C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
The Galaxy Tab S11 series is the latest incarnation of Samsung’s flagship tablet, and it has some nice upgrades over the Tab S10 series it replaces. A lot of the new features come from One UI 8, which, among other things, reworks Samsung DeX and bases it on the Android 16 Desktop Mode from Google. Some of those changes are controversial, but I think that the new vision of Samsung DeX found in One UI 8 is a big step forward overall and makes Samsung’s tablets more productive than ever.
Are you looking forward to the new Samsung DeX? 34 votes Yes 76 % No 24 %
A more seamless experience
Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority
Since its introduction, DeX has always been a separate mode on your tablet. You’d start DeX with a quick settings toggle, and the desktop experience would begin. It felt like booting up a different operating system. My Tab S10 Plus , for instance, took almost seven seconds to transition into DeX mode and five seconds to switch back to the regular Android UI. One UI 8 does things differently. Starting with the Tab S11 and eventually all supported tablets when One UI 8 is available to them, DeX is now available with a simple swipe in the recent apps screen.
When you open the recent apps view, you’ll see the usual grid of open apps. However, to the right, a new DeX desktop is available by swiping in from the right side of the screen, as pictured above. Once you’re in a DeX desktop for the first time, you’ll see your home screen and can begin opening apps, which will default to opening in pop-up windows, which you can resize, snap to either side of the display, or open in full screen.
Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority
Unlike previous incarnations of DeX, there’s no waiting around for a different UI to load, and you can swap between them at any time without losing your progress. There are benefits to having the two experiences live side-by-side, like having your work apps open in DeX and your Spotify session over in the regular interface and swapping between them without any of your apps closing or reloading. You can even drag and drop apps between these two modes effortlessly.
DeX is finally the seamless multitasking experience it should be.
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