My thought has always been that it’s not that things like that can’t work in dreams, but dreams are mostly symbolic and you’re more likely to dream about using a phone or something if you have an issue with what it symbolizes. For instance, I personally often dream about trying to call or text my wife, but either the phone doesn’t work, I can’t see the screen, she can’t hear me, or something like that. My guess is that the dream is about my frustration when I can’t communicate well with my wife.
I’ve also had dreams where I was stuck or trapped in something and couldn’t get my phone to work, couldn’t make my voice work to yell, or anything like that, and I figure that it’s because I have real issues asking anyone else for help.