No More Nexus 2016 Release as Google to Soon Launch Flagship Smartphones with Customized Android 7.0 Nougat? (Photo : Android Police)
More signs are emerging that the Google Nexus 2016 release date will happen October and the sticker price is likely not as affordable as earlier reported. When unboxed, the HTC Nexus Sailfish will sell starting at $449 while the larger Marlin variant will be priced $599.
The leaked pricing details were way high from the $350 and $500 starting prices for the Sailfish and Marlin respectively but according to Nexusblog they came from an HTC insider that also shared of a next Nexus rollout in October. The report added that the price tag is justified by the high-end specifications, headlined by Snapdragon 820 chip and 4GB of RAM, for both the Sailfish and Marlin, which reports said will have identical specs and features save for the screen size.
The Nexus Sailfish is thought to sport a 5-inch screen while the Marlin is a phablet device that will boast of a 5.5-inch display.
The two smartphones are also believed to come out of the box with metal and glass as the dominant build materials. With HTC in charge of the manufacturing, a premium-made Nexus 2016 is practically confirmed date.
While the October availability was mentioned in the report, no further details were provided. The timing, however, was supported by the supposed Google confirmation that among the new devices to come out it is the LG V20 that will get Android 7.0 Nougat first.
Android Authority reported that LG will introduce the V20 on September 6 and will make the flagship available before the month end. But as LG missed out on the Nexus 2016 project, the company something in exchange - the first to showcase what Google has cooked up with Android Nougat, which the report said is a scenario that the tech giant has already confirmed.
And as Nougat is already out on existing Nexus models, many new features of the new OS have been revealed but one that readily stands out is the seamless update. With the feature, security patches and firmware updates can be downloaded and applied in the background without the need to restart.
The Nougat-only feature, no doubt, is a step up to convenience but BGR said in a report that it would result to waste of storage space. Citing developer LlabTooFer as source, the report indicated that certainly for the Nexus devices the feature will require two separate partitions and one will be for the exclusive use of Nougat's background update activities.
LlabTooFer warned that the effort will be "a waste of storage," but Google is likely to address this as speculations are rife that on release date the Nexus 2016 model will be made available in 32GB and 128GB editions.
