Acer Liquid Z630S hands-on

We already got a chance to handle the Acer Liquid Z630S briefly at last year's IFA in September, but we're not ones to shy away from an opportunity to examine a phone at headquarters. So when one presented itself, we grabbed it. That said, we didn't do our full battery of tests - instead, we'll just share a few impressions gathered in a setting way calmer than a venue floor.

Acer Liquid Z630S at a glance:

Body: Polycarbonate all around, removable back,
Screen: 5.5" IPS LCD, 720p resolution (267ppi)
OS: Android 5.1 Lollipop
Chipset: Mediatek MT6753, octa-core Cortex-A53 at 1.3GHz, Mali-T720MP3, 3GB of RAM
Camera: 8MP with f/2.0 lens; 1080p video recording
Selfie camera: 8MP with f/2.4 lens; 1080p video recording
Storage: 32GB built-in, dedicated microSD slot
Connectivity: LTE, dual-SIM; Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, FM-Radio;
Battery: 4,000mAh, removable

Pretty run-of-the-mill specsheet there, though credit has to be given to Acer for the generous amount of RAM and large battery capacity. The display pixel density is a throwback to simpler times, and the primary camera's resolution is also unimpressive.

You do get plenty of storage for the money, with an option for expansion, and that path isn't obstructed by pesky hybrid slots - two for microSIMs and one dedicated for microSD. The sizeable battery capacity, plus the fact that it's removable are a couple of Acer choices we can get behind too.

And since we did mention money, it's worth pointing out that the Acer Liquid Z630S' price varies widely depending on region. For example, in India the phone goes for a very affordable INR 9,999 ($150), while in Europe you'd need to shell out something like €230 ($260) - not really the best value for money.

Anyway, back to the Liquid itself. The first thing that comes to mind is that it's big. Ample bezels all-around (but especially the chin) make it more than a handful, even when factoring in its 5.5-inch display. It's marginally smaller than an iPhone 6s Plus, and that's not a company you want to be in, when talking about screen to body ratio.

There's a lip around the front glass to protect its edges, so those used to a 2.5D curve won't be impressed, but it serves its purpose, and luxury is not to be expected in this price range. Around the back, you're treated to a pseudo brushed metal finish, which looks the part.

Xiaomi's new Mi Bunny is a smartwatch aimed at kids, costs under $50

Waiting for a Xiaomi smartwatch? Well, your wait is over, and you know what, it costs only $46. Whaaat? Not so fast - it's not actually the one most of us are waiting for - it's for kids, silly. Yes, Xiaomi has launched a kid-focused smartwatch dubbed Mi Bunny (cute, isn't it?).

The device offers connectivity options including WiFi and Bluetooth, along with GPS/GLONASS tracking. It also features an SOS button pressing which sends the GPS location of the device along with a few seconds of audio recording.

Also known as the Mitu Watch, the device sends alerts when the wearer moves outside of a specified zone. It is also capable of handling voice calls - comes pre-loaded with a prepaid SIM card. Mi Bunny is compatible with phones running Android 4.2 and up.

Made of plastic and featuring silicone straps, the timepiece packs in a 300mAh battery (standby time of six days claimed) and weighs in at 37 grams.

Lumia 950/950 XL could get 'double tap to wake' feature if there's enough demand for it

Microsoft has dropped hints that the 'double tap to wake' feature - which, gives you an alternative for using the unlock key to wake up your phone - could be added to the Lumia 950/950 XL smartphones.

Replying to a user query on Twitter about bringing the feature to the Windows-10 powered flagship device, Microsoft's Gabriel Aul said that it's a common request, and asked the user to upvote it in Feedback Hub.

While that's certainly not a confirmation per se that the request will be fulfilled even if there are enough upvotes, it enough to keep hopes alive.

Meizu MX6 now tipped for H2 launch

If you're eagerly waiting for the successor to Meizu's MX5 smartphone, looks like your wait isn't going to end anytime soon. The device, which was previously rumored to be made official in April-May time-frame, is now said to be launching in H2, 2016.

The latest rumor comes out of Meizu's home country of China, and if it's true, we'll have to wait at-least a couple of more months for the device.

