Our smartphones are now so powerful that they can compete with some desktop and laptop solutions. In this slim phone case, you’ll find a full-fledged general-purpose computer, limited only to a mobile operating interface designed for touchscreen use.
The Android operating system has an upcoming desktop environment where you can connect a mouse, screen, and keyboard to your Android device and use them almost like a PC. However, Samsung has done something special for its premium smartphone lineup. It’s called Samsung Dex and it has a very interesting proposition.
Dex As Your Only PC – Is It Possible?”/>
What is Samsung Dex?
Starting with the Galaxy S8 series phones, users can purchase a dedicated Dex Station that allows you to connect a screen, mouse and keyboard to the device. After that, your Galaxy S phone will be connected to the station and automatically launch the Dex environment.
As of this writing, the Note 10 and Note 10+ phones offer Dex without the need for a docking station. You can use a USB-C cable and Samsung Dex app to run Dex on Windows or Mac. Very useful if you want to have a private desktop environment on a public PC or any other computer that you don’t own.
Dex As Your Only PC – Is It Possible?”/>
The Note 10+ can also be used for Dex by connecting directly to an external display via USB-C. The phone screen becomes a touchpad, and of course, you can also connect the keyboard wirelessly. Turn your phone into a desktop computer in seconds.
Finally, some Samsung tablets, such as the Galaxy Tab S4, can be switched to Dex mode with a single tap. Plug in your mouse and keyboard and it looks a bit like a laptop.
Our Mission Crazy Dex
It’s a great idea, but how practical is Dex? We took on an insane mission to use only Samsung Dex for a full day of normal work. The goal is to see how viable it would be to use a Dex-enabled smartphone as the only computer. Take your phone with you when you are away from your desk and set it up when you sit down for more serious purposes.
Dex As Your Only PC – Is It Possible?”/>
We’ll be using the Note 10+ through the Samsung Dex app, but the test is applicable to any Dex-enabled phone. Besides performance, which will obviously differ from model to model.
Dex Desktop Environment
The Dex desktop should be familiar to anyone who has used Windows, Ubuntu Linux, macOS, or any modern PC operating system. There are wallpapers, there are icons and kind of like a start menu.
The big difference here is that your applications open as windows. Some applications, such as Google Chrome, behave similarly to the Windows version when moved. The rest are just a regular application encapsulated in a window.
Dex As Your Only PC – Is It Possible?”/>
It’s very simple and straightforward, which is generally good. The user interface is quite voluminous and you always know this is the phone you are working on, but it gives the right generalities.
Multitasking
Given that your particular Dex device is suitable for this, multitasking is pretty much straightforward. In the case of the Note 10+, which we used in this experiment, we have a whopping 12GB of RAM. Therefore, opening many applications or tabs on the Internet has never been a problem.
This is not to say that there are essential little things. First, most applications are not developed with Dex in mind, which means they don’t follow the same conventions. It also has software limitations that are not found in more traditional desktop systems.
Dex As Your Only PC – Is It Possible?”/>
Notably, Google Chrome does not support multiple tabbed windows. For most people, this can be a problem at some point, because splitting the screen into two windows with specific sets of tabs is a common necessity.
Clearly this is not Dex‘s fault as Google would have had to update Chrome to work this way, but it really shows how much Dex is a kludge right now. After all, application developers are not required to abide by the Dex conventions.
Work with Windows
While Dex may look like Windows or something, the lack of refinement quickly becomes apparent when you actually try to work with UI elements like Windows.
It has become second nature in Windows to use various gestures that instantly bind open windows to different configurations. The most used should be the good old side retainer. If you press the window to the edges of the screen, it instantly takes up half the space. If you need, for example, to open a web page and a text editor at the same time, this is a very important feature.
Dex As Your Only PC – Is It Possible?”/>
Unfortunately, bumping a window against the side of Dex‘s desktop is about as effective as bouncing Simba with his dead father in The Lion King. That is, absolutely nothing happens. Thus, manually resizing windows is a chore that really gets in the way.
Undo and Back
One place where Dex really shone is to stay out of the way. First, our phone continued to work blissfully like a phone while Dex was working. It’s easy to forget that your phone actually powers your PC. Until you thoughtlessly undock it and the picture disappears.
Dex As Your Only PC – Is It Possible?”/>
The good news is that simply docking your phone back will return everything exactly as it was, unless you manually kill the app in phone mode. So as a solution to where you can leave and come whenever you want, Dex gets high marks.
Is Dex ready for peak use?
The short answer is no. “Dex is simply too limited and too clumsy for anyone looking to do long-term productive work. Where Dex really shines is in a pinch or for users with very limited desktop needs. It’s a great way to temporarily turn the TV into a computer for writing essays, but it is not yet available as a driver for everyday production.
Dex comes close, however, copying some of the quality features that users have come to rely on in more mature desktop operating systems will go a long way in keeping the Samsung Dex alive. If you convince or sponsor more developers of popular productivity apps to enable Dex optimizations, the deal will be solidified.
–