I tried using the latest Samsung smartphone to replace my work computer — now I'm convinced it's the future
I tried using the latest Samsung smartphone to
replace my work computer — now I'm convinced it's the future
·
The Galaxy S8 DeX Station lets you use your phone as a computer.
·
The DeX Station costs $150 and works really well
·
If you want to do work, though, getting your IT department on
board may be tough
By Todd Haselton
May 12, 2017 41
Mins AgoCNBC.com
I tried to use the Samsung Galaxy S8 as my work computer.
Well, sort of.
Samsung is offering a $150 accessory called the DeX Station that plugs your
smartphone into a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse. The idea is that you can
leave your laptop behind and use the DeX dock with your smartphone instead.
It's an impressive
dream, and Samsung isn't the only one to try it. Microsoft made a similar
attempt a couple of years ago with Windows Phone 10 and a feature called
"Continuum" that ultimately flopped.
Does Samsung fare any
better? To find out, I decided to write this entire experience and review of
the DeX Station from my smartphone, and even tried to access all of my work
apps. Here's how that worked out.
Simple hardware, big promises
The DeX Station
hardware is a small puck that easily fits into your laptop bag. It offers two
USB ports on the back for connecting a keyboard and a mouse, an Ethernet jack
for connecting to the internet and an HDMI port that lets you connect to a
computer display.
It's plastic and
simple. The top of the puck pushes down to reveal a small charging port that
your phone can plug into while resting on a stand. There's no crazy setup
required here; you just drop your phone on that port, turn on your computer
monitor, and suddenly you're presented with what looks like a traditional
computer desktop, filled with icons.
This is where the magic begins
The first thing you
see is a full desktop environment running completely off the GalaxyS8. This
isn't Windows or macOS. Instead, you're looking at a desktop version of Android
created by Samsung.
It's magical and a
bit unbelievable that what you see is actually powered by your smartphone.
There's a full web
browser for viewing actual websites -- not just mobile versions of them.
Samsung also worked with partners such as Microsoft to make sure that Skype,
Word and Excel are all optimized to run much like they would on a real
computer. That means resizable windows and what feels like a full set of
features.
(I'm writing this
review in Word while sitting at my work desk, for example.)
You can also access
all of the Android apps on your phone, like Instagram or Gmail, Maps, Facebook,
your photos and more. Some are optimized for DeX, which means, like Word, they
can be resized and feel more like a real PC application. Others, like Instagram,
are simply small rectangular windows that can't be resized and look and act the
same as they would on a smartphone.
But good luck getting your IT department on board
You can get some work
done so long as all you need is access to Microsoft's suite of apps, a browser
or Google Docs. In my previous job as a blogger, I'd have been set.
But the dream that I
share with Samsung, where I can work completely off of the smartphone and ditch
my laptop while working for a large corporation, ends there.
In my office, for
example, we need all sorts of security software in order to access the apps we
use for work, as well as specific websites. I tried installing some of them on
my phone, but those that required a full version of Chrome just didn't work. (There
are some legacy corporate apps, which I generally don't need, that still
require Internet Explorer. That's a non-starter here.)
IT departments may
one day allow these sorts of devices, but it isn't something I see happening
overnight, and I suspect a lot of folks are going to run into similar issues if
they try to use the Galaxy S8 as their full-time work computer.
Aside from these
roadblocks, performance was excellent in my tests. I was able to watch the
movie "Caddyshack" in one window, browse several sites in a web
browser, work in Microsoft Word, check my email and more, all without the
system slowing down. I also appreciated other niceties, like the ability to
answer phone calls and text messages that came through while I was using my
phone in the DeX Station.
A step toward a still-distant future
All said, there are
just a few negatives to note.
The DeX Station is
expensive. You'll need to pay $150 per dock, which means you're looking at
spending $300 if you want one for home and one for the office. While it's made
to work well with enterprise applications and can support virtual desktops,
you'll need to make sure your IT department supports it and allows you to use
it.
Despite all of this,
Samsung's on the right track. The DeX Station is light, travels easily, and
turns on almost instantly. I also never ran into any strange bugs and found it
performed admirably, as if I was using a laptop of sorts.
More important, I
believe we're on our way to a mobile future where we carry our smartphones (or
some future version) to and from the office and, when we sit at our desks, our
desktop screens will light up. We'll see our full suite of work apps, all
powered by the devices sitting in the pockets of our khakis.
The DeX Station is a
step toward that future, but it's also a reminder that we're not quite there
yet.
For that reason, most
people don't need the DeX Station, even if it is one of the cooler gadgets I've
seen this year.
Comments
Post a Comment