Race car driver and hamster rescuer, cricketer and creator: Why one label no longer fits

Gladys Lam races cars, rescues hamsters, runs a business and creates content. Avi Dixit spends his days making videos before heading for national cricket training in the evening. And visual artist Tobyato moves between murals, sculptures, art toys and commercial collaborations – while making time for late-night runs.

Their lives may look very different, but all three have something in common: None is easily defined by just one pursuit.

They are among the personalities featured in Samsung’s Unfold Your Range campaign, launched alongside its latest foldable line-up – the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold8 and Galaxy Z Flip8 – which explores what it means to embrace different sides of life rather than narrow them down to one.

For Lam, Dixit and Tobyato, range takes different forms. One pursuit can build skills that prove useful in another. Priorities can shift rather than remain perfectly balanced. And staying open to something new can prevent a familiar path from becoming a boundary.

The race car driver who also rescues hamsters

Lam is a competitive race car driver who also runs Hamster Society Singapore, a rescue group for one of the country’s most overlooked pets.

She founded Dorifto, an indoor drifting circuit, and works full-time as a content creator, handling filming, editing and community-building on top of everything else.

Rather than seeing these as separate parts of her life, Lam finds that each pursuit teaches her something she carries into the next.

Racing sharpens her problem-solving skills under pressure, animal rescue builds empathy, entrepreneurship demands discipline and content creation hones her storytelling.

With her days split between a racetrack, a rescue shelter, a business and a camera lens, her phone has become the constant that holds it all together.

“I love my Galaxy Z Fold8. It is the bridge between all the different parts of my life,” says Lam. 

“One moment I’m reviewing onboard footage from a race – the big screen is so useful for this – the next moment I’m editing content, replying emails or just planning the week. I can never leave home without my phone because half my life lives in it.”

Why ‘balance’ doesn’t mean giving everything equal time

For Singapore national cricketer and content creator Avi Dixit, having range means moving between two worlds that, on the surface, have little in common.

His day starts with a gym session and rehabilitation as he recovers from back surgery, followed by one or two hours of ideating and filming content. At 5pm, his focus switches to national cricket training, which runs until around 9pm.

“To me, being multi-hyphenate means acknowledging that you can be deeply passionate about completely different worlds and allowing yourself the freedom to pursue them simultaneously,” says Dixit. 

He describes cricket as an environment “bound by rigid execution, immense public scrutiny and a scoreboard that doesn’t lie”, while content creation provides “an outlet for humour, storytelling and direct connection with an audience.”

Yet the skills required for each are not as separate as they might appear. Cricket has taught Dixit the discipline to remain consistent with content creation even when every video does not go viral. Content creation, in turn, has developed the adaptability that he says is essential in cricket, particularly in T20 matches where momentum can shift quickly.

That ability to manage competing demands started early. At school, Dixit played cricket, football, golf and softball while preparing for his International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) examinations and the International Baccalaureate (IB). “I was forced to know how to organise my time efficiently,” he says. Dixit, who is part of Team Galaxy, has used Samsung’s foldable devices while navigating both sides of his life.

That experience has also shaped his idea of balance. “People also think that balancing everything means that you’re giving equal amounts of time to each facet of your life,” he says. 

Dixit does not – cricket might require more attention at one point, while content creation takes priority at another. “Your mindset as an athlete is very different to the mindset you need to have as a content creator,” he says. “One requires grit and determination, and is far more physical. Conversely, content creation requires a side of your brain that brings creativity, humour and relatability.”

He is already thinking about what else he might pursue, including acting and hosting his own show.

The artist who doesn’t want to be easily defined

Singapore visual artist Tobyato, whose real name is Toby Tan, has a different reason for resisting a neat definition. Some know him for his public murals, others for his commercial collaborations, while his work also encompasses art toys and sculptures. Even his preferred job title remains deliberately broad: visual artist.

Outside his art, running has long been part of his life. Tobyato does not claim that one makes him technically better at the other, but sees a common mindset between them. “I’m not the fastest runner, nor the best artist,” he says. “But they coexist for me with the same mindset of doing it and improving at it because I genuinely enjoy it.”