Being the subject of only a handful of rumors so far, the MX6 (which is what the device is likely to be called) is said to be powered by a MediaTek Helio X20 SoC with 10-core CPU and Mali-T880 MP4 GPU, and sport a full HD display.

Other rumored specs include, 3GB/32GB memory configuration, 21MP/8MP camera combo, 4,000mAh battery, and Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

Lenovo starts rolling out Vibe P1 Marshmallow update

Lenovo has started rolling out the Marshmallow update to its Vibe P1 smartphone, which was launched late last year. The Chinese company announced the roll-out in a post on its official forums.

"We expect Marshmallow to be rolling out for the Vibe P1, P1A42, over the next few days," the post said. However, comments left by users following the aforementioned announcement post suggest that the update has already started hitting units in India.

Given that the OTA roll out has just begin, it may take some time for the update to hit your device. However, if you're feeling impatient, you can manually check for it by heading to your handset's Settings menu.

HTC 10 will be available at Sprint on May 13

It looks like Verizon may have some kind of short-term exclusivity on the HTC 10 for the US carrier market. Mere hours ago the company nicknamed Big Red started taking pre-orders for the device, with a "ship by" date of May 5.

And now Sprint has officially announced availability details for the HTC 10 too, and it turns out it will launch the smartphone later than Verizon. The HTC 10 will be out at Sprint starting on May 13.

Price-wise, the only information that the Now Network has put out so far is with regard to purchasing the device on an installment plan. The HTC 10 will be $0 down and $26 per month for 24 months. That adds up to a grand total of $624, which is probably also going to be the full retail price for the phone at Sprint. That makes it cheaper than what Verizon is asking for sans contract, but in terms of installment plans Big Red has the better offer right now - for a limited time the total of your payments for the 10 over two years will reach just $548.

Upcoming LG K series smartphones get benchmarked with Snapdragon 430

LG is working on adding new members to its K family of smartphones. This has been made obvious by a couple of listings in a benchmark's online database. Someone has tested both the LG K530 and the K535 in Geekbench, and this has resulted in us finding out a few of their most important specs, courtesy of the benchmark's info tab.

The K530 is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 430 chipset (which has a 1.2 GHz octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU and the Adreno 505 GPU), aided by 2GB of RAM. The prototype tested ran Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. The processor's clock speed actually shows up as 1.4 GHz in the benchmark, but Qualcomm's official documents say it doesn't go over 1.2 GHz, so that's probably an error of some type in Geekbench.

This is sort of confirmed by the fact that the K535's clock speed is listed as 0 MHz. The K535 has identical specs to the K530, save for it coming with 3GB of RAM. This makes us think the two models here could in fact be two different versions of the same upcoming smartphone, especially since LG likes to launch many different iterations of its mid-rangers, with various spec changes between markets.

The K530 and K535 are both a step up in specs compared to the existing K10, so expect them to feature higher in the K series than that - K11, perhaps. It's still unclear when either of these phones will get official.

HTC 10 goes on pre-order at Verizon, Bell is exclusively selling it in Canada

Right on its previously announced schedule, today Verizon has started taking pre-orders for the HTC 10. The phone is available for a limited time for $100 off its usual price, but only if you grab one using a device installment plan.

If you do go that route, you'll pay nothing upfront, then followed by 24 monthly installments of $22.83. That all adds up to around $548, compared to the $648 full retail price. Verizon promises that pre-ordered HTC 10 units will be delivered to you by May 5.

Up north in Canada, as you may know already, Bell is the exclusive carrier partner for the HTC 10, which means you have to buy it from that company if you want it with a contract (there's also the choice of purchasing unlocked, of course).

And now the HTC 10 is actually available to buy from Bell. It will set you back CAD 349.99 with a new two-year contract (starting at CAD 80 per month), or CAD 899.99 sans long-term service agreement.

UK: Silver Galaxy S7 and S7 edge exclusive to Carphone Warehouse, available now

While the white color version for the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge is exclusive to EE in the UK (and pre-orders have just started), it turns out that the silver hue for the Korean company's flagships is exclusive to Carphone Warehouse.

