The next generation Nexus smartphones will be made by HTC and it looks like the Nexus Sailfish and Nexus Marlin will be available in the next few weeks.
Pricing details of the phones have been leaked to reveal that they will start from $499. Qualcomm recently came up with the snapdragon 821 processor that will replace the 820 range, which has powered up many of the high-end smartphones in the last 12 months. However, it looks like the new Nexus phones may now miss out on this processor even though no other phone has yet been spotted with the 821 range.
While the Nexus Sailfish will be the cheaper of the two at $499, the Nexus Marlin will be a device meant to compete with the likes of Samsung Galaxy S7 at a price of $599. Pricing should give an edge on both these phones, but especially in the case of the Nexus Marlin. Interestingly, these are the prices for the 32 GB variants and the 64 GB variants would be slightly more expensive. Nexus Sailfish has seen the biggest leaks ahead of its launch. The phone is expected to come with aspects like snapdragon 821 processor along with 4 GB of RAM.
Differentiating both these phones will be extremely tough going by the initial specifications. It may be possible that Google and Nexus are going to offer both these phones with different design elements to appeal for different categories. One of the biggest differentiations will also come in aspects like the battery size and the camera specifications. The less expensive Nexus Sailfish may have an inferior camera in comparison with the Nexus Marlin, which may also have a much improved battery.
Interestingly, these prices would represent a slight increase over the current generation Nexus smartphones when they were launched a year ago. The Nexus 5X in the 32 GB variant was launched at a price of $429 while the Nexus 6P came at a price of $499 for a similar memory capacity. Even more interesting is the aspect that these Nexus devices will not be the first phones to offer Android Nougat. This pride goes to LG V20 which is set to be the best phone from the South Korean manufacturer yet. The LG device will be available from September 6 with the launch of the Nexus Sailfish and Marlin expected to be a few weeks later in order to provide maximum exposure.