Nexus 2016: TWO Devices Made By HTC?
HTC might be creating as many as TWO Nexus devices on Google's behalf inside 2016, according to the latest information.
We've previously heard a number of murmurings from the rumour mill regarding Google's plans for the Nexus line in 2016, variously the finger has pointed at returns from LG, Motorola and Huawei, as well as at HTC. Yup, HTC has been mentioned before, although only in the context of a large "Nexus 8" tablet, but according to some blurb from sources on Chinese social network Weibo the HTC-related plans may be expanding to include a couple of smartphones too (or instead of?). Bear in mind this is already on shaky territory to start with - some reliable info comes from Weibo, but usually from specific tipsters rather than just randomly out of the ether.
What's more peculiar is the allegation that there will be both a 5in and a 5.5in smartphone handset from HTC. This is strange on several levels.
Firstly, there's HTC's own difficulties in the smartphone market - it's no secret it's not doing too well with its own devices - of course, such a deal could be very beneficial to HTC, as it was for LG, in propelling the device maker to the centre of the public eye. On top of this, there's been more than a few reports about problems with the Huawei-made Nexus 6P and its metal bodywork and, popularity issues aside, few can argue with HTC's prowess in making metal bodied phones. On the other hand HTC did make the Nexus 9 tablet and that did sweet Fanny Adams to help the then-ailing firm.
Secondly, well we hate to point out the bleeding obvious but there's not a lot of difference between a 5in and 5.5in form factor. Sure, the Nexus 6 and Nexus 6P had their critics purely on the point of the foibles associated with phablet-scale devices, and maybe Google wants to shrink the larger model slightly because of this. But still, having two devices with only half-an-inch between them does seem rather redundant to say the very least.
But for us the most glaring oddity is not only having HTC in on the Nexus project at all, but handing over both smartphone devices for that year to the same manufacturer. Sure, 2015 was the first year we saw two Nexus phone products launched in tandem, but prior to that when Google has been introducing phones and tablets to the range it has always picked one manufacturer for each device. This does raise the quesion of whether these will be the ONLY two Nexus devices launched in 2016, to us it suggests probably not, perhaps we will still see additonal models from the likes of LG and Huawei, as well as tablets too, if rumours are to be believed. Frankly, we find it a hard sell to imagine Google putting all its eggs in one HTC-branded basket.
