Android started out as a smartphone operating system and eventually evolved to support tablets, smartwatches, and other devices. Now Google is launching Android 5.0 and in addition to phones and tablets it supports TVs.
So Google is also launching three new Nexus devices that will run Android 5.0 Lollipop. The Nexus 6 is a smartphone, the Nexus 9 is a tablet, and the Nexus Player is an Android TV box.
Nexus 6
As expected, the Google Nexus 6 is a smartphone built by Motorola. It features a 5.96 inch, 2560 x 1440 pixel display, with 493 pixels per inch, a 13MP rear camera with optical image stabilization, 2MP front camera and front-facing stereo speakers.
The phone has a 3220mAh battery for up to 24 hours of run time, and Google says it supports Motorola’s Turbo Charger which lets you charge the Nexus 6 for 15 minutes to get up to 6 hours of battery life.
It also supports wireless charging.
The Nexus 6 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 quad-core processor with Adreno 420 graphics. It will be available with 32GB or 64GB of built-in storage.
The phone will go up for pre-order starting October 29th and should ship in November.
Like the Motorola Moto X, the Nexus 6 includes a digital signal processor that lets you use the “OK Google” hotword to wake your phone with just your voice. That’s not a Nexus 6-only feature though. It’s built into Android 5.0 and works with any device that supports it… including the Nexus 9 tablet.
Google will offer an unlocked model through the Play Store. AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, and US Cellular will also offer models designed to work on their networks.
The unlocked model will sell for $649, which makes the Nexus 6 more expensive than most recent Nexus smartphones, but about par for the course for an unlocked, top tier phone.
Don’t want a phone with a nearly 6 inch screen? Google plans to continue selling the Nexus 5 for now.
Nexus 9
The latest Google Nexus tablet is made by HTC, features an 8.9 inch, 2048 x 1536 pixel display, and is designed to work with a keyboard case that can attach to the screen at two different angles, letting you use this Android tablet like an Android notebook.
The Nexus 9 features an NVIDIA Tegra K1 64-bit processor, making it one of the first devices to feature NVIDIA’s new 2.3 GHz dual-core processor with 192-core graphics.
Other features include an 8MP rear camera, 1.6MP camera, 6700mAh battery, and 16GB to 32GB of built-in storage. The tablet has stereo front-facing HTC BoomSound speakers.
Pre-orders for the Nexus 9 open on October 17th and should be available in stores starting November 3rd.
A WiFi-only model with 16GB of storage will sell for $399. Google will offer a 32GB model for $479 and a model with 4G LTE support and 32GB for $599.
Nexus Player
The Nexus Player is the first set-top-box in the Google Nexus family. It’s built by Asus, and it’s designed to connect to your TV, allowing you to play Android games, stream internet video, and more.
Google says the box supports Google Cast software, so you can use it like a Chromecast. Fire up a supported app on your phone or tablet and you can cast audio, photos, video, or other content to your TV through the Nexus player.
The Nexus Player comes with a voice-activated remote with a few buttons for basic controls. Google says you can use it to play some simple games, but you can also buy an optional Gamepad for playing Android games optimized for Playstation or Xbox-style game controllers.
The Nexus Player features a 1.8 GHz Intel Atom quad-core processor, 802.11ac WiFi 2×2 MIMO WiFi and HDMI output.
It runs Android 5.0 Lollipop and provides access to the new Android TV user interface Google unveiled earlier this year. You can use it to navigate movies and TV shows from the Google Play Store or from dozens of other apps including Netflix, YouTube. Hulu Plus, Pandora, TuneIn, and Plex.
If the “Nexus Player” name sounds familiar, that’s because we first spotted specs for this device in leaked benchmark results in September.
The optional gampad, meanwhile, looks an awful lot like the model that was included with the Android TV developer kit that shipped this summer.
Like the Nexus 9, the Nexus Player goes up for pre-order October 17th and should be available in stores starting November 3rd.
The Nexus Player should sell for $99, while the gamepad will set you back another $39. If you’re keeping track, that’s exactly the same price Amazon charges for its Fire TV and optional game controller.
Android 5.0 Lollipop
All three of these new devices will ship with the latest version of Android, but Google also plans to release software updates for older devices soon. In the next few weeks you can expect to see Android 5.0 roll out to the Nexus 4 and 5 smartphones, Nexus 7 and 10 tablets, and other Google Play Edition devices.
Among other things, Android 5.0 brings a new design language, fine control over which notifications you see, improved power consumption for longer battery life, and a “pick up where you left off” feature that lets you stop playing music, movies, or other content on one device and pick up from the same point on another.
The
Android L SDK will be available to developers starting October 17th.
source:liliputing
