It’s not a headline you get to write often but, LG has reportedly confirmed it will release its first flexible smartphone later this year.

So, bendable phones could be but a few months away; the Korea Times is reporting that an LG Display spokesman said the flexible displays, to be made for “major clients”, could be the next innovation in display-making technology – they are billed to be bendable but unbreakable.

The displays would be mass produced in the last quarter of this year, with LG Electronics planning a flexible smartphone this year, the Korea Times said.

A statement to the paper from the company said it had completed the development of its first flexible displays.

“We will mass produce displays from the fourth quarter of this year.”

The question on everybody’s mind is, of course, just how bendy these phones can get (fold up into your wallet styles?) and also, whether LG will beat Samsung in producing its own bendable phone.

Huawei have today unveiled what it says is the world’s thinnest smartphone for €449.

At its launch event today, the Chinese manufacturer unveiled its new flagship, the Ascend P6, amidst a pretty nifty light show at the Roundhouse. The launch got off to a slightly rocky start when Huawei consumer business CEO Richard Yu was introduced as ‘Wu’, but recovered to launch the ultra-thin P6.

The device is the thinnest in the world at 6.18mm, Huawei said, and features an almost full metal body, weighing just 120g.

Huawei doesn’t appear to have skimped on guts at first glance, with a 2000mAh battery, quad core 1.5GHz processor with 2GB RAM. The screen is 4.7 inches. However the device won’t ship with LTE capability, but would be upgraded to support LTE in October to November this year.

The device will see the newest version of Huawei’s user interface overlaid ontop of Google’s Android, the Emotion UI. This revamp will see more than 300 enhancements since it first launched in July last year, the company said.

New features include a folder-style app on the home screen called Me Widget, a short cut to other-device sharing which Huawei says has almost no delay, an online theme library with over 1000 themes and three custom themes for the P6.

The P6 introduced focussed on three innovations, Yu said, two of which were the UI and design.

The third was the camera, which was 8MP for the rear facing camera featuring an aperture of F2.0 and 5MP for the front facing camera.

Huawei global go-to market director Clement Wong introduced new camera tech called the IMAGESmart Engine with auto-scene recognition and a weird ‘beauty level’ editing option for photoshopping photos.

Comparison photos between the Galaxy S4 and the iPhone 5 did look pretty good at first sight, although with a hint of overblown colour.

The device will come in black, pink and white shipping in 19 countries by the end of July, with more than 100 soon, Huawei said.

Stay tuned for What Mobile’s First Look.

Two ex-HTC executives say they’ve launched a new mobile phone manufacturer called Kazam.

Former HTC UK head of sales Michael Coombes and head of marketing James Atkins, who exited HTC earlier this year, have launched a new mobile phone manufacturer Kazam – a company spokesperson said it could not tell What Mobile where the phones would be manufactured or what price range would be targeted, if any.

Amongst a lot of PR speak including the word ‘dynamic’, a statement from Coombes, chief executive of the new manufacturer, said the company would have a focus on European markets with the aim of providing quality smartphones which were accessible to all.

Atkins, now chief marketing officer, said there was an opportunity for a new mobile brand to disrupt the status quo.

A range of smartphones would be available later this year, the company said.

The Nokia Lumia EOS we have already seen may not be the only version that will be announced by Nokia in July, with yet another leak from the Finnish phone giant, this time showing an aluminium shell.

Showing up on Chinese microblogging website, Weibo, the aluminium shell with a large camera whole — quite possibly where the huge sensor for the EOS will go. There are also cut outs for an LED flash, sim slot and USB port.

We haven’t got any more information on this mystery aluminium device, and it could just be a prototype, but what we do know is that our eyes are firmly set on Nokia’s event on July 11.

The Galaxy S4 may feel flimsy and cheap, but Samsung wasn’t happy with that image, so instead of a war of words it decided to prove that the Galaxy S4 is just as tough as the rest of them.

Samsung put the device through several stress tests including covering it in dust, dropping it in different ways, taking it for a swim, punching it, sending an electrical pulse through the controls and even putting it in the oven.

Unsurprisingly, given it was a video by Samsung themselves, the device survived each and every test. Although if you’re still worried about breaking your S4, then at least Samsung has given you a little peace of mind when it comes to the device’s durability.

HTC’s press event may not be until June 19, but that hasn’t stopped avid leakers from letting the cat out the bag a little early. The highly anticipated HTC One Mini has already been exposed, but now it is time for the spotlight to shine on the HTC Butterfly S.

The Butterfly S was the last big secret HTC had before the press event, with the other main focus being the Desire 600, which was officially announced last month. Now however, these images show that the new device will feature HTC’s favourite things, including BoomSound and Sense 5.

The leaker, VR-Zone, claims that the phone will feature a 5-inch 1080p panel — something that had already been rumoured, as well as front-facing stereo speakers.

It is not yet known if the device will feature HTC’s new UltraPixel camera, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.

Apple could be considering an expansion of its iPhone line, with bigger, more colourful and cheaper models all on the table according to Reuters.

Rumours of a smaller iPhone have circled the internet for several years, but people haven’t really considered a super sized model as being in-line with Apple’s game plan, although according to sources speaking to Reuters, 4.7-inch and 5.7-inch iPhablets could be on their way.

