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Samsung's DeX desktop dock turns the Galaxy S8 into a grab-and-go PC

Get a desktop view of Android apps, complete with Bluetooth mouse and keyboard support.

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
Dan Ackerman
2 min read

The idea of plugging a smart phone into a dock and turning it into a PC isn't a new one. But previous attempts (such as the HP Elite X3 or the Motorola Atrix) have failed because the phones weren't powerful enough or there was limited app support.

Samsung's new DeX dock, besides ignoring the usual rules of capitalization, takes another stab at the idea, but it has two big advantages. First, it's designed for the incredibly powerful Galaxy S8 ; and second, it can access specially optimized versions of some Android apps in order to give you a full-screen experience that's surprisingly PC-like.

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The DeX dock with a Galaxy S8 phone inserted.

Andrew Hoyle/CNET

The DeX looks like a hockey puck when closed, but flips open to reveal a USB-C port for plugging in your phone. There's an HDMI output to connect to an external display, plus two USB 2.0 ports and an ethernet jack. You can also connect a standard keyboard and mouse via Bluetooth.

Samsung DeX: A desktop dock for the Galaxy S8

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A handful of Android apps will be optimized for this desktop view, including the default internet browser (but not Google's Chrome browser), Microsoft Office and some Adobe applications. That means you can run multiple apps at once and grab the corner of each window to resize the apps, just as one would on a PC. Apps that are not DeX optimized will open in a phone-shaped window.

We saw something similar recently in the Samsung Chromebook Pro , a hybrid Chrome OS laptop that added support for Google Play Android apps, including multitasking and resizable windows.

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The DeX dock displaying Android apps in desktop mode.

Andrew Hoyle/CNET

It's not quite the full PC experience, but there's an interesting security play here. Current smartphones are considered very secure, as they're both encrypted and biometrically locked, so the DeX gives you the option of packing all your sensitive data on a phone, using it as a desktop PC, then putting the entire thing in your pocket when you leave.

There's no exact price for the DeX docking station yet, but based on a leaked price of €149, it's expected to cost around $160 or £129 and AU$210.