HTC Nexus Marlin appears, running Android N

HTC is set to unveil the HTC Nexus Marlin and HTC Nexus Sailfish later this year (possibly September-October), and we know the specs in these two devices by now. In a new report, the HTC Nexus Marlin has appeared “in the flesh” (so to speak; we’re dealing with phones here, not humans) that shows the device running Android N (or what we know already as Android Nougat).

The HTC Nexus Marlin features something of a metallic build, as can be seen by the photo that shows a light shimmer in the light on the left side of the phone. The three software keys at the bottom are typical of Nexus devices, and the same three-key setup can even be seen on older phones such as the Nexus 4 (2012) and Nexus 5 (2013). We see that “Android N” is written there, though this has to be a pre-Android Nougat announcement unit (since Google’s already announced the name of the upcoming handset; we don’t have to call it Android N anymore). While the name “Marlin” is found there, and could be a simple naming tactic (I can rename my Nexus 5 to be the HTC Nexus Marlin if I so wanted it), the baseband version shows the number “8996,” which is the model number for the quad-core, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor.

The HTC Nexus Marlin also features the July 1, 2016 security patch, a sign that this phone is relatively new (at this point, only new phones have the July 2016 security patch). From all this evidence, we gather that this handset is indeed the high-end HTC Nexus device that will be announced by Google this Fall.

The HTC Nexus Marlin specs include a 5.5-inch, Quad HD (2,560 x 1,440p) AMOLED display, quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC (could feature the Snapdragon 821, despite the 820 shown in the photo below), 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, 32GB of storage, 8MP/12MP camera combos, and a 3,450mAh battery which may be sufficient beyond a day’s use (we’ll have to get the phone in-house first before making this call).

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