Rumours are flying that Motorola, which was once Google’s hardware acquisition, is working on the next Nexus handset, the Nexus 6, codenamed Shamu. Widely anticipated for an October/November release alongside the release of Android L, everyone’s looking forward to a new Nexus device, and there’s now a hint of evidence that it might just come from Motorola.
What we know is there’s a device out there called Shamu, and it runs Android’s open source platform. There’s a lot of rumour about what this device might actually be, but there are few concrete facts. Android Police have posted some rumours about a 5.9″ display and a fingerprint sensor, but we’ve not seen evidence of that.
Last we’d seen, size was looking more about the 5.5″ mark, and we find ourselves wondering if a Nexus phone at basically 6″ is a good idea; today’s phones simply aren’t that big. HTC’s One (M8) is a big phone, and it’s 5″. The LG G3 is the same size body, but with a 5.5″ display. Is 5.9″ likely? Is it just a bit too big?
However, paired with a posting to Google’s issue tracker for the AOSP project, it looks as if this information about the rumoured Shamu device might just have something to it:
So, what does this mean? In short, there’s a device running a Google-built kernel, something that is most certainly not common for any kind of Android device except Nexus handsets. As the Shamu has been mentioned in conjunction with Android L information, it does seem a reasonable fit that it might see a release later this year, but what hardware it might have is really little beyond speculation at this point.
The codename itself — Shamu — is an interesting one; Google has used sea creatures for its Nexus line before, and Shamu, being the name given to a famous Orca, is in keeping… though, unlike previous Nexus codenames (Tilapia, Maguro, Groper, etc) Shamu is not a species name per se.
If we hear anything further on this rumour, we’ll be sure to let you know. After the quality of the Moto X and Moto G, I’d certainly like to see a Nexus from Motorola; they do great things.
