Here we go folks. This is what you’ve all been wanting, wondering about, and asking for since Google purchased Motorola back in 2011. A Moto Nexus smartphone! There’s been a lot of speculation that LG will once again make the next Nexus, but a new rumor this afternoon claims it will indeed finally be Motorola’s turn.

In case you haven’t been following the recent Moto X smartphone news. We knew basically everything and then some about the device well in advance before the event on August 1st. Why? Because most of the rumors and tips out of one Taylor Wimberly (formerly with AndroidandMe) were correct. He has an inside scoop on anything and everything Motorola. Nearly every report, tip, and rumor he mentioned ended up being accurate.

Well, this afternoon Taylor just dropped a bomb over on Google+ and confirms that Motorola is working on a Nexus smartphone. The rumor doesn’t have any details to go along with it, but this alone should have many of you excited. He goes as far as to mention this will NOT be the Moto X (as in not a Moto X Google Play edition) and indeed will be a Nexus smartphone. It looks like the Nexus 5 might not be made by LG after all. Here’s his exact words:

“Motorola will release a Nexus smartphone in Q4 (that is not the Moto X).

Yup, that’s it! Very short and to the point, and just enough to pique our interest and leave us waiting for more. Ever since Google purchased Motorola we’ve been wondering when we’d see them make a Nexus, not to mention it only makes sense. We’ve seen one from HTC, Samsung, and LG, so why not let Moto have their turn.

Sound off with your comments below. And thanks to everyone who sent this in!

76 COMMENTS

      • Guess they have to try to have something to compete with and bring them better market share and overall sales cause it definitely isn’t the Motorola Xphone. Plus when the Galaxy Note 3 arrives sales will be MAJOR for that device they better have something else.

      • the note 3 belongs in a purse… *hint hint* The moto x belongs in your pocket. The Nexus belongs in… my pocket?

  3. Look at all these rumors surroundin’ me every day
    I just need some time, some time to get away from
    From all these rumors, I can’t take it no more
    My best friend said there’s one out now about me and the girl next door

  5. You slap “Nexus” on the back of any phone and I’ll buy it I could care less who makes it ..I’m a Google guy all the way ^_^

  6. It would be rather hilarious if Google and Motorola left Verizon out of the Nexus 5 party Lol I highly doubt it since Motorola and Verizon and basically buddies. But considering the horrible experience that was the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon, I guess it wouldn’t be too surprising if they left CDMA out, again.

  7. I guess this means we will never see it in European countries with no Play Store Devices since Motorola has shut down most of its offices in the old continent 🙁

  9. After seeing the bodged moto X launch, followed by a very nice looking (ignoring the software) LG G2 – I kind of want the nexus to be LG again.

    A moto nexus ‘could’ be nice – but I just feel like they’d stuff it up on a global scale. Just like every other phone Moto has tried to do globally since the original razr series.

  10. Looks like they will have to up the CPU power, battery, storage and most everything so that there is a big jump in the difference of the MotoX and N5 . But, Google will stop Verizon and Sprint from getting the phone.

  12. For some reason when I think of Motorola I think of an exotic massage… from a 1 legged dwarf. I thought the sign said “exotic massage”, not a crippled circus. Wasn’t that pretty much a good portion of their Droid line up.

    • Stupid Android keyboard…I meant to say erotic. Now I understand why the wife is pissed at my texts sometimes. So I guess I really don’t know her cycle.

  13. Please, not Motorola. It better 5″ – 5.2″, 1080p, quad core — not like the colored case, dual core, 720p, sub-5″ junk Moto just released.

    What happened to the Nexus 5 prototype LG showed Google back in May? I still don’t believe Moto is making this. LG had a dual development plan for G2 and Nexus 5 — specs were confirmed by South Korean newspaper Daum.

    • Google owns Motorola and Google didn’t buy Motorola just for its patents. You have not been reading anything into how Samsung is furiously promoting Tizen?!

      • Yes, but Samsung did that because Google bought Motorola. It was a warning shot to Google to NOT be a manufacturing competitor, like giving Motorola first crack at KLM 5.0 months before anyone else. Samsung cooled it with Tizen for awhile when Google assured them Motorola would be treated like any other Android licensee.

