HTC designed and built Google's very first Nexus smartphone in 2010, the Nexus One. The company is widely believed to have been chosen to manufacture two of Google's 2016 Nexus handsets and now, the build file of the device codenamed 'Sailfish' has leaked.
In 2009, Google not only intended to build the OS that powered smartphones from Samsung, HTC, LG, and others, it also planned to launch its own handset to compete with Apple, its iPhone, and iOS, which was the market leader.
Google decided that it would enlist HTC, the company that built the very first Android smartphone back in 2008, the HTC T-Mobile G1. The resulting Nexus One proved to be very popular, especially with Android smartphone fans, since it was available to purchase unlocked and was promised to receive timely Android updates as Google released them.
Google last partnered with HTC in 2014, on its Nexus 9 tablet, which was released in November of that year, but now the two companies are preparing to unite once again on two new Nexus smartphones.
Some of the first details regarding the two HTC-built Nexus smartphones leaked in January and specs for one of those devices, the HTC "Sailfish," hit the web in late June.
Soon, the second HTC Nexus smartphone, codenamed "Marlin" made an appearance on Geekbench where many of its specs were revealed. In early July, reliable sources released renders of the "Sailfish" and "Marlin," which were then quickly followed up by a 3D render video.
Now, the always-reliable tipster Evan Blass (@evleaks) has taken to his Twitter page to share some details from the build.prop file from the HTC Nexus Sailfish.
According to the file, the HTC Nexus Sailfish will reportedly feature a 5.2-inch 1,920 x 1,080 Full HD display with a pixel density of 420 pixels per inch (ppi). Its processor is listed as MSM8996, which just happens to be Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 chipset.
Previous reports claim the HTC Nexus Sailfish will run Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box and include 4 GB of RAM. The camera capabilities will reportedly consist of a 12-megapixel rear camera and 8-megapixel font-facing shooter. It will supposedly feature a 2,770 mAh non-removable battery and its fingerprint scanner will be located on the rear of the handset, like the current Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X.
Google is expected to launch the HTC Nexus Sailfish and Marlin in September and release the smartphones shortly after its event.
As always, we'll keep you up to date on any additional HTC Nexus news as it becomes available.
