Huawei-Google Nexus 6P 2016 in testing, benchmarks appear

The Nexus 6P is, unarguably, the best smartphone to come from Google’s Nexus line since its inception. The device not only has a hardware look and feel that make it premium, but the phone also has some impressive camera performance and a Snapdragon 810 processor that, surprisingly, rarely overheats. Nexus fans have a phone that they can truly be proud of, which is strikingly different from how the Nexus line has been historically.

Now, courtesy of Geekbench, we have new benchmarks that show a Nexus 6P 2016 is in the works. Codenamed “Marlin,” the device is named “Google Nexus 6P” and is running Android N. As you know by now, Android N refers to Android 7.0 that’s due out later this summer (though Google still hasn’t named it yet). The Google Nexus 6P 2016 is running 4 cores instead of the 8 cores we’ve seen on the Nexus 6P from 2015, so this must be either the updated Snapdragon 820 processor (up from the 810, with its 4 cores versus the Snapdragon 810’s 8 cores) or a different processor altogether. Of course, there’s no model number with which we can identify the processor in question (“MSM” would give it away as a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor), so we have to play something of a guessing game here.

The Google Nexus 6P 2016 has 4GB of RAM, hinting that the device will be a high-end. This isn’t surprising, given that the Nexus 6P 2015 had 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM. The new Nexus 6P 2016 will have 4GB of RAM, though, which is a slight RAM bump from last year’s version to make the device more competitive than ever before.

The Google Nexus 6P 2016 Geekbench benchmarks don’t tell us much else, and we’re left with the impression that Google intends to merely update the device’s internals, rather than do something completely dramatic and overhaul the device’s composition this year. We’re not even sure Google intends to release the device with a different hardware design, but Google could re-release the device with a 2016 moniker for the same price and keep a few fans happy. After all, the Nexus 6P’s $499 starting price tag for 32GB of storage is a steal, and the 128GB Nexus 6P for $649 was even more of a steal than the Motorola Nexus 6’s starting $649 price tag for 32GB of storage.

What do you think? Is Google getting ready to refresh the Nexus 6P for 2016? Does the thought of a Nexus 6P 2016 model with slightly better specs and Android N sound appealing to you?

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