As I move on from the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 to the Google Pixel 11 Pro, I had a major realisation – I will no longer have the luxury of a foldable tablet-sized screen at my disposal at all times. Ever since, the Fold 8 has been on duty as my daily, my phone usage habits have changed dramatically. Other than the unusual addiction to doomscrolling on social media (which I am eager to shed), the Galaxy Z Fold 8 has changed the way I manage my work, my personal life and my entertainment on the move.
While my full-blown review of the Fold 8 covered all aspects of the phone in depth, this one is more about the concept of the full-size foldable phone changing usage habits. While most foldable phones nail the large screen part, most of them miss out on the crucial aspect – software that makes the most out of the large screen.
Samsung’s Fold 8, despite omitting some of the “Flex Mode” multitasking features, allows me as a user to do more on the larger display. Prior to this, the minimal nature of the Motorola Razr Fold’s UI also allowed certain basic tasks to be done better. I could say the same for the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold from last year, and the Vivo X Fold 5.
But, I have to move to a conventional slab phone, and that means I will be missing out on some of the multitasking luxuries that I have been experiencing lately.
1. Zero-loss ‘drag-and-drop’
On a standard smartphone, moving data across apps is an exercise in context-switching. You copy text, minimise the app, locate the target window, paste, and adjust broken formatting. It’s confusing at best.
A large foldable, like the Galaxy Z Fold 8, solves this by behaving like a dual-monitor desktop setup. With two full-sized app windows open side-by-side, you can tap and hold an image, or a PDF attachment, or a block of raw text in one window and physically drag it across the screen directly into an ongoing email draft, or a chat on WhatsApp. It cuts multi-step file transfers down to a single, continuous gesture. This comes in so handy when your office work transitions from your laptop to the phone.
2. Desktop-grade web browsing
One of the major irritations while working on a smartphone is the ‘AMP version’ of webpage – the mobile version. The layouts of most websites are stacked vertically, and navigation is hidden behind hamburger menus, and multi-column dashboards are stripped down. I can barely work on the mobile version of WordPress on the move, and hence, I have to consider carrying my laptop everywhere.
That hasn’t been the case with the foldables since the inner screen aspect ratio natively triggers desktop site rendering on browsers like Chrome and Firefox. Google Sheets, or internal CMS dashboards, load with their complete navigation panels and unscaled data tables visible at a glance. You review dense spreadsheets and financial charts with full column visibility without constant horizontal scrolling or pinch-zooming.
3. A 3-way split workspace
Rather than forcing extra apps into floating pop-up bubbles that clutter the view, a full-size inner display comfortably accommodates three active portrait apps simultaneously. In practice, this enables a single-screen command centre – consisting of an active video conference locked on the left, a Google Sheets page open on the right, and my news feed on X keeping me updated. I was able to maintain absolute visibility over all three apps at once without dropping off calls or toggling back and forth through an app switcher.
Can a conventional smartphone do this? No.
4. Hands-free mini laptop mode/small productivity tablet
By folding the phone into a half-folded position, the hinge transforms the hardware into its own adjustable tripod. While the Fold 8 and other foldables don’t do the software tweaking, the Fold 8 Ultra can cleverly adjust the UI to match the needs of the app.
For example, when placed flat on a desk during a Google Meet call, the top half angles the camera naturally at eye level while the lower screen rests flat. This frees up the bottom panel to function as a dedicated notes page or document reader, or even an app allowing me to reference material. You can attend virtual meetings and capture key action items completely hands-free, eliminating the need to carry external phone stands or lean your phone against coffee mugs.
And when you feel the need to lean the phone against something, you have a large canvas available for your desired task, just like a tablet.
5. Self-reliant camera system
Since you have a hinge that locks into certain angles, you no longer need things like a tripod to click photos and videos. You can fold the phone in half and hit the record button while placing it on a flat surface – the output will appear as if you had shot it from a professional setup. This mode comes in handy while taking group shots and long exposures – something I found handy on my short weekend hill station trip.
Then there’s the world’s best selfie capturing. Tap a couple of buttons on the camera app of any foldable phone and you get to see the rear camera showing a preview of the image or video on the cover screen. Hence, when you have to take a photo of a joint family trying to fit in the frame, you can simply task the phone’s ultrawide camera lens to do the job without eliminating yourself from the image. Even while clicking someone else’s portrait photo, you can preview your framing in real-time on the outer cover screen while the subject looks at themselves. This eliminates the possibility of a bad photo that your girlfriend or wife may not approve of. Thank me later.