Ben Schoon is a Senior Editor at 9to5Google, working for the publication as one of its primary news writers since 2016.
In 2013, Ben helped start an independent tech publication where he learned the skills used at 9to5Google including writing, product photography, and videography. He is located in the city of Winston-Salem in North Carolina where he lives with his wife Melissa. Ben is an avid disc golf player.
He primarily covers Android products, including Google Pixel devices, Samsung Galaxy smartphones, as well as devices from OnePlus, Oppo, Motorola, and more. Beyond just covering news about these products, Ben also spends time using these products himself, speaking from experience with the articles he writes. Some of Ben’s most recent hands-on reviews include; Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel Watch 2, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, Motorola Razr+, HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook, and more.
Ben Schoon is active on Twitter, @nexusben, but can also be found on Instagram and LinkedIn. For questions or tips, you can email him directly, and his portfolio is also available online.
Samsung has, for the past five years, been releasing essentially the same phone over and over again: a big screen, the latest Snapdragon chip, an S Pen, a 5,000 mAh battery, and the company’s best* camera setup. It’s undoubtedly attractive, and the formula clearly works. After two weeks with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, as much as I might want something more, I also can’t help but really like this phone.
But if the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, it’s time for the madness to end.
Gemini has a new trick up its sleeve with agentic task automation, with the AI able to use an app on your behalf to perform certain tasks, and it’s now live on the Galaxy S26 series.
As the smartphone market’s immediate future continues to look quite bleak, Samsung’s mobile division could apparently be facing its first-ever operating loss.
As short-form vertical video continues to dominate the internet, Disney+ is now adding its own take on the trend with the addition of “Verts,” and there’s more in the pipeline.
Microsoft has pretty big news coming out of the annual GDC event, including a timeline for the next-gen Xbox console, “Project Helix,” as well as a new “Xbox Mode” coming to Windows 11.
Samsung has officially launched its new Galaxy Book 6 series of Windows 11 laptops in the US market, with the Pro and Ultra models now on sale starting at $1,599.
Samsung announced previously that the Galaxy S26 series would support a “Hey Plex” wake word for the Perplexity app, but this is now changing to “Hey Perplexity.”
YouTube has hit a major milestone, with the vast depths of its content library now making it not only a behemoth, but the world’s largest media company – and it’s not close.
Alongside the debut of its new speakers, Sonos has updated its Android app to finally revive support for the system’s built-in media player and lockscreen controls, as well as volume controls using the buttons.
Oppo Find N6 might just be the first foldable to finally eliminate the display crease and, in its latest teasers, the company is detailing how it managed to build a crease-less foldable display.
Following its announcement at MWC 2026 earlier this month, the Honor Magic V6 is now available in China and with an even bigger battery than the global release.
A strange issue is hitting some early Galaxy S26 buyers, with Google Play Protect certification apparently not working out of the box and, in turn, breaking support for some apps.
In the midst of frankly insane market conditions, Oppo and OnePlus have confirmed plans to raise prices of existing smartphones and other products starting next week.
Following its announcement last month, Samsung’s new Galaxy S26 series is set to hit store shelves tomorrow and, based on pre-order data, these phones are surprisingly popular in the US market, especially when it comes to the Ultra.
Google Photos is once again tweaking its search experience, with a new quick toggle rolling out that allows users to swap back and forth between the AI-powered Ask Photos experience and classic search.
As smart glasses continue to grow in popularity, we’re seeing more options and more features. Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses are perhaps among the most popular, and a similar pair of smart glasses from Rokid offers a very similar experience, now with Google’s Gemini assistant on call.
Oppo has been teasing a crease-less foldable in its upcoming Find N6 and, now, the company says that the device will be launching globally, and we really hope that’s true this year.
