The Nexus 6 Could Be The Nexus X Because Of Blade Runner

The Nexus 6 Could Be The Nexus X Because Of Blade Runner

When talking about unannounced smartphones, everything is uncertain — including the name. And while it makes sequential sense that Motorola’s rumoured upcoming contribution to the Nexus line would be the Nexus 6, it will likely be called something else. Because the Nexus 6 already exists.

Well, sort of. Not as a smartphone, but as a much more advanced — albeit fictional — piece of tech in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Famously adapted by Ridley Scott in 1982 under the name Blade Runner, the story features “Nexus-6” replicants, which are super-advanced androids indistinguishable from humans aside from their superior strength and temperature tolerance. Although the marketing around Google’s Nexus 6 would basically write itself with a description like that — maybe Rick Deckard sports one walking around the dystopian city streets of LA or something — Google’s been in legal trouble before with Philip K. Dick’s estate when they named the first device Nexus One in 2009.

At the time, Dick’s family had reasons to be sceptical of Google’s intentions, because Verizon just shelled out cash for sci-fi terms when it licensed “Droid” from George Lucas a few months earlier. To avoid what would be a direct link to Dick’s work with the sixth instalment of the Nexus series, Google may have decided to abandon numeric tradition altogether and rebrand the rumoured 5.9-inch device Nexus X, according to Phone Arena.

The “X” also references Motorola’s current flagship, and most likely confirms previous rumours that the device will essentially be a bigger version of the upcoming Moto+1, which has also been referred to Moto S or “Shamu” because of its massive size. However, unlike the X+1, the Nexus X will run stock Android like the five iterations before it. We also heard that this sizable phablet will come with a 2K screen, a Snapdragon 805 processor, a 13MP camera, and will have a “quiet release” around Halloween, much like the Nexus 5 last year.

As is usual with these types of piecemeal leaks, we have no details on price but are secretly hoping Google will continue its budget-conscious philosophy, even if it does abandon its name. [Phone Arena]


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