Since the beginning of the year, speculation has been mounting that HTC will be making the next Nexus smartphone. In fact, the speculation has been that they will not be only releasing one Nexus smartphone this year, but two. A short time ago, that speculation mounted even more when known tipster @evleaks sent out a tweet seemingly confirming the two HTC Nexus handsets for 2016. The tweet did not explicitly state that they are Nexus devices but did draw on the point that they are Android N devices and are being built for Google. Which inevitably suggests they are Nexus smartphones, ones which @evleaks states are being internally referred to as ‘M1’ and ‘S1’.
Now a report out of Android Police today is adding further weight to the @evleaks tweet. Once again, the report includes unconfirmed details and is based on information which was given to Android Police from a trusted source. Therefore, it is possible that the information is either incomplete, inaccurate or subject to change. However, the information details that the two handsets are likely to be Google codenamed ‘Marlin’ and ‘Sailfish’. Names which when you take into consideration the M1 and S1 monikers that have been announced by @eveleaks, the connection is a little hard to ignore.
As well as the source-provided information, the report does further note that there has been an odd reference to ‘Marlin’ noted in an AOSP Gerrit. Which interestingly came from a Qualcomm engineer. As such, this does add further weight to the notion that M1 is Marlin. Although, whether S1 is Sailfish remains to be seen until further details begin to surface. Of course, the common aspect with these two latest names is that there are aqua-related names, which has been the overriding theme when it comes to Google code-naming their devices. Which although superficial (as the M or S could be for any aqua-related name) does add further weight to the notion that the two incoming HTC Nexus handsets will be Marlin and Sailfish. Of course, at the moment, the currently reported on names, as well as M1 and S1 and HTC being the manufacturer, all remain very firmly as rumors.