Observant readers may notice I’ve been relatively quiet since mid-July, That’s because I’m enjoying a break up in North America with relatives. We spend a week in Minocqua by one of the many lakes up there, enjoying the sun and water. Now back in Chicago, I am back in action mid-August but meantime, I have done more than just sunbathing…
In order to do a little drone exploring while up here I brought my cheap Android 128GB tablet with me, only to discover it’s capabilities were neither up to editing nor even displaying 4K drone video – so, armed with Amazon by my side, I ordered a new 256GB ($250) Android 15 tablet. Disappointingly, once again this was not able to handle 4K videos smoothly so that tablet went back to Amazon – and before trying again, I borrowed by wife´s Samsung S9 FE tablet – and within hours discovered that this, too, while much better than my first attempts, was barely up to the mark. It turns out that my Samsung S24 Ultra phone is way more powerful than any of the above… the only disadvantage being the small screen and keyboard.
Next step… Wallmart Minocqua for a super thin 16″ travel monitor – the Acer PM161Q (they only had 2 models and the store IT section manager had no idea that there are different kinds of HDMI connector). Magic. It turns out that the Acer travel monitor and my phone support USB C connected Samsung DEX (so HDMI not needed at all)… not just simple mirroring – far from it – and if DEX means nothing to you, there are a ton of YouTube videos out there, well worth a watch unless you are an Apple fan.
Last stop.. having then realised that my old travel keyboard/pad was not going to cut it, I bought a BT mouse… nothing special but works a treat. I just needed to find a better BT travel keyboard to be very happy. The old one kept swapping key functions on me.
More detail when I get back to Spain where I expect there will be lots of Home Assistant updates to do and gadgets waiting for me to review… meanwhile…
Yes that (above) is this article being edited on the S24 Ultra on the big screen with external keyboard and mouse, all while leaving the normal phone screen alone. Amazing.
And now – I splashed out and bought a “Samsers” fold-in-half (full size keys) travel keyboad which supports up to 3 phones/tablets and swaps at the touch of a button. Despite being rechargeable-battery powered, the keyboard has full RGB backlighting, Lovely. Note: Can’t take a shot with my phone as I’m using the phone to type this hence the stock photo from Amazon.com website.
The keyboard (Samsers FK08X) also comes with a separate phone holder and the underside of the folding, magnetically lockable keyboard is some kind of pleather. I love it.