If the Nexus 6 Launches, Will it Have a Fingerprint Scanner?

It doesn’t matter that it’s pretty much unnecessary: iPhone 5s users really love their fingerprint scanners. The feature seems to be such a hit that a new report from AndroidGeeks today claims that the next iteration of Google’s Nexus smartphone line, the Nexus 6, will include a fingerprint scanner as well. That is, you know, if it exists at all.

The report claims to have gotten confirmation via “a trusted insider,” who says that Google and LG have decided that the Nexus 6 should include a fingerprint scanning unlock feature. Moreover, the source doubles down on rumors that the Nexus 6 will be based on LG’s forthcoming G3 smartphone. Even still, despite basing the new handset on the G3, the report claims that the Nexus 6 will arrive in a slightly smaller form factor. The G3 is rumored to offer a 5.5-inch display, while the Nexus 6 would “most likely settle for a 5.2-inch screen.” The post also says that both would provide the same “Quad HD” resolution clocking in at 1440 x 2560.

Other than that, the rest of the details regarding the Nexus 6 are anybody’s guess. We’ve heard before that Google may be targeting a release for the second half of 2014, but we’ve also heard that Google was going to end the Nexus line of smartphones entirely. That particular rumor was the subject of a major report published by the Verge just yesterday.

I have a feeling that the Nexus 6 will arrive as planned, though I wouldn’t be too surprised if that phone wound up being the final entrant in the line. The reasons for that prediction aren’t airtight, but the fact that Google already has a Nexus 7 out on the market that isn’t a phone is one decent reason to cap the phone line with the number 6. Moreover, we know that Google is gearing up to release the Project Ara in early 2015. If the company hopes to put a solid push behind that line of devices and spur Google fans to back it as well, why would it put out a competing non-modular handset?

The short answer is that it wouldn’t. Sure, the company might want to have both options on the market to give consumers more choices of how to get their Android fix. But if there’s any truth to the rumors that the Nexus smartphone line isn’t long for this world, then I’d bet that Google would rather put its might behind a disruptive technology like Ara rather than bother making another traditional smartphone, regardless of whether or not it includes a fingerprint scanner.

[Source: AndroidGeeks via BGR]