This $299 Android Phone Says Glowing Screens Are Already Obsolete

For most people, the smartphone screen is where focus goes to die. Even when you pick one up with a purpose, the bright OLED glare, the notifications, and the endless scroll have a way of pulling you elsewhere. Screen fatigue is real, blue light is a genuine concern, and the push for digital wellness has grown loud enough that even tech companies have started quietly acknowledging it.

The Bigme HiBreak Plus takes a different approach to the smartphone entirely. Built around a 6.13-inch E Ink Kaleido 3 color display, it runs on Android 14 with full Google Play support and connects via dual 4G SIM, making it a genuinely functional phone. But unlike everything else in your pocket, it defaults to a mode that’s easier on the eyes and harder to mindlessly abuse.

Designer: Bigme

E Ink displays on smartphones have always had one obvious weakness: the refresh rate. Previous devices refreshed so slowly that casual scrolling felt like a real chore. The HiBreak Plus addresses that with a remarkably high 52 FPS refresh rate for an E Ink display, making it responsive enough for reading, annotating, and light browsing without the ghost-image flicker that dogged earlier E Ink phones.

The display’s advantages don’t stop at being easy to look at. E Ink panels are naturally readable under direct sunlight without any brightness cranked up, which means you can check maps, take notes outdoors, or read in the afternoon light without squinting. There’s no backlight shining toward your face either, just a soft, paper-like surface that reflects the ambient light around it.

A front light with 36 brightness levels handles the dimmer end of things. It reads the surrounding environment and automatically calibrates brightness and color temperature, going from a cool, crisp tone for morning work to a warm amber glow at night. There’s no digging through menus or manually adjusting sliders; the phone handles it quietly in the background, adapting to wherever you happen to be.

Handwriting support, via an optional stylus, adds another layer to what the phone can do. Writing directly on the E Ink surface feels closer to putting pen to paper than tapping on glass. It makes the HiBreak Plus a natural fit for jotting down thoughts during a commute, capturing ideas in a meeting, or working through a long reading session with annotations in the margins.

The rest of the specs are functional rather than flashy: an octa-core processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, GPS, a fingerprint sensor in the power button, and a 4500 mAh battery that should comfortably outlast most conventional smartphones thanks to the energy-efficient E Ink display. The whole package weighs just 193g, light enough to slip into a shirt pocket without a second thought.

Of course, there are some downsides as well, ones that go beyond the screen refresh rate and color vibrancy. Although not exactly outdated, 4G LTE caps data speed significantly, and the rather modest RAM and storage capacity don’t do it any favors either. That said, at a $299 price point ($249 on pre-order), you are getting a pocket-sized color e-reader that can also make calls and connect to the Internet, without the usual distracting trappings of a smartphone.

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This Trifold Concept Charges iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch at Once

Most people deep in the Apple ecosystem carry at least three devices that need charging every day. An iPhone, an Apple Watch, and AirPods don’t share cables, and even the cleanest wireless charging setup tends to involve multiple pads spread across several surfaces. It’s a situation that gets worse when you’re away from home and traveling without a bag full of dedicated charging accessories.

Alain Trifold is a concept that tries to answer that problem with a single foldable solution. As the name suggests, it’s a three-panel wireless charger that folds flat when not in use and opens up to power an iPhone, an Apple Watch, and AirPods all at once, entirely without cables. The whole idea is consolidating what would otherwise take three separate pads into one compact device.

Designer: Anirudh Thakur

The trifold format is central to what makes this concept interesting. Foldable chargers do exist in the market, but most compromise on size, stability, or the number of devices they can handle simultaneously. This design, in contrast, gives each of the three panels a dedicated charging surface, so there’s no awkward repositioning needed when you set your devices down. Everything has a place from the moment you unfold it.

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That kind of simplicity matters most when you’re away from your usual setup. Tossing a single flat charger into a bag rather than packing separate cables and pads for each device is a meaningful reduction in the friction of traveling light. You don’t have to think about which surface charges which device, or worry about leaving one of three charging pucks behind when you’re packing in a rush.

The minimal aesthetic of the Alain Trifold concept fits neatly within Apple’s own design language, which makes it feel like a natural companion rather than an afterthought accessory. A charger that looks good on a bedside table or a hotel desk doesn’t sound like a high bar, but it’s a small and genuinely meaningful advantage over the tangle of wires and mismatched pucks that most multi-device setups default to.

