The first rule of purse computer is to check your bag before you leave the house.
A few days ago, I took a 15-minute walk to the nearest coffee shop thinking I had my new folding keyboard in my bag — the key component that will turn the Galaxy Z Fold 7 into a mobile workstation. I spent the entire trip congratulating myself on how much lighter it felt compared to carrying my MacBook. “It’s almost like it’s not there,” I thought.
That was because it wasn’t there, which I only discovered once I was at my destination. I tapped out a few emails with my thumbs, drank a latte, and went back home embarrassed.
After using every major 2025 phone in succession, early 2026 has given me some time to revisit some of my favorite phones. While I eagerly awaited the arrival of the Galaxy Z Trifold, I started carrying around the Z Fold 7, which is so thin and light that it effectively comes with all the benefits of a folding phone, with none of the usual weight and size penalties. Once I realized I was essentially carrying around a keyboard-less Chromebook, I figured I might as well get a keyboard and see if I could use a folding phone as my laptop. It’s not perfect, but I’d have a hard time going back.
It’s not perfect, but I’d have a hard time going back.
You don’t have to be a wallet carrier to use a wallet computer. This is what I call a combination of a lightweight travel keyboard and a foldable phone. And look, I know this isn’t a new concept either. Folding phone enthusiasts have been touting their devices as mobile workstations for years, there are iPads with keyboard cases, and hell, remember netbooks? Collectively, we’ve been trying to minimize our laptops in all sorts of creative ways for as long as laptops have existed.
That’s exactly what a wallet computer is to me: a replacement for my laptop, aka a backpack computer. As laptops go, the MacBook Air released by my company is honestly hella light. And technically, it fits in the (large) tote bag that goes everywhere with me. But it’s a lot heavier to carry that way than walking from my car to the coffee shop, so it’s important to “backpack” a backpack computer to a coworking space or another workplace. The trouble is, once I’m done and I need to do something, I still have my laptop. I’m burdened. What do I do when I need to go to Target? Put my MacBook in the trunk? When I buy toothpaste, carry it up and down the aisles of the store? It all feels wrong. This is where the wallet computer steps in.
Much of my journey revolves around finding the right keyboard. My needs: Light and small enough that I barely notice it in my bag, but big enough to feel like a real keyboard when in use. I tried a Protark folding keyboard (too big), a cheap Samsor off Amazon (too squirrelly), and finally settled on the Logitech Keys 2 Go. This is the one I’ve enjoyed the most – it’s so thin and light I can barely see it in my bag, and it has full-sized keys. Unlike the other two, it doesn’t come with a phone stand (although the first-generation Keys 2 Go did) or charge via USB-C. But it’s easy enough to get a separate stand for the phone — I’m borrowing the one that came with Samsung — and Logitech says the Keys 2 Go’s coin-cell batteries will last a full three years before you need to replace them.
You may know the wallet computer by another name: the four-pocket laptop. Michael Fisher, known for his Mr. Mobile YouTube channel and his penchant for folding phones, dubbed it. It’s been experimenting with the folding-phone-a-computer concept since the Fold 3 came out in 2021. So when I decided to embrace the Purse Computer life, there was really only one person to call for some guidance.
His first piece of advice is to get the one thing I don’t currently have: a kickstand case for the phone. He says that the detached position is a pain. “It adds another pocket to it, it’s one thing to forget it. It’s another thing to fiddle with it while you’re setting it up.” After arguing with one at more than one coffee shop so far, I agree. Samsung offers a Zfold 7 case with an attached kickstand that will do the trick.
Fisher’s current setup with the Galaxy Z TriFold includes a kickstand case that the company doesn’t sell here. He bought one while he was in Taipei. He’s currently using a Nuphy keyboard, which he admits is a little bigger than he’d like, but likes anyway. “It’s much better when I’m typing on it, and it makes me feel like I’m using the computer a lot more visually.”
This is the second part of the challenge: convincing yourself that the phone is a computer. The keyboard is an important addition here. While I can and do write an entire blog using the on-screen keyboard, it wasn’t my favorite experience. The physical keys go a long way to put me in the right headspace to write. But the second thing is persuasion phone That it is a computer. Samsung’s UI is quite permissive—you can open up to four apps in progressively smaller windows and resize them to your heart’s content. But I still run into weird issues when I try to use some Android apps on the internal screen.
Chrome insists on going back to my default personal profile every time I open a new tab, and my attempts to avoid using the unpleasant Google Docs mobile app have been unsuccessful. The phone refuses to let me open the desktop website for Google Docs in a browser using my work profile, no matter how many ways I try to hide it. Apps like Slack make no use of the extra screen space, instead offering a stretched version of the phone app with lots of white space. But of The Verge Senior News Editor (and fellow Foldable fan) Richard Lawler pointed me to a better approach: opening Slack in a Chrome tab instead of the internal-screen Slack app. It’ll prompt you to open the app instead, since you’re using the phone after all, but you have to take the extra step to leave it behind. Maybe the unification of ChromeOS and Android will have some trickle-down benefits for the tablet segment of Android foldables, but if it does, it won’t be for a while.
It takes a special kind of person want To find out how to open Slack in a Chrome tab on the inside screen of a folding phone
However, this is part of the hidden ingredient in this arrangement: patience. It takes a special kind of person want To find out how to open Slack in a Chrome tab on the inside screen of a folding phone. Judging by some of the looks I’ve seen at the coffee shop when I’m using my mobile setup, it’s not something everyone is ready for. And it still has limitations to work with — the battery life isn’t as good as my MacBook, and my lifeline to the rest of the world when the phone is off. I’ve found it’s fine for short periods of time, maybe an hour or two, but I wouldn’t try to get a full day out of a wallet computer without building in time to recharge.
And you know what? I’m totally fine with that. I don’t need a foldable to be my all-day laptop, because that’s not what a wallet computer is about. I just want something easy to carry in a normal bag so I can be human in the world for a few hours. The friction of packing my bag is enough to keep me from leaving the house most workdays. But when it comes to carrying the phone I was going to bring anyway, plus a small keyboard that fits into the small bag I already have on the back of my bike, it suddenly becomes a lot easier to travel.
Mr Mobile agrees. “You have to use it to understand its usefulness,” he says. And once you’re hooked, “going back to another phone almost feels primitive.” I’ll have to move on from the Fold 7 soon, because the phone reviewer couldn’t be more comfortable. But I have a feeling that the Trifold I’ll be testing soon will offer many more ways to experiment without leaving your laptop at home.
Photography by Alison Johnson/The Verge.
