Weekly poll results: HTC 10 got overwhelming approval

In last week's poll we asked you if the HTC 10 is one hot piece of tech or a futile attempt by the company to warm the hearts of fans. Happily for the Taiwanese, 82% or 14,873 of you think the HTC 10 is pretty cool.

That's probably the highest approval rating we've seen and it really bodes well for the future of the 10. However, if people buy it or not is what really matters for the company, which has been struggling to turn a profit for quite some time now.

Nevertheless, it's not because of the lack of trying. The HTC 10 sports one of the best chipsets on the market as well as a tempting 12MP camera with OIS and f/1.8. Not to mention the 5MP Ultra Pixel 2 selfie with 1.34 µm pixel size and OIS.

We're yet to put the HTC 10 through our full review procedure and find out if its battery, camera, performance and a whole more is any good. On paper at least, things sound exciting and we're very hopeful the phone lives up to its expectations.

Silver Galaxy S7/S7 edge to be available in Netherlands starting May

Samsung's latest flagship smartphones - the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge - were launched globally last month on March 11. Although the devices come in several color options, the complete range is not yet available in several markets.

One such market is the Netherlands, where the Silver color option wasn't available. However, that was until now, as the variant is now listed on the websites of several Dutch retailers, including Cool Blue, Mobile, and Belsimpel.

Interested users can place their orders right now, and the phone should be delivered in the first week of May - a delivery date of May 2 is being shown currently. In case you missed, Samsung recently launched a Pink Gold version as well, but that's currently only available in South Korea.

Marshmallow starts hitting Galaxy S5 units in India

Samsung has finally started rolling out the Marshmallow update to Galaxy S5 units (model SM-G900I) in India. The update brings Android version 6.0.1, and bumps the firmware version to G900IDDU1CPD1.

Needless to say, post update, Galaxy S5 users in India will be able to access the usual Marshmallow goodies, including Doze, Google Now on Tap, and redesigned app permissions. It is, however, currently not known whether or not anything else is included in the update.

This comes just days after Galaxy S5 model SM-G900F started receiving the Marshmallow update in the neighboring country of Sri Lanka.

Next Huawei phone will sport QHD display, says CEO

If you recall, last year, Huawei CEO Richard Yu effectively said that he's not in favor of QHD displays on smartphone as he thinks it's difficult for humans to distinguish between Full HD and QHD displays. However now, he seems to have changed his mind.

Huawei's latest P9 - comes with full HD display

And the reason is VR. "Last year I would certainly not buy a 2K device as the power consumption was high and the difference to my eyes non-existent. But now I have changed my mind and my next phone will be 2K as I like VR!," he noted in a post on Weibo.

It's worth mentioning that by 2K, he probably means QHD as the former has never been a phone resolution. Also, in case you missed, Huawei's change of heart comes nearly a week after the company announced its own VR headset.

Telus announces Marshmallow rollout dates for Galaxy S5 and Note 4

If you are a Samsung Galaxy S5 or Galaxy Note 4 user on Telus, you'll be glad to know that the carrier has announced Marshmallow rollout dates for the devices. As always, the announcement came in the form of a revision to the company's software update schedule.

As per the information revealed, the Galaxy S5 will start getting the update on May 2, while the Note 4 will be getting it beginning May 16. In addition to Marshmallow, the update will also include monthly Android security patch.

Keep in mind that the dates mentioned in the update schedule are approximate and subject to change. However, the Canadian carrier has mostly stuck to the schedule in the past.

Report says HTC 10 Australian launch set for early next month

If you are in Australia, and are waiting for HTC's latest flagship 10, here is some good news: the device will reportedly land there in less than a couple of weeks from now - May 3 to be precise.

As for the price, the report says the device will carry a tag of AUD 1,080, "which puts it approximately AUD 100 less than Samsung’s Galaxy S7, and almost AUD 200 less than the Galaxy S7 Edge." There was, however, no word on carrier deals.

HTC 10 gets its first UK operator partner in Three, pre-orders are up

The HTC 10 has gone up for pre-order in many markets (including the UK) from the moment it was announced on April 12. However, no operator partners have been announced for the UK, and over there the phone was only offered SIM-free and unlocked up until today.

Now Three has stepped forward and officially became the first operator partner for the HTC 10. The network is already taking pre-orders for the device.

You'll pay £49 for the 10 upfront if you get it with a plan that costs £38 per month (the price goes up by £5 if you don't use a recurring method for paying, keep that in mind).

That contract will net you unlimited minutes and texts as well as 1GB of data every month. You can go higher if you want - for example, £57 per month gives you unlimited everything, including data. Strangely though, the £49 upfront cost for the handset doesn't go away regardless of which plan you choose.

Three estimates that pre-ordered HTC 10 units will be delivered on May 6, which is in line with HTC's own release time frame of "early May" for the device.

