Motorola Ready For brings a DeX-style desktop to the Edge Plus

Motorola is expanding its Edge Plus main phone with a new desktop computer interface called Ready For. Similar to Samsung’s DeX, Ready For allows users to connect their smartphone on a larger screen (using a USB-C to USB-C or USB-C to HDMI cable), allowing Edge Plus (and presumably, future phones Motorola) be used as a computer or even a decoder alternative.

The company actually envisions four different use cases for Ready For. At the most basic level, users can convert the Edge Plus to a mobile desktop computer configuration, complete with a Bluetooth mouse or keyboard – similar to DeX.

But Motorola also has more interesting ideas on how to use Edge Plus. One more, for example, turns the Edge Plus into a video conferencing station, using the smartphone’s upper cameras (be it the 108-megapixel main lens or the 16-megapixel ultra-wide lens) for a better video chat experience.

There are also entertainment options. Players can pair a controller and use Edge Plus as a makeshift console, whether for native mobile games, such as Fifteen days or with game streaming services like xCloud. Users can also connect their phones as an easily portable set-top box – Motorola plans to connect the Edge Plus to a hotel room TV, for example, giving you access to all of your streaming applications already connected when you’re traveling without having to worry about your room’s Wi-Fi configuration.

Ready For (or DeX) is not the first attempt to turn a smartphone into a computer. The history of the mobile phone is full of previous attempts, such as the aborted Palm Foleo or the LapDock accessory of Motorola’s own Atrix 4G. And while the Motorola use cases here are a little ambitious (and perhaps a little optimistic about the number of users who tend to keep HDMI to USB-C cables close by), there are certainly more creative ideas for converting a phone into a bigger screen in addition to an incomplete desktop computer experience.

Motorola’s Ready For experience is set to be implemented for Edge Plus users at Verizon starting today.