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Samsung DeX

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Re: Samsung DeX

#21

Post by schappim »

artursapek wrote: post #2

How long until I'm able to have my Ubuntu environment on a phone and plug it directly into my monitor, keyboard, and mouse? We already have the OS and peripherals, what's missing? It's not storage on the phone; Apple is selling 256GB iPhones. Is it the processing power?

You can already do this today. I was doing it on my Samsung Galaxy S3 back in the day.

Essentially you install Ubuntu on top of Android. You then VNC to the Ubuntu Desktop from Android.

Android (using USB on the go) out of the box supports keyboard and mouse.

Not all devices support MicroHDMI, but the S3 did.

Re: Samsung DeX

#22

Post by cbhl »

FreakyT wrote: post #13

It's definitely neat, but I feel like this has been done before without success -- examples like the Motorola Atrix, Windows Continuum, and even the cancelled Ubuntu Phone come to mind. (And, going further back in time, let's not forget the Palm Foleo!) It seems like a neat idea on the surface though, so I wonder why as a concept the phone-connected-to-desktop-peripherals thing hasn't gained more traction. My suspici…

I think the biggest problem is the price point.

The person who most wants to use their phone as a PC is the person who can't afford spending $4000 on the entire suite of Apple devices.

That person probably also can't afford a $100 dock (let alone a $300 one) for their phone.

When someone makes a USB-C/Thunderbolt/Intel/Windows device that is phone sized but runs legacy Windows applications (like MS Paint and Quickbooks and 90s-era video games), and connects with commodity connectors, then the idea stands a chance.

(IMHO, Windows Continuum died because of a chicken-and-egg problem -- no iOS devs wanted to pay $1000 for Visual Studio plus a Windows laptop, but no users used the phone because key apps were missing.)

Re: Samsung DeX

#23

Post by ocdtrekkie »

So I just bought an HP Elite x3 this month. (Yes, I did.) And it's by far the best phone I've ever put my hands on. It boggles the mind that someone would buy... anything else, given this now is available on Verizon.

...But Continuum feels pointless to me, I left the dock in the box. I have computers anywhere I am going to use a full computer. Or my Surface Pro. I guess maybe this sort of thing might be appealing to the "mobile only" crowd who never owns a PC again?

Re: Samsung DeX

#25

Post by elihu »

askafriend wrote: post #20

I don't think this is something that people actually want or have real painful need for today. If you already have a big monitor like that then you probably already have a desktop computer. If you don't, then you probably already have a laptop. If you have neither, then I doubt you're the type of user who's going to get this today and a monitor to go along with it because your needs are probably already filled by an…

Copying files and settings between devices (which might run different OSes) is a nuisance. I could imagine this being useful for some people.

Re: Samsung DeX

#26

Post by k6hkUZtLUM »

FreakyT wrote: post #13

It's definitely neat, but I feel like this has been done before without success -- examples like the Motorola Atrix, Windows Continuum, and even the cancelled Ubuntu Phone come to mind. (And, going further back in time, let's not forget the Palm Foleo!) It seems like a neat idea on the surface though, so I wonder why as a concept the phone-connected-to-desktop-peripherals thing hasn't gained more traction. My suspici…

I loved the palm foleo - it was such a revolution. Great keyboard, many hours of battery, and all my info there with my palm tungsten!

Re: Samsung DeX

#27

Post by anilshanbhag »

cbhl wrote: post #22
FreakyT wrote: post #13

It's definitely neat, but I feel like this has been done before without success -- examples like the Motorola Atrix, Windows Continuum, and even the cancelled Ubuntu Phone come to mind. (And, going further back in time, let's not forget the Palm Foleo!) It seems like a neat idea on the surface though, so I wonder why as a concept the phone-connected-to-desktop-peripherals thing hasn't gained more traction. My suspici…

I think the biggest problem is the price point. The person who most wants to use their phone as a PC is the person who can't afford spending $4000 on the entire suite of Apple devices. That person probably also can't afford a $100 dock (let alone a $300 one) for their phone. When someone makes a USB-C/Thunderbolt/Intel/Windows device that is phone sized but runs legacy Windows applications (like MS Paint and Quickboo…

I don't think the price comparison is fair. If someone spends 700$ on a phone, he would be ok spending 200$ if the system does work smoothly.

What I think people are more skeptic about is performance and user experience.

Re: Samsung DeX

#28

Post by ksk »

revelation wrote: post #18
Skunkleton wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung is currently working on Linux for Galaxy which is exactly this. Also, the processors in your phone are closer to desktop performance that you might think. If you put any weight in GeekBench scores, single core scores for the new A11 are about the same as the single core scores for the Ryzen 1800x.

For all of 5 minutes until it's thermally throttled. They never tell you that on the "GeekBench". But yes, for those 5 minutes, it has somewhat the same performance as one of the eight processors on the 1800x. Frankly, 1/8th 1800x and a whole A11 is about the same power budget, so that's not entirely surprising.

Yeah, also even if you could get rid of the thermal throttling, you're still dumping all that heat into the phone's body which could overheat/damage other components.

Re: Samsung DeX

#29

Post by nambit »

artursapek wrote: post #2

How long until I'm able to have my Ubuntu environment on a phone and plug it directly into my monitor, keyboard, and mouse? We already have the OS and peripherals, what's missing? It's not storage on the phone; Apple is selling 256GB iPhones. Is it the processing power?

It's the processor which isn't x86 because of power consumption, etc. This means that even if you get a full blown linux distro, you'll need to compile a lot of shit for it before you can have a full cross platform dev experience.

Ubuntu phone was a step in the right direction. But the phone experience wasn't great so they gave up.

Re: Samsung DeX

#30

Post by JeffreyKaine »

askafriend wrote: post #20

I don't think this is something that people actually want or have real painful need for today. If you already have a big monitor like that then you probably already have a desktop computer. If you don't, then you probably already have a laptop. If you have neither, then I doubt you're the type of user who's going to get this today and a monitor to go along with it because your needs are probably already filled by an…

I bet this would be great for an operations, sales, support or any pother non technical role. The company would only have to buy docs and monitors and then the workforce can just swap out their mobile devices from meeting room to desk etc... I see a large enterprise or student play here if they have the vision to market it.
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