There’s also something to be said for the way a foldable form factor handles portability with something this useful. The Alain concept collapses into a compact profile that slips easily into a travel pouch or a bag pocket, and setting it up takes barely a second. It’s the kind of object that removes a decision rather than adding one, which is exactly what good accessory design tends to do.

As a concept, the Alain Trifold sits in a space where demand is clear but elegant solutions are few. The market for 3-in-1 Apple chargers is growing fast, but most options lean toward function over form, or portability over stability. This concept makes a case for a design that doesn’t have to choose, and it’s the kind of idea that stays with you long after you’ve seen it.

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BREMEN Turns a Broom Into a Guitar and a Desk Into a Piano

Learning to play a musical instrument is one of the most commonly abandoned pursuits in modern life. The gap between wanting to play and being able to usually involves years of lessons, expensive gear, and a dedicated practice space. That’s a lot of friction for something that’s supposed to be joyful, and it keeps most people as spectators for their entire lives.

The designers at YUPD started from a different observation. Most people are already making music, just not in any formal sense. Tapping out a beat on a desk, drumming with pens, humming a melody while doing chores, these are all musical impulses that rarely have anywhere to land. BREMEN is a modular performance system designed to change that by letting everyday objects become actual instruments.

Designers: Yejun Jo, Minsu Kang, Gayeon Kim, Yumin Seo

Two of BREMEN’s four modules handle the percussive and string side of things. The Guitar Module and Drum Module are compact cylinders that slide over any stick-shaped object, whether that’s a pen, a ruler, or an actual broom handle. Once attached, they translate the way you swing or strike into guitar or drum sounds, sent wirelessly to the system’s central speaker.

The Piano Module takes a different approach. Two slim, bar-shaped units placed at opposite ends of a desk detect the distance between them and create an invisible keyboard in the space between. The sensors track finger movement above the surface and trigger the matching notes, so you’re essentially playing piano in thin air. No keys, no bench, no sheet music required.

All three modules feed into BREMEN_HEN, the system’s speaker. It receives the separate performances from the guitar, drum, and piano modules and blends them into a single ensemble output. The speaker itself has a distinctive triangular cross-section with a fabric mesh face, making it compact enough to carry by hand and functional enough to fill a room with actual band-level sound.

That last part matters. The whole point of BREMEN is that the stage can be wherever you happen to be, a classroom, a courtyard, a park. Three people with sticks and a pair of piano bars are suddenly a band. Nobody had to haul gear across town or book a rehearsal room. It’s the kind of spontaneity that music rarely allows for anymore.

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YUPD’s concept goes beyond accessibility, though that’s clearly central to it. More fundamentally, it’s a rethinking of what counts as a musical instrument, one that argues the answer could be almost anything. A broom becomes a guitar, a desk becomes a piano, and a group of people with no formal training becomes something resembling a band. That’s a surprisingly generous idea for something that fits in a backpack.

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Google Pixel 11 Renders Suggest Its Cleanest Design Before a Redesign

Smartphone design has been converging on a single, almost universal ideal: more screen, less frame. Brands across the spectrum have spent the last few years shaving down bezels, flattening camera bumps, and chasing a kind of visual minimalism that would have seemed impossible a decade ago. The race to the thinnest, cleanest slab has become almost as competitive as the spec war, and no brand is immune to that pressure.

Google’s Pixel lineup has never exactly followed the crowd. Since the Pixel 9, the brand has committed to a distinctive horizontal camera bar across the upper back of the phone, making it one of the most recognizable Android devices on the market. Early CAD-based renders of the upcoming Pixel 11 suggest that Google isn’t letting go of that identity but is quietly refining it.

Designer: Steve Hemmerstoffer/OnLeaks (Renders) via AndroidHeadlines

This marks the third year in a row that Google is expected to stay in the same design family introduced by the Pixel 9, though the horizontal camera island design actually started with the Pixel 6’s “visor” in 2021. The company has previously said it aims to redesign its phones every two to three years, making the Pixel 11 feel like the closing chapter of this particular look. These changes aren’t accidental refinements; they’re something closer to a farewell lap.

