We earlier reported that Google is going to drop the Nexus branding with its upcoming smartphones. Now, fresh reports are pointing towards an all new name, taken from Google’s chromebook line-up. Reports suggest, that Google is going to name its upcoming smartphone series as ‘Pixel’.
The two upcoming smartphones from Google — Marlin and Sailfish, will now be branded as Pixel and Pixel XL, instead of Nexus branding.
The journey of Nexus began in December 2009 with the HTC-made Nexus One. It continued to the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P in 2015. Throughout this, Google partnered with Samsung, LG, HTC and Huawei for its smartphones and tablets.
It is yet unknown when did actually did Google decide to change branding of its Nexus smartphones or why it decided to change it at the first place. This could also mean that the Nexus brand has been buried. The Nexus Player has no replacement planned, and the latest Google Android tablet is also branded as Pixel. The smart home devices from Google doesn’t have Nexus branding. So, it seems like Google is done with Nexus.
Reportedly, the new phones will have the most cohesive and Google-influenced design on smartphones to date. It is said that the devices from Google will be identical in everything.
The Pixel (codenamed Sailfish) will be carrying a 5 inch display, while the Pixel XL (codenamed Marlin) will be a 5.5 inch smartphone. Both the devices will be built by HTC. The Pixel XL will be having a QHD AMOLED display, a quad-core processor from Qualcomm and 4GB of RAM. It will also feature a 12 MP rear camera and an 8 MP front facing camera.
The phone, with bottom speakers, will be available in two variants – 32GB and 128GB. The company is reportedly going to skip the 64GB variant. It will also feature fingerprint scanner at the back, a USB Type C port. The phone will also support Buetooth 4.2 and will be powered by a 3450 mAh battery.
Both the smartphones, which are currently known as “Marlin” and “Sailfish”, got certified by FCC in August. Several reports has hinted that the devices will be priced higher than the Nexus devices at launch.
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