Report: LG Making Nexus 6, Google Smartwatch

Even though the Mobile World Congress has been over and done for about a week, news seems to still be trickling out. Yesterday, Germany’s Gizmodo reported that it had learned about Google’s plans for its Nexus 6 smartphone, which was only tacitly confirmed last week by Android boss Sundar Pichai. According to the site, the maker of the Nexus 5, LG, will handle the Nexus 6 as well.

The site also says that the Nexus 6 will be “a stripped LG G3,” referring to LG’s soon-to-be-released flagship phone. That’s less than encouraging, as the Nexus ought to stand on its own strengths. But at the same time, a “stripped” version of the G3 should still end up as a pretty powerful piece of kit, and running pure Android to boot. And rumors regarding the G3 point to a 13-megapixel rear camera, so if nothing else, even a scaled-back version of the G3 ought to be impressive.

And that isn’t the only scoop the site claims to have: apparently LG will also be taking a strong role in the development of Google’s entrant into the smartwatch game. This would seem to conform with rumors that have been swirling since last month. It wouldn’t be too surprising if both of these rumors were true. Why not team up with a proven OEM? The Nexus 5 is pretty great, so there’s no reason why not to double down with them for the next generation.

The same goes for the smartwatch. It’ll be really interested to see what, if anything, is debuted in the wearables category at Google I/O this summer. Since LG seems to be pretty good at packing great, functional tech into svelte and flashy packages, they seem like a good choice to make Google’s smartwatch.

And while I never really cared much for the idea of a smartwatch before, I have to admit: the Samsung Gear Fit has started to change my mind. If whatever’s in development can find a way to follow that gadget’s example, we might have a much more interesting wearables race on our hands—or, I guess in this case, on our wrists.

[Source: Gizmodo.de via BGR]