Seven Samsung Galaxy Settings You Don’t Get on Other Android Phones

When you buy a Samsung Galaxy phone, you're not just getting the standard, stock Android experience as far as software goes: You're also getting One UI, Samsung's own take on Android, complete with its own visual look, AI features, and other tweaks. One UI means you get access to settings on a Galaxy handset that aren't available on other Android phones—you can apply customizations and controls you won't find on a handset from Nothing or Google. Whether you're thinking of buying a Galaxy phone and want to know what the benefits are, or you already own a Samsung handset and want to make sure you're exploring everything it has to offer, here are some of my favorite settings exclusive to One UI:

Adjust your Galaxy's color balance

Several other Android phones offer some basic tweaks for the color balance of the display, but Samsung goes above and beyond to give you more control. If you tap Display > Screen mode from Settings, you can adjust white balance with a slider, and switch between Vivid and Natural modes.

Tap Advanced settings, and you can apply changes that are even more granular. You get separate sliders for the red, green, and blue color channels, and another slider to adjust the vividness of the screen. Keep your eyes on the preview pictures at the top to see the effects of your changes.

Customize your Galaxy's side button

Side button customization. Credit: Lifehacker

The main side or power button on Galaxy phones can be remapped if you don't want to stick with the default configuration, which is a double press to launch the camera and a long press to launch Google Gemini. (Note you can't customize a single press, which will either lock or unlock your handset.)

From Settings, choose Advanced features > Side button, then pick either Double press or Long press. You have a lot of options for a double press: everything from the flashlight and magnifier, to the Samsung Voice Recorder or any other app of your choice. For a long press, you can switch to a different digital assistant, or have a long press turn off the phone instead. By default, you need to press and hold both the side button and the volume down button to power off a Samsung Galaxy handset, so switching to a long press can be more convenient.

Set up the Edge panel on your Galaxy

The Edge panel that's available on Samsung phones is a real superpower for One UI. It's a pop-up shortcut box that gives you quick access to apps, contacts, and features on your phone, and it can work as well as the Windows taskbar or the macOS dock.

You can set up and customize the Edge panel from Settings by heading to Display > Edge panels. The options here let you change the appearance and position of the panel, and switch between the type of panel you want: Choose from Apps, People, Tasks, Weather, Tools, Clipboard, or Reminder. To customize the actual shortcuts on the Edge panel, open it with a swipe from the side of the screen, then tap the pen icon at the bottom. You can make sure your most-used apps and shortcuts are always readily available.

Boost your Galaxy's available RAM

RAM Plus settings. Credit: Lifehacker

Samsung Galaxy phones come with a feature called RAM Plus that borrows part of your handset's storage and uses it as temporary RAM—which should mean launching and switching between apps happens more quickly. You can find the feature and change how much storage it uses by selecting Device care > Memory > RAM Plus from Settings.

Use multi window mode on your Galaxy

One UI has a multi-window mode that turns Android into a more desktop-like operating system, and it can be helpful on phones with larger screens when you need to get a couple of apps up side by side. You can configure the feature by opening Settings and picking Advanced features > Multi window.

To actually get apps up alongside each other, swipe up from the bottom of the screen into the center of the display to see your recently opened apps. Tap any of the app icons at the top of the carousel, then choose Open in split screen view. You then get to pick a second app to share the display with the first one.

Automatically restart your Galaxy

Auto restart options. Credit: Lifehacker

If you open Settings and select Device care > Auto optimization, you'll see an option labeled Auto restart. If you enable this, your phone will restart when it's not being used to "keep it running in the best condition" (Samsung's words). You can opt to Restart when needed or Restart on a schedule. These regular restarts can help in clearing out the memory and temporary file cache on your phone, which can in turn optimize performance. As the information on screen tells you, restarts will only happen when the screen is off, you're not actively using your phone, the battery level is about 30 percent, and the SIM card lock feature is off.

