Weeks of leaks and rumors on the HTC One (M9) and One (M9) Plus have inevitably lead us to the first official images of the upcoming HTC flagship duo. The treat comes courtesy of notorious leakster Evan Blass on his twitter feed.

The images confirm previous info of an all-glass front panel, resulting in a redesigned speaker solution, a Nexus 9 style slit. The bottom speaker appears to be salvaged on both models, putting at rest fears that the fingerprint scanner in the home button will do away with the company's signature stereo sound.

And yes, the Plus size model is indeed equipped with a hardware home button, which the regular model lacks. It makes little sense to design a hardware button on one model solely to house a fingerprint scanner, and then do a different implementation sensor on the other model, so it looks like the HTC One (M9) will come without this functionality.

Another key feature, revealed by the single photo is the center-mounted front camera. Could it be the 13MP front snapper of the Desire Eye, making its way to the company flagship?

The official unveiling will take place at HTC's "Utopia in progress" event in the beginning of March. Judging by the intensification of leaks though, we may get to see the new devices…

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The good news from Malaysia just keeps on coming. Yesterday we reported that Asus is releasing a new entry-level addition to its lineup – the Zenfone C. Now new information from the Taiwanese company states that the Asus Zenfone 2 could be available in Malaysia as early as April 2015. The Zenfone Zoom is will also by hitting the market, although possibly at a later point in time.

As most of you surely remember the Zenfone 2 made its first appearance at CES 2015 and has been generating attention ever since. For a lot of people the smartphone is just what they are looking for in their next device. It offers formidable hardware for a pretty tantalizing price tag. For a better overview of the Zenfone 2 you can check out our hands-on review from the Las Vegas venue.

The Zenfone 2 uses a quad-core, 64-bit Intel Atom Z3580 processor (Z3560 in some regions) and runs Android 5.0 Lollipop with the latest ZenUI from Asus. It boasts a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display and an impressive 13MP main camera with dual LED flash. A lot of memory options are available with 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB units. The choice extends even further with 2GB or 4GB of RAM.

Pricing is still unclear, but seeing how Asus has a track record of sticking with roughly the same price as its home market a good guess would be that the 2 GB version will go for about $199, while the 4 GB should set you back $299. Following the same logic the Zenfone Zoom should be sold for about $399 once it becomes…

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HTC has launched a new budget phone in India. The Desire 526G+ has a 4.7-inch qHD display, octa-core 1.7GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 8/16GB internal memory with microSD card slot, 8 megapixel rear camera with 1080p video, 2 megapixel front camera with 720p video, Wi-Fi 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0, dual SIM support, 2000mAh battery, and Android 4.4 with HTC Sense.

The Desire 526G+ is priced at Rs. 10,400 ($170) for the 8GB model, and Rs. 11,400 ($185) for the 16GB model. Both models will be available last week of January…

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The Snapdragon 810 has become an endless source of controversy in the smartphone world over the past few months. The purported overheating issues of the chipset lead to an exchange of reports stating that Samsung will abandon the problematic piece of silicon, Qualcomm allegedly responding with a modified version of the SoC for Samsung's use.

This dedicated release in turn fueled rumors, claiming that LG may sue Qualcomm over the matter. LG, however, has been quick to dissipate those rumors – the Korean company reached to us with the following statement.

"Rumors regarding LG taking legal action against Qualcomm are unfounded and a complete fabrication of the facts. Given the source of this rumor, we're surprised it's being taken seriously at all."

As unequivocal as it gets, LG's wording should hopefully put an end to the rumor and confirm the excellent relationship between the two companies.

LG has already announced its curved phablet offering, the G Flex2, featuring the said chipset. The company has denied experiencing any issues with the hardware in the smartphone, which is expected to hit its home market any day…

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Apple typically announces new iOS versions at the WWDC, which is scheduled for June every year. While there's about four months to go, the first benchmark coming from an iOS 9 running on an iPhone 6 have hit the Basemark OS II database.

Performance seems to be on par, except for the web score. Keep in mind that WWDC is some time away and even when it comes Apple will release a version to developers only, the consumer update is even further out. So the numbers are likely to change until the new version hits users' iPhones.

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iOS 8 iOS 9 Difference
Total 1620.94 Total 1600.06 -1%
Memory Group 2.0 942.79 Memory Group 2.0 948.44 1%
System Group 2.0 3107.1 System Group 2.0 3190.69 3%
Graphics Group 2.0 2348.77 Graphics Group 2.0 2327.42 -1%
Web Group 2.0 1088.54 Web Group 2.0 930.62 -17%

There's just the one result in the database for now and no score for Basemark X, the graphics benchmark. Anyway, the best changes about a new iOS version are typically new features, rather than increased…

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Just as revealed earlier, Samsung is preparing to introduce a new entry-level family of smartphones and its first member is the Galaxy J1. We've been tipped the full list of specifications as well as a photo of the phone. For the most part, they seem to align with the previously leaked information about the phone.

