Been waiting for Celcom and the HTC One to join forces? Well,  if you have then now is a good time as Celcom are now offering the HTC One for as low as RM1428. As befitting Celcom's flexibility, the telco is offering the 32GB version of the HTC One under 12 months, 18 months and 24 months contracts. For the full pricing details check out the table below:

Considering the HTC One's elegant aluminum unibody design it seems hard to put it through such punishment, but one user did just that, bringing a hammer, knife and key to it. As expected of the scratch resistant screen, it didn't really get damaged by any of the three, and the tough aluminum unibody chassis also didn't dent all that readily. However, this time the torture test was more thorough and exposed the weaknesses of the back and chamfered sides of the aluminum unibody design.

With the HTC One officially launching last week, it was only a matter of time before the telco bundles came out as well, which is what U Mobile had in mind with these HTC One bundles. Considering that the HTC One is probably higher priced than most other smartphones of its class at around RM2299 it is great that U Mobile is offering the smartphone from as low as RM1488. For more details, check out the table below:

It is always interesting to see behind-the-scene shots of how the people who made something truly excellent came to those decisions. That being said, the Samsung Galaxy S4 / S IV creators and designers supposedly got their inspiration for it from the stars in the night sky. The HTC One design team on the other hand were aiming for zero-gap construction which resulted in the beautifully elegant aluminum unibody design available from the HTC One. The Apple iPhone 5 was also designed with the idea of making a much better phone than before.

What they found out

The folks at iFixit just love tearing down smartphones and this was no different for the Samsung Galaxy S4 / S IV when it officially came out. After a brief tear down they discovered that the Samsung Galaxy S4 / S IV:

• has a removable battery
• has an iFixit score of 8 out of 10
• uses IR sensors near the screen to enable Air View and Air Gesture
• has one of the most sensitive screens around (can even use with gloves)
• has the same 4G LTE chip as Google Nexus 4

Malaysia got its official HTC One launch recently and it saw the Aluminum unibody Android smartphone get both the 32GB and 64GB versions. Price-wise the HTC One 32GB version retails at RM2299 while the HTC One 64GB version retails at RM2499. According to HTC, both versions should be available for the 4 major telcos of Celcom, Maxis, DiGi and U Mobile by early May. SenQ may also get it around this time while other dealers may get it a bit later in mid-May.

While the HTC One has already received an update to make it's Ultrapixel camera better (in that case, less blurry daytime shots) it recently received a new update that makes the HTC One camera performance even better. Below are the listed improvements for the firmware update version 1.29.401.13:

• Improvement to sound capture with Zoe
• Noise reduction in slow motion movie capture
• Improved color reproduction and dynamic range (reduced over-exposure in non-HDR images) in certain conditions
• Fix to display correct ISO in EXIF information when ISO settings are manually changed by the user
• Improved system performance and stability

Recently we covered tech specs and benchmarks done by the Intel Atom powered Lenovo K900 and now it has just been announced that it will be released to the Chinese market on May 6. While there isn't any info yet on other markets, a number of Lenovo IdeaBrand smartphones have already made their way to Malaysia, making the Lenovo K900's arrival here on Malaysian shores seem almost guaranteed. If not done officially, we can probably rely on some of our local retailers to pick it up as well.

Now that the HTC One has made a path for HTC, rumours have surfaced about a possible mid-range smartphone based on the HTC One called the HTC M4. The HTC M4 will supposedly have a metal-alloy chassis supplied by Catcher Technology. This may eliminate supply problems the company had with the HTC One. The HTC M4 also goes as the HTC 606w in China where it has been confirmed to exist via an approval from the Telecommunication Equipment Certification Centre in China with tech specs such as the following:

• Dual-core Krait 200 processor
• Snapdragon 400 Chipset
• 1GB RAM
• Adreno 305 graphics
• 4.3-inch 720p screen
• UltraPixel rear camera + 1.6MP front camera
• Android 4.1.2 + Sense 5
• 16GB of storage
• Supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS + GLONASS, dual SIM

Huawei represents the more well-known bunch of Chinese smartphone manufacturers and it stands to reason that eventually they'd come up with a design different from the normal run-of-the-mill plastic. Following in the footsteps of the HTC One and Nokia's Catwalk, Huawei is rumoured to have come out with the Huawei EDGE which features an awesome slim aluminum body.