Samsung DeX promises the ability to replace your laptop: plug in a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, and your phone instantly becomes a full desktop computer. On paper, it sounds perfect. Modern smartphones are incredibly powerful, so why shouldn’t they be able to double as laptops? That’s exactly what I was curious about when I switched from an iPhone to a Samsung phone.
While I was able to work entirely from my phone using Samsung Dex (in fact, I wrote this entirely on my phone), the constant hurdles quickly wore me down and left me so frustrated that I ended up switching back to my MacBook.
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Android apps only get you so far
Mobile apps weren’t made for this
The biggest issue I ran into was the apps. It wasn’t one major flaw, but a collection of small frustrations that quickly added up.
I do most of my work in a browser, so I first tried Chrome and Samsung Internet. Both felt incomplete compared to a real desktop browser since they don’t support extensions. I even gave Firefox a shot so I could use extensions, but it became obvious that it wasn’t designed for a keyboard and mouse.
That ties into the bigger problem: most apps are nothing more than scaled-up tablet versions, still built around touch rather than desktop input. The result is a lot of tiny annoyances. For example, many apps don’t offer a right-click context menu.
If you’re using a messaging app and want to reply to a message, you can’t just right-click and select reply. You have to hold down the click and then move over to a reply button tucked away in the corner. That’s just one example, but you notice it constantly once you start using Android apps with a keyboard and mouse.
Android tablet apps weren’t great to begin with, and while there have been attempts to improve them, the results so far have been disappointing.
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DeX doesn’t match a proper desktop experience
Some tasks still need an “actual” computer
I also want to discuss issues that are inherent to DeX itself, which really confused me because there didn’t seem to be any solutions other than living with them.
For starters, every app has a massive title bar that serves no real purpose beyond holding the minimize, maximize, and close buttons. On a 27-inch monitor, this felt like a waste of space, but it became even worse when I resized multiple apps into smaller windows across my screen. That empty strip of pixels ate into the usable space for no reason.
Resolution and scaling were another pain point. Out of the box, I was limited to 1080p until I installed the MultiStar Good Lock module to unlock higher resolutions. That worked, but scaling was still off. Everything looked far too large, and there was no option to adjust it to a comfortable level.
DeX doesn’t support multiple monitors, and there’s no way to create virtual desktops either. The result is that everything has to be crammed onto a single screen, which makes working across multiple apps frustrating and messy.
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Performance isn’t great
Forget Crysis; can it run Google Meet?
While I’m not really comparing my phone to a laptop in terms of raw performance, there are both artificial limitations and actual hardware constraints that caused more issues than I expected.
On my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, which has 12GB of RAM, DeX seemed unusually aggressive about killing apps in the background. With more than five apps open, I often found apps quitting on their own. Receiving a call would also sometimes force another app to close, and if I hadn’t saved my work, it was lost.
Thermals were another problem. Even during moderate workloads, the phone would heat up noticeably. I was sharing my screen on Google Meet with two other apps running, which weren’t particularly demanding. Yet, the phone had to throttle down to the point that it stopped charging, and even dragging windows around became a laggy mess.
This did improve noticeably when I switched from 1440p back to 1080. But by that point, I wasn’t willing to accept any more compromises since my previous setup had been working perfectly fine.
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The form factor is far from perfect
Portability comes at a cost
There were times when I found myself craving a proper laptop, especially when I was out and needed a balance between portability and actual power. A MacBook hits that sweet spot perfectly, offering enough performance without being cumbersome, and DeX simply couldn’t match that balance.
There are accessories like the NexDock, which acts as a laptop shell for your phone, but it’s still only available for preorder and is one of the very few options. Even with something like that, it doesn’t solve all the problems I mentioned earlier.
Maybe Samsung realizes this too, which is why DeX stands for “desktop experience” and not “desktop replacement.”
Samsung DeX still has potential
Although my experience hasn’t been strong enough to make me switch completely, that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t work for you. There are so many different workflows, and if yours mainly revolves around a single app, you could actually be more productive working entirely from your phone.
I would still recommend giving it a try for yourself, as I think there’s potential for DeX to be a solid desktop replacement for some people.