    • Problem is, not all of us need all that! 4.7″-5″ is decent enough as far as screen size is concerned! Also, 1080p is a marketing ploy…Check out the human eye!

      You talk about quad-core compared to dual core and in most cases you might be right, however, the MOTO X crushed just about every phone it was paired up against in test because of how well Motorola used the cores, the software and processing power…

      LTE? Again, another marketing ploy!

      IF Google and Motorola are working together finally, on a Nexus phone then that is amazing! We are talking a PURE…a 100% PURE Google experience…Google controlling the hardware and the software…And with Motorola’s history behind them we shouldn’t see any issues with stock!

      This is a good thing..A Great thing!! It should also help keep the price down to what the Nexus 4 was a year ago which is what we ALL want!

      I would much rather my phone last 24-27 hours on a single charge, be durable, have a great camera and an incredible user experience…

      • You are talking to the wrong person with your propaganda how 720p is not discernable from 1080p. I work in HD professionally. You can tell the difference. And for DPI to be true retina it needs to be close to 500 dpi, not “over 300 dpi” — according to vision research scientist. 477 dpi, to be exact. Are we there yet? NO.

        Steve Jobs was a liar — a great marketer — and he only said that because his iPhone 4 had just over 300 dpi. Copy and paste this search string into your browser: iphone retina scam. < not scan, but SCAM.

        Plus, Moto X never has and never will crush the LG G2's quad core 2.26 GHz Snapdragon 800. Sony is about to release an Xperia update with that CPU also. If Google is turning over Nexus to Motorola, then Motorola better step up to the plate and deliver something better than dual core CPU with 720p. Nexus phones have always had great current specs and in 2013, especially with the 2nd half, the current specs are 5" – 5.2", 1080p and quad core CPU.

      • That’s complete bullshit, I can very easily tell the difference between 720p and 1080p displays on a mobile device.
        I have a bunch of devices with either quality & trust me it’s very easy. Put the New Nexus 7 side by side with the old Nexus 7 & the difference is clearly evident. Or put the Galaxy S4 beside the Nexus 4 or S3 & there’s a huge difference.
        I have a bunch of devices & get a bunch of review devices as well so I’ve used displays of every size & the perfect size for a smartphone is a 5″ display & the device doesn’t have to be more than just slightly bigger than the Nexus 4 to fit that now.

        LTE I agree is just marketing bull, who the hell cares that much about getting a webpage 1 second quicker when it kills your battery twice as fast. (I’ve done tests & it does kill the battery close to twice as quick with LTE on, so I don’t get the ppl who say it doesnt) Also we do need larger batteries & I wish companies would stop caring or think ppl care how damn thin their phone is. HELLO MOBILE PHONE MAKERS WE DONT CAME HOW THINK THE DAMN THINGS ARE, WE WANTED MASSIVE BATTERY LIFE.
        So give me a Nexus 5 with a 5″ display that’s 1080p an optimized snapdragon S4 Pro like in the new Nexus 7 because that things blazing fast & even quicker than my Galaxy S4. Running Android 5 KLP & a 3300 or 3500 mah battery & I’ll buy ten of em…… OK I’ll buy 2 but still that’s the perfect Nexus 5 & will sell like hotcakes because it’s cheap to build like the Nexus 7. Hell it’s a shrunken Nexus 7 with a smaller battery.

  15. this will be fantastic even if the phone sucks but it forces google to roll native support for screen off voice recognition and notifications from the moto x

  16. All I can say is, “Please don’t screw this up Motorola!” If this thing is rocking specs to compete with the best of the best (like a Nexus device should!), then this is guaranteed to be my next phone. Give us the Moto X camera, with the screen and dual front speakers from an HTC One, and specs similar to it on the inside, and I’m sold. Snapdragon 800 would be a blessing, but I won’t be that demanding! I don’t want another Moto X disappointment on my hands.

    Make it happen and my money’s as good as yours!

  17. I have been keeping my eye on Nexus 5 rumors, seriously considering buying it to replace my Samsung Galaxy 3 I9300. But it has to surpass the specs on my I9300, I am just worried Motorola is going to lock the bootloader with some encryption like they did with the aging Atrix. My backup plan is going to be a phone with Qualcomm processor because they release the source code for dev, Bye Bye Samsung!