The most notable of those tweaks is the camera bar itself. On the Pixel 9 and Pixel 10, the phone’s body color would wrap around the flash and sensors inside the bar, creating a two-tone look that was bold for some and cluttered for others. The Pixel 11 drops that entirely, going with a uniform black finish across the whole housing for a cleaner, more composed result.

Google Pixel 10

Google Pixel 10

The bar is also expected to sit lower on the phone’s back, with less protrusion than the Pixel 10. That’s the kind of thing you don’t notice until the phone snags on a pocket lining or wobbles on a table, and then you notice it constantly. A thinner overall profile, rumored at 8.5mm, will keep the phone from feeling like it’s outgrown its own design.

The front of the phone appears to have gotten some attention, too. Bezels are reportedly thinner on all four sides, which means more screen real estate when you’re reading or watching something on that commute home. It’s a concession to a criticism that’s followed the Pixel series for a couple of years, and it goes a long way toward making the phone look more of its time.

Under the hood, the Pixel 11 is expected to run on Google’s Tensor G6 chipset, paired with 12GB of RAM and at least 128GB of storage. The 5,000mAh battery is the kind of capacity that should see most people through a full day without a second thought, even with a heavier workload. The overall footprint stays essentially the same as the Pixel 10, measuring 152.8 x 72 x 8.5mm.

All of this comes with the standard caveat: these are early, unofficial CAD-based renders, and finer details like exact bezel dimensions could shift before the phone hits shelves. That said, the broader strokes have a strong track record with this kind of source. Google is expected to announce the Pixel 11 in August 2026, giving it a few more months to land exactly where it looks like it’s headed.

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Your Next Sleep Tracker Isn’t a Watch, It’s Your Bedside Lamp

Sleep has quietly become one of the most closely watched aspects of personal health. Around one in three people struggle with it, and roughly half of Americans already use a wearable device to track their sleep each night. That growing awareness has made sleep monitoring mainstream, turning the wrist and the finger into familiar real estate for all kinds of sleep-tracking sensors.

The irony, of course, is that wearing a device to bed can get in the way of the very thing you’re trying to improve. A watch or ring adds a layer of physical awareness that makes settling in harder, especially for someone who already struggles with sleep. Sleepal addresses that contradiction by embedding the tracking technology inside something already on your nightstand: a bedside lamp.

Designers: Ningning Li, Haorong Liu, Jiantao Sha

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That choice of form factor carries real design logic. Around 70% of people already own a bedside lamp, and it’s naturally tied to the rituals of winding down and waking up. Building contactless sleep monitoring into that familiar object means Sleepal enters the bedroom without asking anything of you. No new habits to form, no extra device to charge, nothing to adjust to before lights out.

And setting it up is just as effortless. You plug it in, scan the device with the app, and after that, there’s really nothing else to manage. No nightly adjustments, no calibrations, nothing to put on before getting into bed. You simply sleep as you normally would and check your sleep report the next morning, which makes the whole experience feel remarkably frictionless.

Behind that calm, unhurried exterior sits some serious sensing technology. Sleepal uses 60 GHz millimeter-wave radar with a detection precision of 0.1 mm, picking up the subtle chest micro-movements that come with breathing and a heartbeat. Those signals combine with environmental data and run through a sleep AI model built from scratch with nearly 100 million parameters, making the sleep-stage picture both thorough and precise.

And that technical foundation is backed by genuine clinical work. Sleepal collaborated with multiple hospitals to build one of the world’s largest radar-based sleep databases, including more than 2,000 datasets collected alongside polysomnography testing. This medical-grade data foundation is a key source of its accuracy, and based on Sleepal’s test results, its sleep-tracking accuracy is higher than that of most mainstream wearables.

Because it functions as a lamp, the light itself becomes part of how it supports your sleep. It adapts through the night, softening as you settle in and brightening gently as morning approaches. Plus, it reads the room’s environmental conditions, capturing the ambient factors that affect rest and giving you a fuller picture of your night by combining physiological and environmental data.

The wake-up experience gets the same level of thought. When you set a target time in the app, Sleepal doesn’t just ring at that exact moment. It looks for a more natural waking window, steering clear of deep sleep and REM in favor of lighter stages. A turn of the body triggers snooze, and if you drift off again, the alarm continues until it detects you’ve left the bed.

