Five New Nexus Phones to be Released Later this Year

Google has teamed up with many Android manufacturers in the past to launch a Nexus phone to coincide with the release of a new Android update.

The first Nexus phone was manufactured by HTC in 2010, and the following two handsets were developed by Samsung. Google has already stated that it now plans to release several Nexus phones simultaneously, and has apparently been in talks with a number of manufacturers including Samsung, LG and Sony.

As Android Jelly Bean has only recently been released and is still only installed on a relatively small number of Android devices there is some suggestion that the next Android update is still months away. But the emergence of two devices online which are rumoured to be two of the five new Nexus phones Google has planned suggests that the next update (“Key Lime Pie”) may not be far on the horizon and could be launched by the end of 2012.

The two phones are the HTC One X 5 and an as yet unnamed Samsung device thought to be the “Galaxy Nexus 2″. The Samsung handset has a 4.65 inch Super AMOLED HD display while the HTC has a 5 inch screen with 1080p resolution. Both are thought to be quad-core with a hefty amount of memory and internal storage space. Other than that, little is known about them or what Android version they will be using.

It is known that Google has been in talks with Samsung, LG and Sony although it is still unclear if HTC has been approached to produce a Nexus phone. Considering that HTC produced the first Nexus handset, the Nexus One, it is not impossible for them to team up with Google again to produce a new Nexus phone.

The decision by Google to release five Nexus phones simultaneously also hints at a possibility that a new version of Android will not be launched alongside them. These five new Nexus devices could all be released with Jelly Bean while a later device is reserved for the launch of Key Lime Pie.

Jelly Bean introduced some performance enhancements and updates to Google’s search features, but it is unknown what the search giant has planned for Key Lime Pie. One possibility is that it will come with a radically redesigned Google Maps app, or perhaps more heavily integrated Maps with local features and services.

This summer Google announced that it was developing a 3D flyover mode for its Google Maps app. This was shortly after it discovered that Apple had made the decision to drop Google Maps from iOS a year before its contract expired. The new 3D mode is undoubtedly a response to the flashiness of the Apple app, even if it doesn’t quite work as well as Apple had envisioned.

Google has also stated that this new Maps app will not be available for a few months yet, suggesting that some major changes are in the pipeline. Whether this will just be a new iOS app or a major new Android feature, we shall just have to wait and see.

This article was submitted by Simon Drew who writes for Best Mobile Contracts, a UK mobile phone comparison website.