Huawei Honor 5C gets TENAA certification, sports metal unibody

The Huawei Honor 5C has passed TENAA certification, but the Chinese regulator has since removed the phone's page from its website. Nevertheless, we have the confirmed details and the Honor 5C looks like a nice addition to the company's mid-range line-up.

The Honor 5C is built around a 5.2" 1080p display and has an aluminum body with 2,900 mAh non-removable battery . At the back, there's a fingerprint sensor while above it sits a 13MP camera.

Under the hood, the 5C features either a Mediatek Helio X10 or a Snapdragon 625 judging from the listed 2.0GHz octa-core CPU. RAM is 2GB and internal storage is just 16GB, but is expandable via the microSD card slot.

Finally, the phone measures 147.1 x 73.8 x 8.3 mm, and weighs 156 grams. It's expected to arrive to market in the coming month or two.

LG launches K7 and K10 in India

LG has announced two new budget phones, the LG K7 and the LG K10.

The K7 has a 5.0-inch, 854x480 resolution display, Snapdragon 210 processor, 1.5GB RAM, 8GB storage with microSD, 5 megapixel front and rear camera, LTE, Android 5.1, and 2125mAh battery.

The K10 has a 5.3-inch, 1280x720 resolution display, Snapdragon 410 processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage with microSD, 13 megapixel rear and 8 megapixel front camera, LTE, Android 5.1, and 2,300mAh battery.

While the phones themselves don't seem remarkable, these are the first phones by LG to be locally manufactured in India.

The LG K7 is priced at INR 9,500 ($142) and the LG K10 at INR 13,500 ($202).

You can now design your own case for the Nexus 6P and 5X

Today Google has announced custom Live Cases for the Huawei Nexus 6P and the LG Nexus 5X. These are snap cases that you get to design yourself. For each case you want, you choose either a favorite photo to put on it, or a special place on a map.

After you pick the image or place, you can add filters (dozens are available). And when you buy a Live Case you also get a live wallpaper based on the image or map you used for it. If you've chosen a photo for the case, then you'll see a slideshow of images you've picked from Google Photos. If you went with the map option for the case, the live wallpaper will show your whereabouts.

The Live Cases come with a customizable button. By default, this will launch your camera app if you've used a photo for the customization, or it will show you what's nearby in Google Maps if you've gone with a place.

You can start designing your own Live Case in the Google Store right now. One case costs $35, regardless of what design you use.

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ now available for £490 in UK

The Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ has received a price cut in the UK, where retailer Clove is now selling the device for £490, down £90 from its usual listed price. The model on offer is a SIM-free, black-colored 32GB variant, and Clove claims that it is compatible with all UK and European networks.

A quick look at Samsung's UK website reveals that the same model is being officially sold for £565.00, £75 more compared to Clove. However, Amazon UK has the handset listed for £499, although as of writing, the listing shows that only 1 unit is in stock.

LG G5, Galaxy S7 and Nexus 6P go under chipset stress test to find who's the hottest

The LG G5 uses a Snapdragon 820 chipset, which is Qualcomm's top dog in the chipset market, offering incredible performance. We already know that Qualcomm managed to fix the bad overheating issues that plagued the predecessor, Snapdragon 810, but to what end? That's what our Swedish colleagues over at NordicHardware.se have tried to find out.

They put the LG G5 under CPU and GPU stress tests and compared it against the Galaxy S7(Exynos 8990) and the Nexus 6P (Snapdragon 810). To do so, 3DMark Slingshot and Geekbench 3 do the heavy lifting, while an app monitors the temperatures reported by the phones' sensors and an external thermometer is attached to the hottest part of the back of the phone.

The results show that the G5 loses 40% of its GPU performance after about 20-25 minutes of use. In comparison, the Galaxy S7 loses just 25% of ist prowess. Not unexpectedly, the Nexus 6P runs hotter with significant throttling, but a comparable loss of performance compared to the other two.

The Swedes have concluded that the Adreno 530 is the main source of heat generated by the Snapdragon 820 and is throttled after a certain amount of time under stress. This means that if you have long gaming sessions, the performance of certain titles may drop.

You can check out the full article with in-depth comparison charts following the source link.

After shutting down in Australia, Samsung Milk Music launches in China

Earlier last month, there were reports that Samsung is shutting down its Milk Music radio service. Later that month, the shutdown was confirmed, at-least by the Australian Milk Music team. However, looks like Samsung hasn't yet completely given up on the service, as it has now been launched in China.

Focusing on local content (over a million tracks accessible) at the moment, the app is currently only available for download on the Galaxy S7, the Galaxy S7 edge and the A9 Prosmartphones in China. However, reports say that international content as well as availability on more devices will follow.

ZUK teases new phone - likely the Z2 Pro

A teaser image of a new ZUK smartphone was released by the Chinese company's CEO Chang Cheng. The image shows a black-colored sleek-looking phone with what looks like a 2.5D curved display. On the back is a camera sensor, dual tone LED flash, and an apparent laser auto-focus module.

The image - which was shared on Weibo - also had an accompanying text that read: Tremble xx5, x9, xxx6. So, without directly naming the Xiaomi Mi 5, Huawei P9, and the Meizu Pro 6, Cheng is claiming that the upcoming ZUK phone is a better alternative.

