After months of waiting for the products, Google announced today three new products at a casual press event held in California, including a new tablet and a flagship phone large enough to be considered a phablet.
The software once known as Android L finally got a name, and as expected, Google trotted out Android 5.0 Lollipop today, giving it a second, and more official launch after its brief preview at the I/O 2014 conference this June. Android 5.0 is notable as it is Google’s first mobile platform completed under the watch of Android head Sundar Pichai, and also the first to support 64-bit architecture. Battery-saving capabilities and security features are among the software’s most important come-ons, but it’s the 64-bit support that should have the most bearing on Lollipop’s performance.
The Nexus 9 is an HTC-made device, as rumored, and it did launch today with a 64-bit NVIDIA K1 processor under the hood. Other important specifications include an 8.9-inch, 2048 x 1440 display, an 8-megapixel rear camera, and a 1.6-megapixel front camera; of course, the device ships with Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box. Storage options are 16 GB or 32 GB with no microSD (contrary to a recent rumor), while users can also take advantage of a magnetic keyboard as a special peripheral for the tablet. It’s not sure, however, if the keyboard will be bundled with the Nexus 9, or sold a la carte.
Lastly, the Nexus 6 literally proved how Google’s flagship phone series has “grown,” as the Motorola-manufactured handset comes with a 5.9-inch display and 2560 x 1440 resolution. Its processor is a 32-bit Snapdragon 805 quad-core chip, though it can render 4K videos if an external display is connected to it. Storage options are 32 GB and 64 GB and the device also ships with Android 5.0.
All three devices, plus the Nexus Player streaming media player, are set to hit stores on November 3, though pricing information has not yet been confirmed as of presstime.