Getting to sleep is handled just as carefully. Breathing guidance, meditation, and relaxation audio are all built in, giving you a non-pharmaceutical way to ease into rest before the tracking even begins. Heck, for a lot of people, better sleep doesn’t come from gathering more data alone; it comes from having practical tools to actually wind down, and Sleepal has a solid set of those.

One of the more quietly impressive things about Sleepal is how much it conceals. There’s no camera, and a physical control for key sensors adds a layer of discretion, while all that advanced sensing sits behind a lamp that simply looks like it belongs. The design emphasizes comfort and calm over any overt technological statement, making it easy to trust in a space as personal as a bedroom.

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These 4 Solar Pavilions Prove That Public Cooling Can Be Free

Heat is one of the most underestimated side effects of climate change, particularly in cities where built-up surfaces trap warmth long after the sun has gone down. Air conditioning has become a near-necessity in many parts of the world, yet millions of people can’t access it, either because they can’t afford it or because they simply have no home to cool. For them, that absence can be genuinely dangerous.

Cool Retreats is a direct response to that reality. Rather than a single structure, it’s a collection of four different solar-powered public pavilions, each built to provide free cooling, shade, and a place to rest to anyone who needs it. The project is specifically aimed at public parks and open areas, particularly in cities where those who need relief the most often have the fewest options.

Designer: Michael Jantzen

The Solar Ceiling Fan Pavilion is the most straightforward of the four, an open-frame structure with tilted solar panels across its roof and a row of ceiling fans hanging beneath. The logic is elegantly direct: sunlight hits the panels, the panels power the fans, and the space below stays cool. On cooler days, when the fans aren’t running, the surplus electricity feeds back into the local power grid.

The Solar Breeze Oasis Pavilion scales things up with a prefabricated, modular, octagonal steel structure that can be installed as a single unit or linked with others to form larger configurations. Inside, five solar-powered ceiling fans circulate air above seating areas and worktables, and solar-powered outlets let people charge their devices. The rooftop solar array also collects rainwater, which can be stored and used within the park.

Cool Spots are the most self-contained of the group. Each cylindrical module sits on a circular concrete base, with four large benches arranged around a central table and a solar-powered ceiling fan overhead. Built-in night lights and power ports extend their usefulness well into the evening, and the modules can run off batteries charged by their own solar arrays or pull power from the local grid as needed.

The Cooling Cone is the most visually striking of the four, a stacked, louvered structure that tapers into a cone at the top, where a solar panel powers a ceiling fan mounted just below it. The partially enclosed perimeter, made up of curved, slotted panels, provides both shade and ventilation. It’s the kind of structure that draws you in from the outside and keeps you comfortable once you’re there.

What ties all four together is their shared philosophy: cooling public space shouldn’t require a power bill, complex infrastructure, or permanent construction. Each structure is prefabricated, recyclable, and solar-powered, designed to go where it’s needed most and run without ongoing costs. It’s a reminder that public design can be both socially conscious and sustainable at the same time, without one ever having to come at the expense of the other.

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This $145 Wood and Brass Timer Finally Gets Your Phone Off the Desk

Productivity apps have become one of the more ironic problems of modern work life. The tools meant to keep us focused are apps that live on the same devices responsible for most of our distractions. Switching to a timer app means unlocking a phone, and unlocking a phone means notifications, messages, and a dozen other things competing for your attention before you’ve even started the clock.

Thomas Curnow of Tomato Clocks had that contradiction in mind when he created the Roma Mk. 1, a purely analog study timer built around the Pomodoro Technique. The method is simple and widely used, working in focused intervals broken up by short rests, but it works best when the timing happens completely off-screen. The Roma Mk. 1 is designed to make that as easy and satisfying as possible.

Designer: Thomas Curnow (Tomato Clocks)

At the center of the design are two analog gauges, one for tracking a work interval and one for the break that follows. There are no menus to navigate and no app to open. You set the dials, get to work, and let the timer do the rest. The whole interaction takes a second, and that simplicity is precisely the point. It keeps the focus on the task at hand rather than the device managing it.

The build quality reinforces that philosophy. Each unit is laser-cut from premium Australian timber and assembled by hand in Melbourne, giving it a warmth and solidity that’s hard to find in mass-produced productivity gadgets. The brass switches used for input have a tactile snap to them, the kind of satisfying physical feedback that makes the act of starting a session feel deliberate rather than incidental.

