Can the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra Replace Your Desktop?

I was already using my Samsung S10 phone in the DeX (“Desktop eXperience”) Mode, and in general, it was working almost good. Now, in 2021, I bought the newest Galaxy S21 Ultra, which costs actually more than my PC. Can this phone replace it? Let’s figure it out.

Before we start, a small note. I bought the Samsung S21 Ultra phone at my own expense. It was not sponsored by Samsung or any other company. So I will tell my experience “as is”.

Let’s get started.

What Is Samsung DeX?

DeX is a technology, that Samsung is developing for several years. The idea is to bring a desktop experience to the smartphone when connecting it to the big screen and/or keyboard. And it’s actually a nice feature — it allows to use of a smartphone as a desktop replacement, as a silent fanless computer with sufficient processing power. It can also be nice for making demos, presentations and other public meetings, without carrying a laptop. Sounds good, but does it really works? Let’s figure it out.

Hardware

First, we need to connect the smartphone to the big screen, and there are several possibilities for doing this. Modern monitors with a USB port can be connected directly using a simple cable. My monitor is old and it has only an HDMI port, so I bought this adapter on Amazon: