When you’re spending $2,000 on a smartphone, you naturally wonder if it can handle more than just calls and texts. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, with its massive foldable display and Samsung DeX feature, promises to blur the lines between phone and computer. But can it actually replace your trusty laptop for real work?
I decided to find out by ditching my work laptop for an entire day and relying solely on the Z Fold 7. The results were eye-opening, though not always in the way I expected.
The Promise of Samsung DeX: Turning Your Phone Into a Desktop
Samsung DeX isn’t new technology, but it’s certainly evolved. The concept is straightforward: connect your Galaxy phone to an external monitor, and voilà – you’ve got a desktop-like experience. Your phone essentially becomes a mini computer, complete with windows, a taskbar, and the ability to run multiple apps simultaneously.
The idea sounds perfect for digital nomads, business travelers, or anyone looking to streamline their tech setup. Instead of carrying both a phone and laptop, you could theoretically manage everything from one device.
Setting Up: The Easy Part
I’ll give Samsung credit where it’s due – getting started with DeX is remarkably simple. All you need is a USB-C hub that supports HDMI output, and you’re basically ready to go. I connected my Z Fold 7 to my monitor through the hub, plugged in a wireless keyboard and mouse, and within seconds, I had a desktop interface running.
The transition from phone to desktop mode happens almost instantly. Your wallpaper appears on the big screen, familiar Android apps open in resizable windows, and you get that satisfying feeling of having just assembled a makeshift workstation.
The Reality Check: Where Things Get Complicated
App Limitations Hit Hard
The first hurdle appeared almost immediately. Many of the tools I use daily – like Slack, Google Drive, and various web-based platforms – work differently in DeX mode. Instead of accessing full web versions, you’re often stuck with mobile app versions that weren’t designed for larger screens.
Slack, for instance, felt cramped and awkward on a 24-inch monitor. The mobile interface just doesn’t translate well to desktop use, making it harder to follow conversations and manage multiple channels. Google Drive had similar issues, with file sharing and organization feeling clunky compared to the web interface I’m used to.
This isn’t necessarily Samsung’s fault, but it’s a real limitation that affects productivity. You find yourself working around the software rather than with it.
The Mouse Experience: Functional but Frustrating
Using the Z Fold 7 as a trackpad is technically impressive but practically challenging. The phone screen divides into quadrants, and you can navigate the cursor by touching and swiping on the display. It works, but there’s a learning curve.
The biggest issue is orientation confusion. Depending on how your phone is positioned, moving your finger right might make the cursor go down instead. There are small visual indicators to help, but when you’re focused on the main screen, it’s easy to get disoriented.
After about an hour, I adapted to the system, but it never felt as natural as using a traditional trackpad or mouse.
The Keyboard Nightmare: Where DeX Falls Short
If there’s one aspect that nearly derailed my experiment, it was typing on the Z Fold 7’s virtual keyboard. Samsung splits the keyboard down the middle to accommodate the fold, creating two separate halves with a gap in between. Even the space bar is divided.
Comfort and Usability Issues
Despite the Z Fold 7 being larger than its predecessor, the split keyboard layout is simply not designed for comfortable typing. Unless you have unusually small hands, you’ll find yourself pecking at keys with two fingers rather than touch typing.
The placement of navigation buttons below the keyboard creates additional frustration. Just as you start finding a rhythm, you accidentally brush the home button and lose your typing interface. This happened repeatedly throughout my test day, breaking concentration and slowing down work.
Physical Setup Challenges
The phone’s physical design creates another problem. To use it effectively as a keyboard, you need to prop it up at an angle. However, the USB-C charging port’s location forces you to choose between stability and charging accessibility.
With the cameras facing up for better balance, the charging port is easily accessible but the phone can tip over. Flip it the other way, and it’s stable but harder to charge. It’s a frustrating compromise that highlights how foldable phones aren’t quite optimized for this use case.
Battery Life: The Silent Productivity Killer
Perhaps the most surprising limitation was battery drain. Running DeX mode, powering an external display, and maintaining wireless connections consumed power at an alarming rate. Even with the phone connected to a charging hub, the battery level continued dropping.
This created an unexpected workflow disruption. Every couple of hours, I had to disconnect everything and let the phone charge properly, breaking my work momentum. For a device that’s supposed to replace your laptop, this level of battery management is simply unacceptable.
The Verdict: Impressive Technology, Practical Limitations
After a full day of testing, I can say that using the Galaxy Z Fold 7 as a laptop replacement is technically possible but practically problematic. Samsung DeX works as advertised, and there’s something undeniably cool about turning your phone into a desktop computer.
When It Might Work for You
DeX could be genuinely useful for specific scenarios:
- Light productivity tasks like email and document editing
- Presentations where you need to connect to a projector
- Media consumption on larger screens
- Emergency situations where you need computer functionality
Why Most People Should Stick with Laptops
However, for serious work, the limitations quickly become apparent. If you need to carry a keyboard, mouse, hub, and various cables to make your phone functional as a computer, you might as well just bring a laptop. Laptops offer better software compatibility, superior typing experiences, longer battery life, and more reliable performance.
The Future of Mobile Computing
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 represents an important step in mobile computing evolution, but we’re not quite at the point where phones can truly replace laptops for most users. The hardware is increasingly capable, but software optimization and fundamental usability issues need addressing.
Samsung deserves credit for pushing boundaries and creating genuinely innovative features. DeX shows glimpses of a future where the line between phones and computers disappears entirely. We’re just not there yet.
For now, consider the Z Fold 7’s desktop capabilities as a nice bonus rather than a primary selling point. It’s a powerful phone that can occasionally pinch-hit as a computer, not a laptop replacement that happens to make calls.