Nexus Sailfish Photos Come Up: Glassy Back, New Android Nougat Navigation Bar Confirmed

The first photos featuring the 2016 Nexus devices have made their way over to the internet. We did give you guys a hint of how the Nexus phones might look like back in July. Earlier yesterday, an anonymous Twitter user gave us the first glimpses of how one of the Nexus devices looks like:

https://twitter.com/usbfl/status/764631682074816513

Firstly, we had earlier told you that HTC will be making both the Nexus devices this year. That claim still stands and the leaker @usbfl 's tweet has just ironed it out. Secondly, the tweet clearly mentions that the HTC Nexus device will come with a glass back and a fingerprint scanner on the back. Now, what the tweet didn't clearly state was, which Nexus device is it, is it Sailfish or Marlin? That was to be made clear by a tweet a few hours later from the one we mentioned above. And yes, it came from the same Twitter handle. Have a look:

https://twitter.com/usbfl/status/764743371843698688

So, this tweet was actually contradicting. What we know at the moment is that HTC would be making both the Nexus devices and they would be coming in two variants, one with a smaller screen (5") and the other one with a bigger screen (5.5"). The smaller Nexus device was codenamed 'Sailfish' and the larger one was codenamed 'Marlin'. We speculated about the specifications of Sailfish here, only for all of them to be confirmed a few weeks later, courtesy of the build.prop file leak. Now, the tweet states that both the devices were smaller than 5.5", which clearly means that the 5" Sailfish is being mentioned in the tweet. @usbfl goes on to mention that he came across two devices, one with a premium glassy back and the other one with a plastic back cover, and both the devices were smaller than 5.5". This clearly means that there are two variants of the 5" Sailfish device, however we are not aware of this at the moment.

Android Police took up the matter in their hands and gave us probable snaps of what they believe is the Nexus 'Sailfish':



 

Try and click on the image above. It will open up as a pop up on the same page you are currently on. Zoom in to the back of the phone. If you are too lazy to do that, then we have done it for you:



 



From the reflections at the back of the phone in the image above and from the zoomed in image above (which you were too lazy to zoom into, LOL!), we at AndroGuider are inclined to support @usbfl's claim that Sailfish will be sporting a glass back, maybe with a metallic finish on it's edges. However, folks at Android Police believe that Sailfish will be seen in a metallic flesh. The fog will get clearer as we enter the last weeks of August, when we believe Android Nougat 7.0's stable release will be made public.

The plastic case backed phone was certainly a mystery but @usbfl thinks that it might be a prototype for testing:

https://twitter.com/usbfl/status/765006761220644864

We endorse that none of the two 2016 Nexus phones will be seen with a plastic finish. It is also believed that the Google "G" logo, which is absent in the above photos, but was there in our post of probable designs of the Nexus smartphones, will be present when the phones are launched publicly.

However, it was confirmed by @usbfl (who we believe is a tester or works for Google) that Android Nougat will be having the new navigation bar we talked about here:

https://twitter.com/usbfl/status/765008000935350272

Design, Our Take

We don't think Google has done great designing with Sailfish. The bezels on this device are bigger than the previous Nexus generation smartphones, we are talking about the bottom bezel here. Bigger bezels means that we have a shorter touch region, which could have been increased had the bezels been a bit thinner. Google earlier made the same mistake with the Android One first generation devices and it seems they have not taken in the consumer feedback for the same. Secondly, we could also spot the lack of front facing speakers, something which consumers are in dire need of these days. These two things have greatly disappointed us and we hope Google keeps these things in mind when it designs the next Nexus series phones. Best of luck Google!

So, that was our take on Sailfish. What's yours? Do let us know what are your thoughts in the comments.

 

Krittin Kalra

Krittin Kalra is a 20 year old Android freak. Striving for passions, chasing down his dreams and living a life without regrets is his sole mantra. A bit moody, he also does custom ROM reviews for AndroGuider. Currently pursuing his B.Tech, he aspires to follow his heart.