Smartphone innovation has been stagnant in the past few years. The processing power department has even seen the lower to mid-range segments close the gap with the high-end chipsets. This has resulted in a decline in sales volume of flagship devices even for the biggest manufacturers. Sure, there’s an ongoing battle against bezels which the flagships are winning but there isn’t a lot of functional improvements to handsets to merit an upgrade each year. The flagship segment, therefore, has taken a particularly heavy hit in this downward trend. Why buy a new top-of-the-line model when a cheaper or even an older smartphone can do almost everything you’d want? Everyone in the industry, therefore, is desperately hard at work at reinventing the smartphone. Currently, they’re taking a cue from the laptop industry by focusing on multifunctionality. Specifically, Samsung and Huawei are taking the 2-in-1 route. Rumour has it that even Apple is developing a 2-in-1 device as well. In this spirit, recently made a huge splash with their release of the Galaxy Fold. It’s essentially a 2-in-1 device that functions both as a smartphone and a tablet. It’s become the new phablet in a world where 6.0-inch screens have become the definition of a regular-sized smartphone. But, as it is in the 2-in-1 laptop segment, it’s bound to compromise one or both aspects of what they’re trying to be. The most important 2-in-1 PC in the Surface Pro 6, for example, is a much better laptop than it is a tablet. The Galaxy Fold will probably make a similar compromise between a smartphone and a tablet. Which way it leans is something that we’d just have to figure out as we go along. Build Quality As you’d expect from a Samsung flagship, build quality is top notch here. The magnets and the hinges all feel durable. Being a foldable device however, there are some compromises to the build that could lead one to an opinion that it’s not a market-ready device. In its folded orientation, there is a small Gorilla glass covered 4.6-inch display. By today’s standard, this is already considered a tiny screen. It is, therefore, best suited for interacting with notifications, changing music, and checking out what time it is. Another thing to remember when in this orientation is that it’s twice the thickness of a regular flagship device. It’s a bit of a chunky 4.6-inch phone this way. Unfolding the device is where most of its wow-factor is anchored. There’s something novel in seeing the screen for the first time. In this form-factor, it becomes a behemoth of a smartphone with 7.3-inches of screen. In this format, it feels closer to an iPad Mini than any other smartphone. Screen It’s difficult not to focus on the screen tech in any review of the Galaxy Fold. They’re calling it the Infinity Flex and it’s definitely something fresh and innovative. It should be noted, though that there’s a visible crease where the screen unfolds. It’s a necessary evil that Samsung made sure to hide behind the lushness of the display itself. The absolutely brilliant screen more than makes up for it because it becomes virtually unnoticeable when you’re consuming content. It’s only on white backgrounds that the crease becomes visible and even then, it’s easy to ignore it much like the notch on the iPhone X. Despite the plastic outer cover, the display is just as vivid and crisp as the best of them. This is because, underneath the plastic, there’s a class-leading Super AMOLED Display. It’s the same one found on the heralded screens of the Galaxy S10 line. While the main screen is generally great, there are some compromises that had to be taken in order to achieve foldability. The most prominent of which is the use of plastic instead of glass. Another less noticeable compromise is the gap between the body and screen where it folds. This makes it a bit of dust magnet. You’ll surely have a couple of annoying dust particle in the screen within a few days of use outdoors. The third, most annoying screen quirk is the asymmetrical notch on the main foldable screen. It’s located on the top right corner which diminishes the viewing experience a little bit as it covers some of the content. Specs When it comes to power, the Galaxy Fold through and through a flagship-level device. It comes equipped with the latest Snapdragon 855 which is both more powerful and more efficient than the previous generation. It’s also coupled with a whopping 12Gb of RAM and 512Gb of storage. What this means is that you’ll be able to run just about anything on the Google Play Store without any performance problems. The bigger size footprint also allows it to sport a 4,380 mAh which is one of the best in the smartphone market. It should also be easy enough to charge it because it has Quickcharge 2.0 and wireless charging capabilities. Camera-wise, you can expect top-tier Samsung experience here. It’s got a total of 6 cameras – a mix of TOF sensors, telephoto lenses, and wide-angles similar to the S10+ configuration. The extra sensors are located on the main screen selfie shooters. User Experience It supports Samsung’s One UI which is a huge improvement on TouchWiz. It’s fully compatible in the recently released S10 devices. Those smartphones show what One UI is really all about. It's a different story with the Galaxy Fold though. Both the UI and the Galaxy Fold are new to the smartphone world, so they’re not fully fleshed out yet; especially with each other. Suffice it to say that they’re still not in perfect sync yet. Some apps might not work with the full-screen mode on the foldable device. Despite this incongruence, however, the device is still surprisingly usable. For the apps that do work with the full-screen mode, it works magically well. You can be more productive with some apps, for example, because the large screen shows a lot more information than the normal smartphone display. Specifically, Gmail shows three columns of emails. The bigger screen also benefits content consumption and gaming as it makes the experience more immersive. Controls for games become much easier on a bigger screen. It’s important to take note of the notch though. Is It Recommendable? Overall, it’s a bold move for Samsung to release this device so early. Sure, there are still quirks and imperfections but those are arguably expected from such a fresh and innovative device. It’s definitely a risk which, at least right now, is not yet paying off. Currently, the smartphone’s release date has been moved due to display problems with early review units given to YouTube influencers. For truly loaded smartphone enthusiasts, this is something that you can't let pass you by. For others who are just looking for the top-of-the-line performance, it's still a bit of a proof of concept than a finished product to use as your daily driver.

