Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL phones are two of the best Android phones you can buy at the moment. Released last year to replace the Nexus line, Google will be releasing a second generation in a few months.

Initially, there were three devices, codenamed Walleye, Muskie, and Taimen. However, Muskie which was believed to be the Pixel XL 2 is said to have been cancelled, leaving Walleye and Taimen. Taimen has a larger screen than the cancelled Muskie and will reportedly be built by LG.

New details have emerged regarding the specifications of both devices. According to XDA Developers, a trusted source who has spent time with the devices revealed the info to them.

Taimen

The device which will be built by LG will have a 5.99-inch 1440 OLED display (supplied by LG as well). This is even larger than the LG G6 which has a 5.7-inch device. If you loved the Motorola-built Nexus 6, then you will appreciate the extra screen estate but with smaller bezels than the first-gen Pixel XL

Taimen will also have a 128GB variant along with 4GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 835 chip clocked at 2.45GHz. Its rear will retain the half metal and half glass finish from the previous model. However, the top glass part won’t cover the fingerprint scanner (rear-mounted again). Camera for Taimen is a single sensor with dual LED flash.

Walleye

Walleye a.k.a Pixel 2 will have a 4.97-inch 1080p display. The design is reported to be almost identical to last year’s model down to the bezels. One addition Google is adding is stereo speakers. The extra speaker will sadly come at the death of the 3.5mm audio jack which the source says Taimen doesn’t have.

RAM and processor are the same with Taimen but storage comes in at 64GB.

Nexus Imprint

The source says that he discovered that the pre-production software on Taimen referred to the fingerprint scanner as “Nexus Imprint” while Walleye’s settings referred to its own scanner as “Pixel Imprint”.

It is still unclear what this means. Google already announced that it was done with the Nexus line, so we do not want to jump into conclusions. It may also be an error that wasn’t fixed or a sort of throwback to when LG used to make Nexus devices.

READ MORE: Chip Wars: Google Employs Former Apple CPU Architect To Lead Its Processor Department

Summary

There are a number of big changes coming such as the removal of the audio jack. It remains to be seen if Google will bundle headphones with the Pixel 2 or just throw in an adapter. It also appears that Google is sticking to putting the fingerprint scanner on the rear. So if you have been hoping Google will implement the under-display fingerprint scanner design, sorry to burst your bubble.

(Source)

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Google is hard at work on the next generation Pixel smartphones. Originally though to be three, new info says there are now just two. Muskie, the codename for the Pixel XL 2 is reported to have been cancelled and replaced by Taimen.

A report from 9to5Google says Taimen may be built by LG and they cite a bug entry on the Android Issue Tracker as proof. The bug entry was reported by an employee of LG. A Google employee requested that the bug be moved to thread: Android > Partner > External > LGE > Taimen > power. LGE is presumed to stand for LG Electronics.

If this is true, this will be LG’s 4th device in partnership with Google. The Korean manufacturer is responsible for the Nexus 4, the Nexus 5, and the Nexus 5X. However, this time we won’t see their name on the device. The Pixel and Pixel XL were made by HTC but have no HTC branding on them.

READ MORE: Google I/O 2017 Highlights: New Announcements That Matter To You!

If Google is working with LG on this, it might be a conformation that the Pixel XL 2 may have a display similar to that of the LG G6. We sure will find out in a couple of months.

Are you excited about LG building one of the Pixel phones? Will that make you buy or avoid it? Do let us know in the comment box.

(Source, via)

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1.9 GHz octa-core SoC from It seems that someone having a prototype unit of Google Taimen has tested it on Geekbench. Even though the benchmark does not reveal the name of the chipset, but the Qualcomm driving the Google Taimen is speculated as the Snapdragon 835. The SoC of Taimen is accompanied by 4 GB of RAM and it is running on Android O which is the next version of Android OS after Android 7.0 Nougat.

The Google Taimen has recorded an impressive single-core score of 1804 and multi-core score of 6248 on Geekbench. The first news about the existence of Google Taimen had surfaced around two months ago. Google is known for codenaming its devices with names of fishes. Taimen is the largest salmonid in the world which hints that the Google Taimen would be a larger device than the Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 phones. The older report had claimed that the Google Taimen is a “separate” device hinting that it may be a non-Pixel device or it may be a tablet or a true successor of Nexus 6 that came with a huge display of 5.96 inches.

In the previous month, Walleye, Muskie and Taimen codenames were found on Android Open Source Project which confirmed the existence of the third Google device. And now it has appeared on Geekbench to further confirm the rumors on the existence of Taimen device.

The upcoming Google Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 smartphones are speculated to launch in October this year. There is a possibility that Google Pixel 2 phones may get announced a bit early. The upcoming Pixel 2 smartphones are rumored to come with waterproof chassis. These phones are also rumored to come with improved cameras that would include large-sized megapixels for shooting high quality images in low-light conditions. Rumors also claim that the Pixel 2 phones will not be featuring the standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

(source|via)

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Yesterday, it was reported that the upcoming Google Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 are codenamed as Walleye and Muskie, respectively. A new report has revealed that the Google is working on another smartphone codenamed as “Taimen.” By citing multiple sources, Droid-Life has reported that Google will release a third smartphone this year, but it won’t be launch as Google Pixel series phone.

Taimen is world’s largest salmonid. It indicates that the mysterious Google smartphone would be arriving with a large display. Its screen is expected to be bigger than the screen of Google Pixel XL 2. It reminds us of the Motorola Nexus 6 from 2014 that was codenamed as Shamu. Itt came with a 6-inch screen.

Some may speculate that it may be a tablet, but sources have revealed that Taimen is a phone. It is said to be “separate” from Walleye and Muskie smartphones. Hence, it is likely that the Taimen does not belong to the Google Pixel family.

Related: Google Pixel 2 to Release in October With Premium Design; Pixel 2B Rumors Axed

In October 2016, Android chief Hiroshi Lockheimer stated in an interview after the launch of Google Pixel and Pixel XL phones that, “I don’t want to close a door completely, but there is no plan right now to do more Nexus devices.”  The first Google Nexus phone, the Nexus One was manufactured by HTC was released in 2010. The last Nexus phones, the LG Nexus 5X and Huawei Nexus 6P were launched in 2015 and in the next year Google debuted its first smartphones, Pixel and Pixel XL.

Since the rumored Taimen smartphone may not launch as a Google Pixel device, there is a possibility that it may mark the resurrection of Nexus brand. In this year, popular phones such as Galaxy S8 and LG G6 have large-sized screens with slim bezels. The mysterious non-Google Pixel may also feature a display with higher screen-to-body ratio along with thin bezels. Also, there is a possibility that it could run on Google’s new Andromeda OS

(source)

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