Do I Need a dex Station? (note 8)

[GrandFatMan]

So, I'm still flitting between whether to buy the s8+ or the note 8.and I'm 60/40 on the side of the note 8. But during my research, I noticed they both support something called DEX. Desktop experience. 

 

Convineint for me, considering I was thinking of buying a laptop for being out and about. But where I would need the laptop for, already has monitors keyboards etc spare. 

 

I was however wondering if anyone had experience using it. 

 

And my questions are this:

1. Do I absolutely Need an official dex Station, or can I use a USB c dongle? With usb ports, and hdmi. 

 

2. I notice they all have networking. When docked, can I not just use Wi-Fi from the device? Or mobile data? 

 

3. Will Bluetooth still work? I use a Bluetooth speaker for content consumption. 

 

I understand this may be a really niche area, but all the info I can find about it, doesn't answer these 3 specific questions. 

[Blue_Slushie]

Hey man, I literally went through this whole debacle over the weekend with my boyfriends Note 9.

We attempted to use a usb type C hub. We bought one off of amazon. After a lot of research online, it is said that the only samsung phone that can switch into dex without the official dock is the note 9. The problem is that upon using the setup this way, we found it to be unstable. The screen would constantly flicker and the ports would sometimes disconnect or bug out. Then after a while, it stopped working entirely. I spent many hours troubleshooting before declaring the hub the problem. May it be the unit in particular we got? Maybe. We then opted to get the official of the Dex.

 

So after this preface, let me answer your questions:

1. Yes you absolutely need the official Dex station. Samsung is selling them refurbished on amazon for about $65. (Way less than the 125 they want for new ones.
2. Not every dex has ethernet. You can use your built in wifi or mobile data instead.

3. Yes, bluetooth works fine. My boyfriend is using this for his job. He has a Bluetooth headset he is using while his phone is in dex 

[GrandFatMan]

2 hours ago, Blue_Slushie said:

Hey man, I literally went through this whole debacle over the weekend with my boyfriends Note 9.

We attempted to use a usb type C hub. We bought one off of amazon. After a lot of research online, it is said that the only samsung phone that can switch into dex without the official dock is the note 9. The problem is that upon using the setup this way, we found it to be unstable. The screen would constantly flicker and the ports would sometimes disconnect or bug out. Then after a while, it stopped working entirely. I spent many hours troubleshooting before declaring the hub the problem. May it be the unit in particular we got? Maybe. We then opted to get the official of the Dex.

 

So after this preface, let me answer your questions:

1. Yes you absolutely need the official Dex station. Samsung is selling them refurbished on amazon for about $65. (Way less than the 125 they want for new ones.
2. Not every dex has ethernet. You can use your built in wifi or mobile data instead.

3. Yes, bluetooth works fine. My boyfriend is using this for his job. He has a Bluetooth headset he is using while his phone is in dex 

Very interesting. 

 

I'm going to assume you got a bad unit. I dove a little more into it, and found some pretty compelling info, but thanks for clearing my initial questions! 

 

The reason I say I believe you had a bad unit / not compatible one, is I came accross a video of someone using an off brand dongle. It wasn't an official one, but it was clearly designed for dex. Not just a random usbc hub. It was designed to work with dex. And the guy didn't have any issues with it, except for 4k only showing on certain displays. 

[Blue_Slushie]

1 hour ago, GrandFatMan said:

Very interesting. 

 

I'm going to assume you got a bad unit. I dove a little more into it, and found some pretty compelling info, but thanks for clearing my initial questions! 

 

The reason I say I believe you had a bad unit / not compatible one, is I came accross a video of someone using an off brand dongle. It wasn't an official one, but it was clearly designed for dex. Not just a random usbc hub. It was designed to work with dex. And the guy didn't have any issues with it, except for 4k only showing on certain displays. 

The majority of what i have read indicated the Note 9 was the only one to launch dex when hdmi was connected via a non Dex device. Keep me updated. I am curious to see how your note 8 will handle it.

This is the one we bought and yea, i think it was defective. It has good reviews
https://www.amazon.com/TOTU-Ethernet-Delivery-Portable-Laptops/dp/B07FX2LW35/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1550514950&sr=1-2-spons&keywords=usb+c+hub&psc=1

[GrandFatMan]

1 hour ago, Blue_Slushie said:

The majority of what i have read indicated the Note 9 was the only one to launch dex when hdmi was connected via a non Dex device. Keep me updated. I am curious to see how your note 8 will handle it.

This is the one we bought and yea, i think it was defective. It has good reviews
https://www.amazon.com/TOTU-Ethernet-Delivery-Portable-Laptops/dp/B07FX2LW35/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1550514950&sr=1-2-spons&keywords=usb+c+hub&psc=1

Yeah it doesn't mention dex. It has to be dex compatible. 

 

This is the link I found : 

 

[Blue_Slushie]

1 hour ago, GrandFatMan said:

Yeah it doesn't mention dex. It has to be dex compatible. 

 

This is the link I found : 

 

Very interesting. Thank you for the info.