Yes; using a USB dock with HDMI out you can use a Samsung phone as basically a desktop PC. For some reason. Having tried it, the experience isn’t great, none of the apps are really designed for it so I guess if you want to type an email on your phone, knock yoruself out.
I used it a few times for work even. At the time I had a usb-c hub connected with a screen, Ethernet, 65w charger, a keyboard and mouse and I had my laptop that I was carrying with me.
Once or twice I arrived at work and realized I forgot my computer at home … And I have a 2hour drive … So I connected my phone to the hub and work on it. It worked well to send email, use an internet browser, a bit of document editing and mostly connecting to remote desktops.
It seems to be built with the idea that you’re going to carry around a phone, and then have keyboards, monitors, mice (though you can use the phone’s touch screen as a trackpad) etc. set up at work stations to do more serious tasks, but the app ecosystem for Android just isn’t there. About the only thing that works half decent is Google Docs.
I use Samsung Dex and I was disappointed by how limited the android version of Google Sheets was. Like it’s cool that I can edit stuff on my tablet, but it locks you out of a lot of functionality. This desktop mode could be really cool but it needs to be supported by apps.
And my Samsung has had it for longer than that. But this one is made by Google.
So it’s gonna be feature starved and then gets abandoned and killed
That’s implied
Can DeX be used with just an external monitor without a PC?
Yes; using a USB dock with HDMI out you can use a Samsung phone as basically a desktop PC. For some reason. Having tried it, the experience isn’t great, none of the apps are really designed for it so I guess if you want to type an email on your phone, knock yoruself out.
I used it a few times for work even. At the time I had a usb-c hub connected with a screen, Ethernet, 65w charger, a keyboard and mouse and I had my laptop that I was carrying with me.
Once or twice I arrived at work and realized I forgot my computer at home … And I have a 2hour drive … So I connected my phone to the hub and work on it. It worked well to send email, use an internet browser, a bit of document editing and mostly connecting to remote desktops.
Darn! Well, at least the option is available for computer-less smartphone owners, I guess.
It seems to be built with the idea that you’re going to carry around a phone, and then have keyboards, monitors, mice (though you can use the phone’s touch screen as a trackpad) etc. set up at work stations to do more serious tasks, but the app ecosystem for Android just isn’t there. About the only thing that works half decent is Google Docs.
I use Samsung Dex and I was disappointed by how limited the android version of Google Sheets was. Like it’s cool that I can edit stuff on my tablet, but it locks you out of a lot of functionality. This desktop mode could be really cool but it needs to be supported by apps.