[REVIEW] Samsung DeX Station Gives A New Future For Smartphone

Several Samsung Galaxy S8 owners are using their phone as a working computer. Some of them are thinking to replace their home desktops with Samsung latest handset.

According to ZD Net, Samsung is now offering a $150 accessory called the DeX Station that plugs the smartphone into a monitor, a mouse, and a keyboard. This idea implements that users can now leave their laptop behind and use the DeX dock with the Galaxy S8 instead.

Well, Samsung isn't the only one who tries it. In fact, Microsoft made a similar attempt a couple of years ago with Windows Phone 10 with a feature known as Continuum and got ultimately flopped. It didn't click to the market.

Samsung's DeX Station hardware is a small puck that easily fits into everyone's laptop bag. It offers two USB ports on the back connecting a keyboard and a mouse, am Ethernet jack for connecting to the internet and an HDMI port the let users connect into a computer display. It's plastic and simple enough.

According to The Inquirer, DeX Station hardware had the top of the puck pushes down to reveal a small charging port where users can plug their phone into while resting on a stand. There's no complicated setup required; just drop the phone into the port, turn on the computer monitor, and suddenly it looks like a traditional computer desktop that's filled with icons.

The first thing that users can see is a full desktop environment running completely off the Galaxy S8; not a Windows nor a macOS, instead uses are looking at a desktop version of Android created by Samsung. It's magical and a bit unavailable that what you see is actually being run by a smartphone.

Meanwhile, DeX Station is expensive. Users need to pay $150 per dock, this means that you're looking at spending $300 if you want both for home and for office. Fortunately, it was made to work well with enterprise application and can support virtual desktops.