Nexus X (aka Nexus 6) rumor round-up: features, specs, price and release date

Motorola-made, all cool Moto features coming to Nexus

The one crucial turn of events that seems to have made the Motorola-made Nexus X possible is the sale of Google’s Motorola Mobility unit to Lenovo. Ever since Google acquired Motorola Mobility for its patents and more for a whopping $12.5 billion, the company seemed to be afraid to go on a full-on offensive with Motorola smartphones in fear of being accused of preferential treatment by other Android vendors. True, it launched, the Moto X flagship last year with some great software features, but purposefully or not, the Moto X seemed inferior when compared to other flagships in pure specs.

This year’s sell-out of Motorola to Lenovo seems to have untied Google’s hands: it is now expected to implement all the cool features from the Moto X, like always-on voice recognition and active notifications, into the Nexus series.

Android 5.0: the L release, or Lemon Meringue Pie?

Google unveiled the new Android L release months ahead of its launch to prepare developers for the huge changes coming in L: 64-bit compiler and the new ART runtime. It unveiled the new version of the operating system so early, it seemed even the company itself was not yet decided on the sweet treat to inspire the L release.

The latest leaks from multiple places reveal that Android L will indeed be a huge release with the following number and name: Android 5.0 Lemon Meringue Pie (LMP). We’ve earlier heard from sources that Google had also been considering names like Lollipop, but LMP seems like the more likely name at the time of this writing (hey, and Lollipop might sound a bit cheesy to some).

Nexus X (Nexus 6) release date, price and carriers

All in all, it’s hard not to be excited about the Nexus X: it’s the first phablet-sized device in the series and it’s immensely powerful, plus it will run Android L right out the box. Google, however, seems committed to its politically-correct ways of not overhyping the Nexus series (trying not to upset other phone makers), and we would not be surprised if it did not even hold an event to officially unveil the Nexus X. In fact, that’s exactly what happened with last year’s Nexus 5 - a press release and a quiet launch on the Google Play Store.

And while the lack of noise won’t do much to popularize the new Nexus, we expect Google to make up with immediate availability. Just like last year, we expect to see the new Nexus arrive right in time for Halloween, on Friday, October 31st (but hey, it’s not set in stone, so Google might surprise us!).