Nexus 6 Likely Confirmed as Motorola 5.9-Inch Phablet on Release Date – Report

The possibility that the upcoming Google Nexus 6 is a hybrid native Android smartphone from Motorola with a massive display panel, likely stretching to 5.9-inch, gained further steam, a new report said.

The chance is high that the next Nexus mobile phone will come out from the Motorola production lines, according to a report by 9to5Google, which somehow affirmed the weekend claim made by Android Police that Motorola is working on a supersized phone that is internally referred as Shamu.

Shamu, said the Android-centric site, appeared with a device dubbed as Volantis in a leaked screenshot that detailed an issue tracker that is connected to Google. In numerous reports released earlier, Volantis is said to be the soon-to-rollout Nexus 8 that HTC will build.

The same image suggested that Shamu and Volantis will run on Android L, which is believed as the next Google mobile operating system that will replace KitKat. But Android Police has made clear that it is inconclusive to say at this stage that the Motorola Shamu will become the Nexus 6.

However, a new pay-walled report from The Information, which 9to5Google picked up, appears to support the latest development about the Nexus 6 - that Motorola has effectively bumped off LG and HTC from contention and has been tapped by Google for the project.

Why Motorola? The Information's Amir Efrati offers a simple explanation: The device maker is now in the better position to assemble the next Nexus phone as it will soon become a Lenovo operation.

"(Motorola) could not pursue (the Nexus project) as a Google subsidiary due to concerns about favoring the house-owned Android vendor over others," Efrati was quoted by 9to5Google as saying in his report.

Additionally, Efrati tweeted that the Android Silver will not send Googles' Nexus devices into abrupt retirement and "Motorola (is) doing Nexus phablet with Google."

To sum up, the Efrati piece suggests that Google would not want to be seen as playing favourites by allowing Motorola to get involve with Nexus. So with Lenovo soon run the Motorola show, the Moto X was given the green light.

Still, The Information report was short on details about the Nexus 6.

From the earlier reports, the device is rumoured to match the 64-bit A7 processing chip that Apple had introduced with the iPhone 5S plus the usual killer features that Google cooked up and packed with the Android L.

The Nexus 6 release date will likely mirror the rollout plans used by Google in the past few years, which means the actual unboxing will happen between October and November 2014.