The hole-punch is exciting and all, but make no mistake about it, full-screen bezel-less goodness is still the goal for smartphones. Samsung understands this so they’re not sticking to the Galaxy S10’s hole-punch innovation for very long. In fact, it seems that they’ve moved on to a totally bezel-less display now. The mid-range segment through the Galaxy A80, it seems, is where they’ll begin their campaign. Instead of a notch or a hole-punch for the front-facing camera, Samsung opted to combine two existing methods – the motorized pop-up module and the reticulating rear-facing camera. Will it be the game-changing move that’ll define the standard for smartphone design in the future? That’s a probability. Samsung is a large enough company to influence the market in this big way. But as it stands currently, other companies are still trying their own methods and iterations of eliminating the need for bezels. Build, Quality, and Aesthetics The front is nothing short of stunning. It's a Super AMOLED panel that gets bright and vivid as only Samsung smartphones can get. Even if it’s just 1080p on a 6.7-inch screen, images remain crisp and clear because of the revolutionary Super AMOLED. However, turning it over reveals a back that’s a bit on the asymmetrical side. There’s a three-camera set-up on the top centre underlined with a hardware cut-out for the retractable rotating shooters. Sure, that can be said of most smartphones these days but the prominence of the cameras and the line that demarcates where the module cuts off from the rest of the back when the motorized pop-up mechanism is activated just isn’t a pretty sight. Some users might find this aesthetically unattractive, but the trade-off should be compelling in more ways than one. It seems to be the fashionable thing to do these days to use glass on both front and back sides and an aluminium frame on the device so that’s what the A80 comes wrapped in too. However, using glass on the back brings durability score down a bit because it doesn’t have wireless charging that requires glass-backed construction. The simple step of using metal instead of glass could have made it a bit more drop-proof. The colour-offerings are a bit lacking. It only comes in Phantom Black, Angel Gold, and Phantom White. It’s not that those aren’t attractive colours, it’s just that we’ve seen it before in the Galaxy S10 series so they’re nothing to be excited about. Now it’s obvious that the A80 isn’t Samsung’s flagship device but as a midrange smartphone, it’s pretty darn innovative. Motorized Pop-Up Rotating Camera It hits two birds with one stone. The front-facing cameras almost always suffered sub-par quality compared to the rear-facing cameras. Having the rear-cameras on the Galaxy A80 rotate solves that problem. It also makes what they call the Infinity Display possible. It’s their version of the almost bezel-less display. The result is the ability to take selfies with the 8-megapixel ultrawide shooter or high-quality portrait shots with the TOF sensor-assisted 48-megapixel main shooter. So, whether you’re in the mood to take a group-selfie or a high-quality glamour shot, you’ll most likely have crisp images. Because you’re always shooting with the main-cameras, you’ll also be able to shoot excellent live-focus videos. Although, it’s important to note that when in selfie-orientation, the live-focus video only works with 1080p. When it’s in the rear-facing orientation, it’s capable of 4K. As to why that is, hasn’t been discussed yet. Nevertheless, this should be a favourite feature for content creators as they’ll be more inclined to use the selfie-cameras when vlogging. Of course, it’s still no match for a DSLR but no smartphone camera, even the famed Google Pixel 3, can ever truly match up with those things. It’s important to note that Samsung isn’t the first company to use the motorized pop-up or the rotating camera module. This implementation is a combination of the Oppo N1 with the first ever rotating rear-facing camera set-up and Oppo Find X with its motorized pop up front-facing camera. However, it’s difficult to call Samsung a copycat here because they’re still technically the first one to implement both features in one phone. What it shows is a willingness to be bold with the newly re-energized enthusiasm for the mid-range segment for the South Korean tech giant. Performance & Other Notable Innovations The A80 is the first Galaxy phone to sport the Infinity Display which is their fancy term for a bezel-less screen. This automatically makes it a great content consumption smartphone… at least in the visual sense. There are no distracting notches, or punch-holes to distract users from viewing photos or videos. However, it’s a little limited in the audio department. For one thing, it doesn’t have stereo speakers greatly decreasing the auditory experience without headphones. Speaking of headphones, you also won’t be able to use wired headphones with the Galaxy A80 as they’ve pulled the plug on that as well. So, it’s really a visually stunning phone with good enough audio experience at best. But, with the right wireless headphones, you can easily make this one of the best content consumption smartphones around. It’s also the first ever Samsung Galaxy smartphone to come equipped with a 25W charging capacity which is a lot more than what the Galaxy S10 devices can do. Together with the large battery capacity, the relatively low 1080p screen, and the energy-sipping-yet-powerful Snapdragon 710 processor, this should be a battery endurance top-performer. All in all, the Galaxy A80 is a rare kind of a mid-range phone. It doesn’t just pick out the best features of the current flagships and pairs it with a lesser processor. It’s an innovative piece of hardware that challenges the concept of the mid-range segment itself. The camera implementation is a genius functional feature that has a lot of potential in revolutionizing the smartphone industry not just for the mid-rangers, but for the entire smartphone space. But, of course, it’s not perfect. Aesthetics and durability are in serious question here. But if you can look past that, you're in for a pleasant surprise in an exciting segment in the smartphone world.

These three are supposed to be some of the best active noise-cancelling headphones that are compact enough for travel. You'll never be stuck trying to tune out a noisy game or annoying chatter again.

Considering how terrible I think most drivers are, I am thrilled to watch the evolution and adoption of self-driving cars. Plus, at least theoretically, once self-driving cars is mandated they will be able to operate at maximum speeds and efficiency at almost all times. While the concept may seem scary to allow a "machine" or "computer" control itself--and you! Think of how many times in a short drive people cut each other off for no reason, or swerve in and out of lanes to get ahead of a car only to be stopped at the same red light. I, for one, will welcome the self-driving cars.

I woke up one morning and my laptop wouldn't boot. Later on, it dawned on me that the hard drive was damaged and nothing could be done to rectify the situation. I lost tons of documents and media and who knows, maybe a simple check would have resolved it?

This article is an expose into the world of becoming Instagram famous. If you want to look popular all you have to do is buy your followers.

Competition is a good thing. It pushes us to perform at our best. It keeps prices down. It feels great to win. While all of these things are true, sometimes I have to ask the question, "How many AirPod manufacturers do we really need?" I suppose I should remind myself of what I wrote above, that competition keeps prices down. Well, that is how it is supposed to work anyways. Here's to hoping!

This news is a couple days old, but I'm just now seeing it. Can you imagine what the Galaxy Fold makers must be going through right now? Putting faulty devices in the reviewers' hands is the worst thing you can do.

This is an interesting article on the emergence of different cyber security methods and systems. As tech grows, security concerns are going to grow even more.

I use a Windows laptop and I have always believed that Windows Defender provides sufficient protection. From experience, the word 'free' is often used as a marketing gimmick. To get the full benefits of any antivirus software, some amount has to be paid. Has anyone else had the same experience?

People's desire to be immersed in narrative in ever growing ways will never cease to amaze me. When is it too immersive? Which sensations are off limits? Who determines the boundaries? Most importantly however, how long will 4d movies steal the spotlight before it is also too boring, too "old tech" to thrill audiences. Now, I'm not against the new fads or being immersed in a narrative either, but I believe with every push forward in storytelling we lose some of the magic that narratives have over us. We give up something that we may not be gaining back.

Are you ready to give up cable? I'm not there yet, but it's still nice to know there are free entertainment options out there. Some of these have some great movies.

Not much time can pass before yet another privacy violation from Facebook is uncovered. If it continues on this path, I think Facebook may really be at risk of losing a good portion of their users.