Samsung outs dual-SIM Galaxy S3 Neo in India

Korean giant Samsung has unveiled a new variant of its former flagship, dubbed Samsung I9300I Galaxy S3 Neo, for the Indian market. The device, which was introduced in the Chinese market back in Januaryas the Galaxy S III Neo+, provides a decent mid-range specs sheet alongside dual-SIM capabilities - perfect for emerging markets in Asia.This Samsung I9300I Galaxy S4 Neo differs slightly from its Chinese Neo+ counterpart as it features a 1.2GHz quad-core processor instead of a 1.4GHz, while the RAM is upped to 1.5 GB instead of 1GB. Otherwise, you get the same 4.8" 720p Super AMOLED found on the original Galaxy S III, alongside 8MP primary shooter and 2MP front-facer.

The device has appeared on Indian retailer Flipkart for INR24,899 (about $414), and provides a pretty competitive package if you're in the market for a dual-SIM device. According to Samsung's India portal, the device will come in a variety of colors, including Black, White, Blue, Brown, Pink, Gray, and Red.

No word yet on availability outside of Asia.

UK Sony Xperia Z2 launches on May 1, pre-orders ship next week

Sony Xperia Z2, the company's latest flagship, was announced back in the MWC in February. Sony has admitted on Xperia Z2 stock shortages, but it has claimed they'll cause no delay. Apparently that wasn't entirely true as the company has now admitted the official UK launch will be delayed until May. Sony confirmed that all pre-orders will be shipped on time in April, though so it's not all bad.

Well, Sony fulfilled its promise and some of its key UK partners will start shipping the Xperia Z2 pre-orders next week. There is no specific date mentioned though, so we can't say if those units will arrive on Monday or Friday.Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U are the ones already confirmed that pre-orders they took are heading to customers come next week.In case you've pre-ordered an Xperia Z2 with a contract from Carphone Warehouse you'll also be getting a £100 cashback.Phones4U is even more generous throwing a few Sony SRS-BTX300 wireless speaker worth £119; over £80 worth of games, music and six movies; plus you'll be able to download the new Michael Jackson album via the Xperia Lounge app starting May 13. Just like Carphone Warehouse, Phones4U is also offering the Xperia Z2 only with a 2-year carrier agreement for now.Clove UK is having the Xperia Z2 on pre-order for £540 and it is also giving away free the same wireless speaker, £80 worth of digital content, plus free Sony MDR-NC31EM noise-cancelling headphones. The first stock of Xperia Z2 will arrive at Clove in mid-May though.So at least for the UK the stock shortages won't be affecting the Xperia Z2 availability. Canada will have to wait until May though and others such as Hong Kong have their Xperia Z2 premiere scheduled for June. It could be worse though - the US doesn't even have a release timeframe just yet.

Nokia Lumia 630 review - hands on

The Nokia Lumia 930 isn't the only new Windows Phone 8.1 handset hitting UK shores later this year, as Nokia also announced today that the Nokia Lumia 630 will be coming to the UK at the end of May.

The Nokia Lumia 630 is one of two new handsets to come with Windows Phone 8.1 straight out of the box

The successor to the Lumia 625, the Lumia 630 will be available with eye-poppingly bright orange, bright green and bright yellow rear panels along with the usual white and black colours. Individual colour panels will be available to buy separately, so you can swap the back out for another colour any time you wish.

The plastic chassis immediately gives the Lumia 630 away as a more budget-orientated model than the 930, but the phone felt well made and we found surprisingly little flex in the back panel. We also liked the rounded corners, which made the phone pleasant to hold.

They may look like extra large highlighters, but at least they're not just black or white

The 4.5in IPS display has a 854x480 resolution, which is a slight improvement on the Lumia 625 screen's 800x400-pixel model. There's not much in it, though, as the 625's slightly larger 4.7in screen gives it a pixel density of 190 pixels-per-inch (PPI), while the Lumia 630's screen has a PPI of 217. This meant we still had a little trouble trying to read desktop-based web pages when completely zoomed out, compared to when using phones with Full HD displays, but at least the screen's colours had plenty of punch.

Inside is where Nokia has made the biggest changes, as the Lumia 630 now has an extra two processing cores at its disposal thanks to its 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon S400 processor. This is the same processor that powers the Moto G, our favourite budget phone, but there's no word on whether the 630 will be able to match the G's sub-£100 price.

Customisable live tiles make Windows Phone 8.1 a lot more personal than before

With its 1,830mAh battery, we suspect the Lumia 630's battery life will only be around average. Nokia claims it will have up to 13 hours talk time on 3G, but only a maximum of 7 hours of video playback. Music playback time is allegedly 58 hours.

On the back of the phone is the Lumia 630's 5-megapixel camera. Our test shots looked reasonably good in the brightly lit show room, but there was a visible amount of noise present when we zoomed in to take a look at the finer detail. We were pleased to see we could still choose from a range of apps to take pictures with, though, as much like the Lumia 930, we could select from the normal camera app, Bing Vision and Nokia's Cinemagraph app.

The Lumia 630 will also have a 4G version, the Lumia 635, which has otherwise identical specs and a glossy chassis

The Lumia 630 will have 8GB of internal storage, but users will get 7GB of free online OneDrive storage as well, giving you a little more space for storing your media files and transferring them between devices. If you need even more space, the 630 will be able to support microSD cards up to 128GB in size.

The cloud storage is particularly handy for Windows users in general, as the Windows Phone 8.1 operating system will be able to sync seamlessly with any Windows 8.1 device. Photos will be automatically synced to your OneDrive, letting you access them from your PC or Xbox One, and you'll be able to watch or resume films and music files using Xbox Video and edit Office 365 documents on the go as well. The Lumia 630 will also support Microsoft's SmartGlass app so you can use your phone as a controller for your Xbox One.

