A new render image of what is said to be the 2016 Nexus Marlin and Sailfish smartphones has surfaced online. Don’t get it twisted, the image wasn’t released by Google or its manufacturing partner HTC but a recreation by the guys at Android police who were able to do that based on “information from a reliable source” about the devices codenamed Marlin and Sailfish.
The image, which shows both the front and back views, is said to represent both Nexus Marlin and Sailfish which they believe would only be different in sizes but sport the same design. The image also depicts the Nexus phones as taking on a cleaner design language for 2016, according to the information they’ve received from the source.
We could have thrown this one into the trash as a baseless rumor, if not for the fact that they were confident enough to give the rumor a confidence level of 8 out of 10. That’s an indication that either we are looking at an actual image leaked from Nexus or sure the source is very reliable. But then it’s just a sole source we talking about here.
Well then, we should add also that you shouldn’t expect the Nexus phones to look exactly like the ones in the image since they are someone’s recreation and not the real deal. Some details may not be accurate, like the “G” logo on the back of the device may not be part of the final design. Another thing is the recreation wasn’t done with the actual dimensions and measurements of the phones in sight so it may be mighty different when the devices pop up.
However, few details could be gathered from the image render and one of them is that there’ll be no camera hump on the devices. Also, both Nexus Marlin and Sailfish phones are coming with aluminum body and not polycarbonate. There’s a secondary glossy plastic layer, which might be made of glass though, on the back of the phones which gives the back a cool two-tone look. The rear edges are gently curved and there’s the fingerprint scanner sitting in its usual Nexus position.
Although the image is that of a dark gray / black colored device (which could be one of the color variants available), Android Police believes the “flagship” advertised color will be a standard aluminum finish with a white face. They also believe Google is considering what they called an “electric blue” version of the dual Nexus devices (white face, but blue glossy rear pane) but that’s not for sure.
From the image render also, the design of the phones bears basically no resemblance to the HTC 10, and also relatively little resemblance to the current Nexus phones.
Coming to the front view, a single earpiece speaker, front-facing selfie shooter, a small sensor cluster are all visible. While on the back, there are some antenna bands on the bottom running horizontally and on the top running vertically and off the center.
Three tiny holes can be spotted next to the camera whose purpose are not known but could relate to the camera (auto-focus and perhaps a secondary sensor of some kind) and perhaps one of them could be a secondary microphone.
That’s all we’ve got for now, except if you’re unaware of a previous rumor about the Nexus Marlin and Sailfish devices which are said to be getting a navbar do-over such that the software home button will be of solid white color with 4-color “flower” design. But it remains unclear at this time if that’s also true.
