Samsung Dex on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra - Can Samsung Dex replace a desktop?
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:21 Samsung Dex Set-up
0:40 User Interface and Experience
1:29 Samsung Dex Browser
3:04 Dex Apps
4:18 Final Thoughts
When I first learned about Samsung Dex, I got super excited. Could this really be the future of computing? I asked myself that question. And then the reviews came out saying it’s not worth it and I never bothered to give it a try.
About a month ago, while researching the Note 20 Ultra, I came across the improvements Samsung had made over the years. So, I decided to buy a Note 20 Ultra and give Samsung Dex a shot. After using Samsung Dex over the past couple weeks, here are my thoughts.
Setting up Samsung Dex
Setup was incredibly easy. I use a Macbook Pro that only has USB C input, so I had an HDMI to USB C cable laying around. That’s all that was needed to start using it. I plugged the cable into my phone and Samsung Dex turned on in a few seconds.
Samsung Dex User Interface and Experience
Samsung did a pretty good job with the user interface overall. Everything is nicely laid out and the overall feel is very similar to Chrome OS. I was able to connect my Apple mouse and keyboard pretty easily and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that a lot of the shortcut keys worked with Samsung Dex. I could adjust the brightness, volume, and playback controls directly from the keyboard.
In terms of issues, I had a couple. For some reason, the scroll gesture didn’t work on my Magic Mouse and I experienced slight lag while typing things. Both things can easily be fixed with a software update I believe.
I also like that Samsung lets users navigate by using the phone as a trackpad. It worked beautifully and I was quite impressed by the different gesture options Samsung provided.
Browser on Samsung Dex
I work in marketing, so a lot of my time is spent working in Google Docs and Sheets. Samsung did a great job optimizing their browser to provide a desktop like experience. I was able to access the desktop versions of almost all websites I commonly visit without any issues. I was able to use Google Docs without any issues and everything worked well. If you are using dark mode, I’d recommend switching to light mode as dark mode changed white backgrounds to black in the browser.
To test the functionality further, I completed forms and tried downloading and uploading files using the browser. Everything worked quite nicely and I was able to upload files without any issues in most places. For some reason, Google Drive wouldn’t let me drag files to upload, which was an interesting quirk.
One of the biggest surprises was the number of tabs I could keep open on this thing. I opened 13 tabs while having a couple more apps open in the background and it was able to handle that very easily. None of the tabs refreshed while I was testing this, which is something even my iPad can’t do. It really shows the importance of having more RAM in the phone.
In terms of functionality, I’d say the browser is about 70% there. There were a few things that disappointed me. I wasn’t able to play anything on Netflix or Amazon Prime through the browser and the apps didn’t work in full screen. I hope Samsung fixes it in a future update. For Dex to really become a computer replacement, Samsung will need to make sure it’s able to replicate the experience fully and that includes video content and browser extensions.
Apps on Samsung Dex
While not every app is optimized for Dex, I was pretty happy to see extensive support by developers. Almost all Microsoft and Google apps are optimized for Dex, which was great to see. Also, if an app isn’t compatible with the Dex, you can use Dex Labs to resize the windows, which adds a bit of flexibility. It’s not perfect, but it bridges the gap somewhat.
Due to the 12GB of RAM, I was able to keep a lot of apps open. It was great to be able to use Spotify in the background while working on some documents.
One of the things I was very excited to use Dex for was multimedia, so it was a bummer to see that Amazon Prime Video and Netflix weren’t optimized for Dex. I couldn’t get those app to launch in full screen even with Dex Labs. On the bright side, Google Play Movies worked perfectly. So, if you are looking to watch movies through your phone, I’d suggest downloading your content or watching through Google movies.
It was also nice to see some games work pretty well on Dex. I tried Asphalt and it worked perfectly even with my Apple Keyboard. You can definitely game on this thing using a controller and have a console like experience.
Final Thoughts on Samsung Dex
I think Samsung really has something special in Dex. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s really good and it’s something I’d love for them to improve over time. I can truly see this form factor being the future of computing.
Samsung Dex can’t replace a PC/Mac yet, but I’m pretty optimistic that it’ll be able to in the future.