As reports surfaced that Google will go ahead with the launch of the HTC Sailfish and Marlin smartphones but minus the Nexus branding, hope remains that the next Nexus will instead come in the form of a tablet that will be called the Nexus 7 2016 on release date.
Rumors of the third Nexus 7 came out as early as last year with Huawei said to take over from Asus. The compact tablet will still sport a 7-inch display panel but with a new maker tapped by Google, the build and design will get a huge makeover treatment. Glass and metal will dominate the device casing while innards will be of high-end components. Speculations said Google wants the upcoming Nexus slate to compete with Apple's iPad Mini and Samsung's Galaxy Tab.
And the choice of Huawei as tablet builder makes sense if the goal is to give the industry leaders a good fight. The Chinese device maker, after all, made a huge impression with the premium Nexus 6P and rumors indicate that most likely the Nexus tablet from the firm will resemble the 2015 Nexus phablet, only with scaled up construction and bumped up specifications.
Under the hood, the Nexus 7 2016 is said to rely on Snapdragon 820 as main engine with ample support from up to 4GB of RAM that will be baked in with the device. The same combo will be found on both the Google Sailfish and Marlin phones, somehow rendering the three Pure Android devices identical on the inside.
According to Game 'N' Guide, the Nexus 7 design, inside and out, is perfect for mobile multitasking, which explains the top-tier components Google and Huawei are stuffing in the slate with. The basic storage will likely be 32GB but it remains unclear if memory expansion will be part of the deal as the latter is traditionally not part of the Nexus serving as seen in past models.
But what really will define the Nexus 7 2016 when unboxed is the mobile operating system firing it up and everyone knows it's going to be Android 7.0 Nougat. Jam-packed with the new OS are the same feature upgrades confirmed for the Sailfish and Marlin - Enhanced Doze, redesigned user interface for faster navigation mode, VR functionalities, multi-window support and more.
And there are a few features believed to be Nexus exclusives such as the Nexus Launcher and the animated Home key that will highlight the upgraded functions of Google Search and Google Now on Tap.
Google is said to unleash HTC's Sailfish and Marlin anytime in October, which likely sets the Huawei Nexus 7 2016 release date in November or around the Thanksgiving Day celebration with the tag price starting at no more than $400 to best tussle with the iPad Mini and Galaxy Tab.