Apply 'Intelligent Wi-Fi' to your Galaxy

One UI on Galaxy phones doesn't just offer wifi—it offers "Intelligent Wi-Fi," which means it uses AI to optimize your connection as much as possible. Tasks where latency is crucial (such as video calls) get prioritized, and if the phone thinks you'll get better performance on a cellular connection, it will automatically switch to this instead.

To find the options, open Settings and select Connections > Wi-Fi. Then you need to tap the three dots up in the top right corner, choose Intelligent Wi-Fi from the menu, and you're then able to switch on the features you want to make use of. There's also a secret wifi monitoring tool hidden away here.

Bluesky Continues to Have Connectivity Problems

If you've had trouble accessing Bluesky this morning, you're not alone. The social media platform has been experiencing intermittent interruptions to service on Thursday. That's obvious from a glance at Downdetector, which shows thousands of user reports of issues with Bluesky starting at about 1:51 a.m. ET, and really kicking off at 2:21 a.m. ET. (Disclosure: Downdetector is owned by Lifehacker parent company Ziff Davis.)

While my Bluesky feed does seem to be working at this time, there are still issues causing downtime for users and parts of the platform, including loading notifications. As of this article, Bluesky's status page reads "We are investigating an incident with service in one of our [regions]," and "We are experiencing further issues. We appreciate your continued patience." Bluesky had previously stated that the issue had been fixed, so the platform may be having trouble isolating the root cause of the problem.

To that point, it isn't clear what exactly is causing this downtime across Bluesky. That said, this will likely be resolved in due time. Websites occasionally go down for one reason or another, and apart from an attack or catastrophic issue, the source is usually discovered relatively quickly, and a fix implemented shortly after. My guess is by some point today—perhaps by the time you read this article—Bluesky will be back up and running as usual.

This Three-Stage Air Purifier Is 69% Off Right Now

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The Levoit LV-H133 air purifier has dropped to $76.99 on Woot, down from its original $249.99 and still significantly lower than the $199.99 it’s currently going for on Amazon. According to price trackers, this marks the lowest price it has reached so far. This deal is set to run for two days or until stock runs out, whichever comes first, with free shipping for Prime members and a $6 fee for everyone else.

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The LV-H133 is built to handle spaces up to about 1,150 square feet, which covers a typical bedroom, living room, or even a studio apartment. The cylindrical design pulls air in through perforations around the base, runs it through its internal system, and pushes it out through a wide radial vent at the top. Setup is simple and takes a couple of minutes, with no complicated assembly beyond removing packaging from the filter and locking the shell back in place. After that, maintenance mostly means wiping down the vents and replacing filters every six to eight months, with a built-in indicator to remind you.

In day-to-day use, the purifier leans on a three-stage filtration system. The pre-filter catches larger debris like dust and lint, the HEPA filter targets particles as small as 0.3 microns, and the carbon layer helps reduce odors from cooking, smoke, or pets. There are a few modes to choose from, including an auto setting that adjusts fan speed based on sensor readings in real time, along with low, medium, and high speeds. On its lowest setting, it runs at about 25 dB, and on high, it reaches around 52 dB, so it is fine for overnight use, but you will hear it working when pushed. The controls are on top, with clear buttons for speed, timer, and display. The main tradeoff is the lack of wifi or app control, which newer models offerte. Still, at this price, the appeal is simple: solid coverage and proven filtration without paying for smart features you may not need.

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This Roborock Vacuum/Mop Combo Is 38% Off Right Now

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Robot vacuums have moved from basic helpers to something closer to hands-off cleaning, but the price usually climbs with that convenience. The Roborock Qrevo QV 35A brings a lot of those higher-end features down to $399.99 (originally $649.99), its lowest tracked price so far, according to price trackers.

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The QV 35A is a vacuum-and-mop combo with a dock that handles most of the routine work for you. That includes emptying the dustbin, washing the mop pads, refilling water, and drying the pads after a run—you’ll still need to empty the dirty water tank and swap the dust bag every so often, but the day-to-day effort is low. That said, the dock uses cold water to wash pads and room-temperature air to dry them, which takes several hours and requires occasional cleaning to avoid buildup.

