The Switch - 3

I think I have finally settled in with my devices. I have a Samsung S22 Ultra phone, a Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 (the Galaxy 4 was locked to T-Mobile, which did nothing for me, an AT&T user) and a Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra. Why Ultra? It had to replace the large laptop screen of my iPad Pro, and the Tab S7+ just did not do it for me. I got about $350 for trading it in, and got the Tab S9 Ultra. The name doesn't do it justice. This thing is huge. It's great for running tablet apps, but Samsung did it one better. Their Galaxy devices have a DeX mode, which turns the device into a small laptop. I can plug my phone into an HDMI or USB-C display, add a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and it's a full-blown computer. With the Tab S9U, it is a self-contained computer. Apps run in windows, letting me run more than one app at a time. Some of them don't exactly like doing that, and a warning pops up when you start the app, but for just about everything, it works fine. One guilty pleasure is a game called MergeDragons. On an iPad or phone, it has to run full screen and will not run in the background. In DeX mode, it can. I can be typing up a document while the game plays itself in the background, and I can still keep an eye on it. A requirement was that it had to replace my iPad Pro as a laptop replacement, and it has done exactly that. The iPad Pro now sits at home while the Samsung goes to work with me. I can't completely ditch the iPad because there are still family members who message me at my Apple ID. I also still have the home automation stuff in HomeKit, which only runs on an Apple device. Eventually, that will all change to Google Home, but it will require changing out all our devices. The doorknobs, for example, work on Apple or Google but not both.

At some point I'll do a head-to-head, but right now I'm not feeling up to it.

Glenn Brensinger

Glenn Brensinger