Could you replace your laptop with a smartphone? I tested it with the Galaxy S24 Ultra – CNET

Smartphones are expensive. Apple’s premium iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at $1,200 and Samsung’s flagship model, the Galaxy S24 Ultra, starts at $1,300. I bought an iPhone 15 Pro Max when it came out in September 2023 and I have to admit that typing these numbers makes me feel a little uncomfortable. That’s a lot of money. The price of one of those phones could cover a month’s rent.

As the costs of these devices rise, it becomes more difficult to rationalize your purchase, especially when there are more affordable options that give these premium devices a run for their money. But what if your top-of-the-line smartphone could double as your computer?

Read more: Best budget phone of 2024 – best value for money

With Samsung DeX, you can transform a Galaxy phone or tablet into a computer simply by connecting it to a monitor. You can also wirelessly connect Galaxy phones or tablets to select TVs to use DeX.

It looks like my monitor is connected to a laptop, but everything is coming from the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

Celso Bulgatti/CNET

Since I use an iPhone, I had no idea this feature existed until recently. The first time I tried it, my jaw dropped. It looked like my monitor was connected to a laptop, but everything was coming from the S24 Ultra. Still, I wasn’t sure if it could do everything my laptop could do and I was determined to find out. So I left my MacBook for a day to see if the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Samsung DeX could replace it.

DeX just makes sense

It felt weird going to the office without my laptop. But it ended up being so It’s nice to carry just the S24 Ultra (about half a pound) instead of my nearly five-pound MacBook Pro. I also loved being able to connect the S24 Ultra to my Dell monitor at the office and control everything with the Apple wireless keyboard and mouse I already had. The fact that you can plug and play like this is, IMHO, a big part of the beauty of the Samsung DeX.

While working, I noticed so many details about DeX that impressed me. For example, when I connect the S24 Ultra to my monitor, a four-panel display appears on the phone. At first I wasn’t sure what it was for, but I eventually realized it was a trackpad that I could use to move the cursor on the monitor. So if you don’t have a mouse, no problem. You can use the phone itself. (Watch the video above to see how it works.)

If you look closely, you’ll see the four-panel display that appears on the S24 Ultra when I connect it to my Dell monitor.

Celso Bulgatti/CNET

Another interesting detail is that you can still use your phone as a separate device even when it acts as your computer in DeX mode. So I could be, for example, editing a photo on my monitor while simultaneously using the S24 Ultra to do something totally different, like review CNET.

Edit a photo in DeX mode while using your phone to visit CNET.

Celso Bulgatti/CNET

Ultimately, the more I used DeX, the more I realized that it makes sense. For example, I always attend meetings with my laptop to take notes and review current projects. So when I couldn’t present it in my one-on-one meeting with my manager, I felt like I was coming up empty-handed. But really, everything I needed was (literally) in the palm of my hand. DeX bridges the gap between phone and computer, so I didn’t miss the opportunity to be able to bring just the S24 Ultra. It had the same information as the “computer” I was typing on minutes before with DeX. I was able to disconnect the phone from my monitor, easily take notes and open my projects during the meeting, and then reconnect the S24 Ultra to my monitor to continue working on those projects after the meeting. The transition from DeX mode to phone and back to DeX mode is seamless. It’s great.

But how well can DeX handle all my daily tasks? I spend a lot of my days testing products and scripting videos, and this was one of those days. Of course, I was testing out DeX, searching for all the questions I had in Google Chrome, and organizing my thoughts in Google Docs. I was also using Zoom and Slack to stay connected with everyone.

I keep my most frequently used apps on my DeX taskbar.

Celso Bulgatti/CNET

Using these apps in DeX mode was pretty similar to using them on my MacBook. Still, I found a few drawbacks worth mentioning if you’re thinking about trying DeX. Or if you are a DeX expert, DeXpert? — maybe you can answer some of my questions.

Say goodbye to the Chrome bookmarks bar

I’m an avid user of the bookmarks bar, so it pains me to say that you can’t have one in Chrome on DeX. But you can have one in Samsung’s Internet app, and for that reason alone, I’d switch browsers if I didn’t need to use Chrome to log into certain work accounts.