The tougher moments have something in common too: “The gritty last metres of a run feel familiar to the midnight oil burn of the last client changes to an artwork. It trains me to know that I can do it, I will do it, again and again if I must.”

His creative career has similarly kept moving, from murals to objects and collaborations. “I learnt that I get bored more easily than I thought, so I consciously seek out new things, which helps me expand my breadth of work.”

For a creative, developing a recognisable style can be an advantage. But Tobyato also sees the risk of allowing that recognition to determine what comes next. “A singular label can be quite restrictive,” he says. “Almost like an unspoken boundary or expectation keeping you from exploring and experiencing other things a creative career or life has to offer.”

His definition of range is therefore less about accumulating pursuits than remaining open to them. “Range means being open to trying everything you might enjoy, and then caring enough to improve on it, whatever it might be. Running faster, drawing better, living more creatively and more playfully.”

Tobyato has previously worked with Samsung, creating “Folding Phone, Hidden Dragon” for the launch of the Galaxy Z Flip5 and Galaxy Watch6 in Singapore in 2023.

For three people with very different lives, range takes different forms. For Lam, different pursuits strengthen one another. Dixit has learnt that pursuing more than one passion does not mean giving each equal time. And for Tobyato, staying open to new possibilities keeps a familiar path from becoming a boundary.

That same idea of range shapes Samsung’s latest foldable line-up, which comprises three devices designed around different ways of working, consuming content and creating.

Galaxy Z Fold8 vs Fold8 Ultra vs Flip8: What’s the difference?

The Galaxy Z Fold8, Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra and Galaxy Z Flip8 are Samsung’s latest foldable phones, but each is designed around different needs.

The Galaxy Z Fold8 is the lightest Z Fold to date and is built for moving between everyday tasks and entertainment. The Fold8 Ultra adds a larger workspace and features geared towards more demanding workloads and content creation. The Flip8 is the most compact of the three and focuses on quick, on-the-go use.

What is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 best for?

The Galaxy Z Fold8 is the lightest Z Fold to date and is built around everyday content consumption.

Key Galaxy Z Fold8 specs:

How is the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra different from the Fold8?

The Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra brings Samsung’s Ultra standard to foldables for the first time, and is aimed at users who need more room for multitasking and more demanding workloads.

Its 8-inch main display creates a larger workspace for multitasking. At 4.1mm thin when unfolded and weighing 215g, it is also Samsung’s slimmest Z Fold yet.

Its camera and video capabilities include a 200 mega-pixel (MP) main camera with HDR in 200MP mode, a new 50MP ultra-wide camera and 8K video recording.

Key Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra specs:

What are the key features of the Galaxy Z Flip8?

The Galaxy Z Flip8 is Samsung’s slimmest and lightest Flip yet, weighing 180g and measuring 6.1mm thin. It is designed for quick, on-the-go moments.

Its reimagined, AI-native FlexWindow brings apps, information and actions directly to the cover screen, while Now Brief surfaces timely information at a glance. Gemini Intelligence can be triggered by the side key or voice for hands-free tasks.

Key Galaxy Z Flip8 specs:

Galaxy Watch Ultra2 vs Galaxy Watch9: What’s the difference?

Samsung has also added two smartwatches to its range, the Galaxy Watch Ultra2 and Galaxy Watch9.

Both turn everyday wear into health insights through AI-powered features including Sleep Apnea detection, Heart Health Score, Daily Cardio Load and Fitness Index.

The Watch Ultra2 is built for extreme performance and dive-ready durability, while the Watch9 is a lighter, comfort-first option designed for all-day wear and building everyday health habits.

Where can the Galaxy Z Fold8, Fold8 Ultra and Flip8 be bought?

The Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold8 and Galaxy Z Flip8 are available through the Samsung Online Store, Samsung Shop App and Samsung Experience Stores.

They are also available from Samsung’s official stores on Shopee, Lazada, TikTok, KrisShop and iShopChangi; local telcos Singtel, StarHub and M1; and selected electronics retailers Best Denki, Challenger, Courts, Gain City and Harvey Norman.

Find out more about Samsung’s latest Galaxy devices.

This article contains material first published on Herworld.com and Thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

Brought to you by Samsung