Who wants a laptop computer when you’ve a folding cellphone?

[ad_1] The primary rule of Purse Laptop is to test your bag earlier than you permit the home.

A number of days in the past, I took a 15 minute stroll to a close-by espresso store pondering I had my new folding keyboard in my bag — the important thing ingredient that might flip the Galaxy Z Fold 7 right into a cell workstation. I spent the entire journey congratulating myself on how gentle it felt in comparison with carrying my MacBook. “It’s virtually prefer it’s not there,” I assumed.

This was as a result of it wasn’t there, which I found solely as soon as I used to be at my vacation spot. I tapped out a couple of emails with my thumbs, drank a latte, and walked again residence in disgrace.

After utilizing each main cellphone of 2025 in succession, early 2026 has allowed me a while to revisit a few of my favorites. Whereas I eagerly await the arrival of the Galaxy Z Trifold, I began carrying the Z Fold 7, which is so slim and lightweight it successfully comes with all the advantages of a folding cellphone, with not one of the regular weight and dimension penalties. As soon as I noticed I used to be principally carrying a keyboard-less Chromebook, I figured I'd as properly get a keyboard and see how far I might get utilizing a folding cellphone as my laptop computer. It’s not excellent, however I’m going to have a really onerous time going again.

It’s not excellent, however I’m going to have a really onerous time going again

You don’t have to be a purse-carrier to make use of Purse Laptop; it’s simply what I’m calling the mix of a light-weight journey keyboard and foldable cellphone. And look, I do know this isn’t a brand new idea, both. Folding cellphone lovers have been kitting out their units as cell workstations for years now, iPads with keyboard circumstances exist, and hell, keep in mind netbooks? Collectively, we’ve been making an attempt to downsize our laptops in all types of inventive methods virtually so long as laptops have existed.

That’s precisely what Purse Laptop is for me: an alternative choice to my laptop computer, aka Backpack Laptop. As laptops go, my company-issued MacBook Air is hella gentle, actually. And technically, it suits within the (big) tote bag that goes in all places with me. Nevertheless it’s simply too heavy to hold that approach for far more than the stroll from my automobile right into a espresso store, so journeys to a coworking area or another distant work spot require placing the “backpack” in Backpack Laptop. The difficulty is, as soon as I’m completed working and I have to run an errand, I nonetheless have my laptop computer on my particular person. I'm encumbered. What do I do after I have to run into Goal? Put my MacBook within the trunk? Haul it up and down the aisles of the shop whereas I purchase toothpaste? It feels all improper. That’s the place Purse Laptop steps in.

Most of my journey has revolved round discovering the fitting keyboard. My necessities: gentle and sufficiently small that I hardly discover it in my bag, however large enough to really feel like an actual keyboard when in use. I attempted a Protoarc folding keyboard (too large), a cheapo Samsers off of Amazon (too squirrelly), and have lastly settled on a Logitech Keys 2 Go. It’s the one I’ve loved probably the most — it’s so skinny and lightweight I barely discover it in my bag, and it has full-size keys. Not like the opposite two it doesn’t include a cellphone stand (although the first-gen Keys 2 Go appears to come back with one) or cost over USB-C. Nevertheless it’s straightforward sufficient to get a separate stand for the cellphone — I’ve been borrowing the one which got here with the Samsers — and Logitech says the Keys 2 Go’s coin cell batteries will final a full three years earlier than it's essential exchange them.

<img alt="Folding phone propped up on a table with a travel keyboard." data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="x271pn0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/DSC02504.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/DSC02504.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/DSC02504.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/DSC02504.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/DSC02504.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/DSC02504.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/DSC02504.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/DSC02504.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/DSC02504.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/DSC02504.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/DSC02504.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/DSC02504.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/DSC02504.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/DSC02504.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/DSC02504.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/DSC02504.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Latte offered individually.

You may know Purse Laptop by one other identify: the four-pocket laptop computer. That’s what Michael Fisher, recognized for his Mr. Cellular YouTube channel and fondness for folding telephones, has dubbed it. He’s been experimenting with the folding-phone-as-a-computer idea for the reason that Fold 3 got here out in 2021. So after I determined to undertake the Purse Laptop life, there was actually just one particular person to name for some steerage.

