The Google Nexus 6 phone
Coinciding with its news of the forthcoming Android Lollipop operating system, Google has also revealed its new Nexus 6 phone, Nexus 9 tablet and the Nexus Player, a casual gaming device.
Nexus 6
When the Nexus 6 starts hitting stores in the US next month, consumers will no doubt notice Google will have one of the largest phones on the market with a 6-inch screen, surpassing Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus.
Given the screen’s size, the device is expected to have a resolution of 1,440 x 2560p, which will give it a mighty pixels per inch (ppi) of 493.
Image via Google
Some of its other selling points, from Google’s point of view at least, is in the phone’s hardware given that it now has a dual front-facing speaker, and in terms of processing power, has a Snapdragon 805 quad-core 2.7GHz processor, 3GB of RAM with an Adreno 420 GPU while internal storage will come in either 32GB or 64GB.
The camera also appears to boast some impressive stats with its rear-facing 13MP camera and lens with a f2.0 aperture while also having a front-facing 2MP camera.
Perhaps its biggest selling point however is the battery which Google claim will give six hours of usage from a 15 minute charge, largely down to its massive 3,220mAh battery.
For Irish Nexus fans, details on the the Nexus 6 are a little sketchy as while it will be available from pre-order as early as tomorrow, the date which people can begin ordering isn’t known yet, but prices will start from €649 for the 32GB version and €699 for the 64GB version.
Nexus 9
Google’s new tablet marks a changing point for the company as they have now partnered with the Taiwanese giant, HTC, to produce their 8.9in device with a rather impressive resolution of 2048x1536p.
The tablet should be rather light at 436g while its internal hardware comes in at as an Nvidia Tegra K1 64-bit dual-core processor and Keppler GPU and will come in three versions: a 16GB version, a 32GB version and finally another 32GB version with the added ability to connect to 4G networks.
(Google)
The camera however is not as good as Google’s own Nexus 6, but comes in at a 8MP rear-facing camera with a f2.4 aperture lens and a front-facing 1.6MP camera.
Likewise, the Nexus 9 boasts a huge battery that has a capacity of 6,700 mAh.
The new HTC/Google tablet is to follow Google’s shipping guidelines with pre-orders available from tomorrow and orders will be available from 3 November with prices starting from €389 for the 16GB version, €479 for the 32GB version and €559 for the 4G 32GB version.
Nexus Player
Perhaps the most interesting release by Google in this announcement has been the Nexus Player, the first device launched by the company to feature Android TV that will aim to compete with products including Apple TV and Roku.
The hockey puck-shaped device acts as both a streamer of TV and film content, and as a gaming console to play any games available on Android through the Google Play Store, which can be played using a specifically designed gaming controller which is sold separately.
(Google)
However, the Nexus Player does come with its own remote for TV content and includes the ability to use voice commands to control what happens on screen.
Its 1.8GHz Quad Core processor will be able to handle 3D gaming, but internet connectivity will be limited only to Wi-Fi, which many not come as much of a surprise.
Another neat feature that is reminiscent of its sister content streaming product, the Google Chromecast, is its ability to stream apps from a person’s phone, whether it be Android or iOS or even Chromebook, to the TV.
Sadly, so far the Nexus Player will only be available to those in the US but do have plans to release the device to international markets at a future, but an as-yet, unconfirmed date.
