The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has many remarkable features, from S Pen enhancements and 120Hz display to a 50x Space Zoom camera. But the most exciting feature for me is DeX mode, which gets an enormous upgrade with this large screen phone.
For the first time, DeX goes completely wireless on a Samsung phone, which delivers a desktop-like experience on TVs, allowing you to run multiple apps on the big screen at the same time. You can also stream movies, videos or even games to your TV, though the latter proved to be tricky. Here is what the wireless DeX mode is like on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.
To get started, all you have to do is swipe from the top of the Note 20 Ultra display and press the DeX button. From there, the phone will start searching for nearby TVs or streaming devices that support the Miracast standard. I got wireless DeX mode to work on a 55-inch TCL Roku TV, an Amazon Fire TV Stick and a Roku Streaming Stick Plus, but spent most of my time with the TV.
After connecting to my Roku TV, I saw the Samsung DeX logo splash on the screen and then a desktop environment appeared. There are on-screen app icons for your files, the Gallery, Google Apps and the Play Store, but you can also add other apps to the desktop.
What can the wireless DeX mode do on Note 20 Ultra?
I started by turning the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra into a virtual mouse. After you are connected to a TV, you can swipe from the top of the screen and turn on the virtual touchpad. I just swiped my finger across the phone display to move the cursor. The movement was a bit slower than I would like, but I had no problem selecting icons or opening apps.
I started with the Google Photos apps, where I could view images I took with the Note 20 Ultra’s camera on the big screen. You can also go to full screen mode on apps, but it required me to adjust a setting to the phone. Annoyingly, in some cases I even had to restart apps to run them in full screen. Still, it was cool to scroll through my gallery and see my kids photos I took on TV.
I’ve also tried running a few other apps, including Twitter and Netflix. You can run a few apps on the desktop at the same time, making it really feel like your multitasking. And this is something you can not do with AirPlay on iPhones. It was also cool to stream Netflix from the phone to my TV, and the performance remained pretty stable when I watched an episode of Umbrella Academy.
Game on!
Curious to see if DeX mode could play games on a 55-inch TV, I paired a PS4 controller via Bluetooth to the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. Then I released a few games to see how well DeX mode could handle them.
I started with Fortnite, and my 12-year-old took the checks to see how well the title held up to its normal PS4 sessions. Overall, the action remained fairly smooth on screen, but we saw pixelation here and there. In addition, the PS4 controller was not as directly responsive with the Note 20 Ultra as with the console. However, I was under the impression that the experiment worked.
Playing Asphalt 9 was a different story. With much faster action, the gameplay stuttered several times during our race, making it difficult to stay on track. And the graphs sometimes looked cheerful too.
Bottom line
The software on my Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is not definitive, so I am not ready to give the final judgment on how well wireless DeX mode still works. But it’s a big step forward to stream apps to a large screen TV without a dock or dongle, as well as enjoy a desktop environment that allows you to multitask. I would just like smoother runner movement and more stable gameplay.
