That’s not just a coat of paint that Samsung slapped on this most recent iteration of DeX for the Galaxy Tab S11 series, it was an arrangement change about how you go about multitasking on its tablet. By tethering DeX to the upcoming Desktop Mode underpinnings in One UI 8, Samsung has made its desktop-style workspace quicker to reach, more livable, and a ton less isolated from the rest of the tablet.
A desktop experience that’s as instant as yours
DeX, until now, has felt like booting up a different OS. It definitely took a second to load the desktop UI, and there was another noticeable lag when you backed out to the normal interface. On older models, that hop could last several seconds each way. On the Tab S11 line with One UI 8, DeX is now a swipe away in the recent apps view, cohabiting alongside your regular tablet UI instead of replacing it.
Slide in from the right column of Recents and suddenly you’re in a DeX desktop—opening apps within these funky resizable pop-up windows that can snap to halves or expand to full-on full screen.
There isn’t a single restart or reload when you switch modes, which is critical for keeping apps running as you bounce between the classic tablet UI and DeX. You can also drag an app from one screen to the other and continue working.
Power users can enjoy up to four DeX desktops running simultaneously, on top of the regular Android space. It’s like the concept of virtual desktops in Windows — group tasks on different workspaces, then flick between them when you need a mental reset or tidier layout.
Multitasking that mirrors PCs for smoother workflows
The practical benefit is obvious. This lets you keep your document, browser, file manager and stuff open in DeX mode while music or messages are playing on the regular UI. As session state is preserved on both sides of the divide, some of that psychological friction to “go into DeX” ends. That fancy flagship phone has a bunch of RAM and you’ve been mucking about with Android’s Desktop Mode work on window management, so your application switching feels more like a super-fast lightweight laptop than a giant version of what was previously in your pocket.
There’s also a smart distinction made between on-device and external displays. When you attach a monitor, you still receive the more traditional, desktop-focused DeX experience (with a permanent taskbar) that we used to have on clamshell use cases. The new approach leans solely toward immediacy and touch on the tablet, which is perhaps what I find most people actually use a slate for.
Give some more love to mouse and keyboard
The trade-off: Now that the old DeX-specific taskbar and navigation controls on the tablet are gone, mouse and keyboard get less attention in the view right on the device. The One UI home screen is great for touching, but expecting laptop-like precision when swiping along the edge and tweaking gesture target sizes to suit feels inappropriate when you’re working with a trackpad or mouse.
A middle ground would help. A switch to surface the old taskbar on the tablet when a keyboard cover is connected, or context-aware pointer affordances / always-on nav buttons to make it easy for new and old users alike would have bridged its biggest usability gap without losing all that newfound speed. Basic human–computer interaction principles support stable, clickable targets for desktop input; Samsung can capitalize on that without losing the trackpad touch.
Why this change is important for modern tablets
Tablets have had a habit of edging into laptop space, and windowing friction has been the bottleneck for those incursions. Apple’s Stage Manager has evolved, but still has guardrails that can seem confining. ChromeOS tablets are all about working with peripherals anyway, but they live in a different ecosystem. Samsung’s new DeX represents a product on which I can believe people will be more productive than they are today; not through some elaborate “switching modes” trick but through something that feels natural, not special.
That could be a needle-mover for attach rates of keyboard covers and wider productivity use. Industry watchers like IDC have said detachables and 2‑in‑1s are a bright spot in the tablet market, as buyers hold on to their older hardware and seek new devices that fit into a middle ground between consumption and creation. A quicker, omnipresent desktop mode bolsters Samsung’s argument in that area.
What to watch next as DeX evolves on tablets
The substrate is solid; refinement is the next challenge. Improved keyboard shortcuts, window chrome more finger-friendly to grab, and a fast way to call up a desktop-style taskbar on the tablet would fill in gaps in the experience. Developers will also likely be eager for the multi-window APIs in Android OS to stabilise as the push towards a more desktop-like experience with the Android 16 Desktop Mode project grows, so more apps can better embrace freeform windowing and strong drag-and-drop across spaces.
Even with those caveats, this is the best DeX has ever felt on a tablet.
Samsung, by making the “PC mode” quick enough that it doesn’t feel cumbersome and which feels like an organic aspect of the system’s culture, toys with the edges of tablets’ productivity potential.
Keep that ball rolling, give mouse-and-keyboard users the proper affordance and DeX is no longer just a feature, it’s a reason to pick up a Galaxy tablet.