There are two Nexus phones codenamed M1 and S1 coming this year with both being put together by HTC; the latest Nexus rumors have claimed.
However, before anyone starts to draw any conclusions on this, the one thing that has to be kept in mind is that these are still rumors at best with neither HTC nor Google dropping any hint whatsoever about what’s cooking between them.
Also, details are mighty scarce this time around with Google managing to keep a tight leash on the device specifications so that it’s virtually nothing that we know of the next Nexus so far.
Fortunately, there are some loose bits to hang on to. For instance, Evan Blass who is better known by his Twitter handle @evleaks has claimed in one of his tweets that HTC indeed is making a pair of Nexus devices for Google. Further, the upcoming Nexus phones are being referred as M1 and S1 internally.
Now both the codenames do rhyme nicely with the names ‘Marlin’ and ‘Sailfish’ that Google is using to refer to these devices in their development labs. Those again are in line with the usual Google convention of codenaming their Nexus devices based on marine life. Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P had the codenames Bullhead and Angler respectively.
Adding further credence to such a naming scheme is the sighting of the ‘Marlin’ codename in Gerrit, which is a Web-based code review tool used by Android Open Source Project (AOSP).
However, while that adds some weight to ‘Marlin’, ‘Sailfish’ continues to loiter on losing ground. That’s not just because it hasn’t been spotted in Gerrit or such but there is also a mobile operating system going by the same name even though the OS has just an obscure presence at best. Still, that makes it quite unlikely for Google to consider the same name to identify any of their upcoming devices.
The Marlin has also been seen at the Geekbench browser benchmark listing even though the device name mentioned there is Google Nexus 6P. While that makes for an interesting decoy, the underlying specs spills the beans as the device listed boasts of a 4 GB RAM while Google Nexus 6P makes do with 3 GB of it. The said device also runs Android N compared to Android Marshmallow for the Nexus 6P.
All of that could be enough for one to be suspicious of Sailfish in its entirety as there might be no such device after all and Google might just be using it as a cover to keep rumor mongers engaged. Anyway, let’s hope we get to hear something more concrete on this soon enough.
