More gadget fun: the Galaxy Z
_Fold3_
(right) next to a Galaxy
_Note20_ Ultra.
The 6.9" Note20 was rolled back to Android 10 after 11 took away USB
_access_,
and so it shall remain until its battery gives up the ghost.
The 7.6" Fold3 shipped with Android 11 initially but auto-updated
to 12 a few months later, so it's been a test machine for both.
From a hardware perspective, the Fold is enough to excite even the most
jaded of gadget geeks: it unfolds from phone to mini tablet, and the
seam at the fold is hardly noticeable with actual use.
When unfolded, the Fold3 is _almost_ a PC stand-in, especially
with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and screen casting or Dex; and
_nearly_ replaces what was lost when the OQO died (see
_2006_ and
_2008_).
Now if it would only get a real Excel with VBA, and an Android that stops
locking down devices for whatever point-of-control agendas Google may want to
_push_.
Cynical, perhaps, but it's tough to watch yet
another system being pushed into the might-have-been column by
corporate greed and/or dysfunction. Of course, there's always
the Fold4...
(See also the Fold5 photo
_ahead_; the gadget show goes on.)