While the Google Nexus range of devices often gives a more pure Android experience, there other Google Play Edition devices that offer a similar experience as well. Joining the ranks of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One is the LG G Pad 8.3 and the Sony Xperia Z Ultra. The first phablet and tablet to join the Google Play Edition ranks, the two devices will run Android 4.4 Kit Kat and get faster Android updates than other non-Google Play Edition devices. Tech specs for the LG G Pad 8.3 include an 8.3-inch Full HD display, 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 processor, 2GB RAM and 16GB storage. The Sony Xperia Z Ultra on the other hand offers a 6.44-inch full HD display, 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM and standard Xperia Z water and dust resistance. The LG G Pad 8.3 Google Play Edition is only WiFi capable but the Sony Xperia Z Ultra Google Play Edition is equipped with 4G LTE. Check out the video in this article.

The HTC One Max is the much larger brother of the award-winning HTC One smartphone, which was one of the first Android smartphones to pull off an awesome looking metallic body design. When the HTC One first came out, it was simply awesome and got very good reviews from practically everyone in the tech industry. Now, the HTC One Max offers you the same HTC One-like design in a larger 5.9-inch display phablet form factor but at a much higher retail price of RM2499. Looking to sweeten the deal, some sellers are offering the HTC One Max with an RM100 discount for a total price of RM2399 here in Malaysia. Should you buy it for that RM100 discount? Check out our analysis on the HTC One Max for a better idea of the pros and cons involved.

After what seems like quite some time Celcom are offering the the HTC One Max phablet from RM1638. Considering that this 5.9-inch HTC One look-alike phablet currently retails at a whopping RM2499, this is actually a pretty good price, especially if you've always wanted a larger but better looking phablet than the other phablets out there. In any case, you can get the deal from Celcom by signing up for a Celcom First postpaid plan with a mobile Internet plan or the mPro Plus plan for 12, 18 or 24 month contracts. Check out the table and links in this article for more details.

Recently, it came to light that Samsung and other mobile manufacturers were cheating current mobile benchmarks by upping processor performance each time these benchmarks were run on their devices. While this isn't something new in the tech industry, quite a lot of people were shocked, declared they never use benchmarks anyhow and made a general fuss about the whole issue. A startup called GameBench who have direct working experience with both ARM and MediaTek recently made an "uncheatable" benchmark for mobile gaming. The beta version of this GameBenchbenchmark was then run on the Samsung Galaxy S4 (the Snapdragon 600 version) and HTC One, two of the most contested smartphone models of last year (and supposed to have cheated previously). Turns out that the performance of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is still better than the HTC One (and closer to the original "cheating" scores than previously thought of). Check out the charts in the article.

While the HTC One Max is scheduled for a Malaysia launch just tomorrow reports about the phablet with the aluminum unibody design indicate that it may be priced at RM2499. This would make it one of the most expensive Android smartphones in Malaysia outside of the Apple iPhone 5S. So far, these same reports say that there likely won't be any extra bundled accessory like it's battery case to justify the price either, so we're sort of hoping that this won't become a reality, especially considering the tech specs available on the HTC One Max. Just for a refresher, the HTC One Max has the following tech specs:

• 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor
• Adreno 320 graphics
• 2GB RAM
• 16GB / 32GB storage + up to 64GB microSD
• 5.9-inch Super LCD 3 display (1080 x 1920 pixel resolution)
• 4MP UltraPixel rear camera (autofocus, LED flash, 1080p@30fps video recording, no OIS) + 2.1MP front camera
• Supports LTE (Asia version) + 3G + BoomSound dual front stereo speakers
• 164.5mm x 82.5mm x 10.3mm | 217g
• 3300 mAh battery (Not removable)
• Android 4.3 + Sense 5.5

It isn't even the end of the year yet and already many of us are predicting features for the next smartphones and devices that haven't even been announced yet. This includes the Samsung Galaxy S5 which already has many rumours saying that it could have a new 64-bit Exynos processor and 4GB of RAM along with a metal chassis. We've also come up with a list of realistic features which we think would be both achievable and make the S5 a much better smartphone. Check out the list in this article.

The HTC One Max phablet is currently one of the few smartphones with a fingerprint scanner. However, unlike the Touch ID fingerprint scanner from Apple, the fingerprint scanner on the backside of the HTC One Max phablet requires you to swipe your finger, which is both inaccurate as well as difficult to do from the back. Granted, HTC looks to have offered some extra functionality by calling up apps based on differently swiped fingers but the feature is rather difficult to use for both of the reasons mentioned above. In addition to the hardware issues, there is very little software integration that may actually require or use the HTC One Max phablet's fingerprint scanner as you still have to enter passcodes to buy apps (or anything else for that matter). For smartphones that already have the swipe type fingerprint scanner, this may be too late to change, but it shouldn't be too difficult to offer a bit more integration with the software. As it is, fingerprint scanners are pretty much unused features for now, even in the Apple iPhone 5S, but this may change soon as software integration picks up.

Qualcomm often does many things because they can which results in some interesting setups like this slow-motion surround rig crafted from 130 HTC One smartphones. Qualcomm are calling it "The Ultimate Smartphone Photobooth" and have done a very interesting video showing how they made awesome 360-degree rotation slow-motion videos with just a Qualcomm powered smartphone, or in this case 130 of them. Qualcomm haven't said why they chose the HTC One but do check out the video in this article.

After months of leaks, rumours and rather vague ads, HTC have officially announced the HTC One Max phablet. Featuring the same unibody design as the HTC One the phablet adds another inch or so for a 5.9-inch screen with full HD 1080p resolution. While the smartphone is significantly larger than the HTC One, it maintains the overall aluminum metal chassis design as the original but uses a plastic band rather than the metal band in the middle of the original. Besides the screen, the most notable features of the HTC One Max include the rear fingerprint scanner (which is the swipe kind rather than just touch), expandable microSD support and a removable backplate. Other tech specs for the HTC One Max include:

• 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor
• Adreno 320 graphics
• 2GB RAM
• 16GB / 32GB storage + up to 64GB microSD
• 5.9-inch Super LCD 3 display (1080 x 1920 pixel resolution)
• 4MP UltraPixel rear camera (autofocus, LED flash, 1080p@30fps video recording, no OIS) + 2.1MP front camera
• Supports LTE (Asia version) + 3G + BoomSound dual front stereo speakers
• 164.5mm x 82.5mm x 10.3mm | 217g
• 3300 mAh battery (Not removable)
• Android 4.3 + Sense 5.5

The HTC One Max phablet has already been more or less confirmed by China's Tenaa so while it hasn't been officially announced just yet, it is definitely coming. As it is, some new high-res pictures and tech specs have appeared which seem to confirm many things. These include a rear fingerprint scanner along with no more Beats logo, which happened when HTC sold back it's share in the Beats audio company. For now, check out the pictures below along with the more detailed tech specs of the HTC One Max phablet:

• 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 processor
• 5.9-inch Super LCD 3 display (1080 x 1920 resolution)
• 2GB RAM
• 16GB storage
• UltraPixel camera
• 3300 mAh battery