LG has not one, not two but six launch events for the successor to its G2 smartphone flagship-- the G3, a handset the company says "redefine[s] the definition of global smartphone for global customers."

A device that's nearly all screen (thanks to impressively thin bezels), the G3 features a 5.5-inch 2560 x 1440 IPS display within brushed metal-effect plastic casing. The back is slightly curved, and the LG's unusual rear key returns in a smaller and flatter version sitting just beneath the camera.

Inside are a quad-core 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage (expandable to 128GB via microSD card), 3000mAH removable battery and a 13MP rear-facing camera armed with a "revolutionary" laser auto focus claiming focusing speeds of 0.276 seconds.

Romanian mobile vendor Allview launches what it claims is the thinnest smartphone available in Europe-- the X2 Soul, an aluminium and glass device all of 5.55mm thick.

A Gorilla Glass-covered casing carries a 5-inch 1920x1080 Super AmoLED display, an 8-core 1.7GHz Media Tek MT6592 CPU, 2GB RAM, 16GB built-in storage, Yamaha audio amplifier and 13MP rear-/5MP front-facing cameras.

Powering all is a 2300 mAh battery promising up to 10 hours of talk time on a single charge.

The OS of choice is Android, if with a couple of interesting additions-- one can wake up the device by tapping the display twice, while turning it upside down can initiate mute mode.

X2 Soul comes with a main 13 MP Sony IMX 135 camera with Auto Focus and LED Flash.

The 5 MP front camera offers an 95-degree ultra-wide angle which allows full body self portraits.

The Octa Core MediaTek MT6592 processor, together with the Mali 450 GPU, offers premium performance in games and advanced multi-tasking.

"... As a 'True' Octa-Core smartphone platform, the MT6592's eight cores are fully scalable and capable of clock speeds of up to 1.7GHz in the AllView X2 Soul for excellent performance-per-Watt, so users can now effortlessly do multiple things at once, for maximum utilization of their smartphones," says MediaTek's Senior Director, Arthur Wang.

The X2 Soul will be available in either black (June) or white (July).

Go Allview X2 Soul

Motorola announces a smartphone it describes as "available to practically everyone"-- the Moto E, a handset supposedly ideal for both more price conscious and first-time customers priced at $129.

It features a 4.3-inch display, 1980mAh battery, 5MP camera and a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor inside a plastic case complete with interchangeable backs (or "Motorola Shells") in various colour and design combination.

Android KitKat is the OS of choice, and storage is expandable to 32GB via microSD slot.

Meanwhile the other budget-friendly Motorola handset gets an upgrade-- the Moto G is now available with 4G LTE connectivity and a slight ($30) increase in price.

Samsung is set to expand the inclusion of biometric sensors to even low-end smartphones the Wall Street Journal reports, all part of an effort to expand adoption of Knox mobile security platform.

“We’re looking at various types of biometric [mechanisms] and one of things that everybody is looking at is iris detection,” Samsung senior VP Rhee In-jong says. “We, as a market leader, are following the market trend.”