Fancy a new look for your Lumia 630? Just swap out the back cover

Windows Phone 8.1 brings a few radical changes to how the Lumia 630 works. One of our favourite features was being able to customise our live tiles on the main home screen with our own background image. The image feeds down into various different tiles as you scroll down the home screen, making it look much more personal than the block colours on Windows Phone 8. This new feature can be accessed from the Start + Theme setting. You can also set the Lumia 630 to have three columns of apps instead of two, which was previously only possible on the much larger Lumia 1520 and 1320 models.

The Start + Theme settings have been greatly improved

Swipe from the top of the screen and you'll also bring up the new Action Centre, which houses all your notifications, as well as quick access to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Flight Mode and screen rotation lock. There's also a shortcut to the main settings menu.

The Action Centre is very similar to Android's notification bar

From what we've seen, the Nokia Lumia 630 looks like a fine step up from the Lumia 625, and the new Windows Phone 8.1 operating system brings some welcome improvements. We'll bring a you a full review as soon as we can.

Nokia Lumia 930 loses Glance support

The Nokia Lumia 930, one of the first handsets to feature Microsoft's latest Windows Phone 8.1 operating system, will not have Nokia Glance.The feature has been on most Lumia handsets, except the Lumia 52x series and the recently-launched Nokia Icon.Nokia Glance provides an always-on display which is active even when the phone is in low-power mode, offering a dim yet visible view of message status, time and other details without the need to switch the screen on. The technology was first introduced on Nokia's Symbian operating system.Sadly, the company's upcoming Lumia 930 won't include the feature, the company has confirmed. Speaking to WP Central, Nokia claimed that the display on the Lumia 930 means that Glance cannot be supported.Glance relies on 'display memory' to show information on a phone screen even when it is turned off. It would appear that the technology is not compatible with the AMOLED screen on the Lumia 930 meaning that Nokia has been forced to remove the feature.It has been speculated that the cost of producing full HD AMOLED screens with display memory is too high as there isn't much demand for the technology. As Nokia doesn't manufacture its own displays it has little control over how they are engineered.According to WP Central, Nokia's engineers are investigating ways that Nokia Glance could be brought to the Lumia 930, but more details were not available.

This is LG's G Watch Android Wear smartwatch

LG has given us a first look at its upcoming G Watch, the smartwatch powered by Google’s Android Wearoperating system, ahead of an official July launch. It was the first time the watch has been shown off in public here in the UK, and although it was a non-working sample we got to strap it on and compare it to it's biggest rival; Samsung's Gear 2.

First announced last month after Google unveiled Android Wear, the heavily modified version of Android designed specifically for wearable devices, the G Watch will be among the first smart watches to use the new OS. We originally saw digital renders of the device, which unlike Motorola's smartwatch will use a rectangular design rather than a circular display, but today we saw a pre-production model in the flesh.

We were told the screen would be always-on, but wouldn’t use OLED or E ink technology (almost defintiely meaning LCD, which could be detrimental to battery life). The time and a Google Now icon will be constantly visible, with an “OK Google” voice prompt activating. There are no buttons on the watch at all, so it will very much be a companion device rather than a stand-alone smartwatch.

Compared to the Gear 2, the G Watch feels a little lighter and is a lot more subtle on your wrist, especially compared to the champagne gold Gear 2 we wore to LG's event. Both watches have removable straps, so you can swap the standard plastic band for a more luxurious leather or steel one, or a more colourful alternative if you prefer.

It should work with any smartphone, not just LG's own range of handsets, so you won't be tied into a specific manufacturer as you are with Samsung's Gear. It also has a series of pins along the bottom face for charging, which seems to be a more straightforward approach than Motorola's yet to be revealed wireless charging system.

According to an LG representative, the G Watch should be arriving in the UK around July and should cost no more than £180 - significantly cheaper than Samsung’s rival Gear 2. We'll be taking a closer look a little closer to launch, with more news expected to arrive in the next few weeks.

Nokia Lumia 630 goes on pre-order in Russia for just €160

okia Lumia 630 went official just a few days ago. It is among the first smartphones to run Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Cyan out of the box. The smartphone is considered as a successor of the Lumia 620.Nokia has announced the 3G Lumia 630 will launch in various EU and Asian markets this May for €119, while its dual-SIM sibling should set you back €129. The smartphone will be also released worldwide with LTE connectivity under the Lumia 635 moniker in July for €139. This is at least the official info, but as usual it doesn't include taxes or subsidies.

Nokia has begun taking pre-orders for the single and dual-SIM Lumia 630 in Russia via its official Nokia store. The single-SIM Lumia 630 is priced at €163 (RUB 7,990), while the dual-SIM version costs €173 (RUB 8,490). There is no official release date mentioned though.

Hong Kong won't see Xperia Z2 until June

If you're been eagerly awaiting the release of Xperia's Z2 handset and you live in Hong Kong, then we've got some bad news.

The smartphone won't be released in Hong Kong until June of this year. Sony has been mum on exactly why there's been a delay in the launch of the Z2, but it better be for a good reason.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8 will be dropping in the region this month, and Sony will be coming late to the party, leaving many potential buyers out of reach.

Another possible problem is the impending arrival of IFA 2014 in three months. It's at this event that we typically see Sony announce and release new handsets, and rumor has it that the Z3 will make its debut. If this is the case, then Sony may find themselves having a difficult time selling Z2s, unless the phones are priced very competitively.