Xperia X series pre-orders on the Sony Xperia Store will come with an "exclusive offer"

Sony has announced that its brand new Xperia X series of smartphones will soon be available for pre-order from the Xperia Store. The announcement came in the form of an email which the company sent out to those who had registered their interest in the devices.

In the email, Sony also said that pre-orders will come with an "exclusive offer," although the company didn't reveal what exactly the offer would be.

The exclusive offer - going by the email - will only be available on Xperia X and XA pre-orders (as well as on the Xperia Ear accessory), meaning those pre-ordering the Xperia X Performance will be out of luck.

Meanwhile, the Japanese company also released a promotional ad (embedded below) for the Xperia X smartphone that focuses on the device's camera. Take a look:

High-Res headphones not coming with US, Canadian HTC 10s

US buyers typically get the best price for new gadgets, but that brings about its own sort of issues. The HTC 10 will not be available in 64GB form in the US and you won't get the High-Res headphones either.

The HTC USA and HTC Canada Twitter accounts have both confirmed that the new flagship will not have the premium headset included. Going by the T-Mobile unboxing, at least it will come with Quick Charge 3.0 charger.

Don't forget to use the $100 discount coupon code, with that money you can buy your own fancy headset. The High-Res headset is shown on HTC's US site, but there's no price for it yet.

Google Drive for Mac/PC now allows selective syncing

Google has updated its Drive client for Mac and PC with the ability to selectively sync folders and sub-folders. You'll now also be able to deselect folders, upon which they'll be removed from your system but will still remain accessible in your Drive.

While you can already delete your Drive stuff directly from your computer, the latest update adds a warning that pops up when you are removing files/folders that are shared with other people, minimizing accidental deletes.

The new features have started rolling out, and google says the roll-out will continue over the next week or so. So, be patient, if you're not seeing the changes currently.

Verizon offering up to $300 to those trading-in their old phone

Verizon has launched a national trade-in event where-in it's offering up to $300 to those trading-in their old phone and purchasing a new Samsung Galaxy S7, LG G5, Motorola Droid Turbo 2, or iPhone 6S (16GB) on a device payment plan.

To be precise, a maximum trade-in amount of $312 is on offer, and eligible handsets includethe Droid Turbo, Galaxy Note5, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge/edge+, HTC M9, iPhone 6/6Plus,LG G4, and LG V10. Those upgrading their device will also get 3 months of HBO NOW for free.

An important thing worth mentioning here is that should you choose, you can also have the credit amount applied towards your Verizon bill.

If you want to participate in the trade-in event, you can do so by visiting one of the carrier's physical stores. Alternatively, you can also complete the trade-in process online.

Make your first 3 Samsung Pay purchases between April 15 and May 10, and get a $30 gift card

Remember last month's Samsung Pay promo for the Galaxy S7/S7 edge owners? Well, the company has again launched a similar promo, although this time it's aimed at those who haven't used the company's mobile payment's service yet.

If you're in the US, have already installed and registered for Samsung Pay, but are yet to use it, this promo is for you. It says that those making their first three Samsung Pay purchases between April 15 and May 10 will be eligible for a $30 gift card.

The promo is open to owners of the Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 edge, S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+,S6 active, and Note5. As for the gift card, it will be added to your Samsung Pay account, and could be used at any one of the following merchants: Best Buy, eBay, Game Stop or Regal Entertainment.

Huawei P9 Max may have been spotted in a benchmark rocking a 6.9-inch screen

Huawei has already introduced three members of the P9 family, the 'vanilla' P9, the P9 Plus, and the P9 Lite. However, there may actually be a fourth one coming soon, a P9 Max to act as the successor to the P8max from last year.

As such, you'd expect it to sport a huge touchscreen, and if the unknown Huawei device spotted in the GFXBench database actually turns out to be the P9 Max, then it definitely won't disappoint.

It's got a 6.9-inch 1080p display, a 16 MP rear camera, an 8 MP selfie snapper, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of built-in storage. It runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow of course.

The chipset that this phablet employs is Huawei's own HiSilicon Kirin 950, first seen on theMate 8. Interestingly though, it's not the newer Kirin 955 that's inside the P9 and P9 Plus. So the P9 Max, if this is it, and if it ever becomes official, will be just a tad lower-end than those two devices. For what it's worth, it still trumps the P9 Lite in terms of specs.

Japan-exclusive Camillia Red version of HTC 10 looks gorgeous

Smartphone makers are having a Henry Ford moment - you can have a smartphone in any color as long as its black, silver or gold. The HTC 10 was no exception, Carbon Grey, Glacier Silver or Topaz Gold were your options.

Still are, probably, unless you live in Japan - KDDI/au is getting an exclusive Camellia Red. Just look at how pretty it is:

HTC 10 in Camellia Red

We like it better than the Deep Garnet version of the One A9, what do you think? If we're lucky, other regions will get this red option instead of something like Pink. Now if only HTC can get its story straight about specs, price, launch date and storage...

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.