I used the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 to replace a laptop — here’s what happened

I used the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold three to supplant a laptop — hither'southward what happened

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 being used a laptop with a Bluetooth keyboard.

(Image credit: Imad Khan)

Squeezed in the window seat of a Southwest Airlines flight, I had a revelatory moment with my Samsung Milky way Z Fold iii. While the person side by side to me had conked out, I was typing abroad, writing an article about why 49-inch ultrawide monitors transformed how I work. The irony of writing about monitors that are about four anxiety wide on a brandish that's but 7.6 inches diagonally was not lost on me. Nevertheless, during a contempo flight with the Z Fold 3 every bit my primary device, I couldn't get over how far engineering had come.

My task was simple: apply the Samsung Milky way Z Fold iii as a laptop on a curt domestic flight. In this instance, I was flying three-and-a-one-half hours from Houston to New York for a work trip. Instead of taking out my Microsoft Surface, I would set up a Z Fold three on a tablet stand and apply the iClever BK08, a squat foldable Bluetooth keyboard, equally my main input tool. The experience was surprisingly usable, even if Android all the same has some hiccups with mouse support.

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While the program was to utilise the Z Fold three to accomplish all my editing duties, Southwest Airlines' bottomless Wi-Fi made doing anything near impossible. Fifty-fifty loading Slack messages was maddeningly futile. Instead, I opted to open Microsoft Discussion and type our the stance piece linked higher up.

The typing experience on Word for mobile running on my Z Fold 3 was fine — not as robust as the desktop version would exist, just that was to be expected. Using the iClever BK08's trackpad worked like any other mouse on a laptop. The cursor appeared simply every bit I would wait.

Multitasking like a laptop on a Milky way Z Fold 3

The great thing nigh the Galaxy Z Fold 3 was its ability to snap multiple apps on the screen at one time. I had a Word document open on one one-half of the Z Fold iii'due south main display, while on the other, Slack was at that place, telling me it was unable to connect.

Autonomously from in-flying Wi-Fi woes, I ran into some odd quirks that however need to exist ironed out in Android. For example, using the mouse to highlight over text is impossible with a trackpad. Android wants you to highlight with your finger against the touchscreen. It'south i of those things that pulls you lot out of the experience, and was a reminder I was using something that's still a touchscreen device beginning, and a laptop second.

In terms of battery life, plainly using the phone's total stretched out display for iii-plus hours was a drain. Only battery life wasn't dropping equally exponentially as I thought it would. The percentage meter at the height correct trickled downward slowly. I yet had an Anker PowerCore Slim beside me to give my phone an emergency top-off if necessary, simply honestly, it handled things well.

Eventually I did get some Wi-Fi during my flight, and was able to connect to Spotify for a few brief minutes. Information technology fabricated drowning out the cries of the screaming baby a few rows dorsum a welcome reprieve, even if only for the length of a single song.

Merely using Spotify in the groundwork while typing abroad on my commodity worked on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 just as it would on an bodily laptop. I found no issues when using both the Sony WF-1000MX3 earbuds and wireless keyboard on Bluetooth.

The Galaxy Z Fold 3's impact

After graduating from higher, I was working at a T-Mobile store in Austin while trying to get my journalism career off the ground. I was ever surprised at the number of people who would walk into the store, those with mostly bad or subpar credit, who would opt to get a Samsung Milky way Note 3. The phone was often the most expensive device at our store, but nevertheless, these buyers were willing to pay half or the entire telephone up-front to get it. Information technology just didn't brand sense to me.

It was in talking to people who work in the fast food service industry did I realize that for these buyers, they weren't buying a Notation to splurge — they were buying a Note considering it was meant to be their chief computer.

Oftentimes, having a split up telephone and laptop is a luxury for those on tight budgets and minimum wage incomes. For those folks, the Galaxy Annotation was a multipurpose device — non just for watching videos or making calls, but as something they could take notes on. For them, screen real manor was everything as it directly equated to how much they could practise.

Once the Z Fold series does drib to the $1,000 price point over the side by side several years, I hope it will be a revelatory moment for more than phone buyers as it has been for me. But until that happens, foldables are a fascinating bridge between phones and laptops for those who can pay the premium.

Final impressions

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is not a perfect laptop replacement. It notwithstanding feels very much like using an Android tablet, but with a mouse and keyboard. And both Google and Samsung volition demand to spend more time enhancing the user feel before we can beginning recommending that people terminate bringing their work laptop with them on a flight.

Samsung also needs to practise more with Dex on the Galaxy Z Fold 3. Dex is an interface that changes the Android user interface to mirror a more familiar Windows desktop experience. But to access this interface, a Z Fold 3 needs to be connected to an external monitor. I believe Samsung should permit you use the Z Fold 3 internal screen every bit that display, eliminating the need for another monitor. And I know Samsung can practise it, as the Dex user interface can be enabled on other Samsung tablets. Extending Dex to the Z Fold iii could truly replace a laptop during emergency state of affairs.

My Galaxy Z Fold 3-as-laptop experiment worked. But my employ case was a lot less than what others might use their laptop for. If you but need a device that can cheque emails, send messages, mind to music and watch videos, then using the Galaxy Z Fold three as a temporary laptop works tremendously well. Information technology'south something that can merely get better from hither. Samsung has already laid down a solid foundation, giving the Z Fold iii tremendous potential.

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Imad Khan is news editor at Tom'south Guide, helping direct the twenty-four hour period's breaking coverage. Prior to working at the site, Imad was a full-time freelancer, with bylines at the New York Times, the Washington Post and ESPN. Outside of piece of work, you tin can discover him sitting blankly in front of a Word document trying desperately to write the first pages of a new book.