Leaks regarding Nexus devices always have us here at Ausdroid salivating at the lips. This time it is not a Nexus 8 tablet made by HTC, nor is it a Nexus phone made by Motorola, it is an Asus Nexus Player. What the hell is an Asus Nexus Player I hear you asking? Speculation is that it is an Android TV, possibly the first to run Google’s new Android TV.
Benchmark site GFXBench has uncovered “evidence” of a device call an Asus Nexus Player. The devices seems to come in two sizes, 23.7 and 31.9 inches each of 1920 x 1080 resolution. Both of these are relatively small considering modern TV sizes so I am unsure what to make of it. When it comes to battery lifetime the result was N/A which most likely means that it is a device that needs to be plugged in such as a TV. The device also lacks the usual sensors such as accelerometer, barometer, compass, gyroscope. There is also a lack of any cameras but there are both bluetooth and Wifi capabilities, both expected in a TV these days, especially one running Android TV.
The rest of the specs included in the device include a quad core Intel SoC CPU 4000 (x86 CPU) clocked at 1833MHz, an Imagination Technologies PowerVR Rogue G6430 GPU, 1GB RAM and 6GB of storage. The device is also running Android L which is interesting, as I thought that they would start with their own versions/naming conventions of software, much the same as Android Wear. The specs also seem a bit on the low side for a device that is meant to be running Android TV on such a large screen. I am assuming all movies etc will need to be streamed directly from the web considering there isn’t enough storage on there to download it now for watching later.
Whether this is an Android TV should play out fairly soon with Google expected to officially release Android L alongside the Nexus 8 and the Nexus X in the next couple of months. Keep your eyes peeled to Ausdroid for any updates to any of the Nexus device rumours.
What are your thoughts on this leak? Android TV or just a small TV running Android (ala some Kogan TVs)?
This has to wrong. Its too stupid to be a nexus. I cant see a market for such a weird product.
Nexus Q.
Don’t you start knocking my Nexus Q man!!!! 😉
Some examples: You can make it your retro console machine with some emulators and a controller, you can install XMBC with 1channel and Icefilms addons to have a box to watch every movie and series out there for free*. Also if you don’t have a Smart TV yet features like YouTube and Twitch can be interesting. And don’t forget you can also use this like a Chromecast.
*May not be completely legal in some countries :p
I think all those things make more sense on a device that you connect to a TV, not a TV running certain software. That way, you take all the functionality with you and can upgrade the screen.
Otherwise, the step up to an All-in-one PC or iMac makes more sense to me…
That’s probably what the Asus Nexus Player is, just by the name. I highly doubt it would be a TV. They’re gonna compete with Amazon Fire TV.
I would love to see Android TV able to support TV based hangouts with some off the shelf USB camera
I can think of only one scenario where such a small physical size, no camera, stuff all storage, Android TV might be viable.
The small size TVs some motels perch on side tables.