A budget iPhone doesn’t come as a surprise to many, with speculation of a cheaper iPhone for the masses having come and gone time and time again. The last time this rumour surfaced though, Apple’s senior vice president of marketing, Phil Schiller, categorically denied that a cheaper iPhone was in the works — affirming that it will “never be the future of Apple’s products.”

With a rumoured price of $99, it does seem like a stretch that Apple could be planning a budget iPhone — especially considering how profitable the premium device is. However Reuters sources claim that the cheaper iPhone will come with a plastic casing rather than the infamous metallic and glass of the iPhone 5.

Something else that we have heard of before is more colour options for the iPhone, with CNET reporting in May that Apple is looking to add pink, green, blue and even gold — with Reuters now adding that there will 5-6 colours to choose from.

We’re taking these reports with a large dose of salt, and we advice you to do the same, after all we’ve been here before and been let down time and time again. However, if these reports are true, then Apple could be start production on the next iPhones as soon as next month, with mass production ramping up in August in order to launch in September.

Looks like Three isn’t the only network to be experiencing network issues recently, with some Everything Everywhere customers reporting signal issues.

The company’s Facebook page has several complaints about signal issues, with some posts claiming the problems have been occurring intermittently for two days.

Everything Everywhere (EE) tweeted that it was aware of the “problems affecting customers in Devon and Cornwall” and was working towards a fix as soon as possible.

On its Facebook page, the operator said it was advising customers in Devon and particularly Plymouth to switch their phones off and on, and to switch their network mode from 3G to  GSM only; so sounds like the issue could be with 3G; voice calls appeared to fine, a source said.

Tweets to customers advised turning handsets off for 30 seconds and then on again.

The company said in a statement that it was aware of an issue affecting 3G service for Orange and T-Mobile customers in Plymouth, Exeter and Torquay areas and was working to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused to our customers.”

Three recently reported issues with mobile data across its network, with some customers reporting issues making or receiving calls.  The operator aimed to have services back up and running by the afternoon of June 4, although some Three customers in London reported data issues in the late afternoon.

The update to Android 4.2.2 for the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2 has reportedly been delayed.

SamMobile’s Twitter account said Samsung had delayed the upgrade because of “new TW for SIII and Note II”.

This new TouchWiz, the customised user interface that Samsung overlays over Google’s Android operating system, could be found on the Galaxy S4 and the Korean company was keen to move it onto its older devices and had hinted it would bring the Android upgrade, as well as new features from the S4, to its devices, Expert Reviews reported.

Currently the Galaxy S3 and the Note 2 are upgradeable to 4.1.2, the earlier version of Jelly Bean.

Samsung said it did not comment on rumour or speculation.

Vodafone has released the Smart Mini for £50 on Pay As You Go.

The smartphone would be available from today in black or white (a pink version was due later), Vodafone said, and was the most affordable of the Smart range.

The device measures 115 by 62.3 mm and is 12.2 mm thick, with a 3.5 inch display packing 320 by 480 pixel resolution – not the best specs out there, screen-wise.

The phone has a 1GHz processor with 512MB RAM and 4GB of internal memory with microSD options.

It features a 2MP camera and runs Android Jelly bean 4.1

You probably picked it, but – Samsung has announced the Galaxy S4 Zoom.

The rumours about the Zoom have been swirling for a while, after it was reportedly spotted on the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, described as resembling the S4 Mini but with a 16MP rear camera and optical zoom.

And lo, the rumours were true; Samsung has confirmed the S4 Zoom will pack at 16MP rear facing camera with 10x optical Zoom, which TechCrunch reported was the strongest available.

The pictures show a phone which looks very much like the Galaxy Camera, which I suppose is not unexpected.  It’s a little jarring to see the lens jutting out from the back of a phone, but for camera enthusiasts or perhaps those traveling the world, I can see this phone being attractive; while it does look a little like a lens has been slapped on the back of a phone, it’s still a fairly sleek looking object, unlike what could have been.

Samsung have said the Zoom would be available in the UK “this summer”, with dates to be confirmed later.

The breakdown

Aside from the mass of megapixels, the device has some respectable specs.  Measuring 125.5 by 63.5 mm and a reasonably hefty 15.4mm thick, the device weighs 208g.

It comes with a 1.5GHz dual core processor with 1.5GHz RAM, but with a fairly measley 8GB of internal storage (however it will be microSD expandable), and will run Android 4.2 (Jelly bean).

The screen will measure 4.3 inches with 960 by 540 pixel resolution and the device will feature a 2330mAh battery.

Windows Phone could be losing OEMs because of high license fees and competition from Microsoft’s bedfellow, Nokia, according to DigiTimes’ sources.

Nokia currently holds more than 80% of all Windows Phone sales, leaving even less space for competitors than on Android, even when faced against the behemoth that is Samsung.

Acer, Asus and ZTE are all reportedly pushing back their plans for a Windows Phone in 2013, with the main reason reportedly being Microsoft’s unwillingness to lower licensing fees — something we’ve seen them do with Windows 8. Acer is currently still rumoured to be pressing ahead with their Windows Phone, but it currently isn’t scheduled to land until early 2014, after the rumoured Windows Phone Blue update.

Microsoft’s tight grip on Windows Phone 8 has also made it hard for manufacturers to differentiate themselves against the competition — with Nokia the only company allowed to manipulate the software.

HTC, Huawei and Samsung have all already launched Windows Phone 8 devices, and the latter is rumoured to be prepping yet more Windows devices later this month.