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naughty001
Expert Member
at the moment i have a laptop which i use very rarely ie mostly when theres load shedding or power faults hence i only land up using it around once a month or thereabouts BUT each time i power the damn thing up it wants to do a update more often than not - so at those times it takes around an hour for the update to get sorted and for the laptop to be ready to use ..... then recently because its an eighth Gen Intel CPU while my Windows updated to Windows 11 there was some issue with memory distribution that made the stupid thing as slow as trying to swim through sticky syrup and the normal bootup time is now around 3 to 4 minutes AND to top it all off the battery just only lasts around an hour ..... so i'm going to sort this stupid thing out by installing an NVME M2 drive in the provided slot and buying a new battery and doing a new install of Windows 11 in the hope that this will make it usable again ...... in the meantime i just sold my FIIO M11 DAP (Digital audio player) and Sennheiser HD599 headphones to a friend and he is going to pay me with two installments so i will sort out the laptop after he pays the second installment (end of next month)
so with the first installment of cash i decided to get myself some stuff that makes Samsung Dex easy to use since the phone is a very small screen and whenever there are power issues i can access the phone and use things like Youtube and Netflix to keep myself occupied. Initially though i just got one or two items that make Dex work well enough on my TV screen ..... and because wireless Dex on my TV really lags a lot the first purchase was a cable - a USB C to HDMI cable that allows the phone to link up to one of the HDMI ports on the TV
Then i also landed up getting a small desktop tripod stand for the phone so it can stand on the table while i use Dex or while i cast it to the TV or even to the portable setup
this is while the phone is in Landscape mode (above)
the phone in portrait mode (above)
then for the portable setup i landed up getting a 15,6" touch screen monitor so its around the same size as a laptop monitor - this thing accepts USB C inputs for video as well as HDMI and i can actually use it as a second monitor for the laptop if i'm in a situation where i'm using the laptop and need multiple screens
so here is what the phone looks like while in use with the monitor with the Dex interface on the monitor - the monitor now just acts like a big tablet if i want it to since its touchscreen when connected with USB
so i also got a 30000 MAH power bank so that the monitor doesn't draw too much power from the phone and run the phone battery down quickly ..... interestingly when i connect the power bank to the second USB C port it charges the phone as well as giving power to the monitor. Then i got a Bluetooth Keyboard and mouse set so the complete portable setup looks like this
then all of this is obviously going to be a schlep to carry around especially if im carting the laptop with - so i get a bigger laptop bag to carry the entire kit and caboodle around
there are three compartments in the bag - the biggest being reserved for the laptop - then in front of that is another compartment that houses the monitor and in front of that is a third compartment where i keep the mouse and keyboard and mousepad as well as the tripod stand - and there's still a fairly large front pocket where i can keep all the required cables and adapters that i need to also carry around to make this setup completely portable
i only need to figure out a way to allow this setup to allow me to connect external portable drives to it - but there are USB hubs that have a few USB C as as USB 3.0 USB A connections that include an HDMI port as well so im sure in the future i will find some thing that can be included as part of the setup ...... ie something like this
https://www.takealot.com/7-in-1-typ...xFLyJk5n0fVGQVBF8zv0kWBEu6mtT_q6fn2C3dj0JYwvc
EDIT : I forgot to mention that the entire setup (excluding the phone obviously) was just a smidgeon over R4,5 ZAR so it wasn't a hugely expensive exercise - the laptop battery and 1TB NVME drive will be around a slight bit over R2k so if it makes the laptop usable that also would be a worthwhile exercise too
So anyone else with a dedicated Dex setup? what do you have?
so with the first installment of cash i decided to get myself some stuff that makes Samsung Dex easy to use since the phone is a very small screen and whenever there are power issues i can access the phone and use things like Youtube and Netflix to keep myself occupied. Initially though i just got one or two items that make Dex work well enough on my TV screen ..... and because wireless Dex on my TV really lags a lot the first purchase was a cable - a USB C to HDMI cable that allows the phone to link up to one of the HDMI ports on the TV
Then i also landed up getting a small desktop tripod stand for the phone so it can stand on the table while i use Dex or while i cast it to the TV or even to the portable setup
this is while the phone is in Landscape mode (above)
the phone in portrait mode (above)
then for the portable setup i landed up getting a 15,6" touch screen monitor so its around the same size as a laptop monitor - this thing accepts USB C inputs for video as well as HDMI and i can actually use it as a second monitor for the laptop if i'm in a situation where i'm using the laptop and need multiple screens
so here is what the phone looks like while in use with the monitor with the Dex interface on the monitor - the monitor now just acts like a big tablet if i want it to since its touchscreen when connected with USB
so i also got a 30000 MAH power bank so that the monitor doesn't draw too much power from the phone and run the phone battery down quickly ..... interestingly when i connect the power bank to the second USB C port it charges the phone as well as giving power to the monitor. Then i got a Bluetooth Keyboard and mouse set so the complete portable setup looks like this
then all of this is obviously going to be a schlep to carry around especially if im carting the laptop with - so i get a bigger laptop bag to carry the entire kit and caboodle around
there are three compartments in the bag - the biggest being reserved for the laptop - then in front of that is another compartment that houses the monitor and in front of that is a third compartment where i keep the mouse and keyboard and mousepad as well as the tripod stand - and there's still a fairly large front pocket where i can keep all the required cables and adapters that i need to also carry around to make this setup completely portable
i only need to figure out a way to allow this setup to allow me to connect external portable drives to it - but there are USB hubs that have a few USB C as as USB 3.0 USB A connections that include an HDMI port as well so im sure in the future i will find some thing that can be included as part of the setup ...... ie something like this
https://www.takealot.com/7-in-1-typ...xFLyJk5n0fVGQVBF8zv0kWBEu6mtT_q6fn2C3dj0JYwvc
EDIT : I forgot to mention that the entire setup (excluding the phone obviously) was just a smidgeon over R4,5 ZAR so it wasn't a hugely expensive exercise - the laptop battery and 1TB NVME drive will be around a slight bit over R2k so if it makes the laptop usable that also would be a worthwhile exercise too
So anyone else with a dedicated Dex setup? what do you have?
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