You can now preorder Samsung’s DeX Pad to turn your S9 into a desktop

If you’ve been waiting to buy Samsung’s Dex Pad – the gadget that turns the Galaxy S9 into a desktop – you’ll have to wait a bit longer. Samsung today announced the DeX Pad goes on sale on May 13 for $99.

Pre-order, however, begin today, and those who buy an S9 or S9+ from Samsung will recieve a free DeX Pad for a limited time.

For those not familiar, the DeX Pad is a small dock that you can connect your S9 to provide a desktop environment on a monitor or TV. You can run windowed apps, play games on a large screen, multi-task more easily, etc. It’s all powered by your phone – turns out those things are pretty powerful these days.

It works basically the same as the original model -just plug in your phone onto the dock’s USB-C port, and you’re good to go – but it now includes a headphone jack and cooling fan. The new flat design (previously, your phone was propped at an angle), make it easier to use your phone as a mouespad and keyboard if you don’t have those accessories handy. It can also support resolutions up to 2K, up from 1080p.

I still wish Samsung offered a single-cable solution, a la Huawei, but it’s still a nifty gadget if you need to do serious work while on a trip but want to travel light. Now if Samsung would make a laptop dock too…