A few days following the release of the official Android 7.0 Nougat, reports started emerging that Google is working on coming in with the first Maintenance Release for the mobile OS.
Apparently, this Release 1 will see a new Android 7.1 Nougat come to life, a version of the OS that is expected to come preinstalled on the upcoming Google Nexus 2016 phones. These phones, which HTC is believed to be making and has codenamed them Marlin and Sailfish, have been in the rumor mills for quite some time now. However, Google has managed to keep the details of the official launch and release dates of the phones to itself, somehow. But for how long is this going to last? Probably not long enough.
According to a new report, it is believed that the upcoming Android Nougat Maintenance release will bring about v7.1 of the OS. This new version will, of course, come in with new features such as Google Assistant and the Nexus Launcher, in addition to fixes and improvements to the current version 7.0.
In a Reddit report put forward recently, it has been discovered that Android 7.1 Nougat is, in fact, already in use. This has been further been bolstered by a tweet by Android Police’s David Ruddock, who believes that the Google Nexus 2016 phones will come preinstalled with a newer version of Android Nougat, which is the MR1 release.
This is interesting for prospective buyers of the Nexus 2016 phones as they will rock an OS that will only be exclusive to them. But this won’t be for long since other Nexus devices will for sure receive the same update sooner than later.
When HTC is with the Marlin and Sailfish, expect to see phones that have close resemblance with the HTC 10 and HTC Desire lineup, respectively. It is rumored that the flagship Marlin will come with a slightly smaller screen size of 5.5 inches as compared to its predecessor, the Nexus 6P. The same could also be poised to happen with the Nexus 2016 Sailfish, which could come in with a 5-inch screen as opposed to the 5.2-inch used on the Nexus 5X. However, there could be changes to these when the devices are finally unveiled.
As for the rest of the specs sheet, there will be huge similarities between the two. The same hardware specs will be used as well as the camera specs. But expect varied design materials to feature on the two, for marketing purposes or rather, to bring in reasonable price variations. The Google Nexus 2016 phones are expected to be launched in the coming weeks, probably in September.