Huawei P9 to come with a Leica co-developed camera, senior exec confirms

Huawei and Leica announced in February they'll be working together on advancements in mobile photography, and the upcoming P9 flagship will be the first to take advantage of the shared expertise. The interesting fact was revealed by Huawei's deputy chairman of the board, Mr Guo Ping, at the Chinese company's press conference where the annual financial report was made public.

We are going to launch our P9 flagship phone very soon and this is a product that we worked with Leica to produce.

Meanwhile, an image has surfaced, depicting the already familiar back of the P9 with the dual-camera setup that's all but a certainty by now. Only this time there's the added Leica branding. The revered optics specialists have deemed the lens worthy of a Summarit badge, and the specs list an f/2.2 aperture and 27mm equivalent focal length.

With the P9 confirmed to reap the benefits of the Huawei-Leica collaboration, it's only logical for the phone to carry such branding, and the typeface seems consistent with that used on the German manufacturer's own camera lenses. Well, there's just 4 days until it's all official - the P9 will be unveiled on April 6.

Sony Mobile US makes job cuts, relocates office

Sony's US mobile unit has been relocated from Atlanta to the San Francisco Bay Area, and in the process, the company has also made an unspecified number of job cuts, according to a new report.

The report also says that, Kunihiko Shiomi, who was previously the head of the Japanese company's US mobile development, has been made the unit's president. This change in leadership happened back in January this year.

In case you don't already know, Sony Mobile has been struggling in the US for quite a few years now. According to market research firm IDC, the company has had a share of less than 1% in the country's smartphone market since 2012.

OnePlus X gets a price cut in India

The OnePlus X has gotten a price cut on Amazon India, and now goes for INR 14,999 ($225). That is, the Onyx variant is discounted, both the Champagne (INR 16,999) and the Ceramic (INR 22,999) are still being sold for full price.

                     OnePlus X 

The OnePlus X is the company's smaller-sized model, which accompanies the self-proclaimed flagship killer OnePlus 2 (which as it happens also got a price cut a couple of weeks ago). The X features a 5-inch FullHD AMOLED display and is powered by the aging (but high-end nonetheless) Snapdragon 801, coupled with 3 gigs of RAM. A 13MP/8MP camera combo and 2,525mAh battery complete the list of key specs.

$1930 gets you a gold-plated Samsung Galaxy S7 edge

Luxury specialists Karalux out of Vietnam are now offering a gold-plating service for the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, so you can upgrade from your last-year 24K-covered Samsung flagship..

Samsung's switched from A7000 to A6000 grade aluminum, Karalux says, which has forced the company to introduce changes to its manufacturing processes. It now takes 6 hours over 10 separate stages to put some extra bling on an already premium device.

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Gold-plated Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge by Karalux

The pleasure of owning a gold-plated Galaxy S7 costs VND 35 million ($1570), phone included, if you happen to live in Vietnam, while international buyers will need to shell out $1730. For the S7 edge, on the other hand, those numbers are $1705 and $1930, for local and global purchases respectively.

Marshmallow will land on the BlackBerry Priv in late April or early May

Yesterday we caught a video showing the BlackBerry Priv running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and now we finally have a rough release timeline for it to speak of.

Last year BlackBerry promised to bring Marshmallow to its first Android smartphone in 2016, then this January that commitment was reiterated with details allegedly coming by the end of Q1. And sure enough, here we are in the first day of the second quarter of the year and we now know what to expect.

The new software will be arriving on a BlackBerry Priv near you either in late April or in early May. That's still pretty vague, of course, but it's clearly only a matter of weeks from this point on. So Priv owners everywhere can now pretty much start the countdown - the wait is almost over.

Verizon's Galaxy S6 and S6 edge are now receiving Marshmallow updates

Around a month and a half ago Samsung started rolling out updates to Android 6.0 Marshmallow for the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge (pictured below), last year's flagship smartphones. And now Verizon has finally caught up and commenced the same rollout for the S6 and S6 edge units it's sold.

The update will make its way out in stages, so it could be quite a few days before it hits every S6 or S6 edge purchased from Verizon. Nevertheless, at least it is now on its way.

If you have one of these devices and haven't received the update notification yet, you can obviously choose to manually check for the availability of the new release by going to Settings > About Device > Software Update. That may or may not help get it faster.

Aside from everything that Google's built into Android 6.0 Marshmallow (things such as Doze Mode for better battery life, the new permissions system, Now On Tap), the Galaxy S6 edge is also getting the same Edge Panel features that have debuted on its successor, the S7 edge. This means you'll have a thicker panel that you can do more with. The March security updates are in too, as you'd expect.

More price hikes for Verizon subscribers with a grandfathered unlimited plan

If you still have a grandfathered unlimited plan with Verizon that you are still hanging onto for dear life, Verizon is sending out another wave of price increases for customers whose plans weren’t affected with Verizon’s price hikes back in November.

Just to reiterate, this price hike will not come to those whose monthly rates were already raised. This price hike is to come to customers whose rate was not affected by the first wave of increases. This time around, Verizon will up the rates of customers whose lines have fulfilled their contract.

I don’t blame Verizon, data is no longer a complimentary feature to cellular service, and it has become a necessity. The main product for sale with carriers has shifted to data. Verizon still says the grandfathered unlimited plan comes at a great value, even with the $20 increase, which will being rolling out on May 15.