However, if you're a fan of the silver S7 or S7 edge you don't need to wait any more before you purchase either device. They're already available at Carphone Warehouse.

If you opt for a Pay Monthly arrangement, the recommended deal for the S7 has it costing £59 upfront with a £36 per month plan. This nets you 10GB of data and unlimited minutes and texts on the Vodafone network, but the deal ends next Wednesday.

For the Galaxy S7 edge, you pay £129 upfront, and get the exact same contract - once again only until Wednesday. Note though that these are merely the best value for money plans according to Carphone Warehouse, but you can choose from many more if you go through the whole list.

SIM-free, the S7 costs £549 and the S7 edge is priced at £639.

Two new Sony phones leak through benchmark, one has a 16MP selfie cam

Thanks to the entries in an online benchmark database, two upcoming Sony smartphones have been outed today. For now their exact names aren't known, they go only by their model numbers.

According to information from GFXBench, the Sony F3216 has a 4.6-inch 1080p touchscreen, a 21 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 16 MP selfie snapper, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage. It's powered by the MediaTek MT6755 Helio P10 SoC, which comes with a 1.9 GHz octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU and the Mali-T860 GPU. The prototype tested ran Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

Aside from its tiny screen size, this device has specs that easily peg it to be the upcoming Xperia C6, a handset that was allegedly pictured a couple of weeks ago. It's going to be the successor to the Xperia C5 Ultra from last year (which is pictured above), and it's said to sport a 6-inch screen. This being said, keep in mind that benchmarks sometimes do get their display size estimates wrong when early prototypes are involved, and GFXBench in particular has done this before - showing 4.6" for devices with larger panels.

So the F3216 could turn out to be the C6, especially as the C5 Ultra had a big focus on its selfie camera too - a 13 MP unit with LED flash. The F3216 takes things further with a 16 MP sensor.

The other handset that's leaked because it's been benchmarked is the Sony F3311. This is a lower-end offering, apparently having a 4.6-inch 720p touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera, a 5 MP selfie shooter, 1.5GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, as well as Android 6.0 on board. At the helm is MediaTek's MT6735 chipset, with a 1.3 GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU and the Mali-T720 GPU.

ZUK Z1 to reportedly land in India as Lenovo Z1

We already know that the Z1 smartphone from Lenovo subsidiary ZUK will be launched in India soon - Lenovo has started teasing the device and also sent out media invites for the launch event (date isn't yet confirmed).

However, what's new is that the phone could shed the ZUK branding for its India launch. According a report out of China, the ZUK Z1 will be sold in India as the Lenovo Z1. There was, however, no word on why the Chinese company has decided to take this step.

Given that the brand Lenovo has pretty good visibility in India, it would be reasonable to assume that the company wants to cash in on it. Online-only brand ZUK, if you recall, was anyway aimed at countering the rise of other Chinese Internet brands like Xiaomi and OnePlus.

The dedicated website that the company has created for the smartphone's India launch also does not mention the ZUK branding anywhere, so it definitely seems that the ZUK Z1 will be Lenovo Z1 in India. However, Keep in mind that Lenovo is yet to confirm the move, so until then, take this information with a grain of salt.

Samsung brings Galaxy J5 (2016) and Galaxy J7 (2016) to South Korea

The Galaxy J5 (2016) and J7 (2016), which were first unveiled late last month in China, have been officially announced by Samsung in its home country of South Korea.

Carrying a price tag of KRW 290,000 (around $255) and KRW 363,000 (around $320), respectively, the handsets will be available for purchase from local carrier KT, which will be selling them in the black and gold color options.

An important thing worth mentioning here is that the South Korean Galaxy J7 comes with 720p display and 2GB RAM, compared to the full HD display and 3GB RAM that the Chinese version features.

In addition, Samsung also revealed that the Galaxy J3 (2016) will also be landing in South Korea soon.

If you're in Europe, it's worth knowing that the Galaxy J7 (2016) is already available for purchase there, although Samsung is yet to make a formal announcement about the European launch. The J5 (2016), however, is expected to arrive there soon.