    • if its a nexus phone why would the bootloader be locked thats just dumb and not why their is a nexus program.Google will be the main one in control of this project Motorola is just the one designing and manufacturing it.

  18. It’ll lose in benchmarks but a Nexus 4 in everyday use still provides a competitive experience to a GS4. Despite it’s super common components.

    The way I see it, the Nexus 5 isn’t supposed to catch up or out spec the already released HTC One and SGS4, it’s supposed to be competitive in performance/experience while also introducing the something new that all top spec’d phones will need to have or at least aspire to have from here on.

    I personally would like the 5 (or 4-2, since i wouldn’t mind a 4.7 again) to have the X8s language processing/contextual computing, be waterproof, have a larger battery, and run well. 3gb of ram would be cool. Plus Motorola said they could apply the x8 system to other processors so perhaps the new snapdragons might be used in such soon enough.

  20. Moto is going to make a sick Nexus phone if rumors are true. Think of the X8 architecture running in conjunction with the S800…mind blown.

    Here is what I think it needs to be the “best” device:
    -4.7″-5.0″ screen 1080p
    -2-3GB RAM
    -32GB & 64GB variants (time to cut the 16GB nonsense already)
    -Matte Black finish on the back (Uniform Nexus aesthetics is necessary)
    -Solid camera tech all the way around
    -Moto’s killer radios
    -Android 5.0 (my body is ready, lol)
    -Give us two color choices from the get-go (Need to differentiate my wife and I’s phone)
    -Make it tough (no more cases, please)
    -Giant battery (at least the size of the Maxx)

    Make it so, Moto. Will buy two day 1.

      • They did it with the N4. Last year the N4 had great specs that were up to date and sold it for that much. Google is not into high margin with Nexus devices. Figured you guys would know this already.

      • This is true, but….

        I highly doubt it will cost $299 off contract with the top specs including the Snapdragon 800, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, 3000+mAh battery, and a 1080p screen.

        That will definitely not happen to have all those be included for $299. For $449 quite possible, but not $299.

      • Google wasn’t into high margin with the N4 as it was built to be an example of what an Android phone could be when done right. Now that it’s perhaps the most widely-used and marketed platform, I doubt that they need to do the same things again with the upcoming Nexus phone. Finally, looking at the new Droids and the Moto X, I feel that X8 and S800 are quite the opposite of each other. The X8 is created to preserve battery life by making use of some extra cores so the CPU wouldn’t have to do all the work. On the other hand, the S800 itself has 4 cores, and will probably be clocked at 2+GHz and have 2 cores on idle most of the time as not many android apps are optimized for quad-core processors. Wouldn’t you think their philosophies are contradicting?

      • Says who? Google and LG had very low margins for the N4. What makes you think they won’t go for the same low margin with the next Nexus?

      • and N4 only have 8G and 16G variants, if you are going to ask for 32G & 64G be prepared for higher prices.

      • I think with the recent release of the 2013 N7, Google is not opposed to increasing prices for a higher spec’d device. Gladly pay a premium for a top of the line Nexus phone.

      • Cory, do you really think the difference between a 32GB flash storage chip and a 64GB one is $100+ ?

        Something that you have not realized here is, they make a few bucks by selling the lower capacity nexus, but there is that added $95 profit in the higher capacity nexus phone. And the tear down websites are pretty accurate at giving us the actual cost of manufacturing these devices, which is less than $150 every time.

        So, they do make a small profit ! And I would rather have a SD card slot with lesser onboard storage.

  22. What I would want:

    720p/1080p 4.7″ screen, 5.0″ if bezel suffices.
    Snapdragon 800
    2-3GB RAM
    16GB/32GB
    Really good camera, not worried about pixels
    Vanilla Android 5.0
    3,000+mAh Battery

    What I’m pretty sure will happen in a realistic world:

    720p/1080p 4.7″-5.0″ screen
    Faster Quad Core Processor than N4
    2GB RAM
    16GB variant. Possibly the other will be 8GB, possibly it will be 32GB
    10MP Camera
    Vanilla Android 5.0
    2300mAh Battery

    I would be happy with the realistic one as I want to upgrade my GNex.

