14 DAY TRIAL // Keeping mobile phones and PCs in sync is something that several companies have tried to do, including Microsoft, which offered several features in this regard in Windows 10 with help from digital assistant Cortana.
Despite the substantial improvements that Windows 10 received, however, it still lacks in terms of functionality when compared to Apple’s own Continuity, which manages to provide uncompromised sync features between iPhones and Mac systems, with support for calls, messages, and several other features.
Answering messages and calls from phones directly on a PC is a thing that many Windows users would love to do, and while Cortana does come with some limitations, Dell could come with a more advanced solution.
The iPhone challenge
Presented at CES 2018, Dell’s Mobile Connect offers such functionality for both Android and iPhones, allowing users to simply respond to text messages, view incoming phone notifications on the desktop and mirror the phone screen on the PC monitor. This means Windows users are capable even of navigating apps running on the smartphone, be it an Android device or an iPhone, all with just Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
Certainly, this does sound appealing and it’s pretty much the first Windows implementation that sounds very similar to Apple’s Continuity, though it remains to be seen how everything works with iPhones given the walled garden that Cupertino is already famous for.
Dell Mobile Connect requires a Dell PC and mobile apps to be installed on Windows, Android, and iPhone, and the overall experience should be greatly improved in the future, as the company is currently working on refining performance. Without a doubt, it’s a challenge to get everything right on the iPhone, but Dell promises that calls and messages should work just like expected.
On the other hand, the app comes pre-loaded with new Dell laptops. Functionality to run iPhone apps on the PC isn’t available just yet, but it should be by the end of the month.