BlackBerry Priv is now $100 cheaper when bought sans contract from AT&T

Here's some good news for fans of the BlackBerry Priv who use AT&T as their carrier. The company has decided to make BlackBerry's first Android smartphone cheaper than it was before, and not by an insignificant amount.

If you purchase the handset outright, you now need to pay only $639.99, whereas before the price was $739.99. So that's a nice $100 saved. And the situation is the same overall if you choose to employ the AT&T Next installment plans. Using this method, you pay nothing upfront then followed by 30 monthly payments of $21.34, 24 monthly installments of $26.67, or 20 monthly payments of $32. In the end you arrive at the same sum, which is around $640.

If for some reason you prefer doing things the old fashioned way and want to sign a two-year contract with the carrier in exchange for the phone, then you'll shell out $199.99 for the Priv when you get it. That's $50 less than it used to be, so you're saving some money even if you're opting for this method of doing business.

The Priv has a 5.4-inch QHD touchscreen, an 18 MP main camera, a 2 MP selfie snapper, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 808 SoC at the helm, and a 3,410 mAh battery. It runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.

Sony Xperia X will be available in the UK on May 20, XA on June 10

Sony announced the Xperia X, XA, and X Performance back at MWC in February. We then saw the first two of the devices going up for pre-order at one UK retailer last month, though unfortunately actual release dates for them weren't available then.

Well, they are now. Amazon has also started taking pre-orders for the Xperia X and Xperia XA, and while the prices are a tad higher than those we told you about in March, what's important here is that both phones have a release date attached.

The Sony Xperia X will be out in the UK on May 20, while the lower-end XA will debut on June 10. Amazon is asking for £549.99 for the X, and £279.99 for the XA. The Xperia X is currently only offered in black and rose gold, while the XA can be had in "lime gold", white, or black. There's still no sign of the Xperia X Performance in the UK.

Samsung is testing two Galaxy Note 6 versions, one has a curved screen

Since Samsung is going to launch the Galaxy Note 6 this year, perhaps in August or even earlier, it's understandable that the Korean company would already be testing prototypes. Interestingly though, a report that allegedly comes from a reliable source claims Samsung has created two different Note 6 versions, yet will decide upon one of them before the unveiling, and the other model will not be launched. The Galaxy S6 edge+ from last year will not get a successor in 2016, so basically the Note 6 will serve double duty, both as the follow-up to theNote5 but also the S6 edge+.

Hence it makes total sense that one of the Note 6 prototypes comes with a doubly curved screen, just like the S7 edge and previous edge-branded handsets before it. The second prototype has a flat display, and their other specs are identical.

The Galaxy Note 6 will feature a 5.8-inch QHD Super AMOLED touchscreen (whether curved or not remains to be seen), the same 12 MP dual pixel camera that's in the S7 and S7 edge, 6GB of RAM, and a 4,000 mAh battery. As for the chipset employed, there are once again two to speak of - a new (but unnamed) version of Samsung's own Exynos 8 Octa (with slightly higher clock speeds than the 8890 in the S7), as well as Qualcomm's Snapdragon 823. It's likely that some markets will get the latter, while most will see Samsung's own silicon, emulating what's happened with the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge.

The internal storage will be 32GB, expandable via a microSD card slot. Samsung will apparently make the Note 6 official a very short while after Google launches Android N, and the Note 6 should run that version of the OS from day one. The Note 6 will of course sport a fingerprint sensor, but it may also come with an iris scanner.

Obviously, even if everything you've just read is 100% accurate right now, small changes could still occur before the phablet is outed, so do keep that in mind.

April security update starts hitting Galaxy Note5 units in India

Samsung has started rolling out the latest Android security update to Galaxy Note5 units in India. As per the change-log, the update also includes some performance and stability-related improvements as well as generic bug fixes.

Weighing in at around 19MB, the update bumps the firmware version to N920GDDS2BPD2, and brings up the device's Android security patch level to April 2, 2016. Reportedly, Galaxy Note5 model SM-N920G is receiving the same firmware in Nepal and Sri Lanka as well.

Given that software updates are usually rolled out in phases, it may take time for this one as well to hit your device. However, if you are feeling impatient, you can manually check for it by heading to your handset's Settings menu.

Xiaomi teases Mi Max

Yesterday, we reported on a render of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi Max phablet, after revealing that the phone indeed exists a few days prior to that. Xiaomi today released a teaser image of the phone revealing just a small portion of it.

The point of the image is to show that the phone can fit comfortably into jeans pocket, but considering the rumors of a 6.4-inch display, we find that somewhat hard to believe.

Other things worth noting is the missing Mi logo up front, something that has been around on Xiaomi phones since the beginning, and the new Baymax-style design of the sensors/earpiece/camera arrangement. The phone does not have the thin bezels on the side, which leads us to believe this might not necessarily be a high-end device, and more of a mid-range offering.

Xiaomi says the Mi Max is a brand new product line, separate from its existing Mi and Redmi series.

We will continue to keep you updated as more information surfaces.