Using a Browser as a Desktop Interface

We have found that using a browser is much better than relying on apps to access certain functions, such as our Content Management System. For example, if we open the Trello app on this device, it shows up and we can move things into landscape mode, which makes more sense. However, again this interface is not optimized, so we can't expand it or add any new features. The browser-based version of Trello offers the same functionality as the desktop app, but with a much more user-friendly interface.

One of the benefits of using a browser to access our sites is that they display in full desktop format, rather than the mobile format that some apps use. We've found that when using Chrome, this isn't always optimized, and sometimes we have to manually switch between the two formats. However, this can be a bit of a hassle, especially if we're trying to access multiple sites at once.

Another feature that's really useful is the password manager. When we log in to a site like Amazon, our password is automatically saved for us, so we don't have to re-enter it every time we visit. This feature is also available for facial recognition and fingerprint sensor login, which can be very convenient. However, sometimes this feature doesn't work as well as it should, and we have to manually log in instead.

For our work, we spend a lot of time using Google Docs and Microsoft Word. The browser-based versions of these apps are much more user-friendly than the mobile apps, and offer many more features and functions. For example, when we're typing away on the Dex document viewer, it has all the same keyboard functions as a traditional desktop app, including copy and paste.

Notifications are also handled in a very useful way. On the right-hand side of the screen, there's a notifications panel that allows us to reply or delete messages without having to open the corresponding app. This feature is really convenient, especially when we're trying to focus on our work.

Overall, we've been using the Dex interface for about two weeks now, and have found it to be pretty workable. It's not ideal as a personal device, but as a way to get some work done while traveling or working from home, it's a great option. The price of the dock is actually not too bad, at $150. However, we think that if you already have a Galaxy S8 and plan on using it for this type of setup, you might be better off buying a cheaper Chromebook or Windows laptop instead.