Cheng recently revealed that the Lenovo-backed company will launch a new smartphone on April 21, so it'd be reasonable to assume that the phone shown in the teaser is that particular device. Although he didn't reveal anything else about the handset, rumors say it'd be the Z2 Pro.

As rumors have it, the Z2 Pro will be powered by Snapdragon 820 SoC, and sport a full HD display. Storage will be 32GB, with RAM either 3GB or 4GB. The phone will have 13MP/5MP camera combo and run Android 6.0.1 out of the box.

Meizu m3 headed our way, stops by TENAA

A new unannounced Meizu smartphone has cropped up on Chinese regulator TENAA's website. What looks like a successor to the popular Meizu m2 brings duly updated specs in a similarly looking body.

The possible Meizu m3 comes with a 5-inch 720p LCD, much like the model it replaces. An undisclosed chipset with an 1.5GHz octa-core processor (versus the quad-core in the m2) powers the smartphone, paired with 2GB of RAM. Internal storage is 16GB, expandable by up to 128GB via microSD.

There's a 13MP primary camera on the back of the smartphone, while selfies are being handled by a 5MP unit - nothing new here. Battery capacity, on the other hand, has gotten a bump - at 2,800mAh the m3's battery packs more juice than the just-announced company flagship Pro 6.

One peculiar aspect of the smartphone that's visited TENAA is that it runs on YunOS 3.1.6, which is based on the Android Open Source Project. It's unclear yet whether a proper version will be available with Google Play Services and all.

Marshmallow beta begins rolling out to BlackBerry Priv

Over a week after BlackBerry started accepting applications for the Priv Marshmallow beta program, the beta update has started hitting the company's debut Android smartphone.

As for the roll-out, the Canadian company said that the update will be made available to a small batch of testers first, and if no critical issues are reported, all beta testers will get the update by the end of this week.

If you've signed up for the Priv Marshmallow beta, head to the BlackBerry Beta Zone (link shared below) for details on preparing your unit or making it ready to receive the update.

Wait, what? HTC's India website now lists HTC Lifestyle as SD820-powered

Just when we thought the SD652-powered HTC Lifestyle would be available in India instead of the company's SD820-powered flagship HTC 10, HTC released a statement effectively saying that nothing is yet confirmed, and it will make an official announcement in this regard soon.

And now, while we were waiting for the announcement, the Taiwanese company quietly changed the Lifestyle's specs on its India website, making them similar to the HTC 10. A quick look at the specs sheet suggests the chipset has been changed to Snapdragon 820. Similarly, the memory configuration has also been changed from 3GB/32GB to 4GB/32GB and 4GB/64GB.

If you recall, these were the only major differences between the HTC 10 and the HTC Lifestyle when we told you about the latter a couple of days ago.

So, what's really happening here? Will HTC be launching the 10 as Lifestyle in India? Or, is it that the company (after making all the specs-related changes) forgot to change the name of the handset on the India website? Also, what about the other regions where the Lifestyle will be launched?

We'll have to wait for HTC to issue a clarification on this.

US may not get 64GB HTC 10

As you might already know, HTC's latest flagship - the HTC 10 - comes in 32GB and 64GB storage options. However, if you are in the US, and are planning to buy the 64GB variant when it becomes available, there is some bad news: US may not get the higher memory model.

This was effectively confirmed by HTC's Senior Global Online Communications Manager Jeff Gordon while replying to a user query on Twitter.

Keep in mind, however, that the HTC 10 supports expandable memory. So, storage should not be a big problem even if you go for the 32GB model. As for the device's US availability, aside from AT&T, the other three of the 'big four' carriers will be carrying it - the handset costs $700in the country.

Samsung Galaxy J7, LG Stylo 2, and Kyocera Hydro Reach launch at Boost and Virgin Mobile on Friday

This Friday will be a very busy day for Sprint's prepaid brands, Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile. The former will see no less than three new smartphones launching on April 15, while the latter will have to go with two out of three. The trio in question consists of the Samsung Galaxy J7, LG Stylo 2, and Kyocera Hydro Reach.

The Galaxy J7 arriving at Boost and Virgin isn't this year's iteration, instead it looks to be last year's model, but it does have a couple of upgrades compared to the internationally available unit. Namely, it sports 2GB of RAM, and it's also running Android 6.0 Marshmallow right out of the gate.

The J7 also has a 5.5-inch 720p Super AMOLED touchscreen, 16GB of expandable storage, a 13 MP rear camera, a 5 MP selfie cam, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 615 SoC with a 1.4 GHz octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU, and a 3,000 mAh battery. It will be sold by the prepaid carriers for $229.99 plus tax (and obviously sans contract).

The LG Stylo 2 is the successor to the G Stylo from last year. It boasts a 5.7-inch 720p IPS touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera, a 5 MP selfie snapper, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 410 chipset (with a 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU), 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a 3,000 mAh battery. It runs Android Marshmallow and comes with a stylus as its name implies.

The Stylo 2 will be priced at $179.99 plus tax and will arrive at Boost this Friday and at Virgin on May 9.

Finally, the Kyocera Hydro Reach has a 5-inch 540x960 touchscreen, a 5 MP rear camera, a 2 MP front-facing unit, a 1.1 GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, and a 2,160 mAh battery. It runs Android 5.1 Lollipop. Its main claim to fame is the fact that it's water and dust proof. It will cost $99.99 plus tax.