Copying links also looks different in Chrome on DeX. You can’t click a link to highlight it in the address bar and then copy and paste it like you would in Chrome on a laptop. If you try to click a link in DeX mode, it disappears. Instead, you need to click the link and then click the small icon on the right to copy it to your clipboard.

Zoom and Slack look a little different too

When I first tried Zoom in DeX, my video appeared in portrait orientation instead of landscape, even though the S24 Ultra was lying horizontally on my desk. But I turned the phone vertically and then horizontally again and my video finally changed to landscape. The orientation was a little wonky at first, but it was easy to fix. Still, my video wasn’t perfect, but that’s due to my own DeX settings. I had a Zoom call with CNET’s Abrar Al-Heeti and Sean Booker, and the S24 Ultra was too low on my desk, so I never looked at them.

My Zoom call with CNET’s Abrar Al-Heeti and Sean Booker.

Jessica Fierro/CNET

It’s probably a good idea to get a stand (or even a monitor mount) to elevate the S24 Ultra so the camera is closer to my line of sight while taking Zoom calls. Also, when I sent a message in chat, it took up the entire screen, which was a bit clunky. And I didn’t know how to switch from speaker mode to gallery mode so I could see everyone (i.e. both people) on the call at once.

Slack on DeX looks a lot like my laptop, although it doesn’t have the sidebar with all my recent messages where I can easily send a new one even if I’m in another conversation, which I missed. And this is very specific, but I also missed being able to see who reacted to a message by hovering over the reaction. As far as I know, there is no way to see who reacted to a message in Slack in DeX.

It is true that these are all very minor notes. None of them created any major disruptions to my workflow, which is what’s important. So I’d say DeX worked well for running the apps I use 90% of the time.

But that last 10% of the time I used two other applications: Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop. And while these aren’t available in DeX, Adobe Premiere Rush and Photoshop Express are. So I tried them. And (spoiler alert) I didn’t have such luck with these apps.

Premiere Rush and Photoshop Express on DeX have a lot of potential

I like to think of Premiere Rush as a more affordable version of Premiere Pro. The interface is much simpler, you can use it on desktop and mobile devices (Pro is only available for desktop), and it’s free (Pro starts at $23 per month). month for individual users).

I love Premiere Pro for the range of tools it offers. But most of the time, I’m doing pretty simple video editing anyway (i.e. trimming vlog clips like the ones in the video above), so I was hoping Rush in DeX might work for that. And at first I felt good about it. You could easily make cuts in the middle of a video and trim clips. I could even color correct my images. But the app kept abruptly closing every 30 seconds or so, which is sad because it seemed like Rush on DeX would have been able to handle the video editing I do for work.

I use Photoshop for simple image edits, such as placing photos side by side, as well as adding borders and text to them. (Fun fact: I edited many of the photos you see in this article in Photoshop, including the ones below.) So I was curious if I could use Photoshop Express, a free mobile photo editing app, for this kind of thing in DeX. . But unfortunately I can’t. While I could add text, I couldn’t find a way to put the photos next to each other or customize the borders around them like I do in Photoshop. But while I can’t exactly use this app for what I do at work, I’ve had a lot of fun with what it can do. For example, I used it to overlay the images below. (I would have had photos like these all over my Facebook if I had this app in high school and I’m considering uploading one to my Instagram account today.)

I used Photoshop to add the line between the photos and text, but those neat color overlays are all from Photoshop Express.

Clara Dingle/CNET

I don’t know if I should tell Samsung or Adobe this, but one or both of you please make Photoshop and Premiere Pro available on DeX. It would take these already impressive products to the next level.

Can DeX replace my laptop?

So back to the big question: can the S24 Ultra, and more specifically Samsung DeX, replace my laptop? 90% of the time, yes. That said, 10% of the time I’m editing photos and videos, no. But I’m very impressed that DeX can do most of my work. I’ll definitely take it to the office when I’m writing a script and don’t want to lug a heavy bag, or when I’m meeting friends after work and don’t want to lug my laptop around San Francisco.

I know that a day with DeX only scratches the surface of things. I’m sure I’ll continue to have little hiccups and discover more things I love. This whole experiment is also giving me an identity crisis. Like I said, I’m an iPhone girl but I’m pretty impressed by what Samsung can do. Who knows, maybe one day it will change. Never say Never. It would definitely make me feel better about the considerable amount I have spent on smartphones.