The only real advantage of the Dex interface is that it's specifically designed to work with the Galaxy S8, and offers a seamless integration with the device. If you don't have a Galaxy S8, we're not sure if this interface would be worth getting just for its own sake. However, if you do plan on using your phone as a desktop device, and already have a Galaxy S8, then the Dex interface might be a great option to consider.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everyone I'm in New York our office is upstairs and I didn't bring my laptop so how am I going to get any work done well let's try the Galaxy S8 plugged into the deck stock gives me this desktop interface with my phone so let's see how much work I can do so I'm here in our satellite office and so let's see how well I can work with the Galaxy S8 if I don't have a laptop and that's all thanks to the deck stock from Samsung here unplug this for a second so you can take a look this is the dock it slides out by pushing this right there that's a USBC so you can plug in the Galaxy S8 this is actually a cooling fan to keep your phone cool while you're working and at the back here you can see that there's two USB type A ports an ethernet port for faster internet an HDMI port for your monitor and a USBC port to actually charge your device while you're working let's plug that back in this is the charger to charge your phone HDMI and we actually have two uh wireless devices here this is plugged in to keep the keyboard charged for now but uh that's the benefit too since you're using a phone you can totally just connect Bluetooth devices like Bluetooth speakers uh or a wireless mouse to the phone and still use it so again let's start plugging it in and see how that works so this is how you do it give it a few seconds usually takes a little under 10 seconds and right there you can see on the monitor the Dex logo just pops up so we can use this interface right here um and you can see that initial lock screen was uh using my traditional pattern on my phone but we can actually go ahead and try using a fingerprint sensor to unlock your phone the fingerprint sensor is located on the back here and as you can see just quickly unlocked this is the standard interface of the Dex uh doc system uh this is the Desktop Android interface that Samsung uh has made uh it looks pretty traditional like a normal windows or Chromebook sort of type desktop you have uh little navigation icons here these are your apps this is the recent menu and as you can see it has this desktop suited uh styled dis design and over here is the home button so if I'm in an app for example uh I can press home and it'll sort of take me back to this desktop and over here on the right is all of our notifications you can press this to condense this but here you can see all the notifications you have on your phone and you can even respond to stuff directly uh when you get a notification up here and these are your standard uh you know system tray icons like Bluetooth and you can again connect to stuff from here like you would on a traditional desktop Wi-Fi battery date time things like that so it's pretty standard and over here you can see a few Samsung apps that Samsung has uh put on the home screen I added this Lightroom app which is also uh an optimized app for de do so that's actually a a cool thing and an issue with the Dex stck is that you have to have optimized apps for this interface cuz let's take a look when you use an app that's not optimized for example the Facebook app which a lot of people use is not really optimized as you can see it sort of comes up in this uh phone like interface where it's it's a weird window and you can't resize it or anything you can just move this around and uh it's kind of it you just have to you're forced to use it with this sort of interface um on the on the other side you can just go to the web and this is Samsung internet which has been optimized for this interface but as you can see the you can just always always use Samsung internet to go to facebook.com and use a lot of the apps that you might use you might want to just go ahead with the web version because uh they just work a lot better uh especially if they're unsupported and so let's take another look at a few other unsupported apps um Instagram for example that'll also open up in this little strange phone like format but now let's look take a look at what a supported app looks like um for example let's go back to the home screen for example let's take a look at Gallery this is Samsung's photo gallery app now a few differences is that it opens up in a much bigger uh interface and you can expand it fully but the big feature that you can tell uh when when it's optimize is that you can resize the windows which means that you can sort of work how you want to uh with multiple windows and you can resize this the way you want and another big feature that you know when something's optimized is right click right click is supported in optimized apps so again here I can delete stuff just by right clicking like you would on traditional desktops and again let's go to Facebook for example and if I right click nothing happens so that's just one way again um to know if something's optimized but even if something's optimized it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to get the best interface uh Adobe Lightroom and a bunch of Microsoft apps are are optimized for this interface but for example if you open Lightroom it basically opens up it is much bigger when it opens up and you can resize it uh let's take a look at that actually so here we can resize this as much as we want but the problem is that it's more or less the blown up phone interface so let's take this photo for example it's not similar really to the desktop interface for like the windows Lightroom version for example it's workable it's just not the best or fastest way that we are used to editing on a desktop mode it's a great option to have again though in case you need to quickly get some stuff out of the way if you're working in a different office and forgot your laptop with Lightroom installed uh this is a great way to quickly do some photo editing but we find we kind of find it hard to be able to work on something like this for a long period of time editing a lot of photos it's not the fastest thing to do uh it's not the best really reliable way to do it but again it's a solid option that it exists so a lot of our work is actually done on the Samsung internet app because it's basically a browser and it's much better than uh using apps to access certain functions for example the Trello app which is a Content management system we use uh if we open the app right here you can see that it shows up you can even move things into landscape mode which makes a little more sense but again this is not optimized so we can't expand it or anything so this interface is very limited in what we can do uh it I mean it works obviously as you can see here and uh we can move stuff around it's just again uh not the best way to do work so we would much prefer to just go ahead and use the Trello website uh which again offers the exact same functionality that you would find on any other desktop browser if you take a look all of our sites show up in a full desktop format not a mobile format uh we found that when using Chrome it wasn't necessarily optimized it well so you sometimes it would show up the mobile site um we would have to change it manually a lot uh and the good thing is that you also get uh a way to save your passwords for sites for example if we go to Amazon I have my Amazon password saved and it says look here to use irises and it doesn't work again so it's not working right now but it has worked before and you can also use the option to use facial recognition or your fingerprint sensor to uh type in your password so basically it's like Chrome's autofill uh where it's the Chrome or browser saves your uh passwords for a site so instead of having to type things out you can just basically you use your iris for example to log into a site or put your finger on the back or your face there's a lot of options you don't even have to use it if you don't want to but it's nice that it's there and it's also nicer when it works so a lot of my work is actually done on Google Docs and you can also use Microsoft Word uh because a lot of Microsoft apps are supported with this Dex format uh but for example um this is much better than using the Google Docs app because the Google Docs app isn't really supported uh and you have more features to access from the web version anyway so as you can see let's see uh this is the Dex doc video typing is you know as Pretty Natural as it comes to any other uh type of platform you have the same types of uh keyboard functions like copy paste and you can as you can see I'm copying pasting and uh there are some things that don't work like traditional uh keyboards like control a is supposed to select all doesn't seem to work uh again most of the functions that we typically perform on using uh you know typing on desktops typically uh we haven't really have an issue with the deskt it's been pretty uh accurate and and doing well for us notifications come over here on the right side and you can actually press reply or delete depending on the app and interact with them and that opens the Android app up so you can you know further finish what you were wanted to write so I've been using using it for uh about 2 weeks or so and I found that it actually is pretty workable um it's I've gotten I've edited reviews and I've written stuff on it and it seems to perform fairly well uh I would not want to use it as a personal device for uh a long period of time I really prefer it to be a work device uh so I don't really recommend If you're sort of you know maybe if you have a Galaxy S8 already and and you have a monitor and stuff at home it may be worth to buy uh but it doesn't make sense as an interface for uh home use we think it's great for when you're traveling to another office and you don't really want to bring that laptop uh throw your phone on there and you can get some work done without having to again bring your laptop the price is $150 for the dock which is actually not that bad uh the problem is that you have to use the Galaxy S8 so if you don't have one already is a really worth buying this um just for this type of desktop setup uh we think you might be better off just buying a cheaper Chromebook or a cheaper Windows tab laptop so you can uh do a lot more really with it but if you have a Galaxy SAA then sure and this is something that you do you travel to different offices and uh you have a dock and monitor set up at your workplaces that you can just easily plug your phone in and continue working sure uh saves you the trouble of bringing a laptop so uh definitely do that if you have a Galaxy S8 not really sure if it's really worth getting a Galaxy S8 just for this specific type of setup unless it's something that you're really interested in\n"