that much effort to achieve. After rooting his smartphone, he downloaded the LockBot Free app which allows for the customization of the Android screen either with your own design or with one of a growing number of themes.

With the layout customized, he then used Photoshop to create the Aperture Laboratories background, which he has been kind enough to make available if someone else wants to apply it to their phone’s background.

There’s a question mark hanging over whether you do actually need to root your Android device to do this. Itsnickk later realized LockBot Free works regardless of rooting, but there’s mixed reviews on the app’s page about how well it does actually work.

If you want a Portal-ized phone interface, though, it’s well worth the effort to see if this works. There’s some suggestions in the Reddit comments thread on alternatives apps that may be able to achieve the same thing, too. They include Minimalistic Text and WidgetLocker Lockscreen.