The device cleans well for something in this range. The 8,000Pa suction picks up crumbs, dust, and pet hair from hard floors in one pass, and on low carpets, it handles surface debris without much trouble (though deeper cleaning usually needs a second run). Its rubber main brush and curved side brush help keep hair from wrapping around, reducing hair tangles (which is good news if you deal with shedding pets). On the mopping side, the dual pads spin at 200 RPM and press down enough to lift dried spills like coffee or sticky spots instead of pushing them around—and when it moves onto carpet, the pads lift by about 10mm, so it does not drag moisture onto rugs during a cleaning cycle.

Navigation is handled by a LiDAR system that maps your home and cleans in a predictable pattern, usually starting along the edges and then moving in straight lines. You can split rooms, set no-go zones, and build routines in the app without much effort, and it supports multi-floor maps if you have more than one level. On the downside, there's no camera here, which keeps things simple and avoids image-based tracking, but it also means the robot is less precise with smaller or low-profile objects—it avoids larger items like shoes or toys without much trouble, but thin cables can still trip it up, so you will need to tidy those before a run.

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I Used This Wall Edger to Paint My Stairs, and I'm Never Going Back

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For some reason, I have painted a lot of stairs in my time. Exterior, interior—I’ve painted more stairs than I ever imagined I would. But sometimes, painting stairs is the easiest way to transform them. When my wife and I moved into our house, the stairs were covered in this truly awful green carpet. We tore that up almost immediately, and I figured I’d just paint the stairs as a short-term solution. But we wound up actually liking the paint, and just left it there.

It’s getting a little worn, though, so it’s time to refresh the paint job, and we thought it was a good idea to change things up by painting the risers a lighter color, for contrast (we’re fancy like that). This gave me the chance to use one of my favorite little painting hacks: A wall edging pad on stair risers. I forget who showed this to me, but it makes the whole process a lot faster. In the past, painting something like stairs with all those angles and corners would mean a metric ton of painter’s tape and a stiff wrist from using a cut brush. (I’m pretty good with a cut brush these days and skip a lot of taping, but stairs still present a challenge.) But using a wall edging pad means I can skip all the tape and save my wrist a lot of strain.

Everything you need to paint stairs

Shur-Line 2006649 7-Inch Premium Pad Painter

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Shur-Line 2006645 7-Inch Premium Pad Painter Refill

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FrogTape Advanced Painters Tape, 2 Inch Wide (1.88-Inch x 45-Yard) Multi-Surface Tape with PAINTBLOCK, Conforms Around Curves & Contours, Tear-Free Removability, 1 Roll, Green

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RUST-OLEUM 1 qt Zinsser 271009 White Zinsser, B-I-N Advanced Synthetic Shellac Primer Pack of 1

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You can see here what the stairs looked like before I began—obviously, they needed a little attention.

Before. Credit: Jeff Somers

I gathered my supplies:

• I bought this pad painter from Shur-Line. The 7-inch size is about right for stair risers, and it features a swivel pad holder that locks into the angle you need. I picked up a refill pad, too, just in case.

• A tube of painter’s caulk so I could fill in any gaps that have opened up over the years.

• Some painter’s tape, just to be safe—even the best painting trick sometimes runs into trouble.

• Some cut brushes for the same reason—these are old stairs that haven’t seen a 90° angle in years, so I anticipated some spots where a brush might be necessary.

• Primer and a paint tray—the actual paint color will match the walls.

Equipped with everything, I got to work.

How to paint your stair risers with an edging pad

I didn’t bother taping off the treads—I just filled the pan with primer and grabbed the pad. The black button in the middle locks the pad at whatever angle you need; it’s easy to press it with your thumb to adjust on the fly. You can slide the pad out (and a new one in) by pressing the lock tab in the middle. Then you dip the pad into the paint/primer and press it out a bit to get rid of excess paint:

Loading up the paint pad. Credit: Jeff Somers

When the pad isn’t dripping, and you’ve got it loaded with a manageable amount of paint that you can control, just place it against the stair riser and move it horizontally:

Painting the riser with the paint pad. Credit: Jeff Somers

Since the pad is rectangular, it produces a straight, sharp line without taping or cutting, and it doesn’t have as many lines as a brush. And since it’s flat and designed to be used as an edger (and painting stair risers is essentially just working all edges), you can get right to the edge, which you can’t do when using a roller. Sometimes it’s useful to slide the pad out of the holder and use it manually, because the pad is more flexible and bendy, so you can have a little more control in tight corners.