More efficient internet communication tools have come and gone but the email, it seems, is here to stay. In fact, instead of going the way of Yahoo Messenger that got killed off just last year, the number of emails being sent and received is still climbing 6% per year. To put that in context, there were already 188 billion emails sent daily in 2013. This is mostly because it has a low barrier to use. Even the elderly, most of whom are notoriously tech illiterate, have email addresses. However, it’s something that not a lot of users have the time or the motivation to master. The end result is an avalanche of emails, both urgent and unimportant, left unread and unsent. The average user’s inbox has become an indistinguishable mix of spam, personal, and professional messages that might take years to read through. So, we thought that it’s about time that we try to finally take back control and enhance our mastery of it. Here are some easy steps so you never have to miss an important email again: Have Multiple Email Accounts for Specific Uses Have you experienced missing an important email because it came jumbled in with other inconsequential ones? It’s a real problem with some people even missing lucrative job offers because of this disorder. One way to introduce order to mess of an email account is to use specific emails for specific tasks. The one you use for logging on to apps and websites, for example, should be different from where you receive emails from your professional contacts. Segmentation is the name of the game here and it could help you make sure that you don’t miss another important email. You should also use a different email for logging in to various websites and apps. These tend to come with an email list subscription that could potentially lead to a pile-up of spam and promotional emails that you didn’t ask for. Unsubscribe to Websites You Don’t Really Want to Follow Hidden in the fine print after the end of each spam mail is an unsubscribe button that can do wonders for your inbox and your sanity. It’s something that’s always been there but we just don’t notice. This is because we’re so quick to hit the delete button on spam and, of course, they’re usually written in a small font and can be located only after you’ve scrolled through the entire email. Sure, the delete button is easy enough to click on every time you receive spam, but do you know what’s easier? – not needing to click on it again for the next round of spam mail from that website. Keep only the promotional materials from the subscriptions that you truly care about. Turn Off Notifications It’s not a good feeling when you miss an important email but it’s an even worse endeavour to work through an annoyingly steady amount of email notifications you get throughout the day. For this reason, it may be wise to turn it off. Emails have become productivity tools more than anything. But, how can you be productive with notifications going off on you every other minute? It is recommended that you check email only when you have time to respond. This way, you don’t have to craft emails in your head while you’re doing something else. Furthermore, you'll be able to give your response the emails the focus and attention it deserves. At the beginning of the workday and at the end of it before going home would be the best times. This way, you’ll be able to work on the most urgent emails in the morning and on the less urgent ones at night. Use the Draft and Schedule Functions For those ultra-important emails like a job application cover letter, you’ll want to take some precious time to craft the absolute version of it. You are selling yourself, after all, and you don’t want to short-change or oversell. A balance must be struck and that takes time, effort, and focus. However, in the effort to make it as perfect as it can be, you can get way too focused that you forget to click the send button. In these cases, it might be best to schedule your response. It’s a new feature that I think should have always been there. Another use case where scheduled emails might be applicable is when you’ve crafted an email on a Saturday. If you send it on that day, you’d end up looking like a workaholic. Recipients will then be pressured to reply or act on your email accordingly. This is frowned upon especially in a society where a work-life balance has become a prevailing ideology. Delete Email Exchanges That You No Longer Need One thing that has an immediate effect on your inbox is to delete your messages altogether. This immediately diminishes the visual clutter. However, did you know doing so can also give you some extra space on your cloud drive? This is because deleting messages deletes attachments as well. This means that photos, videos, documents, and other media get deleted from your drives as well. While they may be small, accumulation of these can amount to a lot, especially on your expensive cloud storage services like Google Drive or OneDrive. Email services like Google and Hotmail have recently made it easier for users to delete in bulk by letting you select all the messages in a certain category. Combined with the relatively well-categorized management system, you can accomplish this task quite easily. The promotions category is the usual victim of this method. Don’t Use Email for Extremely Urgent Situations You don’t email for a 911-worthy situation. Not everyone is invested in email at the same level. Millennials and younger generations, for example, tend to use instant messaging applications readily available on smartphones such as Slack and even Facebook Messenger more than emails. Emails are for important yet not too urgent tasks that don’t require a reply or some other action on the spot.

The new model offers signifcant upgrades from the original including multiroom music and hi-res streaming, So far reviews have been positive of this all-in-one wireless system.

Vaping tech has come a long way since it's early adoption phase around 2004. I got started vaping about 5 years ago when it was on the cusp of becoming mainstream. It has certainly helped me quit a few times by easing the cravings and replacing (mostly) the act, and the better the technology gets the closer it resembles smoking and can help make the process easier.

Just when you thought we have reached the epitome of consumer electronics Google breaks boundaries again in their I/O Conference. Somewhat unsurprisingly it looks like the focus has been making ordinary household tasks easier by using clever gadgets.

I love ROG laptops. I've had one for the past two years and its worked better than any desktop computer I've had in the past! These new models look amazing. I love the aesthetic. Personally, I think they look better than Razer laptops.

May isn't usually a month we associate with tech releases, but there has been a lot of buzz this month already from several of the large tech providers. The mobile device market is showing no signs of decline and there are plenty of fun new gadgets to consume. Hopefully your mother is into smart watches!

These speakers seem very affordable for the level of quality. High-end speakers can cost thousands, so it's nice to see someone making a well put together and cost-effective solution.

Apple's HomeKit, and the smart devices that work with it, have sure come a long way since the technology first appeared! This article shows just how home automation can make life easier in our busy world.

Despite its ongoing legal tensions in the United States, Huawei is continuing to gain users. The brand has already topped one of its smartphone rivals, Apple, and is steadily gaining on another, Samsung. Maybe this will push the other brands to innovate.

Samsung made the Sero with Millenials in mind as social media continues to influence manufacturing and design decisions. The Sero can be flipped vertically or horizontally and looks more like a piece of art than your standard television.