The Samsung Galaxy J1 is powered by the Spreadtrum Pike chipset featuring a 1.2GHz dual-core Cortex-A7 and 512MB of RAM. The display of the phone measures 4.3" and has WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels). Internal memory is 4GB and is expandable by another 64GB thanks to the microSD card slot.

At the back, there's a 5MP snapper recording 720p@30fps video as well as an LED flash. A 2MP camera for selfies and video chat sits above the display. The phone is quite compact at 129 x 68.2 x 8.9mm and weighs 130 grams. The battery is 1,850mAh.

Connectivity includes Wi-Fi b/g/n with Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0 and A-GPS + GLONASS. The Galaxy J1 runs Android 4.4 KitKat and will be available in a dual-SIM version as well. Pricing and availability remain unknown for now, but we reckon it won't be long before the company officially announces the little fella.

Keep in mind that we've no way of verifying the source of the leak and even though both the spec sheet and the image we got seem legit, it may all still end up being an elaborate hoax. So take it with a healthy pinch of salt.

Special thanks to our tipster who chose to remain…

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The HTC One (M8) is taking the Android 5.0 Lollipop update around the world and today it has disembarked on the Old Continent. The news comes from Senior Global Online Communications Manager, Jeff Gordon, who posted it on Twitter.

Updates from users started in from users – Germany, France and Nordic gave the thumbs up, but the update is rolling out in waves so it may not be available in your region right this minute (about an hour ago there was a negative report from the UK).

The update spruces up the interface with a new lock screen and a new app switcher, but Sense 6.0 remains largely unchanged. The update is heftier than in other regions, weighing in at 780MB and brings the ROM version up to 4.16.401.10. Versions of the update for other regions were 580MB and 650MB.

You can go to the Settings menu to check if the update is available. Make sure you're on Wi-Fi though, that's a rather large…

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Just as revealed earlier, Samsung is preparing to introduce a new entry-level family of smartphones and its first member is the Galaxy J1. We've been tipped the full list of specifications as well as a photo of the phone. For the most part, they seem to align with the previously leaked information about the phone.

The Samsung Galaxy J1 is powered by the Spreadtrum Pike chipset featuring a 1.2GHz dual-core Cortex-A7 and 512MB of RAM. The display of the phone measures 4.3" and has WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels). Internal memory is 4GB and is expandable by another 64GB thanks to the microSD card slot.

At the back, there's a 5MP snapper recording 720p@30fps video as well as an LED flash. A 2MP camera for selfies and video chat sits above the display. The phone is quite compact at 129 x 68.2 x 8.9mm and weighs 130 grams. The battery is 1,850mAh.

Connectivity includes Wi-Fi b/g/n with Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0 and A-GPS + GLONASS. The Galaxy J1 runs Android 4.4 KitKat and will be available in a dual-SIM version as well. Pricing and availability remain unknown for now, but we reckon it won't be long before the company officially announces the little fella.

Keep in mind that we've no way of verifying the source of the leak and even though both the spec sheet and the image we got seem legit, it may all still end up being an elaborate hoax. So take it with a healthy pinch of salt.

Special thanks to our tipster who chose to remain…

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Huawei may well be behind Xiaomi in local as well as international rankings, but that doesn’t mean it considers the latter as its competitor, or so claimed the company’s CEO Richard Yu, who said that Huawei instead sees Samsung as its real rival.

Yu also said that Xiaomi, which has apparently reached the number two position in China now, stands no chance in the high-end segment of the market, while adding that the startup’s Mi Note as well as Mi 4 devices offer no advantages over Huawei’s Ascend Mate 7 and Honor 6 Plus, respectively.

The news comes just a few days after Yu slammed Xiaomi’s recently unveiled Mi Note Pro for having poor battery…

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Where there's smoke, there's fire and where there's an unannounced phone there's a case maker to leak it. The Galaxy S6 rumors are building up, getting more frequent and more detailed as the MWC nears, and a lot of them are about its back.

There's uncertainty whether it will be removable or not, while some rumors suggest it will be removable with a series of advanced snap-on accessories. The leaked image shows a case very similar to a Galaxy S5 Active case, but the interesting part is that shows a different arrangement for the LED flash and heart rate sensor.

Alleged Galaxy S6 case

It's to the right of the camera instead of below the camera. This might be for ergonomic reasons – make it easier to position your index finger over the HR sensor – or due to an internal redesign of the new phone. Of course, the third possibility is that this is either a Photoshop job or a concept and not the real device. The uncertainty will be lifted on March 2 at the…

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