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0989382

Suspended
Original poster
Jan 11, 2018
527
379
Having been embracing an iPad / iPhone only setup for a while now, things are going great. But in the never ending pursuit for minimalism and simplicity, I keep thinking, is there a better combo? Samsung DeX on the new Note / Galaxy phones is really tempting to me.. but why?

Having a single device, say the Note 10, with all your apps, accounts, internet history, passwords, wallet, your original photos, contacts and everything in between including pen support, making calls etc. Now, the iPhone and iPad have all this, and it's kept in sync very well with iCloud. So what I have now technically does the job. But, I need to maintain, charge, look after and periodically replace two devices.

This single phone can be used anywhere, anytime as a smartphone can be and is always connected. When I go home, rather than switching to the iPad or using iPad / iPhone at work instead of my work PC, I can simply run my phone and all of it's data in a virtual desktop, alongside my work-day tasks. Work life and personal life, both at full force, side by side in a way that doesn't involve messy, slow and data / power intensive syncing.

The benefits I can see are always having the ideal form factor, be it a comfortable desktop ergonomically sound space at work on the Windows PC with DeX connected, at home for doing serious tasks sitting down at my home monitor and in between, out and about as a 'phone', but lets face it 'phablet' due to the big, but pocketable size of the Note 10.

The drawbacks I can see are that it puts a lot of dependency on one device, what if it breaks? Samsung in the UK don't have stores or quite as wide reparability the same day as Apple stuff. I'm not sure if Android is stable enough or if DeX is stable and developed enough to be used as a single, core personal device, but as someone who is using iOS only atm, I think this is fine unless there are major drawbacks I'm over looking with DeX. Also, perhaps Android on these devices won't be supported very long, or Samsung will drop DeX any week unexpectedly.

Has anybody else had this notion or tried it, if so, what are your thoughts - would you ever do it?
 

TwoBytes

macrumors 68040
Jun 2, 2008
3,216
2,184
I'd love this feature for an iPhone. Connect a keyboard mouse screen. I'm sure it's the future of technology.

You might find these threads interesting

I bet will be a pro feature and the Apple dock will cost 669
 
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kamikazeeMC

macrumors 6502
Aug 18, 2017
476
524
Perth, Western Australia
I love the idea, unfortunately the perfect single device doesn't exist, so it comes down to what you're willing to compromise. If you can get by performing your main tasks without going out of your way, then you might be able to make it work, otherwise you will end up hating it.

I think how you have the iPhone/iPad/iCloud combo is pretty good, everything is synced, when it comes to upgrades all it takes is a backup and restore and you're up and running where you left off. If one device fails you can use the other until it gets replaced. Also keeping work on a separate device so you can 'disconnect' at home.

I just watched Hardware Canucks video using the Note 9. It did run pretty smooth on that hardware but apps either ran in a locked window size of a phone, or you could resize it though it just scaled everything up not making good use of space. I guess Samsung's apps would probably be the ones to be more developed. Also he wasn't able to drag and drop files.

Wanting to downsize from my desktop to an iPP, I've been going back and forth on where I want to compromise but I don't think I can. Rather than the 12.9" 1TB version, I think I'll get a 11" 256GB one to fill my illustration needs keeping the desktop when I need it. Will also try using the iPad more for general use too.
 
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