The new Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ do two things; reasserts Samsung as a viable manufacturer after the Samsung Note 7 debacle, and ushers in the first serious attempt to make a smartphone a potential alternative to the desktop PC.
The Galaxy S8 offers the Dex dock. Slide the phone into the dock and voila! Connection to a screen, keyboard and mouse make it into a potential desktop replacement.
Apple recently patented a case-like device that could house an iPhone, making into the engine for a notebook computer. And Microsoft’s Continuum offers a similar experience to Samsung’s approach.
The hardware to do this isn’t new. But the success of the Dex and other similar products will be dependent on software. The on-screen experience for a smartphone is different to what we need for a tablet and different again for a desktop or notebook computer.
Apple is persisting with their approach where the experience on a 4-inch iPhone SE is very similar to that on a 12-inch iPad Pro. I use an iPad Pro when I travel, having ditched my MacBook Pro and while it fits most of my needs, there are times a mouse would be handy.
I haven’t tried the Dex yet but I’m curious. Anything I can do to reduce the number of devices I have to manage is a good thing. And if Samsung can get the user interface right then they will not only win over a few smartphone customers but also get the attention of IT managers looking to rationalise their PC fleet.
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5 responses to “Samsung Wants Your Smartphone To Be Your PC”
You get Microsoft office, a COMPLETE version of it running on the Galaxy s8 and future versions, not a cut down version, and I guarantee you, this will be huge among the University crowd. Absolutely massive.
They almost need a stripped out laptop shell that you can plug this into either directly or through USB-C, I think that would sell like mad!
Yep, that would not be hard to do either. That’s literally just a battery, a monitor and a usb keyboard in a shell. Easy. As an ex repairman, can honestly say, that’s very, very doable.
Not likely. It will just run the Android version of the Office apps. Microsoft has no incentive to make the desktop version of Office run on mobile. The reasons why should be fairly obvious.
Indeed, which is sad. If MS branched out a bit more and gave a fully working version to these platforms, it would be excellent, but they won’t unfortunately.