His first piece of recommendation is to get the one factor I don’t presently have: a kickstand case for the cellphone. The separate stand is a ache, he says. “It provides one other pocket to it, it’s one other factor to neglect. It’s one other factor to fiddle with whenever you’re setting it up.” Having fiddled with one at a number of espresso outlets by now, I are inclined to agree. Samsung provides a Z Fold 7 case with a kickstand connected that might do the trick.

Fisher’s present setup with the Galaxy Z TriFold features a kickstand case the corporate doesn’t promote right here; he purchased one when he was in Taipei. He’s presently utilizing a Nuphy keyboard, which he admits remains to be a bit larger than he’d like, however adores anyway. “It’s so a lot better after I’m typing on it, and it makes me really feel like I’m utilizing a pc a lot extra viscerally.”

That’s the opposite a part of this problem: convincing your self that the cellphone is a pc. The keyboard is an important addition right here; whereas I can and have typed out a full weblog utilizing the on-screen keyboard, it wasn’t my favourite expertise. Bodily keys go an extended approach to placing me in the fitting headspace for writing. However the different factor is to persuade the cellphone that it's a pc. Samsung’s UI is fairly permissive — you'll be able to speak in confidence to 4 apps in progressively tinier home windows and resize them to your coronary heart’s content material. However I nonetheless run into bizarre points when I attempt to use sure Android apps on the internal display.

Chrome insists on leaping again to my default private profile each time I open a brand new tab, and my makes an attempt to keep away from utilizing the disagreeable Google Docs cell app have been unsuccessful. The cellphone refuses to let me open the desktop web site for Google Docs within the browser whereas utilizing my work profile, irrespective of what number of methods I attempt to sneak up on it. Apps like Slack make no use of the additional display area, as a substitute presenting a stretched model of the cellphone app with a number of white area. However The Verge’s Senior Information Editor (and fellow foldable fan) Richard Lawler tipped me off to a greater approach: opening Slack in a Chrome tab quite than the Slack app with the internal display. It’ll immediate you to open the app as a substitute, since you’re utilizing a cellphone in any case, however you simply must take the additional step to outsmart it. Possibly the unification of ChromeOS and Android may have some trickle-down advantages for the pill a part of an Android foldable, however even when it does that won't occur for some time.

It takes a sure type of particular person to need to discover a approach to open Slack in a Chrome tab on the internal display of a folding cellphone

Anyway, that’s all a part of the invisible ingredient on this association: endurance. It takes a sure type of particular person to need to discover a approach to open Slack in a Chrome tab on the internal display of a folding cellphone. Judging by a number of the glances I’ve gotten on the espresso store after I’m utilizing my cell setup, that’s not one thing everyone seems to be up for. And there are nonetheless limitations to work with — battery life is nowhere close to nearly as good as my MacBook, and when the cellphone is lifeless, so is my lifeline to the remainder of the world. I’ve discovered it’s a superb match for shorter stints, possibly an hour or two, however I wouldn’t attempt to make a full time out of Purse Laptop with out constructing in time to recharge.

And you recognize what? I’m simply nice with that. I don’t want a foldable to be my all-day laptop computer, as a result of that’s not what Purse Laptop is about. I simply need one thing straightforward to hold in an everyday bag so I is usually a human out on the earth for a couple of hours. The friction of packing up my backpack is simply sufficient to maintain me from leaving the home most workdays. However when it’s only a matter of carrying the cellphone I used to be going to carry anyway, plus somewhat keyboard that matches into the small bag already on the again of my bike, all of the sudden it’s a a lot simpler journey to make.

Mr. Cellular agrees. “It's important to use it to know its utility,” he says. And when you’re hooked, “going again to a different cellphone begins to really feel virtually primitive.” I’ll have to maneuver on from the Fold 7 quickly sufficient, as a result of a cellphone reviewer can’t get too comfy. However I've a sense the Trifold I’ll be testing quickly will provide a lot extra methods to experiment with leaving my laptop computer at residence.

Pictures by Allison Johnson / The Verge

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