It’s that time of year, we’ve seen the flagship phones from the larger Android manufacturers and it’s nearly a year since the last Nexus was released, so the rumour train for the next Nexus phone is in full swing. The most recent rumour was that Motorola was going to be releasing a Nexus phone in Q4 this year, but Chinese site MyDrivers is steering the conversation back towards last years Nexus phone manufacturer LG, as the source of the 2013 Nexus phone.
Citing South Korean Media as the source of the news, they advise that LG will once again produce the Nexus phone and just as last years Nexus 4 was based on the Optimus G, the so called ‘Nexus 5’ will be based on the newly announced LG G2.
Google had great success with the Nexus 4 at the US$299/$349(AU$349/$399) price point and apparently they will be trying to keep this pricepoint to encourage sales again and unfortunately this will mean some cuts, the most high profile of which is a rumoured decision to manufacture the Nexus 5 with a slightly downgraded CPU – the Snapdragon 600 – to ensure that the Nexus 5 comes in at the desired price point.
The main down side of using the Snapdragon 600 as opposed to the 800 is the lack of on-chip LTE Radio support, an indicator that like the Nexus 4, the next iteration of Nexus phone will be LTE free. The Snapdragon 600 can of course be paired with a slightly cheaper off chip LTE radio but it’s not a good sign if this is indeed where Google is heading.
The CPU is not the only component that has been downgraded, the 13MP camera on the G2 will also be downgraded to a 10MP sensor, however there is no word on whether the Optical Image Stabisiation(OIS) that comes on the G2 and gives it some pretty good low light photo quality, will also be retained.
While the CPU and camera will see some changes, the 1080P screen of the G2 will be onboard as will the 2GB of RAM but the biggest question of all, is will Google keep the buttons on the back like the G2? And what of the 3,000mAh stepped battery that was included in the G2? It’s still just rumours at this stage, but it is fun to speculate.
Who is going to make the next Nexus phone – LG, Motorola or someone who hasn’t already created a reference device for Google?
