Sick Day with Dex

I’ve discovered that going full tilt while I’m under the weather tends to increase rather than decrease my lost time, so here I am in my living room easy chair, hoping what I think is a minor illness will go away quickly.

Problem is, I can’t shut off my brain, so enter my Samsung Galaxy Note 9, an HDMI Adapter, a Bluetooth keyboard, and Dex.

Dex is Samsung’s move on the ordinary laptop market with things that are easier to transport. Essentially, you plug an HDMI adapter and cable into your Note 9, and pair it with a Bluetooth keyboard, and it turns into a regular (sort of) computer.

How does it work?

Excellent question!

Though I plan on mosty reading, which will involve my iPad and this recliner in its reclined position, this is very much like working with a small laptop, only the screen is bigger. For the most part, Samsung has done an excellent job of reordering icons and so forth to work with the larger screen.

I’ll include some pictures to show you how it works, but basic icons arearranged on the desktop, informational icons are in a taskbr, and you have a button to tap that will bring up your full list of icons.

Samsung warns that some apps may not adjust to Dex. I found that my two most critical apps, Acrobat and Word, work like a charm. I dd find one that didn’t, however-my RDP app. Of course, the point right now is not to use my desktop remotey, but to accomplish simpler tasks in local mode.

I will also note that my small Bluetooth keyboard is a bit limited for this purpose. One should likely get a slightly larger one if one intends to work from a hotel room, for example. Also, you may want to adjust when your phone shuts down if your work means you spend more time on the keyboard. It can be annoying to turn it back on.

So pictures …