It’s the sort of object that belongs on a desk permanently, not tucked into a drawer. A wooden timer with analog dials sits comfortably alongside notebooks, pens, and other tools that don’t demand your attention when you’re not using them. That’s a quality digital devices rarely manage, and it matters more than it might seem when you’re trying to build a consistent work habit.

The Pomodoro Technique has been around since the late 1980s, and the basic premise hasn’t changed much since then. What has changed is the environment in which most people try to use it. Screens are everywhere, and the pull of notifications is relentless. A dedicated physical timer doesn’t connect to the internet, doesn’t send alerts, and doesn’t tempt you with anything outside the task you’re working on.

The Roma Mk. 1 is currently available for pre-order at $145, which puts it well above a basic kitchen timer but firmly in the range of a thoughtful, long-term desk tool. It’s handmade, uses real materials, and is designed to last rather than be replaced. For anyone who has tried and failed to stay off their phone during a work session, a well-made analog alternative might be worth far more than what it costs.

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This Hand-Painted Gundam Camera Looks Like It Escaped the Anime

Film photography isn’t going anywhere, and the disposable camera has quietly become one of the more interesting objects in that revival. What started as a practical format for events and travel has turned into a collectible category, with customized cameras appearing at the intersection of fashion, pop culture, and analog nostalgia. The market for limited-edition film cameras that double as design objects has never been more receptive.

That’s the space the Gundam Camera occupies, a collaboration between artist David C. Wang of Little Road Camera and IUTD Studios that treats a compact film camera as a canvas for the kind of meticulous craft that goes into a proper Gunpla build. Rather than applying a printed wrap or a franchise sticker, the team hand-assembles each unit from scratch, treating the camera body the way a model maker treats a 1/144 scale kit.

Designer: David C. Wang (LittleRoad) x IUTD Studios

The color palette is unmistakably RX-78-2: white and light grey as the base, with iconic blocks of red, blue, and yellow distributed across the body. The blue module on top mirrors the mecha’s head vents, while the red panel carries Japanese lettering that translates to “Main Energy Supply System.” Warning labels and caution markers are applied throughout, giving every surface the texture of actual military hardware.

None of this is printed or mass-produced. Each camera is assembled, painted by hand, and decorated with decals applied one by one, giving every unit a slightly unique character. Panel lines are added individually, and the surface finish is developed to match how serious Gunpla builders approach their kits, not the kind of detail you’d notice from a distance, but the kind that holds up under close inspection.

Of course, it’s also a functioning film camera, which matters. This isn’t a display piece you’d keep behind glass. Take it out on the street or to an event, and the reaction it gets before you’ve even raised it to shoot becomes part of the experience. Gundam fans who’ve never touched a film camera suddenly have a reason to, and film shooters find themselves explaining it to everyone who asks.

The appeal reaches across at least two communities that don’t often overlap. Analog photography has cultivated a following that values the tangible, the finite, and the slow. Gundam has its own equally dedicated community built around craftsmanship, patience, and an appreciation for machines that look like they were actually built by someone. A camera that speaks to both of those things at once is genuinely hard to dismiss.

Units are limited and offered in small batches internationally, which suits a project built entirely around handmade production. There’s no version of this that scales to mass retail, and that’s precisely what makes it interesting as a collector’s object. For anyone who grew up assembling Gunpla kits and now carries a film camera as part of their identity, this occupies a space that feels genuinely earned.

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CRKD’s $30 ATOM+ Is a Pocket Gamepad That Finally Solved Stick Drift

Compact gaming controllers have always occupied an awkward spot in the market. Most work well enough for retro titles, where a D-pad and a few buttons are all you need, but they fall short the moment you want to play anything more demanding. Dual thumbsticks are either absent or prone to drifting, and that’s before you factor in the limited platform support most of them offer.

CRKD’s ATOM+ arrives as a direct response to those shortcomings. It’s the follow-up to the brand’s original ATOM keychain controller, but with noticeably bigger ambitions. Rather than catering only to retro gaming, it’s built around a complete control layout and a feature you’d typically find on premium full-sized gamepads: zero-drift TMR thumbsticks. The result is a palm-sized controller that doesn’t ask you to trade performance for portability.

