Despite how handy our phones have become over the years, I still need to carry around a laptop if I want to do a lot of work. Thankfully, that could change if a rumored new iPhone feature ever sees the light of day.

DeX, but for iPhone

One of the things that has made me lean more towards Samsung in recent years is the ability to work directly on your phone with an external display. Samsung DeX has solidified itself as an excellent productivity tool, replacing the need to carry a larger tablet or laptop around.

If Apple is able to replicate the success of DeX on iPhone, then it could completely change how and where I work. I already spend most of my time working split between a Windows PC and a laptop. While I love the larger monitors on my PC, being able to work almost anywhere has its benefits, too.

With iPhones having fully embraced USB-C now, it is the perfect time for Apple to go all-in on a DeX-like feature for iOS. And, if rumors from known leaker MajinBu are anywhere close to true, we could get that feature as early as iOS 19.

Apple already lets us mirror the display of our iPhones to an external monitor. However, that’s very limited as it mirrors the display completely, with no way to make it fit the monitor that you’re pushing it out to. Extending the display, though, would allow us to treat our phones like portable computers themselves.

All you’d need to do is plug the phone into an external display using a USB-C cable, and then connect a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard to it. A former MUO writer, Bertel King, used to work almost solely from his Samsung smartphone. using DeX. And he’s written several times about how using his phone for work boosted his productivity.

If Apple were to even mimic half of what DeX can do, then I’d be able to ditch my laptop most of the time. But, that’s where the crux of my issue with this rumor comes into play.

Not Quite a DeX Competitor

Since we’re talking about Apple, we have to look at how the company tends to approach these types of features. It’s never really as cut and dry as you might expect it to be. And that’s the case here, too.

According to MajinBu, the support for external displays on iPhone won’t be the DeX-like desktop mode that many of us are hoping for. Instead, it’ll mostly just be a way to extend the display for editing, presentations, or just enhanced viewing of content.

That’s a bit of a bummer, as I was truly hoping that Apple would fully embrace making the iPhone into a productivity powerhouse—even more than it already is.

Because of this design, though, the feature will likely be very limited as to what apps it will run at the extended aspect ratio.

I Can Use AR Glasses and an iPhone to Get Work Done

One potential use case I can see being handy for external display support on iPhone is being able to connect it to a pair of augmented reality glasses, like Apple Vision. This would allow you to turn your phone into a virtual workspace instead of relying on an external monitor like traditional computer systems do.

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For those looking to get truly immersed in their work and tune out the outside world, this could be huge. Of course, there’s still some wrinkles to iron out there, as AR like Apple Vision has issues of its own that we won’t get into within this article. But, the potential there is exciting.

Even if it is as limited as MajinBu suggests, using AR glasses could still be applicable here.

Ditch the Weird Aspect Ratio

As I noted above, one reason that the iPhone’s mirror display system currently available is so disappointing is because of how limited it is. The weird aspect ratio (which mimics the iPhone display itself) is hard to work with. At that point, I might as well work directly off my phone because at least it would be less distracting.

That said, extending the display would remove this problem altogether by fitting the background software to the display that you connect it to. Considering the power of the chipsets found inside of the newer iPhones, it should be more than capable of running basic programs that people like me would need for their work—and honestly even more intensive programs and apps like games.

Considering Apple has slowly been working to make all of its various devices work better together and feel more cohesive as a whole, making it easier to work from your iPhone feels like a good step in the right direction.

Of course, the downside to rumors like this is that even when they come from renowned leakers, they are still just rumors. There’s no guarantee that these features will ever see the light of day, or that they’ll arrive when people say they will. There’s also the fact that rumors so far say this feature will be extremely limited, far beyond what would actually make it as impactful as possible.

Given Apple’s recent track record of overpromising AI features and failing to deliver on Apple Intelligence features I actually use, I’m hard-pressed to buy into the hype completely just yet. But the potential is there, and if Apple does deliver on this DeX-like feature, it could help me ditch my laptop altogether.