- So if you own a Galaxy S8 or you're looking
to pick one up, hands down one of its coolest features
is the fact that it can essentially transform
from a smartphone into a fully-fledged desktop
and this is how I turned my Galaxy S8 from this into this.
So alongside the Galaxy S8, the other important piece
of this puzzle that you need to absolutely make it work
is the Samsung Dex.
This is a sphere-like hockey puck-shaped gadget
that then transforms into a dock that houses the Galaxy S8,
outputs to video, and also allows you to connect things
like a mouse and keyboard.
Now if you want to get that sweet Dex-top experience
you're gonna need to drop some cash.
The Dex itself is not cheap by any means,
it's around 150 bucks, and then on top of that
you're gonna need to buy a monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
Now of course there is the argument of what if
you already own a display, keyboard, and mouse?
If that's the case, I am willing to bet
that you more than likely have a computer
to go along with it, and unless it's some 22-year-old Dell
from 1995 that is barely staying alive,
with that sweet 256 megs of RAM,
then more than likely your computer is gonna be
a better full-fledged desktop experience
than the Galaxy S8 and Dex combined.
Now as far as the display goes, for my setup
I went with a 23-inch monitor from Lenovo.
The name and product number is ridiculous and dumb,
so if you're interested I'll drop a link down below.
For the keyboard I went with the Logitech K380
which adds an absurd amount of bright beautiful orange
that kind of compliments the screen saver perfectly.
For the mouse, I went with the Logitech Ultrathin mouse
which is a super clean minimal touch mouse.
It isn't the cheapest, around 50 bucks, but it works great,
it looks awesome, and also perfectly compliments
the Harmon Kardon bluetooth speakers that
I went with for audio.
So with the Dex, there definitely are some pros and cons.
For starters, even though the box advertises
that it will output 4K, right now only 1080p will work.
On one side that actually may be a good thing
based solely on the fact that if you were spending
four to six hundred dollars on a 4K display
just for your phone, that might be a little crazy.
Yes, I also understand that it might be a little bit
weird using a display with less pixels than your phone,
but honestly I've really enjoyed this setup so far.
Now beyond the HDMI out on the Dex, you're also getting
two USB ports and sadly, these are USB 2.0 not 3.0
so you might have to deal with some
painfully slow transfer speeds.
Lastly, you also get a gig ethernet port for those of you
who are all about that hard-wired life.
Conversely though, one disappointing factor
with the Dex is the fact that there is no headphone jack
or audio out on the dock.
In theory, you could have technically used the Galaxy S8
if the headphone jack were up top,
but since it's on the bottom and it is then docked,
you are out of luck.
So with that, as far as a work around goes,
you pretty much have two options.
You're gonna need a monitor that supports
audio pass through over HDMI, or in my case what I did was
set it up through a bluetooth speaker.
Now surprisingly using a bluetooth speaker with this setup
works really really well.
So as far as audio control goes, I really like
how everything is laid out in the interface.
You have independent control over your ringtone,
the bluetooth speaker notifications,
and then the overall system volume which is awesome.
So now that we're past audio, as far as the actual
user experience with Dex goes, it actually
works surprisingly well.
Now regardless of how great the experience is,
and trust me, I give Samsung all the credit in the world
for executing it this well, I think the biggest downfall
right now is the lack of app support.
There is a dedicated app section that is optimized
for Dex, but that list is really really small right now.
The other confusing part is that there are apps
that aren't on the optimized list that still work,
so it's almost like you've got to play
this weird guessing game.
For some strange reason, Spotify does not work with Dex.
Play Music of course does, in a big beautiful
full-screen mode, and what made me scratch my head is
while Spotify isn't supported, for some weird
unknown reason Apple Music works on Dex.
Now in certain cases some apps don't work well
because you do need a touch screen to actually
take most advantage of those.
It's really hard to talk and not get eaten
by a ghost right now, so I'm gonna try and dodge these guys.
Oh no! (growls loudly)
(Pac-Man game over tone) Dammit.
Now jumping from games and beyond things like
Word docs and note taking apps, one thing I was
genuinely curious about was video and photo editing.
Much to my disappointment, video editing is not
really a thing on Dex.
Adobe Clips, from what I can tell, is one of the
better options out there but it was not
a great experience at all.
Photo editing, on the other hand, was actually really cool.
For starters, Photoshop Express and Lightroom mobile
both are fully supported on Dex, so you can get
a pretty fantastic full-screen experience.
As most of you I'm sure are aware, the Galaxy S8
has a fantastic camera, so being able to edit
those photos on a bigger screen and then have them
directly on the phone after you're done
is kind of awesome.
Now as far as apps that work well, I actually really like
the YouTube layout, especially in full-screen mode.
We have a nice big window for our video here on the left,
shout out to UrSAVAGEconsumer.
On the right you have a nice layout of all the videos.
And a little tip, just in case you own this,
instinctively you want to scroll down here
to leave that first comment, but actually
you gotta scroll down all the way right here,
leave Jud a little love, drop a comment,
I usually say what's up within the first hour so
let me know how your day is going.
Also from there I'm giving you a quick demo of
how well the bluetooth functionality works.
You can actually control volume from the keyboard.
- If you guys have encountered any bad products
that you think I should feature in--
- Also strangely enough Instagram works in Dex.
You can also access the camera, so if we wanted to
send out a picture, Evans!
- How's it going?
- You wanna take a selfie with me, through Dex?
- Oh, Dex, yeah, let's Dex it.
- You're really close, man.
No to me, not the screen.
- Oh, okay.
- I'm clicking my mouse right now to take the picture.
(mouse clicks)
- Now you gotta get Friyay, yeah, there we go.
- Yeah, nice and clean.
There you go.
- That's what I get.
- The mouse is like a stylus.
- That is the worst thing I've ever seen.
I don't like that.
- Other really cool points with the Dex setup is
while your Galaxy S8 is docked it is also
charging simultaneously, on top of that
it does support fast charging.
Honestly, I think where this makes most sense
is for those who don't already own a computer
and can pick up a display, mouse, and keyboard for cheap.
Is the Dex a full-fledged desktop replacement?
Absolutely not, but it is definitely
a step in the right direction.
The only thing I've got to say is I hope Samsung
sticks with this, continues to make improvements,
and does not abandon this.
It is a crazy cool concept and as smartphones get
faster and more powerful, I don't think it's insane
that they will eventually turn into our computers.
(electronic beep)
What's Wex posting?
- Hey Wex, the Gazelle action.
Oh that's the Superstar action.
- It's the zebras! (man shouts)