I love writing. I don’t love sitting at a desk for hours at a time. This has been my fate for years, but finally, unexpectedly, my phone has set me free.
A Decade of Remote Work from a Desk
I’ve worked online writing for the web ever since I graduated from college. This has largely meant sitting at a laptop placed on a desk or table.
For years, I stood up after working feeling drained from the amount of time spent staring at an LCD screen, and my body ached from the posture. I’m well aware now how using a laptop requires looking down at an angle, straining my neck. Buying an external monitor to use at eye level wasn’t the easy solution it seemed, given how often I worked from different places.
Now that I have replaced my PC with my phone, my options have changed. I can do everything I need to do using my foldable Galaxy Z Fold 6.
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I once did everything from a laptop. Now I can’t be bothered.
When I bought this phone, I thought I would need Samsung DeX and its traditional desktop layout. Turns out, I’m actually able to get everything I need done from the phone’s internal screen. This has given me the option to kiss the desk goodbye.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 is a foldable smartphone that combines the functionality of a tablet with the convenience of a phone. It features a large, flexible internal screen that automatically picks up where you left off on the cover display.
Now I Sit Back In a Cozy Chair
I’m writing these words from a round, blue chair that molds around my body. It has a wide enough base that I can sit cross-legged. Granted, I sit cross-legged in almost every chair (as I edit these words later, I’m sitting cross-legged in a porch swing), but this blue one is my comfiest. It’s currently early in the morning, and I’m wrapped up in a blanket.
This is the same chair I was sitting in when I took this photo of The Forest Quartet.
I’ve tried working like this with a laptop, and it usually ended in regret. My arms couldn’t find a comfortable position, since the laptop had to sit too close to my torso. Several laptops would overheat from having their air vents blocked.
With my phone, I can switch up my posture as needed. Sometimes, I pull out my stylus and lean forward, writing as I would on a notebook. Other times, I hold my phone directly in front of me and type using the virtual keyboard. I find a foldable phone to be the ideal size and shape for this: more comfortable than regular phones (which feel cramped with my long fingers) while not being as unwieldy as a tablet (which tend to be too wide or awkwardly tall). Sometimes, like right this moment, I hold up my phone and use speech-to-text.
My Phone and Pen Travel With Me
When I left home in the past, I needed to have my laptop on me, just in case the opportunity arose to get work done. Yet a laptop alone wasn’t enough. I also needed a camera for photos and a hotspot for internet access. With so much tech to protect, it made sense to also invest in one of the best laptop bags to carry it all.
My Galaxy Z Fold 6 is an all-in-one device. The camera is good enough to take most of the photos I upload for work. The screen is large enough for both writing and managing photos. Photo editing apps are now good enough for me to touch up images without needing to first transfer them to another device. Internet access is baked into the device, so I no longer need a separate hotspot. There is no other device quite like it on the market in the US, meaning not only am I locked into Android if I want to preserve this workflow, I am also tied to Samsung.
I often use an optional S Pen to interact with my phone. I use it to navigate the web. I use it to write by hand. I use it for gesture typing. I even use it for gaming.
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I recommend the Fold edition S Pen made for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and 4. It’s thicker (like a regular pen), more durable, and more comfortable than the newer version, yet remains compatible. Here it is next to my previous Galaxy Z Fold 5.
I Work Wherever I Find Space
I am no longer limited to my home office, nor a specific chair, nor a specific table. I can be equally productive wherever I am able to place my body. If I wake up feeling tired, I can write in bed. If I am out and about, I can stop at a bench.
Thanks to increasingly accurate voice transcription, I can even record my thoughts out loud while driving and paste those words onto a page later. The portability of a phone and the variability of its input methods now offer me a degree of flexibility that has completely changed the way I work.
I now move about life with a greater degree of freedom and ease. I travel much lighter than I used to, and I’m no longer on the lookout for public libraries when I need to work away from home. A giant rock in a park will do just fine. Here’s the view from one such workplace a few days ago.
Sometimes I Don’t Sit Down at All
I live in rural county on a few acres of land, and we made sure our house has lots of doors so that it’s easy to slip outside. There’s plenty of space around me for going on walks. I have a long driveway and have carved a walking path through the woods. It’s easy to go outside when I’m tired of being cooped up inside and continue working without missing a beat.
On my Galaxy Z Fold 6, I can open a voice recorder app, put in a Bluetooth earbud, and talk with my hands free. I can then pause, pull out my phone, and transcribe my speech to text using on-device Galaxy AI. If you’re the kind of person who wants a Plaud Note, you understand what I’m saying.
Working directly on my phone, I don’t need to transfer files around or plan to do certain tasks when I get back to my desk. Everything is always available.
Cloud services have long made it possible to start work on a PC and continue working from a phone—but it’s still a revolutionary feeling to know that my favorite software and all of my files are always available, regardless of where I am or my current internet connection, in a form-factor that doesn’t feel (at least for me) like a compromise to use.
My home office is no longer the place I need to be for most od my work. It’s just another option.
