This seems to be a growing trend; a handset gets rumoured and then pops up early at a retailer somewhere in the world. It happened with the Huawei P9 Lite, and now it's happened to the LG G5 SE. Following the launch of the LG G5 and subsequent launch of Apple's iPhone SE, LG went ahead and trademarked the LG G5 SE name in its home nation of South Korea (complete with a new logo for the branding) - naturally, people caught wind of this and wondered what crafty thing the smartphone maker was up to.

This prompted the entirely plausible speculation that the firm is planning a "Special Edition" variant of its flagship handset. Well the device has now gone on sale early in Russia, via LG's Russian branch LG.com/ru as the H845. As it turns out it's not a particularly exciting iteration, as it's a slight downgrade in terms of specs and price from the LG G5 inside an identical bodyshell.

The processor has been dropped down to a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 instead of the Snapdragon 820 aboard the full-fat model, with a reduction of the RAM down to 3GB and the removal of 4G LTE support. Erm...yeah. This is deliberate though, the Snapdragon 625 does have LTE capablities, but they've been disabled here. We don't know if it supports the LG VR headset.

The rest of the features are the same as the regular LG G5, including the battery, removable battery/accessory module, memory card support, and dual-lens camera. It's looking as though the LG G5 se is being targeted at world regions where the regular LG G5 has not launched, including Russia and Latin America, so we don't actually expect it to make an appearance in the UK, Europe, or North America.

It was originally thought that perhaps LG was following Apple's example by offering a smaller-sized model with a reduced display diagonal, however, as of April 12, it appears the LG G5 SE may be a full-size version instead. The evidence comes in the form of the packaging for the official, LG-made LG G5 Quick Cover case - as spotted by Mobile Fun - the case packaging clearly carries both LG G5 and LG G5 SE branding, implying it is compatible with both phones, and therefore that they both have the same proportions.