Designer: CRKD

The TMR, or Tunnel Magnetoresistance, thumbsticks are arguably the ATOM+’s most significant selling point. Unlike traditional analog sticks that use physical contact points that wear down with use, TMR technology relies on magnetic sensors to read input, which means accuracy doesn’t degrade over time. Stick drift has been a persistent nuisance in gaming, and it’s particularly glaring in small controllers, where replacement or repair isn’t exactly straightforward.

Beyond those thumbsticks, the ATOM+ carries a full control layout with triggers and shoulder buttons, making it capable of handling modern titles without restrictions. At 90mm x 48mm, it fits in a jacket pocket, which means it’s genuinely useful for commuting, travel, or just gaming away from your usual setup. It’s the kind of controller you can toss in a bag and forget about until you need it.

Platform compatibility is another area where the ATOM+ covers its bases. It connects over Bluetooth to the Nintendo Switch 2 and Switch, PC and PC handhelds, iOS and Android devices, and even select smart TVs. The Switch-style button layout keeps things familiar regardless of what you’re playing on, and for a controller this small, the breadth of supported platforms earns its keep rather than just reading as a marketing claim.

There’s also motion control support, a turbo mode, and vibration feedback baked in. Motion controls, in particular, add an extra dimension for compatible Switch titles where gyro aiming can genuinely make a difference. These aren’t features you’d expect to find on a controller this size, and they make the ATOM+ feel less like a novelty and more like a legitimate primary controller for portable gaming sessions.

CRKD also pairs the ATOM+ with its companion app, which lets you tune inputs, update firmware, and customize settings via the CTRL feature. The controller is RFID-enabled too, tapping into CRKD’s True Collection System, so you can tap your phone to it and pull up details like its product number and rarity rank. It’s a collectible angle that’s a bit unusual for a gamepad, but a fun one nonetheless. For gamers who’ve been burned by drift-prone compact controllers, or just want something pocketable that handles any game thrown at it, the ATOM+ is hard to ignore.

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This AI Bathtub Concept Figures Out Your Tension Points, Then Runs Itself

The bathroom is probably the last space in the home where smart technology has made any real dent. AI assistants have crept into living rooms, connected appliances have taken over kitchens, and yet the bathtub, one of the few places people genuinely go to decompress, has been left largely untouched. For anyone who’s had to get up and adjust the water temperature mid-soak, that feels like a missed opportunity.

That’s the gap that AquaIntelli is trying to close, a smart bathtub concept that doesn’t just run hot water and wait for you to climb in. Instead, it’s built around an AI-powered system that learns your bathing habits over time and then quietly handles everything on your behalf.

Designers: Yeongkyu Yoo (cloudandco studio), Soomin Oh, Sebin Oh

The core idea is personalization through repetition. Each time you use the AquaIntelli, its AI builds a more precise picture of your preferences, directing the jet massage toward the zones where you carry the most tension. If your lower back is always the problem, the system figures that out without you having to press anything. The more you use it, the better it gets at its job.

That same intelligence applies to the basics. The AquaIntelli can handle water temperature, depth, and massage strength entirely on its own, so by the time you actually step in, everything is already dialed in to your preferences. There’s no hovering over the tub as it fills, or dipping your hand in every few minutes to check whether it’s run too hot or too cool.

The designers clearly didn’t want the technology to clash with the form. The AquaIntelli takes the shape of a softly rounded, freestanding tub with no visible jets or hardware cluttering the surface. The air jets are hidden within the tub itself, keeping the interior clean and uninterrupted. It’s the kind of design where the functional details only reveal themselves once you’re already in the water.

The controls follow the same logic. A touch dial sits on the tub’s rim, its face displaying the current water temperature in large, easy-to-read digits, with a flush-mounted push button beside it for toggling the spa functions on or off. For those who’d rather not wait until they’re in the bathroom, a companion app lets you set the temperature and run the tub remotely from your phone.

The AquaIntelli is still a concept, which means it could be a while before anything like it shows up in an actual bathroom. But the ideas behind it are genuinely compelling. A bathtub that takes care of the tedious setup, remembers what you need after a rough day, and gets more useful the longer you own it is a surprisingly straightforward pitch for something the category has never really had.

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