Earlier this year, Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin said Google will discontinue the Nexus line in 2015 and replace it with a family of handsets. At the same time, rumors about 2014 Nexus tablets and smartphones arrived, suggesting that HTC may be working on a Nexus 8/9 tablet, while LG builds the Nexus 6 handset. But Murtazin’s revelations were soon backed by reports detailing Android Silver, a new Google initiative supposed to replace the Nexus line.
Late last week, gadget leaker @evleaks said on Twitter that “there is no Nexus 6,” coming this year, suggesting the Nexus line will die a bit earlier than previously rumored. He also added that Android Silver will arrive in February 2015, further revealing that LG may be working on such a device.
According to the leaker, the unnamed LG device will be “among first Silver devices,” and that it will be the “successor to the Nexus 6 initiative” — although it’s not clear what the Nexus 6 initiative really is. Furthermore, the phone is “expected on Sprint in the U.S.” and should pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8994 processor, which is believed to be part of the recently announced 64-bit Snapdragon 810 family of processors.
@evleaks also said that an LG G Flex successor would arrive in mid Q1 2015, “possibly with a feature even more unique than self-healing plastic.” It’s unclear whether the G Flex 2 and LG’s first Android Silver handset are related in any way.
Other details about the Android Silver program aren’t available yet.
Google’s Android chief Sundar Pichai said at MWC 2014 that a new Nexus smartphone isn’t expected in the first half of the year, suggesting that such a handset could arrive later. However, Pichai never said anything about the Android Silver program.
Nexus 6 and Nexus 8 mentions have been recently spotted online, suggesting Google may already be working on such devices.