For the past few months,
I've been trying to use my Samsung Galaxy Tab A T510 as a computer,
and it's something that has intrigued me since.
Now I do have have laptop that I use,
but my problem is that my laptop is big
and that the battery dies after a few minutes.
Android tablets are smaller,
they can fit on a crowded desk
you can carry them anywhere,
and the battery is decent because the OS isn’t that demanding.
And because of that,
I’ve been trying to use my tablet
kinda like a Microsoft Surface for doing my school work without hassle.
In front of me here is my Android tablet with it’s case,
along with my bluetooth keyboard and mouse.
My peripherals are fine, and I haven’t had any problems with it,
YET
But what about the operating system or software?
Android is fine,
but it doesn't work as a desktop-like multitasking experience which I want.
I could use my laptop as a remote desktop,
but that’s slow and not reliable.
Samsung Dex exists, it’s a really cool feature,
but it only works for supported devices.
Fortunately, I do have a solution,
and that is to use Sentio Desktop (formerly Andromium OS)
or Taskbar by Braden Farmer.
Starting of with Sentio Desktop.
I found Sentio Desktop because I was looking for a Samsung Dex alternative
that works on my tablet by this YouTuber named: Eevnos.
From what I could gather online,
Sentio Desktop was made by Andromium Inc.
with Andrew Jiang as the Co-founder and CEO.
"Oh hi, I'm Luke."
Yo, his names Luke, just like me!
Before this, they made an app on the Play Store as Andromium OS
but then changed their name to Sentio Desktop because people kept misspelling Andromium.
"Did you say Sentium, isn't it Andromium?"
"So, Sentio is the new company name."
"We actually rebranded a couple months ago,"
"mostly because people were spelling Andromium not right all the time."
Anyways, Sentio desktop is pretty much like Samsung Dex
where you use your phone and plug it into a laptop or computer
and it transforms into a desktop-like interface.
Sentio Desktop was made to be used with their product called ‘The Superbook'
which has around $3,000,000 on Kickstarter.
This reminds me of Linus Tech Tips video on the NexDock 2
and he also mentioned Sentio in the video, nice.
Now you don't need the Superbook,
you can just use the app by itself
and it will transform itself without needing anything else.
Unfortunately, I could not find Sentio Desktop on the Play Store anymore,
but there are apks of it online.
The last apk was from 2018 and nothing since, how sad.
When you first start the app,
it gives you the option to pair with the superbook,
overlay permissions,
a short tutorial,
and then more permissions.
Finally, you get to Sentio Desktop.
Right here,
you have the taskbar with your settings to the right,
app list, and icons on the desktop.
If you want, you can press on the tutorial
and it takes to their Medium.com page.
This is where Jesse Sum highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the Sentio desktop,
pretty cool.
Pressing on ‘logout Sentio’ quits the app,
and ‘DPI tutorial’ shows you how to change the scaling.
What’s pretty weird is that to show apps on the taskbar,
you click on the settings icon,
sentio settings,
and then enable recent apps because it’s not enabled by default.
Find Sentio...
Ok turn that on.
To pin apps to the taskbar,
you right click (or hold) and click “pin to taskbar”.
A problem I have with Sentio Desktop is that the recent apps on the taskbar don't update live,
so you always have to close Sentio Desktop and reopen it again.
The same thing happens with the battery indicator on the taskbar,
it doesn't update live.
Speaking of the taskbar,
you can view your bluetooth connections,
wifi,
turn down your volume,
access quick settings,
notifica-
notifications,
raise the taskbar up and down,
exit Sentio,
and the time in the corner opens your calendar app.
Really neat!
Remember right clicking or holding?
You can make an app open in a:
normal,
maximized,
and left and right of the screen.
You can open in fullscreen,
and also uninstall an app all in Sentio.
When pressing and holding an app,
you can move it to the desktop and move it around,
just like a Windows computer.
The app is pretty simple and easy to use
and I've used it for most of my tasks at school.
Sentio Desktop could access my Android apps,
my files,
and it could most importantly multitask.
I liked that it opened an app in windowed mode everytime,
and for apps like ROBLOX where it opens in full screen,
you can go to the developer options and turn on ‘force apps to be resizeable’.
That being said, it’s far from perfect.
Because the app hasn’t been updated in 7 years,
there’s not a lot of features to it and there are things that annoy me.
Like I said before,
the recent apps don’t update live.
I checked the blog post in their medium page and apparently
the apps don’t update live because Android doesn’t allow the functionality anymore.
Right clicking the desktop only brings up two options.
Ok let me change...
Ok just, takes you to the app.
When having multiple windows,
clicking the ‘X’ button minimizes an app and puts it in the background instead of closing it.
I know, this is an Android thing,
and to solve it,
I use Alt+F4 when I am using my bluetooth keyboard.
I could also use my bluetooth keyboard to open up the start menu apps too which is pretty neat.
When I wanted to swipe my finger from the top to the bottom
to see my Android settings,
it drags the window instead.
On my bluetooth mouse I just drag the it from the sides,
so no biggie most of the time.
Sometimes when I’m not using my bluetooth keyboard,
I use the on-screen keyboard to type something up
and the taskbar overlays the spacebar
so I lower it and then raise it when I’m done everytime.
