Review on Samsung DeX Pad Desktop Experience for Samsung Galaxy Note8, GS8, GS8+, GS9, and GS9+ with Fast Charging USB-C Wall Charger (US Version & Warranty) by Dana Cardenas

I've been using the Dex Pad with my Samsung Galaxy S8+ for 2 weeks. First of all it is VERY IMPORTANT to enable "Dex Labs". Why? Without enabling, most apps don't allow resizing and just get stuck in "phone proportions". So what's the point of Dex then, right? However - and I tip my hat to Samsung for that - Dex Labs is doing something with non-Dex apps to convince them to switch to tablet mode. It also tricks applications to run in resized windows. That's HUGE for a Dex desktop. When I ordered this, I was concerned about one thing: would I be stuck in phone-only mode with non-Dex apps? The answer is definitely NOT (for the most part). There are some exceptions: Firefox refuses to start in Dex in any way. Poorly. Google Earth refuses to run in any form of Dex. Not good. YouTube starts but glitches and refuses to play a video when clicked. Strange. However, you can run it in a browser. Netflix just plays in a nifty little window. Which brings me to my next point: if you have apps that don't perform well in their standalone form. (and there are very few) if you have a browser equivalent, use it. These "web browser apps" seem to work better with Samsung's own web browser than with Chrome. Here's another cool thing: I can edit and style WordPress with a web browser just like I would normally do on a regular desktop. I find that using the Chrome web browser works better in this case. I'm using Elementor Pro Wordpress page builder and it works fine on Dex in Chrome browser. Everything else works very well and even faster than when I run similar applications on Windows. For example, Evernote is a total torment with a Windows app on Windows 10 (and has been for years). Incredibly slow and buggy. Evernote refuses to fix the issue. However, the Evernote Android app is excellent. It's even optimized for Dex. Although the Evernote app can run in a resized window, it appears to be a phone app and not a tablet app. Alright, here's how it works. Now for what I can do with Dex. I no longer carry my laptop with me. All I need is Dex and a keyboard. The phone doubles as a touchpad with Dex Pad. Works pretty well, although I prefer to use my little Microsoft Bluetooth mouse along with the Omotion Android Bluetooth keyboard. When I'm at home, I have a 24" monitor set up and the Dex can be connected and up and running in less than a minute. During my lunch break at work I use my work computer monitor with HDMI and I'm done. works right away. What's really cool is that everything is smooth between my "phone" experience and my "desktop" interface. I've been trying to use the Wine app to run Windows apps on Android. However, the latest version of Wine (3.0) is NOT compatible with Android Oreo 8.0.0 installed on my phone. That's fine for the most part, but I'd love to be able to use Audacity for audio editing. I'm surprised that Audacity doesn't have an Android version even though they have a Linux version. It is recommended to run Audacity on Wine in Android. Unfortunately I can't. too many apps open and too many browser tabs. This is easily fixed by closing unnecessary applications. This happens about 10% of the time. My experience with Dex. The video quality is just OK. It's not as clear as starting a Windows computer connected to the same monitor. That's the only reason I'm deducting 1 star. However, the fonts in Dex are larger than in Windows, making it easier to read for a 58-year-old's eyes. Overall I'm very happy with Dex. I highly recommend this product. Samsung works very hard to bring outstanding technology to the latest Galaxy S phones and their technological additions like Dex really add to the joy and benefits of your Samsung device. I'm surprised Dex isn't more popular than it is. Thought I'd write a review that would address the "how does it look" and "how well does it work" questions I had before I saw Dex in action. There seem to be very few reviews that fully answer the question "How does Dex work with applications other than Dex?" Remember: Dex works great if you enable Dex Labs!