If the S8 / S8+ was a desktop PC...

Pawnless Endgame · 12 Jul 2017 at 22:01

I'm now the proud owner of an S8+ and I heard that you can buy some desktop kit (presumably an HDMI signal converter) that turns the phone into a PC.

Phones have come such a long way in the last 10 years, so I'm really curious on what the S8+ would be equivalent to if it was a desktop PC! E.g. the Intel Q9400 (2.66GHz quad-core) was a high-end processor in 2009. Could the S8+ beat that now? If not, what year would you regard the S8+ be in terms of a PC? 4GB of RAM (which the phone has) was starting to become common in 2009 too. Gaming-wise, how far has the S8+ got? Has it reached Nintendo Wii level yet (2006/7)? If it was a games PC, has it matched the ATI HD4850 level yet (2009 era)?

mrk · 12 Jul 2017 at 22:34

It's not just a converter, it's a dock that turns the S8 into a complete desktop solution.

Samsung marketed it very well and it shows what it's capable of:

https://9to5google.com/2017/07/11/comment-samsung-galaxy-s8-dex-dock-laptop/

At the moment I feel it's still a little too pricey, but hold off a few more months and it will halve in price most likely just like the fast wireless charging stand did last year, going from £60 to £30.

Samsung is the only brand to have pulled this off successfully. Motorola, Microsoft and others have all tried it but ultimately they all failed to gain traction in the consumer sector. But dex, at the right price in a few months, will likely be exactly where it needs to be given how many S8 phones Samsung are sleling.

wesley · 13 Jul 2017 at 08:03

The desktop experience on phone will be never good as a real PC.

I had the dock station for S6 ( think it was 6). The desktop experience was terrible. Very lagging, everything are too large. Still android environment.

paradigm · 13 Jul 2017 at 08:04

Not quite sure how you can suggest Samsung have "pulled it off" when there hasn't been time to see if it gets adopted. Th Microsoft solution was very elegant and dropped into the workplace well, I can't quite see how an Android ecosystem is going to do the same thing for businesses that are heavily reliant on Microsoft infrastructures. The DeX does indeed "look" great, but are they having a laugh with that advert? Where do I find a hotel and/or cafe pre-kitted out with a DeX setup? Yes "leave your computer behind", great, but where do I plug the S8 into?

Yes, Samsung have potentially more customers to propose the DeX to, but only a small subset of those is likely to care.

mrk · 13 Jul 2017 at 08:49

The Microsoft solution Ian known by many, even in business. It's my business to know these systems and get them working in a work environment. And in places like mine, I'm rolling out Android devices now to replace the Microsoft ones.

Microsoft's office 365 platform works very well on Android, literally no different to how it works on Windows Phones.

Samsung have pulled off a desktop hybrid like this off better than the rest because their solution is better implemented, although granted it only works with S8 phones right now. It is better than Continuum.

wesley said:
The desktop experience on phone will be never good as a real PC.

I had the dock station for S6 ( think it was 6). The desktop experience was terrible. Very lagging, everything are too large. Still android environment.

The S6 dock is not the same thing at all. Dex is completely new and all reviews so far praise it for being generally excellent and seamless.

VincentHanna · 13 Jul 2017 at 10:28

Nobody has answered the op's question though.

I would be intrigued to know. Is a Switch faster for instance?

mrk · 13 Jul 2017 at 10:45

It depends on the task being done. For normal browsing, desktop working and multi tasking it's fine from everything I've seen, but the SoC isn't going to beat a dedicated desktop platform with a graphics card, for example, especially in terms of app launch latency and demanding tasks like gaming where CPU power and internal storage speeds are far greater on a modern desktop PC or laptop.