It took an 8-hour flight for Samsung's DeX mode to finally click with me - Android Police

I’ll admit to being something of a tablet skeptic. Don’t get me wrong — since I got my first iPad way back in 2012, I’ve practically always had a tablet within reach. From picking up an Nvidia Shield Tablet in college to reviewing several Galaxy Tabs for Android Police, I’ve always appreciated a big, portable display for watching movies or browsing the web. But when it comes to working, be it editing photos, recording podcasts, or writing a simple news post, I’ve needed a full-fledged PC to get it done.

That’s probably why I’ve always scoffed at Samsung’s DeX mode. If you’re unfamiliar, DeX is the optional desktop experience included in One UI. On Galaxy smartphones, DeX allows you to connect to a monitor and various peripherals to create a proto-desktop PC right out of the device in your back pocket. On Galaxy tablets, however, DeX is effectively a second, optional launcher, accessible right from the quick settings menu.

I’ve been using the Galaxy Tab S10+ as a secondary device since I reviewed it last year. Its 12.4-inch display has always been just large enough to get a lot of my most basic tasks done without breaking a sweat. Writing an editorial, responding to emails, curating my to-do list — it’s the perfect space for all of that. Still, it took me quite a while to warm up to the possibility that the Tab S10+ more than just a casual email machine, and frankly, I have DeX mode to thank for that revelation.

A close up on the Galaxy Tab S10+ on a beige background.

Review: I love Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S10+, but it’s a hard tablet to recommend

A lesson in OS limitations

When you’re trapped on a plane, space is everything

And the Galaxy Tab S10+ makes a lot more sense than a laptop

It all started back in October, when I flew out to Hawaii to cover Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit and the announcement of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. Covering a new SoC isn’t necessarily difficult, but it is time-consuming. The sheer amount of documentation, assets, and other resources you have to dig through to get a feel for what makes a new piece of silicon special — and better than its predecessor, specifically — can be a little overwhelming, especially on a small display. Typically, I wouldn’t have thought twice about using a tablet for something like this, but sometimes, a situation calls for drastic measures.

In this case, that situation was, well, being on a plane. I don’t need to tell anyone that space is extremely limited in coach. While I love my laptop — an Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 from a couple of years ago — fully opening its display requires a little more room than I can afford, especially if the person in front of me reclines their seat. Usually, the lack of a dedicated trackpad and the locked angle of Samsung’s folio keyboard limits my productivity, but on a plane, it’s actually perfect, giving my arms enough room to comfortably extend.

So, as I set off on the longest leg of my journey — an eight-hour flight from Dallas to Maui — I took the tablet out of my backpack and started writing. At first, everything went about as well as you’d expect. I answered work emails, worked a bit on an earbuds review that had fallen to the wayside, and finally began to prep my Qualcomm coverage.

And that’s when the limitations of Android really started to show themselves.

Three windows simultaneously open on the Galaxy Tab S10+

How multitasking works by default in One UI.

See, for as flexible as One UI can feel on large screen devices like tablets and foldables, it’s still primarily designed to use one or two apps open at once. In this case, I felt myself jumping between my draft blog post, several PDF files, my notes list in Google Keep, and a collection of screenshots. Frankly, it was overwhelming and slow, and I found it particularly frustrating just how much I missed windows — the UI, not the operating system. But that’s where DeX came into play.

DeX helped to make up for Android’s big-screen shortcomings

Even without a dedicated mouse

There’s no doubt about it that DeX — at least in classic mode, as I’m using it — is designed first and foremost for a mouse and keyboard, in the same way that Windows 11 is designed for a mouse and keyboard. But like Microsoft’s OS, DeX isn’t necessarily unusable without a cursor. In fact, because DeX is a layer on top of Android, and you’re still accessing Android apps, I’d argue DeX is much more finger-friendly than Windows. And that made my decision to turn to my Tab S10+ on a plane that much smarter.

Because DeX allows you to operate apps in windows, I was able to keep multiple PDFs open at a time, open whatever images I needed right in a gallery, and keep everything scattered around my desktop in various windows just a tap away. There was no swiping between recently-opened apps, no locked 2×2 grid of poorly-scaled UIs. Everything was on top of each other, a quick tap away from being the center point of my attention. Just like a computer should be.

From here, my to-do list — like the flight itself — was smooth sailing. It didn’t matter if I was crammed into an uncomfortable seat for hours at a time. I was able to immerse myself in my work in a way that any typical Android experience, whether it be One UI on a Tab S10+, OxygenOS on a OnePlus Pad 2, or Google’s launcher on the Pixel Tablet, simply wouldn’t have allowed. Eventually, my work was done even sooner than I’d expected, and I was able to kick my feet up and enjoy an in-flight movie.

As I hunched over my keyboard on my most recent flight, I realized just how much I regretted leaving my Tab S10+ and DeX behind.

That’s not to say I’ll be ditching a traditional laptop for a tablet any time soon, of course. While I’m thrilled that Android — with the power of DeX — helped make my writing experience that much more comfortable in a cramped environment, it’s not my usual workspace. In my home office, surrounded by a large monitor, a mechanical keyboard, and enough space to sprawl out, I’m always going to be more productive. And that’s before accounting for tools like Lightroom and Audition, both of which I depend on constantly for my job.

Still, it’s made me reconsider how I pack for work trips. Recently, on my trip to CES — the exact trip that inspired me to write this piece — I made the decision to leave my tablet at home, figuring my laptop was more than enough for the job. But as I hunched over my keyboard, attempting to finish my OnePlus 13 review before the plane touched down in Las Vegas, I realized just how much I regretted leaving my Tab S10+ behind. DeX is that good, and as I prepare to travel for AP in the near future, you can bet I’ll be making space in my bag.

Whatever the future holds for Android, DeX should be an inspiration

Google could learn a lesson or two

It’s also given me hope for the future of Android on big screens. If Google really is looking to merge Chrome OS and Android in some capacity, as the rumor mill has suggested in recent months, DeX could be the blueprint to success. After all, Android could be a good — great, even — platform for productivity, for getting work done on the go, but Google hasn’t fully allowed it to live up to this potential. Tools like DeX have come a long way in making that dream a reality, but nothing’s perfect. A true stock attempt at a powerful desktop mode for all of Google’s mobile devices could make on-the-go computing like this much more of a reality.