Samsung DeX was announced with the Samsung Galaxy S8 as a way to use your phone as a desktop PC. The original idea was to dock the phone into a DeX dock that connects to a screen. This original idea didn't work out too well since the dock was too big, there was no way to use the phone while docked, it required an additional purchase, and well, it just became annoying to use. Samsung upgraded DeX with the launch of the Galaxy Note 9 to no longer require a dock. Now, thanks to a screen we spotted in the Samsung Tips app, we know Samsung is still working on a wireless DeX mode.

The history of Samsung DeX is pretty brief. When it launched with the Samsung Galaxy S8, it was pretty cumbersome to use since it required a dock and a mouse and keyboard to be connected. With the Galaxy Note 9, Samsung got rid of the dock requirement (since the phone has native DisplayPort Alternate Mode support) while also letting you use the phone's display as a trackpad and keyboard. With the Galaxy Note 10, Samsung made a Mac and Windows app so you could access DeX from your PC (and unofficially, on Linux and Chrome OS). There was also a brief stint with running a GNU/Linux distribution through DeX, but that initiative was sadly canceled. Fortunately, we're finally seeing progress on wireless Samsung DeX mode, which we heard was being worked on all the way back in late 2018. On the upcoming Galaxy Note 20, Samsung may finally allow DeX to work wirelessly.

Samsung DeX wireless

I found the above screen in the Samsung Tips app as part of the settings. On my Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy Z Flip, the latter of which doesn't actually support DeX, the page showed up under the "Become a power user" section. The first page under this section is the wireless Samsung DeX tip. The header is "DREAM_DEX_HEADER_USE_DEX_WIRELESSLY_M_TIPS." This was likely pushed to live servers accidentally. What's interesting about the header is the "DREAM" at the beginning. Dream is the codename of the Galaxy S10 series which makes me think the Galaxy S10 and up should get support for wireless DeX mode.

Samsung DeX wouldn't be the first desktop mode for Android devices to get a wireless mode. Huawei introduced wireless casting a while back for its EMUI Desktop mode. It's good to see that Samsung is following suit and working to improve DeX with meaningful features.