The rumours surrounding the upcoming Nexus phone (or phones if rumours are to be believed) have apparently been made a little clearer today, with a source apparently confirming that Huawei has partnered with Google to release the next Nexus phone.
According to IB Times UK, a source ‘familiar with the matter’ within Huawei’s UK division has confirmed the Chinese company is working with Google to build the next Nexus phone in an attempt to build their brand profile in western markets. While their source confirmed that the company is working with Google to build the phone, unfortunately they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) divulge any specifications.
Rumours for the Huawei built Nexus seem to centre around an upcoming phone for the company called the Mate 8. Rumours for both phones point to a 5.7″ QHD resolution display, with a metal unibody design and powered by a Huawei built Kirin processor.
The rumour from IBTimes mentions Huawei’s wish to build their brand profile in western markets, which Huawei has definitely been trying to do over the last couple of years. Huawei has become more recognisable and indeed became the first Chinese manufacturer to enter the MillwardBrown ‘BrandZ’ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list this year.
Their source went on to talk about the lack of Google services available in China, something that would possibly prevent or hinder sales of even a Huawei built Nexus in their home market, where they hold the top spot in the sales charts. This issue would be worked around according to their source.
China is a massive market, and one which Google is keen to enter, though lack of paid apps in Google Play in China has left the app store as a very poor cousin to other options available.
Google has kept to an October announcement, November release schedule for the last couple of years for Nexus devices, so we have a few more months to wait to see if we get a single Huawei Nexus, or perhaps a choice of two Nexus phones.
Would you buy a 5.7″ Huawei Nexus?
I had my hands on a Mate 8 the other day and it’s a nice looking phone. Looks like a large HTC One. Didn’t think it would be a Nexus though. I was at Huawei HQ last week and was trying to get some juice on whether they would be producing the next Nexus tablet or phone but they weren’t saying anything.
Wait wait, I heard many sources said Huawei Nexus won’t use its own processors that 810.
I’m not sure Google needs another almost 6in behemoth in it’s line up. It could certainly use a new 5in phone with better battery life.
The source is IB Times….the most garbage, click bait site in existence.
Come on Ausdroid, you’re better than to take anything they post seriously.
Don’t disagree Andrew, ibtimes has been off the mark in the past. However, this isn’t the first we’ve heard on a Huawei Nexus and I doubt it’ll be the last.
True. It seems like a Huawei Nexus phone is coming, and I do appreciate you guys reporting that stuff for it, but every time I see IB Times… I cringe.
I heard many sources said Huawei Nexus will use 810 processors instead of their own. I think you should take carefully of different sources before post.
Honestly I think anything by IBTimes is basically crap. all their headlines are things like “new nexus with bigger battery and 5″ screen announces?” and the text basically then goes “No” they’re just clickbait and they have a lot of good journalism to do before I’ll take anything they say as anything other than that. The only time they aren’t just straight up making stuff up is when they repost quality material from real websites like you guys, or android police or someone.
Choosing Huawei might be an attempt to return to cheap prices, which is a positive. As you say though, 5.7″ is too big for many people. However, having a second handset produced by LG, which is smaller, would make sense. It would cover both sizes, and LG manufactured Nexus handsets previously offered cheap prices. Two sizes with cheap prices is a win. Maybe the LG Nexus will stick with a Snapdragon processor (unlike the Huwawei).
Who told you Huawei is a cheap device? Are you kidding?
Don’t make the bullshit here.
Huwawei released a lot of low to midrange handsets that were very reasonably priced. Recently, they’ve been trying to gain traction with higher end devices. I think Huawei needs the attention that manufacturing a Nexus brings, so they’d be more likely to drop the price than HTC, Sony or Samsung.
Huh?, have you seen their pricing?, its as bad as Oppo, they try to undercut Apple/Samsung with poor specs, using good designs and premium build. I cannot buy last years Mate 7 cheap – LG much cheaper and better?.
OK, I might be wrong. I haven’t spent any time looking at their recent devices, as they don’t interest me.
Huawei can do great hardware, but the size needs to be bought down to something which people can use. 5in seems to be the real sweet spot.
I couldn’t disagree more. ~6″ is what I see the most of out on the street in the city of Brisbane. 5″ is the 4″ of yesterdecade, and I think the world will eventually settle on ~6 when bezels are minimal to none. The word Phablet is a dying term, and no one batters an eye when I pull out my Nexus 6. My 6.44″ Z Ultra was a little large, but also had massive, massive bezels. I think I would personally settle on 6.5″ if they could do it with little to no bezel at all. Nexus 6 is… Read more »
Sorry but I agree with Jeni. 5.4 inches is about right for me, over that and it is getting too large.
I don’t care about what other people think I car about what works for me and the N5 was near perfect for me. I have an N6 and whilst I am used to the size it is too big pockets etc.
In the end it is each to their own and what happens in Brisbane well ain’t nobody got time for dat.
You must mean Brisbane in some other country, because 6″ screens certainly isn’t the norm in Brisbane, Australia.
By FAR the most popular phones you’ll see is the iPhone. Either the iPhone 6, 6 Plus or the previous 5/5S models which are 4.7″, 5.5″ and 4″ respectively. No chance 6″ phones are common.
Being more clear, I said ~6″. I could have been more clear, but I am saying 5.5 through 6.5 (phablets) as opposed to <= 5.2
so NO. at 5.5″ my G4 is bigger than I’d like. add on to that uncertainty re the processor, camera et al and I definitely wouldn’t be ordering on launch day like I use to before the N6
I think a 5in would have sold insane fast.
The 6in was not the sales success it was hoped to be, and this 5.7in size, I don’t see winning friends either.
I agree with you that I think 5″ is around the size most people would like to see (5.2″ I’d say is close enough to 5″ for people to consider a reasonable sized phone). I think with the Nexus 6, there were a few factors against it: – The size is simply too large for many – The release and availability was abysmal – The price threw off Nexus fans – Supposedly the phone was rushed into production after the Android Silver program was canned, Moto had little time to design, secure parts orders and manufacture the phone I don’t… Read more »
To be honest, I don’t know if any of the points you made are true apart from the availability being abysmal, which is pretty much contradicting each other point you made. You couldn’t get hold of one for ages, and I am not sure why that is. But they were still shipping them in the US regularly, and they would sell out again soon after. Maybe they were only making one per day, alternatively they were selling them by the truck load. I would love to know what the sales figures were.