Google releases new Nexus devices every year in order to showcase a new version(s) of their Android operating system. The first Nexus device was announced back in January 2010 and it originally shipped with Android 2.1 Eclair, the device I’m talking about is HTC-made Nexus One smartphone. More or less every Android fan has either heard of this device, or owned it at some point. Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 smartphones have followed the Nexus One, and Google has also released a couple of Nexus tablets and other smart gadgets along the way. Google was usually releasing their Nexus tablet mid-year, and the Nexus handset followed in Q4 every year, at least that was the case until 2014. Google has unveiled both the Nexus 6 phablet and Nexus 9 tablet in October last year, which surprised many people. The biggest surprises here were the Nexus 6’s price and hardware. The Nexus line was quite an affordable line for years, until the company announced the Nexus 6, which not only offers a premium build, but a premium price tag as well.
The Mountain View giant has collaborated with the likes of HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Asus thus far, in order to manufacture these smartphones and tablets. The question remains, who will be their next Nexus partner(s)? Well, Huawei and LG have both been mentioned by the various rumors lately. Huawei Nexus rumors surfaced quite recently, saying that Google will partner up with this Chinese smartphone OEM, and that the device will sport the company’s very own Kirin SoC. Soon after that, Google paid a visit to LG in Korea, and stirred up rumors regarding the next Nexus by doing so. There are a ton of rumors regarding this every single year, and it seems like Huawei and LG will be the main stars of those rumors this year, unless someone else joins the mix soon.
We still don’t know if Google intends to move around their schedule again and release a Nexus smartphone / tablet at Google I/O in May or not, but that’s highly unlikely. Either way, it’s still kind of early to be looking at such rumors, but for argument’s sake, let’s try to figure out which one of these two OEMs would be better for the job. I’ve personally owned both LG’s Nexus smartphones (Nexus 4 and 5), as well as Asus’ first-gen Nexus 7 tablet. Truth be told, I liked my experience with each of those devices, and wouldn’t have anything against LG manufacturing the next Nexus handset (or tablet for that matter), especially if they’re going to base it off of their flagship G line handset. On the other hand, Huawei has never manufactured a Nexus device, and it’s an interesting alternative.
Huawei has been around for a long time, and is one of the biggest smartphone manufacturers in the world. This company is far more popular in the east, but thanks to the great job this company has done making their handsets last year, they’ve not only managed to increase their profits, but also become far more popular worldwide. After the likes of the Ascend P7, Mate 7 and Honor 6 Plus (for example), it would be interesting to see how a Huawei-branded Nexus smartphone would look like. This becomes even more interesting when you consider the fact that the Nexus brand is now basically a premium line, so Huawei might actually be able to make a device similar to the Ascend Mate 7, which looks really great and is made out of aluminum.
I personally would really like to see either of these manufacturers making the next Nexus smartphone, although I’m quite intrigued by Huawei’s prospect here. I don’t think there are any serious downsides to either of these OEMs, though I do believe that more people would opt for LG again. It remains to be seen if there’s any truth to these rumors at all, one thing is for sure though, we’ll see a lot more such rumors before Google actually releases this phone. The next Nexus smartphone will quite probably arrive in Q4, unless Google seriously changes things up and does something completely unexpected this time around.