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Device: Nexus 9
Codename: Flounder
Another appropriate codename, this time in an unfortunate way. The HTC-made Nexus 9 was highly anticipated given the Taiwanese company's hardware chops and because it was the first Nexus device built by HTC since the original in 2010. Ultimately sputtered (dare I say floundered?) due to poor performance.
Image via Wikipedia
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Device: Nexus Player
Codename: Fugu
The Nexus Player didn't make much of a splash, though it did bear an interesting codename. Fugu is not a misspelling of FUBU, but actually the Japanese word for pufferfish. While the Nexus Player was round, the Fugu codename really should have been used for its sibling, the Nexus Q, which looked exactly like a technological pufferfish.
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Device: Nexus 5X
Codename: Bullhead
The Nexus phones of 2015 were a huge success. Both the 5X and 6P were well regarded and got the entire line back to its roots of affordability without sacrificing top-tier specs. The codenames were not as great, however. The 5X's was fine, Bullhead is a type of catfish and generally a pretty cool word to use for a phone's codename. The 6P on the other hand...
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Device: Nexus 6P
Codename: Angler
The Nexus 6P is a great device. It's the best Nexus ever, and one of the best Android phones in the platform's history. The anglerfish, on the other hand, is terrifying. The deep sea dweller does not exemplify the 6P's asymmetric beauty, but perhaps does illustrate the phone's distinctiveness in a way. An anglerfish is, after all, one of a kind.
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Devices: 2016 Nexus
Codenames: Marlin, Sailfish
Now for the present. There has been a lot of buzz lately about the forthcoming Nexus devices. Reports are that they will be made by HTC, come in two size variants with varying specs, and Android Police even did a nice render of what it believes the phone will look like. Android Police was also the first to report the possible codenames for the new devices, Marlin being the larger of the two and Sailfish the smaller. At this point, all we know about the 2016 Nexus phones is based in rumors, but the skinny on Marlin and Sailfish should be unveiled by Google soon, perhaps sooner than years previous given the timing of recent leaks.
Images via Wikipedia and Android Police