Google announces Nexus 6 phablet, Nexus 9 tablet, & Apple TV-like Nexus Player

By Sam Oliver

Search giant Google on Wednesday unveiled three new Nexus-series devices -- a new 6-inch smartphone, 9-inch tablet, and set-top streaming media box - that will launch alongside the next version of the company's mobile operating system, Android 5 Lollipop.

The Nexus 6 will be made by former Google subsidiary Motorola and sports, fittingly, a 493-ppi, 6-inch display, besting Apple's iPhone 6 Plus by half an inch in diagonal space. The device ships with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 quad-core processor clocked at 2.7 gigahertz and an Adreno 420 graphics chip.

Google says the Nexus 6 will run for up to 24 hours on its 3,220 mAh battery, while a quick charge mode will give users 6 hours of battery life after charging for 15 minutes. It also sports a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with optical image stabilization.

Preorders for 32- and 64-gigabyte variants of the Nexus 6 will begin on Oct. 29 for an unlocked price of $649, and the handset will make its way to retail stores next month.

The Nexus 9 was designed in collaboration with Taiwanese device maker HTC and brings an 8.9-inch, 2,048-pixel-by-1,536-pixel display to the table. The tablet is powered by nVidia's Tegra K1 64-bit processor with a 2.3 gigahertz clock speed and the firm's Kepler graphics architecture.

Its 6,700 mAh battery is said to be good for 9 hours of battery life. Google has also added an 8-megapixel rear camera and bumped the onboard RAM capacity to 2 gigabytes.

The Nexus 9 will be available for preorder on Oct. 17 in 16- and 32-gigabyte configurations -- with optional LTE support -- for $399 and $479, respectively. The 32-gigabyte LTE version will retail for $599 when they are released "later this year."

Following the disastrous rollout of Google TV, the company has rethought its living room strategy with the Nexus Player. Manufactured in partnership with Asus, the Apple TV-style box runs on Google's new Android TV and ships with one remote control -- a very simple model that also includes a microphone for voice search functionality.

A gamepad will be sold separately. There is no word yet on pricing, though Google has offered an Oct. 17 preorder date and said retail availability will follow next month.