Samsung DeX is fun and reliable enough that I’m able to do all of my desktop-related tasks from a docked phone! Still, while I’ve already gone all-in on DeX, that doesn’t mean there aren’t improvements I’d like to see.

7
Support for Multiple Monitors

Many of us are accustomed to working on a laptop (or even a tablet) these days. I count myself among these people. Yet I’ve noticed that when colleagues say they need an external monitor to be productive, they often want more than one. It seems that if you’ve decided to opt for more screen space, why not get as much that will fit on your desk?

It’s for all my friends and colleagues rocking two or three displays that I wish DeX had support for multiple monitors. I know people who are intrigued by the concept of DeX but find the lack of multi-monitor support to be an immediate deal breaker.

As for me, one monitor is plenty. I tend to be productive enough on my foldable phone’s internal screen as it is.

6
Refresh Rates Higher than 60Hz

When I walk into a Best Buy, I’m not drawn to the massive TVs. I’m drawn to the monitors. In particular, I love the curved ultrawide ones with buttery smooth displays.

The price tags scare me off, for sure, but that’s only part of the story. It’s not worth me even looking for discounted deals because I know I can’t take full advantage of them anyway. The issue isn’t the resolution, as you can see below. I’m currently using DeX on a 27-inch 4K monitor.

Refresh rates are the issue. DeX doesn’t support a refresh rate of over 60Hz. That means I not only can’t get the best gaming experience, but I don’t get to enjoy smoother scrolling in my web browser.

Spending so much time working directly on my phone’s display, I’ve grown accustomed to the smoothness a high-refresh rate screen can provide. And if I could get a smaller 4K OLED monitor while I’m at it, even better.

5
Improved App Stability

There are some issues I face that, frankly, might be out of Samsung’s hands. For example, Slack crashes a lot. Thankfully, these crashes usually don’t come out of nowhere. Some behaviors seem to trigger them. If I attempt to bold text, there’s a good chance the app will crash. This is not an issue when I use the app directly on my phone.

To be clear, most of the apps I use are rock solid. I’m typing this in Obsidian right now, and I don’t recall this app ever crashing on me. Samsung Internet, Samsung Gallery, Samsung My Files, Samsung Music, Samsung Notes, and the other first-party tools I rely on are all very dependable. MobiOffice has proven to be a dependable office suite. For the most part, apps just work, but some could work just a bit more reliably.

4
Better App Support for External USB Cameras

Again, this may be an issue that has more to do with individual app developers than with Samsung, but at the end of the day, that’s not something end users care that much about. If someone asks me what it’s like to place a video call during DeX, I have to tell them that they’re limited to the camera on their phone.

This means I don’t have much control over camera angles when using DeX. My phone has to remain plugged into a dock, after all.

Android technically has support for external USB cameras. It appears to be at the app level where work needs to happen. I’d like to see that work happen.

3
Custom Icon Support

I don’t always apply a custom icon theme on my phone, but when I do, I like to go 100%. It’s not enough to change the icons in my launcher. I want the icons to change in my recent apps menu and throughout as many parts of the system as I can manage. With the Theme Up module in Good Lock and an app known as Icon Pack Studio, I can make the magic happen.

The thing is, these changes don’t apply to DeX. So once I get everything all good to go, when I dock my phone, there are all the default icons again. It can be a bit jarring, having to regularly tap different icons for apps that otherwise look largely the same.

2
More Taskbar Customization Options

App icons aside, I must admit that DeX is more customizable than I expected. I can auto-hide the taskbar and toggle exactly which elements I want to see. In my case, I’ve opted to hide the navigation buttons, just like I do on my phone (maybe one day, Samsung will finally change this default). I don’t need to see a back button, home button, or back button in desktop mode.

Still, there are taskbar customization options I’d like to see. Primarily, I wish I could rearrange icons in the taskbar. Drag and drop would be ideal, but I’d settle for right-clicking and using a context menu.

Likewise, I’d like to have the option to align icons along the left of the taskbar rather than the center. I get it—Windows and Chromebooks have both stopped doing this, but I’d like to have the choice. Likewise, I’m sure there are potential DeX users who would love to drag the taskbar to a different side of the screen entirely.

1
A Multimedia Launcher like Motorola Smart Connect

Believe it or not, DeX wasn’t my first Android desktop. That was actually Motorola Ready For, now known as Motorola Smart Connect. You can see screenshots of that desktop in my piece warning about the issues you may face when using an Android desktop (some of those issues, I’ve learned, were specific to Motorola’s desktop).

While DeX is overall a more mature and dependable desktop, there’s one thing about Motorola Smart Connect I really miss. When you plug a Motorola Smart Connect-capable phone into an external monitor or TV, it first asks if you want to play games, watch video, video chat, or launch the desktop. This differs from DeX, which automatically dumps you straight into the desktop.

Motorola’s approach is a much faster way to use your phone to jump into a show or game than having to launch a full-blown desktop and open the app that way. I sometimes connect my phone to AR glasses rather than a monitor, and it’s much faster to dive into apps like Netflix and NVIDIA GeForce Now using Motorola’s approach.

If it isn’t clear, let me reiterate: none of these are dealbreakers for me. I’ve been using an Android desktop mode as my primary PC for over a year, with most of that time spent with DeX. It’s hard for me to imagine giving up the versatility of having a 3-in-1 device and returning to a traditional PC. But DeX could benefit from some improvements, both for people like me who already love it and those who don’t yet but could.