Sentio Desktop has the option to make it the default launcher or home screen
which is pretty nice because when I clear all my apps,
Sentio goes away because that too is also an app,
so I want Sentio to always be there on boot even if I clear it out,
but setting Sentio as the default launcher doesn’t work unfortunately.
I like that Sentio Desktop works on my tablet,
it’s simple, it’s basic, get’s the job done,
but there's not much customizablity and features to it.
Moving on to Taskbar.
This is another alternative that I found to Samsung Dex
by a YouTuber named: Thommo’s Tech.
Taskbar is an app on the Google Play Store
that overlays a taskbar on your screen
in which you can open apps in windowed mode automatically,
allowing you to multitask efficiently on Android.
This apps looks more like an Android skin rather than a whole desktop interface,
but you can also enable a desktop mode in it's settings,
although I never tried this because I don't have an adapter
so comment down below.
The app is free to use,
it gets updated somewhat frequently,
and it's open source to!
You can see the source code on Github, link down below.
When you first start the app,
it takes you to the screen with all the settings.
These don't do anything unless we enable the taskbar
by pressing the button here on the top right,
accept some permissions,
and it's as simple as that.
Here is the taskbar.
You have your start menu,
widget button,
recent apps,
the system tray which just opens-
which just opens the quick panel layout,
and the collapse button, which collapses the taskbar.
It looks more like Chrome OS than Windows because of the big icons,
which is perfect for easily opening apps.
Now everytime we click on an app in the taskbar,
it opens it in fullscreen.
Not to worry though,
you can enable the windows by going into ‘freeform mode’
and ‘enable freeform windows support’.
Uncheck ‘launch games fullscreen’ if you haven't.
If games launch in fullscreen
you can just turn on ‘force activities to be resizeable’ in developer settings.
When turning on ‘freeform window support’,
the start menu glitches out which is pretty annoying,
Wait, oh hey-ay, it fixed itself woo-hoo!
but it eventually fixes itself somehow after I make changes to the settings
or restart my tablet.
Speaking of settings, this app is pretty customizable.
You can change your taskbars position,
the taskbars accent colors,
the amount of recent apps,
enable freeform mode,
enable desktop mode,
add some navigation buttons in advanced features,
and many more.
You can make the app look like how you want which I really appreciate.
I personally made my environment look like Chrome OS
and you can too, by:
going to general settings and check ‘launch on boot’;
recent apps → max number of 9 apps,
centered app icons,
show notification count in status area;
freeform mode → always save window size for apps,
default windows size as large;
advanced features → replace home screen and enable keyboard shortcuts.
Now go into your android settings,
and for me I go to:
apps → choose default apps → home app → taskbar.
Now that's what I'm talking about!
Everytime you turn on your tablet, it takes you to the taskbar desktop.
I'm not done yet of course,
right click the desktop to add icons to it and select an app.
You can move it by right clicking anywhere → move icon(s),
and move it based on the grid.
Right clicking an app on the start menu and taskbar
brings up options to open a new window in a:
standard,
large,
maximized,
left and right side of the screen
and phone size.
More actions depends on the app,
you can pin an app to recents,
view app info,
and uninstall an app all in taskbar!
There's a search bar in the start menu which you can turn off
and this 3 dot button just brings up standard Android stuff.
Every app you open up is based on what you did in the settings
but when you right click an app on the taskbar
→ new window → and then something other than large,
the app will open in that window size everytime
because I checked this setting here.
"Oh yeah, one more thing."
POV: you posted cringe
You can hide and pin apps to start menu by going to:
general settings → configure apps in start menu
→ and check the apps you want to hide or pin.
Check Google, Google TV.
And it should...
There it di- it disappeared.
Brave....
ChatGPT...
Pin My Files...
Pin Revanced Manager...
Pin...
My settings...
Oh, there we go.
And yeah, I'm pretty much done setting up my desktop.
Taskbar is a free and open source app that gets updated from time to time
and I really like that it's customizable,
but of course there are things that annoy me.
The app glitches at first when I turn on ‘freeform windows’.
Right clicking or holding an app or the desktop
brings up a context menu that you can't get rid of unless you
click on one of the options or press the recent apps buttons on your android.
And that will usually solve it.
You can’t move an app on the desktop as easily.
You can enable a keyboard shortcut to open up the start menu
but you need to set it as the assist app in settings
and you can't type up an app once opened.
Wait, they fixed it what?
Ok this script is really outdated.
Ok yeah what.
Ay I gues they fixed it, yippee!
As I stated before,
the system tray lacks a notification window,
battery percentage, and a calendar.
It just takes you to the quick panel layout.
That being said though.
I like that the recent apps actually update live everytime I open an app.
See that was instantaneous.
Swiping down to see the Android settings doesn't resize the windows which is pretty nice.
When using the onscreen keyboard to type,
taskbar automatically moves it up on top of my keyboard
and I can collapse the taskbar if it's in the way.
I really like Taskbar for its customization and the modern look.
Now this is not a comparison video by any means but if it were,
I would prefer Taskbar over Sentio Desktop
because I find it to be more useful for my tasks.
I was really thinking of throwing away my tablet
because I use my phone and my laptop more,
but I’d like to keep it because of portability,
it has a larger screen than my phone,
and the battery is fine.
Obviously it's not as powerful and you can't run .exes on it,
but it's fine for my use cases.
But yeah that’s pretty much it.
What app did you like more?
Sentio Desktop or Taskbar?
Until then, I'll see you guys next time, bye.