Well, yeah, of course it’s a great value, otherwise, Verizon might be losing money with these grandfathered unlimited plans. Now, more than ever do customers need to jump through hoops and be super careful when making any changes to their plans if they want to stay on the grandfathered line. If you are a Verizon customer, all I have to say is: “Good luck”.

Walmart drops iPhone prices by $100, Galaxy S6 and S7 by $150

An intriguing deal is apparently to be had if you want to purchase a new iPhone or Samsung smartphone and you head to Walmart to do the deed. The mega-retailer is said to be offering $100 off iPhones and $150 off two Samsung handsets, starting today and until the end of June.

The Apple handsets that qualify are the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, as well as the new iPhone SE. The Samsung phones in question are the Galaxy S6 and S7. That said, keep in mind that not every store will have the exact same models on offer, but you should find at least some of the aforementioned handsets in any of them.

The catch? Well, you'll need to sign a service agreement with AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint when you purchase the device. The $100 or $150 will then arrive to you in the form of bill credit. Oh, and you need to go to an actual physical Walmart store to take advantage of the offer, since it's not available online.

LG G5 arrives with Friends, we do the unboxing

LG has come up with a very nice G5 reviewer's kit and we just got ours. It's a big colorful box with fancy hinges and a retro fastener. Within the promising looking package we found the retail LG G5, the LG 360 Cam, the LG Cam Plus module, and the LG Hi-Fi Plus with B&O Play.

We already had a very pleasant encounter with the LG G5, but it's just now that we see its retail box and contents. We'll be updating our review with the new test scores early next week.

LG G5 and Friends box

First up among the LG Friends we received, is the LG 360 Cam. It's a standalone camera, which can snap 360 photos and videos. Since it doesn't have a viewfinder of its own, you can watch the result on any phone - Android or iPhone. You can even view them through a VR setup if you have one of those. You can also snap 360-degree selfies by leaving the camera perched somewhere on its own and controlling it remotely with your phone.

LG 360 Cam

The LG Cam Plus module adds a proper camera grip, hardware shutter for stills and video, a zoom dial, and an extra 1,200 mAh worth of battery juice.

LG Cam Plus

Finally, the LG Hi-Fi Plus with B&O PLAY is an external DAC and mobile audio amp, which allows you to playback 32-bit 384kHz Hi-Fi audio or up-sample lower quality music. It has a 3.5mm audio jack, and you can use it not only as an insert for the LG G5 but also as an external USB DAC for any computer or mobile device by attaching it via the supplied short USB cable.

LG Hi-Fi Plus with B&O Play

You bet we'll get down to business with all of those goodies right away. You can wxpect our hands-on impressions next week.

LG G5 torture tests come online, it turns out quite sturdy

LG G5 went on sale just yesterday and it was inevitable for the flagship to pass through various torture tests for the cameras. The G5 got scratched, burnt with a lighter, and then bent for the public to enjoy.

As expected the LG G5 doesn't bend easily as it's actually a chunk of metal, except for the whatever accessory is inserted within the Magic Slot - this will surrender rather easy.

The scratch test revealed the LG G5 is actually covered by a thin layer of plastic. This process of applying small color particles on metal surface is called microdizing and allows for hiding the antenna bands within the paint.

LG actually talked about this - the layer some consider as plastic is actually a rather thick ply of paint, so we think LG hasn't lied about the metal, nor has misled on the microdizing thing - the paint is indeed hiding the antennas.

So, the LG G5 is not that prone to bending, though you can easily bend the bottom because it's detachable. It does endure screen scratches up to a certain point, but the rear is a lot easier to scratch because it's actually paint.

The teardown video reveals the LG G5 is easy to open and repair and shows its true metal nature.

We already published our LG G5 review based on a pre-production unit, but the retail unit has just arrived in our office so you should stay tuned for an update early next week.

Microsoft releases Lumia 650 in the US and Canada

Quite a while after its unveiling back in February, the Microsoft Lumia 650 is now finally available in the US and Canada. This comes after a three-week pre-order period for the new mid-range smartphone.

The Lumia 650 can be yours for $199 or CAD 199, and for that price you'll receive a SIM-free and unlocked unit. You can order from Microsoft's online store here for the US and here for Canada. This handset has already been available in Europe for many weeks, so it's good to finally see it crossing the pond as well.

It comes with a 5-inch 720p touchscreen, an 8 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 5 MP selfie snapper, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 212 chipset running things (with a 1.3 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU), 1GB of RAM, 16GB of expandable storage, LTE, and a 2,000 mAh battery. It has Windows 10 Mobile on board. To get a better idea of whether it's a worthy buy or not, make sure you go through our detailed review of the phone.

iPhone SE undergoes scratch, burn and bend tests

It's interesting to see how every new smartphone fares against wear and tear and the iPhone SE is no exception. Seasoned phone torturer JerryRigEverything has posted a video of doing some scratch, burn and bend tests to Apple's latest smartphone. It's as interesting as it's painful to watch.

As you can see in the video below, the iPhone SE fails the bend test and arches at the volume rocker. This suggests to the conclusion that Apple hasn't used its premium Aluminum 7000-series and reverted back to the 6000-series. Given the shorter frame of the device that shouldn't be much of an issue with everyday usage though.

In the burn and scratch tests, it fares much better. The front glass scratches similarly to the Galaxy S7 from using equally rigid materials. Keys and softer metals are fine and don't do damage.