Among other generational upgrades, the Galaxy S21 lineup further refines the wireless DeX experience Samsung first introduced last year as perhaps the most meaningful innovation of its phone-to-PC solution to date. Other than that time when it sneakily made it good, of course. After all, the early days of the former Samsung Desktop Experience platform are hardly the object of much nostalgia.
Fast-forward to today, and the Galaxy S21 range is building on the wireless DeX support for TVs by bringing it to PCs. It thus offers a remarkably different alternative to users who favor convenience above maximizing data speeds. If your connection is good enough for wireless DeX to work on a PC, it should be more than up to whatever file transfer task you have in mind, anyway.
Ready to give DeX another chance?
After the Galaxy Note 20 family launched last year, the Wireless DeX-to-TV connectivity was eventually rolled out to Samsung's older flagships, all the way back to the Galaxy S9. This was one of the big One UI 2.5 features if you recall.
So, if you thought the (formerly called) Desktop Experience was almost fast enough – or convenient enough – in the past, this Galaxy S generation is very likely the one that will sell you on the viability of Samsung's platform. As for the wireless DeX support for actual Windows PCs and Macs (instead of just monitors and TVs), this functionality will likely be deployed to a wider array of Galaxy devices in the near future.
In order to start using DeX wirelessly on your Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, or the Galaxy S21 Ultra, pull down the notification shade and tap the appropriate icon to start searching for compatible PCs (pictured above). Meaning those that have the DeX app for Windows or macOS installed – see below.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra even comes with a wild card in the form of Wi-Fi 6E support. It's the first smartphone ever to have this capability, but it's so early to the new Wi-Fi improvement party that there are hardly any Wi-Fi 6E-certified routers or gateways to pair with it. So, we have no way of telling how DeX actually performs over this unlicensed spectrum.
