Samsung’s Galaxy Note Smart Dock is a dumb addition

Samsung has been on a major roll this year, pushing Android smartphones and tablets into the top tier, with its Galaxy S III smartphone, supersized Galaxy Note II “phablet,” and Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet rivaling Apple’s iconic and category-defining iPhone and iPad. That’s a sea change for Android, which for several years was clearly inferior to iOS, settling for “good enough.” HTC and Motorola Mobility have also improved their Android offerings, but Samsung has led the way, especially in mobile innovation.

So I was intrigued by the Galaxy Note II Smart Dock, a $99 peripheral that you plug a Note II into via the MiniHDMI port and connect to an HDTV or other monitor via HDMI. Optionally, you can use it to connect a mouse, keyboard, or extra storage via the three USB ports. When connected, the Smart Dock theoretically could transform the Note II into a portable Android PC. In truth, it can’t do anything of the sort.

The Smart Dock at first blush seems to be alike in concept to Motorola Mobility’s Lapdock, which offered similar connectivity options and came with a Linux-based Firefox browser to do “real” Web work the standard Android browser could not. Although its concept was intriguing, Motorola never figured out the Lapdock, and the product died after several unsatisfying versions. I suspect the Smart Dock will face a similar fate.

Contrary to the name, the Smart Dock isn’t so smart. Once you plug your Note II into it and connect to a TV or monitor, you get a mirrored image of your Note II’s screen. The screen is in portrait orientation, so most of your big screen is wasted. Only videos auto-adjust to play in horizontal mode and take advantage of the screen real estate.

I expected the Smart Dock to at least display apps, games, and so on in horizontal mode, so what you saw on the big screen looked like a PC desktop. I even hoped that the screen resolution might be larger than the Note II’s; that way, you’d get not just a blown-up screen, but a true desktoplike experience. I got neither. On the bright side, I didn’t miss the lack of a desktop browser, such as the Lapdock’s Firefox — the Android browser app that comes with the Note II’s and S III’s “Jelly Bean” update is as capable as its desktop equivalent, unlike previous versions.

Ironically, when I plugged a Galaxy S III into the Smart Dock, its screen did auto-rotate; apps, games, and the home screens all were in horizontal mode. How bizarre that the S III — which is not designed for the use with the Smart Dock — uses it better than the Note II, which was designed for the Smart Dock.

I was also frustrated that the standard home screens disappeared when I plugged the Note II into the Smart Dock, replaced by a simplified version that didn’t allow the use of familiar actions. The dumbed-down UI makes no sense on a larger screen, especially when you have a keyboard and mouse in use (whether via USB or Bluetooth). Such desktop peripherals actually work better with the standard Android UI than they do with the Smart Dock’s streamlined UI. After all, such peripherals are designed to work well with a dense set of icons, menus, and controls.

Fortunately, this pared-down screen can be turned off in the Settings app (look for the Accessory option), returning you to the standard UI. You should turn off the Docking “page buddy” option as well; it replaces the standard UI with a version meant to be simpler, but in practice, it just hides what you likely are looking for.

Finally, the mirrored screen overscanned my TV’s edges, so the top and bottom of the Note II’s screen was clipped. There are no settings to adjust the image size to compensate. The USB ports worked, though I found the mouse movements rough, without the kind of motion speed compensation standard on a PC or Mac.

At the end of the day, the Smart Dock doesn’t do much more than a standard HDMI cable would. Yes, you get a stand to keep the Note II upright, so you can tap it if you don’t have a mouse. And yes, the dock keeps the Note II charged. And yes, you get USB ports, though as more and more peripherals are Bluetooth, that’s not necessarily an advantage — I had to scrounge my home office to find a USB keyboard and mouse for testing.

I just don’t see the value of the Smart Dock as it is today. Maybe one day we’ll have a device that transforms a smartphone into a PC — but not right now.

This article, “Samsung’s Galaxy Note Smart Dock is a dumb addition,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Galen Gruman’s Mobile Edge blog and follow the latest developments in mobile technology at InfoWorld.com. Follow Galen’s mobile musings on Twitter at MobileGalen. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.