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Google’s plans for a 2015 Nexus phone (or two of the bad boys) are still largely unknown, but the one constant idea is that there will be two devices, one by LG and one by Huawei. Serial leakster Steve Hemmerstoffer shed some more light on what we might be able to expect from the devices.
For starters, LG’s would come in at a substantially smaller form factor of 5.2 inches, as opposed to the 5.7-inch phablet Huawei is making. This is great news as many people were turned off by the Nexus 6’s 5.9 inches, and the fact that there was no 2014 alternative (other than settling for the 2013 Nexus 5) meant many had to skip out on a Nexus phone.
We’re also learning both phones will have metal builds, front-facing speakers, fingerprint scanners and USB Type-C. We’re not entirely surprised to hear all of this. Google has added official support for fingerprint scanners into Android as of Android M, so it stands to reason the premier developer devices will have one. They were also one of the primary forces behind the development of USB Type-C, so it’d be silly if they weren’t interested in pushing the standard.
The front-facing speaker bit is particularly interesting as neither of these companies have had a solid track record in going with that sort of goodness. Perhaps Google was so pleased with the Nexus 6’s feature that they urged these two manufacturers to include it.
For what it’s worth, there has been some minor evidence that the front-facing speaker bit is every bit as accurate as the rest of the murmurings. The leaked photos of the LG Nexus’ case (pictured above) show no noticeable hole for sound to escape from, and we also weren’t able to notice any speakers on the rear of the leaked Huawei prototype (down below) that may turn out to be the Nexus we’re hearing about.
It’s our hope that this detail is accurate because front-facing speakers are f*$!ing awesome (and we thank HTC dearly for making it all the rage when no one else was doing it).
Both of these devices are sounding like they’ll push the bar for what’s possible in 2015, and we can’t wait to hear more about them. Anyone else interested in holding out on today’s current options to see what these two devices might bring us in the near future?
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