In the last month, I’ve been trying to lighten the load in my backpack by trying to condense what I absolutely need to bring with me to work. One of the heaviest offenders has been my laptop, which at 3 pounds is still taxing on my back. That’s why I ditched my laptop for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 for 2 weeks, just to see if I could make due with a phone for all of my work-related duties.
With the Galaxy S25 Ultra tipped for an early launch in 2025, it will more than likely have Samsung DeX support to fill my need as a laptop replacement. While this has been a longstanding feature in Samsung’s flagship series, it desperately needs to be exploited more than ever if the Galaxy S25 Ultra stands any chance at beating the best phone out there in the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
I totally get that Samsung is probably gambling on new Galaxy AI features to drive people to get the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but Samsung DeX has long been flying under the radar and deserves an overhaul. I think it’s the key to the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s salvation.
Bridging the phone-laptop gap
It pains me to know that Samsung DeX was first released in 2017 with the launch of the Galaxy S8. Since then, there have been new features added to the desktop PC interface here and there, but it’s been stale the last three years.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra could be the perfect opportunity for Samsung to revamp the experience because DeX is one of the few services that satisfies that gap between laptops and phones. This concept of a phone offering an experience similar to a desktop PC has long been around, but most people don’t realize that Samsung DeX works on touchscreen displays.
I’ve connected my Galaxy S24 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 6 to an old portable monitor I have lying around, and to my surprise, the interface offers touch interaction — so it very much feels and acts like a tablet. From a productivity standpoint, this ability to lean on touch controls make DeX even more valuable with my day-to-day duties.
My point here is that people crave multi-functioning devices, much like how smartphones integrated the functions of point and shoot cameras, MP3 players and dedicated phones. Samsung DeX on the Galaxy S25 Ultra could potentially be good enough to replace my laptop, but it’s going to need more in order to get there.
More Air Gesture support with the S Pen
Another component of Samsung DeX that needs to be enhanced are the Air Gestures of the S Pen. So far, none of the leaked renders of the Galaxy S24 Ultra show off the S Pen, but I suspect that we’ll still get it nonetheless with the S25 Ultra.
Even though the S Pen is first and foremost a pressure sensitive stylus for that rich paper meets pen experience, I would love for Samsung to make it the key component to interacting with DeX. I want to think of it much like how the Apple Vision Pro relies on hand gestures to navigate around its interface, so the S Pen could do the same for DeX.
In the current iteration of Samsung DeX, I’m mostly using a physical mouse connected to my phone for navigating around the interface, but I’d like Samsung to somehow incorporate even more gesture support with the S Pen. For example, I’d like to see the S Pen acting more like the mouse cursor in DeX — as well as offering functions that could execute pinch and scrolling gestures by flicking the S Pen in the air.
Samsung can’t afford to overlook DeX again
Just with any major phone launch, I’m always hopeful that there’s no price increase — which could be true for the S25 Ultra considering how the S24 Ultra got one last year. Either way, Samsung can’t afford to just sweep DeX under the table yet again with no major improvements. The iPhone 16 Pro Max has nothing remotely close to this, which is why it’s imperative that DeX gets the proper upgrade it deserves.
I’ve only learned recently from my colleague’s Mac Mini M4 review that you can hook it up to a portable monitor touchscreen support. Just imagine if the iPhone 17 Pro Max could do the same? Samsung can’t neglect the utility that DeX offers, so it needs to take it to the next level and prove that the interface can be intuitive and more functional with the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
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