Google Nexus 2016 release date, specs: Phones to be called Pixel, to arrive in October

A logo is pictured at Google's European Engineering Center in Zurich April16, 2015. Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann

Google's rumored upcoming Nexus 2016 phones, the Marlin and Sailfish, are expected to arrive in October. However, they will not be called Nexus anymore, but rather Pixel X and Pixel XL.

Android fans were surprised when Google did not announce its own smartphones when it officially launched Android 7.0 Nougat last Aug. 22. The company even declared the LG V20 as the first smartphone that will arrive with its latest mobile operating system out of the box.

It now appears that Google will have a media event scheduled on Oct. 4 and it will be the venue of not just the Pixel phones but several other products from the search engine giant. These include the Dayddream VR device, Google Home (the company's answer to Amazon's Echo), and the 4K-capable Chromecast device, dubbed the Chromecast Plus, The Verge reported.

Going back to the Pixel phones, it was earlier reported that the Pixel X will be a 5-inch screen, while the Pixel XL will be slightly bigger at 5.5 inches. It is also speculated there the two phones will likely contain almost identical major components, namely a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor that comes with an Adreno 530 GPU, 4GB of RAM, and 13MP main and 8MP secondary cameras. Battery is said to be rated at 3,450 mAh. The small-screen device will offer a 1920 x 1080 pixel Full HD resolution, while the bigger one will have a 2560 x 1440 pixel QHD resolution.

Price-wise, Nexus blog stated that the 32GB Pixel X (Sailfish) will have a US$449 price tag and the 32GB Pixel XL (Marlin) will be US$599.  There are 64GB and 128GB models that are said to be available.

Meanwhile, it is also rumored that Huawei will launch a 7-inch tablet at the said Google event, which could be the rumored Nexus 7 2016. Evan Blass mentioned that it could have 4GB of RAM and be made available before the end of the year.

Google has not mentioned anything related to neither its rumored devices nor its media event.

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