iPhone 5 with gold and diamonds surfaces, costs $15.3 million

Stuart Hughes, a Liverpool-based jeweller had earlier built a diamond iPhone 4, Platinum MacBook Air and Gold iPad 2. Now, the enthusiast has built an iPhone 5 with gold and diamonds, making it the world's most expensive smartphone.

  
The iPhone with gold and diamonds

According to the designer, the custom made iPhone 5 took him 9 weeks to build and the complete device has been made by hand. The outside casing of the smartphone is said to be made up for 24-carat gold, while the home button consists of 26-carat black diamond.

The Apple logo and the corners of the smartphone are built using the white diamonds. The device is encrusted with 600 precious stones, out of which, 53 are housed in the Apple logo at the back. The world's most expensive smartphone was ordered by a Chinese based businessman, who owns the black diamond that went into the construction.The special luxuries edition of iPhone 5 costs £10 million (about $15.3 million). However, there are simpler versions of the device too, which is made of gold and goes for the much easier to swallow $33,800.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dHqS69IYy6Y

Nokia Lumia 720 available in Russia, costs more than expected

The Nokia Lumia 720 is now available for eager buyers to purchase in Russia. However, the price won't be everyone's cup of tea at $485.

That's a hefty $150 more than what Nokia said the device would cost in Europe (€249). That's to be expected, though, as mobile phones in Russia are notorious for being overpriced compared to those in western markets.

You can also get the Lumia 720 directly from Nokia's website, where the smartphone is currently up for pre-order. According WinPhoneLive, who has spoken to a Nokia store manager, you'll be contacted almost immediately after placing an order to setup payment and delivery details.

The Lumia 720 was announced in February, alongside the Lumia 520 at the MWC and is available in four colors: yellow, white, black and red.

Facebook-loving HTC First now available on AT&T for $99

Some see at the HTC First as "the Facebook phone", others as one of the rare phones with stock Android. Whichever camp you’re in, you should know the First is now available on AT&T's website for $99 on a 2-year contract. If you don’t want to sign a contract with AT&T, you can get it for $450.

If you do get a contract, plans start at $40 a month plus a data plan of $20 or more a month. The HTC First has LTE connectivity to use on AT&T's 4G network.

The HTC First is available in four colors: White, Black, Red and Pale Blue.

The First will be coming to Europe in a few months, too.

Or you could get the Facebook Home experience on your current phone - the launcher should be hitting the Play Store some time today.

Samsung looking to sell over 1 million Galaxy Mega 5.8 units

Samsung announced the big-boned Galaxy Mega duo and according to industry sources plans to manufacture at least a million of the smaller Mega 5.8. Reportedly Samsung contacted several Taiwan-based display manufacturers to order one million 5.8" screens.

This optimism about the Galaxy Mega 5.8 sales stems from the good performance of the mid-range Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos. Sources state that in May the number of shipments of 5” WVGA screens for the Grand will reach 2 million.

Samsung has its own screen manufacturing facilities, but apparently the company will use them for the production of Super AMOLED displays, outsourcing mid-range screens to Taiwanese makers.

There’s no info on how many displays were ordered for the bigger Mega phablet, the Galaxy Mega 6.3, but Samsung obviously thinks there’s a market for large phablets.

Samsung announces Galaxy Mega 6.3 and 5.8 phablets

Samsung lifted the covers of the Galaxy Mega dup – the 6.3" and 5.8" Android phablets. The smartphones borrow some of the features from the Galaxy S4 flagships but offer much larger screens and aim for the mid-range segment as a more affordable alternative to the high-end Note phablet.

Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3

The Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 packs a 6.3" LCD of 720p resolution and is powered by a an Exynos 5250 chipset with a dual-core Cortex-A15 CPU clocked at 1.7GHz and 1.5GB of RAM. It runs Android 4.2 with Sasmung’s TouchWiz modifications like Multi-window (split-screen multitasking) and Air View (detecting your finger an inch from the screen). There's no S Pen though.

The main camera is an 8MP shooter and there’s a 1.9MP front-facing camera. On the connectivity side the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 enjoys LTE, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, NFC and packs an IR emitter so it can work as a remote control. It can also connect to Galaxy S4s and Grands with Group Play.

Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 next to the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the Samsung Galaxy Note II

The Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 is not a small device, but it's fairly thin measuring 167.6 x 88 x 8.0 mm and weighing 199g. The battery has 3,200mAh capacity. Internal storage is 8GB/16GB and there’s a microSD card slot if you need more.

  
Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 sized up against the Galaxy S4

Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8

The Galaxy Mega 5.8 is a smaller Mega phablet and packs a more modest specs sheet. The LCD screen resolution is jsut qHD and the CPU clock speed has been reduced to 1.4GHz. The high-speed connectivity (LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac) is also gone as well as the NFC and an IR emitter.

Other things that have changed are the size (obviously) - the Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 measures 162.6 x 82.4 x 9.0 mm, weighs 182g and has a 2,600 mAh battery.

The Samsung Galaxy Mega duo will be available worldwide with the rollout starting from Europe and Russia in May. We still have no info on the price.