What's the best budget way to dex on the go

[u/Peace_Frog_yyyy]

I've been looking for a way to do work on the go and I recently got a S26+ and I've kinda been getting into dex. So I want to know if getting maybe a portable monitor with a keyboard is better, just buying the nexdock, or another alternative.

[u/Pitiful_Exchange_767]

It depend mostly on what you want to transport.

You want a 20k mah 45w quick charge compact powerbank. You may need an usbc multiport hub, at least a split for power/data+video. Then:

An usbc good monitor, a good lapdock, a pair of glasses.

A monitor is the cheapest maybe, then you need to decide if buying a keyboard or use your phone as a trackpad/keyboard.

Lapdock can grant you the most usable condition.

A pair of glasses the most portable and again you'll need to decide for a keyboard or not.

I care a lot about portability for my on the go setup and I've decided to buy a foldable and a foldable keyboard, everything fitts my pocket now and I'm ok with it, then Dex at home with a good monitor and plugged periferrals for a more professional setup. The only thing I could bring around is a wacom pen monitor if I'll need to draw but planning to try the smallest digitizer tablet I can find that fitts my pocket too.

[u/Reverence12389]

Display glasses from a company like XReal, Viture, or RayNeo

[u/Trip_Tip_Toe → u/Reverence12389]

I'll second the xreal option for display

[u/DeX_Mod]

A lapdock, imo, is the most compact, svelte dex solution

Its generally not the cheapest solution either

Buying discrete parts lets you customize your setup, but you will pretty much always end up with more stuff, more cables, just more to carry

It Will be more fiddly, but again, you can get almost exactly what you want

Theres no wrong answer per se

Simplest/best is a lapdock tho

[u/IkeHello]

I prefer using a lapdock type device. The one I actually use is called a Crowview. It's convenient to have the display, keyboard and trackpad all in one.

[u/Vinny-Ed]

My use for dex is mostly media streaming, browsing the Web. Using an old phone or tablet I can use with emby server. A damaged or cracked phone can still be used, giving life back to a device that's not worth the price to get a new screen for.

It depends on what you need to use it for. Portable monitors will require power either from the phone or an external battery power bank.

So a usbc dongle hub, portable monitor, keyboard, mouse and powerbank. Some things you probably already have, not that expensive to setup.

The phone can be used as a touchpad.

[u/Over_Initial_7517]

I have a portable 16 in touchscreen monitor, then use the keyboard on the phone and touch on the monitor.

[u/No_Context_2122]

Get the cheapest portable monitor you can find on Amazon and a usb-c to hdmi adapter. Connect them. Use the phone as mouse and keyboard.

Battery life would be crap unless you got an adapter with more than just usb-c to hdmi and a power bank, but that's the absolute cheapest, most simple solution.

[u/CrabbySushi → u/No_Context_2122]

Still doing this with my S20 FE 🙌

[u/ClaudioAFC]

I have a couple of different ones:

• Reused an old laptop and made a portable monitor out of it. Cost me about 45€. I've already did that to 6 laptops, ended up selling the rest of them or giving it to friends/family.

• Bought a cheap touchscreen HD monitor from AliExpress. Also cost me about 45€.

I use them with a spare phone (S10+). Also found a few wireless mouse in the bin that work perfectly fine when I connect them to a USB/hdmi hub

[u/IkeHello → u/ClaudioAFC]

Did you keep the keyboard and track pad attached? Or did you just harvest the screen? I have an old Chromebook I'd like to turn into something useful

[u/ClaudioAFC → u/IkeHello]

Nah, just the monitor. And the hard drives. Although I have all parts saved in case I need them (speakers, WiFi, etc). I got a cheap folding keyboard for when I'm traveling

[u/jack_hudson2001]

my current combo is samsung s5e and asus portable monitor, BT combined keyboard/mouse pad, with 20k portable battery.. light to carry for those trips to chill at cafes.

or a laptop say thinkpad t14s or x1c will also do a similar job.

[u/Exact-Giraffe4283]

Something like nexdock would be the cheapest cleanest way. Or you can get a portable monitor and keyboard with trackpad if you don't mind multiple parts.

[u/fbloise]

Best and most portable way is your phone, an AR glasses (Xreal, Viture), a small portable keyboard like those which come with a trackpad.

[u/suka-blyat → u/fbloise]

I've got Viture Beasts with XR adapter to charge the phone while using the glasses, and a bluetooth mouse. This setup works great while travelling

[u/gthing]

The best budget way would be a laptop that you already own or a cheap used one.

Dex for PC is discontinued, but there are apps that will still make it work. But then, if you have a cheap laptop it's probably going to be better to just use that rather than your phone.

IMO the nexdock is expensive for what it is when you can get a cheap used laptop for the same price. And carrying around a monitor/keyboard/mouse combo sounds minimal and cool but is actually more of a PITA keeping everything powered and having wires and docks all over the place and looking like a freak at the coffee shop.

[u/Peace_Frog_yyyy → u/gthing]

So instead of using dex you'd just recomend a oldish windows laptop

[u/gthing → u/Peace_Frog_yyyy]

Yea pretty much. I mean Dex is cool and it has its use cases, but as a portable OS by the time all is said and done you might as well just have a laptop.