GoKawiilI’ve been enjoying using the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, with its unique shape and powerful underlying hardware. But what I’ve been less impressed with is the continued subpar multitasking within the Z Fold 8’s software.
The work laptop has been under constant attack from phones and tablets — and more recently, foldables — for the past several years. However, despite the onslaught, the humble portable computer has been doing well for several reasons.
Laptops are cheaper than comparably powerful phones; they generally come with longer-lasting batteries and have built-in trackpads and keyboards for more precise inputs than a touchscreen. Some even park their tanks on the tablet’s lawn and offer touchscreens or a 360-degree hinge for a literally more flexible experience.
But it’s the app multitasking ability that I think really keeps touchscreen devices from becoming proper work machines. And the Galaxy Z Fold 8 series doesn’t do enough to change that.
Are multitasking features an appealing part of foldable phones for you? 19 votes It's the main thing that draws me to foldables 63 % I can take or leave them 16 % I don't care if they're there or not 21 %
Splitting and sliding
Richard Priday / Android Authority
Arranging apps across your screen in customizable windows is something we take for granted on Windows, macOS, or Linux machines. But as descendants of smartphones, tablets, and foldables, they are still designed to use one app at a time. That’s fine if you are happy to focus on one particular task, but less handy if you need to switch from your chat app to your notes, to your to-do list, to your current document, and back again.
Tablets, with their larger displays, pioneered multitasking on touchscreen devices, and foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold family adopted these systems. For years, Galaxy Z Fold models could offer up to three apps — one taking up half the screen, the other two taking up a quarter — plus additional apps in small slide-over windows. This could work well if you only need small viewports of specific apps, like your notes or a browser, but trying to watch a video while scrolling social media was limited and frustrating.
It’s the app multitasking ability that I think really keeps touchscreen devices from becoming proper work machines.
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