Nex Computer, a California based company, announced NexPhone in January this year. It was unveiled as a multi-boot smartphone supporting Android 16, Linux (Debian), and Windows 11 on Arm with a retail price of $549 and initial shipment time of third quarter. The company, however, announced in a blog post recently that the shipments have been delayed till March 2027. 

Founder and CEO Emre Kosmaz shared the revised timeline in a blog post saying that antenna problems and housing issues have held up hardware development.

Antenna problems and housing changes delayed production

According to Kosmaz, getting the NexPhone’s antennas right has taken longer than expected. The phone performed well on middle and higher frequency bands, but the lower bands needed more work. Nex Computer’s engineering partner traced interference to the area around the USB connector, forcing the team to revise the housing and antenna boards, build more prototypes, and test the changes. The Chinese New Year holiday added another delay.

The phone’s outer shell has caused trouble, too. While the tooling is finished, the first molded housings had uneven seams, texture problems, and fit issues with smaller parts. Matching the housing, buttons, and SIM tray cover across different suppliers has taken several rounds of revisions. Kosmaz also says Nex Computer has no outside funding, making each extra development cycle harder to absorb.

The hardware delays haven’t stopped work on the software. According to the brand, NexPhone development units are now running Android 17, although the phone still needs to pass validation and certification. Google began rolling out stable Android 17 to Pixel phones in June.

Nex Computer has also made changes to Android’s desktop mode, which comes into play when you connect the phone to an external display. It can now handle real files and folders instead of just shortcuts, and there’s a Recycle Bin for deleted files. The company is also working on File Drawer, a dual-pane file manager for the desktop environment.

Linux and Windows are still works in progress. The Debian environment runs inside Android as an app, while Nex Computer continues to write drivers to improve hardware support when the phone boots into Windows 11.

NexPhone price and specifications

The NexPhone originally cost $549 to preorder, but new reservations now start at $599. Anyone who reserved the phone at either price will keep their original price, according to the company.

The final retail price could climb above $599. Kosmaz says rising memory costs are making it harder to pin down production expenses, and Nex Computer will announce the final price once those costs become clearer.

The hardware includes a Qualcomm QCM6490 chip, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. The phone also has a 6.58-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 64MP Sony IMX787 main camera. Nex Computer will include a USB-C hub in the box.

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The post NexPhone that runs Android, Linux and Windows is delayed until March 2027 appeared first on Gizmochina.