    • I would take your realistic one, except for that battery. Isn’t that pretty much the battery of the GNex? I have to charge mine twice a day these days, that has to change.

      • The Verizon LTE Galaxy Nexus has an EXTENDED OEM battery of 2100mAh. The non-LTE GNex is even lower than that. I think the original GNex has a stock battery of 1750mAh I believe.

        Not sure either but the Moto X has an OEM battery of 2100mAh and they claim it to hold for 24 hours. So the Nexus 5 might be in the same area.

    • What I want (realistically):

      Overall device roughly same size or smaller than the Galaxy S4
      1080p 4.7″ – 5″ LCD screen
      Snapdragon 800
      2gb RAM
      LTE support (naturally)
      16gb/32gb (non-expandable)
      11 – 13mp camera
      Stock Android 5.0
      3000+mAh battery (non removable)
      Gorilla Glass 2 or 3
      Nexus-effect plastic back with slightly rubberized sides
      No physical buttons except for power and volume

      $449/$549 on the Google Play store (realistically). You can wish and hope for a cheaper phone, but I think we won’t see a return to the super cheap Nexus.

      • I can see those specs at that price realistically. I should have posted that my specs were the $299 range. But with a confirmed 1080P, Snapdragon 800, and 3000+ battery, the $449 is justified.

      • 4.7-5″ 720p screen LCD or amoled is fine
        Snapdragon 600 @1.9ghz
        2gb RAM
        LTE
        8-13mp camera (My galaxy s3’s is more than enough for me.)
        2600+ mah battery (Motorola seems good at optimization)
        8gb=299 16gb=349

    • I hope for everything you wrote except the 5inch screen. Those big screens are just ridiculous, moste people cant even reach the status bar without switching the phone to a strange position.

      Please make the phone between 4.2-4.6 inches (i remember when the HD2 was considered almost a tablet with its 4.2 inches or whatever)

  23. If the Nexus 5 is going to be a midrange phone like the MotoX with an average camera I am going to get the Sony Honami instead.

  24. It’s just not all about the specs and benchmark numbers.. I would like Nexus 5 to be very similar to Moto X.. Very very similar..

  26. Snapdragon 800 will only make sense when more apps are optimized for quad-core processors. But who knows, Google themselves went quad-core on the N4 when they clearly knew that the power of 4 cores can’t be fully utilized by most apps. Maybe you just can’t educate the public to stop thinking that more is better. But a brave step has been taken with the Moto X; and we will see about that soon enough. And to people who are expecting 1080p and S800 and 3GBs of ram or whatever for $300, you need to wake up.

    • You do realize that the app doesn’t have to be optimized to use 4 cores. This is Linux, Snapdragon S4 and above can simultaneously use each cores for individual task regardless. Sometime people need to do there research before saying shiz.

      • Of course, I’m not saying quad-core processors are completely useless. But to get the most out of them, you’d need apps that are multi-threaded. Otherwise, the processor will just have to waste extra power to subdivide single threaded apps into multiple threads and have them run on different cores. Perhaps it’s justifiable for future-proofing reasons, but for now I don’t see how a duo-core like the one on the Moto X can’t satisfy most if not all people. Finally, software optimization might just be what Android needs more, instead of always adding brute computing power to up the experience. Look at iOS; perhaps there’s something to be learned.

      • Well, Whilst he’s launching 24 web pages, maybe he’s updating apps, or facebook, or some other app is utilizing the other cores in the background.

  27. I hope it doesn’t use a single thing made by Qualcomm. Look what happened with the new Nexus 7; it isn’t even a part of AOSP because of crap Qualcomm is pulling, and it resulted in JBQ, AOSP’s long-standing maintainer, to quit.

    Here’s what I want:

    TI OMAP 5430 or 5432:
    – CPU: 2x ARM Cortex-A15 + 2x ARM Cortex-M4 (1.5GHz / 1.7GHz)
    – GPU: PowerVR SGX544MP2 (532 MHz) + Dedicated 2D Accelerator

    2GB RAM

    Decent camera; if you’re into megapixels the OMAP 5430 apparently supports at least a 20MP camera and recording in 3D.