It takes a bit of practice to get it right, but once you have the hang of it, you can breeze through those risers very quickly. If you want to cut down your prep and painting time on stairs, using an edger pad like this is the way. Here's my final product:

After! Credit: Jeff Somers

The stairs are old and don't have any straight lines left, but the risers turned out pretty neat—all without taping. I probably saved myself about an hour of work painting these stairs this way.

A Lifetime Subscription to Babbel Is on Sale at a Huge Discount Right Now

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Practicing a new language can be fun, but premium language apps can be expensive. Babbel makes it easier with practical, bite-sized lessons designed for real-life use, focusing on conversations you’d actually have—ordering food, chatting with the locals, asking for directions (read PCMag's in-depth review of Babbel to learn more)—and right now, its lifetime subscription is on sale for $159 with promo code LEARN. It's a one-time payment—no recurring fees, no monthly charges—for lifetime access to all 14 languages (including French, German, Italian, and Spanish), making it cheaper than Babbel’s regular one-year plan at $300.

Babbel’s lessons take just 10 to 15 minutes, so you can squeeze your practice into a commute or coffee break. And, unlike other language-learning apps that rely on repetitive vocabulary drills or random gamified exercises, Babbel follows a structured, linguist-designed curriculum that progressively increases in difficulty, so you don't plateau after the basics (earning itself a place in PCMag's "The Best Language Learning Apps for 2026" roundup). Plus, it’s not just passive learning—you get writing, speaking, and listening exercises with speech recognition technology to fine-tune your pronunciation, creating a far more immersive experience.

Of course, dedication is still key, and no app will make you fluent, but if you’re willing to put in the effort, this Babbel Black Friday deal gives you a lifetime subscription with the tools to succeed without the burden of ongoing costs.

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The Pixel 10 Pro Fold Is $300 Off Right Now

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The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold (256GB, Unlocked) is currently $1,499 (originally $1,799) on Amazon, and price trackers show this is historically its lowest price. Physically, the phone keeps the same overall size as the earlier 9 Pro Fold, but it runs on the new Tensor G5 processor with Android 16 and, since the phone is unlocked, works across major U.S. carriers like Google Fi, Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T. That flexibility is helpful if you plan to change carriers down the line.

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Folded, it measures 6.11 by 3.00 by 0.43 inches, and when opened, it spreads into an eight-inch inner display that feels more like a small tablet. The outer screen is now 6.4 inches with slimmer bezels and significantly brighter output, reaching roughly 3,000 nits, which makes a noticeable difference when using the phone outdoors. Both screens support refresh rates up to 120Hz, so scrolling and animations look smooth. Google also strengthened the aluminum frame and simplified the hinge design by reducing the number of internal parts.

It is also one of the few foldable phones with an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, something still rare in this category. At 9.1 ounces, though, the phone is heavier than many competing foldables, and the raised camera module on the back causes a bit of wobble when placed on a table.

As for its battery life, it lasted over 13 hours in PCMag’s testing, which puts it ahead of others in its category, including Samsung's Z Fold 7. Charging is capped at 25W wired and 15W Qi2 wireless, and it works with Google’s new Pixelsnap magnetic charging accessories (which our writer called a delightful MagSafe clone).

Google also leans heavily on its AI features, here. The phone runs Gemini tools locally, including Live Voice Translation and Instant View, which briefly shows the photo you just took on the outer screen before you move on to the next shot.

The cameras are another strong point. You get a 48MP main sensor, a 10.5MP ultra-wide, and a 10.8MP telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom, along with Pixel photo tools like Best Take and Add Me. In practice, the phone delivers some of the best camera results currently available on a folding phone, according to this PCMag review.

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