    4.7″ 720p / 5.0″ 1080p AMOLED display (I have 20/10 vision, so literally twice as good as the average 20/20. The DPI of 720p at 4.7″ is more than enough for me,

    16GB and 32GB storage options (64 is excessive and 8 isn’t enough for anything)

    AOSP support (Who cares what version it ships with as long as it is actually supported by AOSP, jeez.)

    Decent battery life (the mAh doesn’t really matter if the hardware drains all of a 3000mAh battery in an hour anyway!), at least on par with my Galaxy Nexus, and removeable as well!

    LTE/CDMA support (I’m with Verizon and I can’t use anybody else, their coverage is unmatched around here by far. No GSM carrier comes even close and it sucks that GOOGLE is the one locking me out of stuff now. Somebody mentioned Verizon’s phone locking stuff but they’ve been doing that for ages yet my Galaxy Nexus was unlocked, true to the Nexus spirit.)

    Honestly people, you shouldn’t want a Qualcomm chip. If that happens you won’t end up with the Nexus experience we’ve all come to know and love. 3GB of RAM is extremely excessive. 1080p on a phone is more of a marketing ploy than anything, the real thing that matters is just overall display quality. I’d rather have a properly calibrated, sharp, colorful 5″ 720p display than a dull ugly 5.5″ 1080p display!! There’s more to display quality than pixels people. Gorilla glass isn’t needed, a nice oleophobic coating would be welcome but you should be using a screen protector regardless.

    As for pricing of what I listed, I honestly wouldn’t know. There hasn’t been a phone to use the OMAP5 series yet so I don’t have a reference point. Just based on my experience with my Galaxy Nexus and it’s OMAP 4460, I can trust that it will stay true to Nexus and remain part of AOSP for time to come, and that’s what the Nexus series is all about. 🙂

      • They finally released them because of all the pressure Qualcomm was getting. It’s a bad company to get mixed up with regardless; as businesses grow their open-source community support shrinks more, and they start to just push them away, and ironically this always works out bad for the business.

        Sony, PS3: Removed OtherOS support from slim PS3s, then forced its removal from ALL PS3s.
        Result?: – PS3 hacked to shreds, piracy then ensues, and PSN was hacked and shut down for quite a while

        HTC, Android devices: Begun to push away open-source community, even going as far as issuing (DMCA?) takedown requests for custom ROMs using Sense.
        Result?: – HTC who? What? They’re rarely talked about anymore in the Android community compared to what they used to be. Samsung pretty much took over the scene there, but even they have begun to dwindle with open-source and Sony is stepping up in that regard instead now(maybe a lesson learned from the PS3 division over there? who knows.)

        Qualcomm, SoCs: Closed-source, closed-source, closed-source. Constant closed-source stuff.
        Result?: – JBQ quits. Need I say more?

        In addition to this, I recently discovered that attempts to better multi-thread Android itself have been a complete failure. Splitting and joining threads is so much overhead that actually just using 1 thread to complete the one task at hand is faster. More cores? lol, have fun wasting energy.

  29. Nobody wanted or waited for this.. Motorola can’t even do last year’s hardware justice – how are they going to build a bleeding edge Nexus device? Also, I’m concerned about quality and value for money.

    • Have you used the Moto X or new Droid Line? Id like to know what your basis is for your statement that Moto cant do last years hardware justice. Personally I dont care if the phone runs on lucky charms. If it is smoothe, runs everything wihtour problems and delivers a good experience I am in. All you you “I need the latest cutting edge hardware” people drive me nuts. At least wait until the reviews come in of the X8 system. So far I hear good things.
      The one thing you shouldnt be concerned about is build quality with Motorola, they make the most solid phones I have used/seen. My razr maxx is a tank, built with kevlar and water resistant coating on the circuitry. Cant say the same for other brands

  30. You stupid people. Obviously if the Nexus 4 has cutting edge hardware, Nexus 5 for sure will do too, beating up all the competition at the moment of it’s release. I can predict very accurately that it will feature a Snapdragon 800, 14mpx+ camera with 3D capabilitites, Full HD resolution 1080p, 5″ Screen with like 600ppi, 16, 32 and 64GB models, will be made by Motorola based on the Moto X design. And all of this for a price of under $350.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.