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Google Nexus 10 2, where art thou?

At one point it seemed like a done deal. The Nexus 7 launch and release date came and went, and then all eyes turned to Google's other tablet – the Nexus 10. But it never showed up… and now some reports are suggesting that Google is ditching the 10-inch form factor in favour of something smaller. 

This news comes via IB Times, which claims the Nexus 10 update isn't happening at all, and that Google is ditching the 10-inch form-factor in favour of something smaller – "most likely an 8-inch or a 9-inch device". No sources were named, however, so we're filing this one very much under "rumours and conjecture" for the time being. 

The origin of the rumour – IB Times – said the (8-inch or 9-inch) Nexus 10 would perhaps launch on Cyber Monday - today. The finale of Black Friday is now almost over and so far we've yet to see a new Nexus slate. Guess that sort of puts that rumour to bed, at least for the foreseeable anyways. 

Other reports offer similar tales of discontinuation and the impending release of a new – but markedly different – Nexus tablet. On the subject of the current Nexus 10, Android Origin says it has it on good authority – an unnamed Google exec – that the 10-inch tablet will be discontinued once current stock is sold out.   

"Speculation suggests that this could be an indicator of a soon to release Nexus 10 2013/2014," said the blog. Another explanation is that Google is done with larger form tablets, and will instead focus on its current 7-inch Nexus 7. 

The Google Nexus 10 (16GB) is now officially out of stock inside Google Play. Expect the 32GB version to follow suit soon after. What happens after that is anyone's guess, however…

Release date

Will they or won't they? The internet has an on-off relationship with the rumour that the Google Nexus 10 2 will be released on Black Friday. But now, the relationship is off, according to the IBTimes, with just one day to go.

Instead of releasing it on 'Black Friday', the day after Thanksgiving where it's traditional for Americans to shop 'till they drop, it's now believed Google will release the tablet on 'Cyber Monday' - where those Americans who still have cash left over tend to flock online to buy Christmas gifts.

It would have been a clever move by Google to captialise on the shopping frenzy - and detract attention away from the iPad Mini 2 and iPad Air.

But if - and it's still a big IF - Google do decide to release the tablet on Monday, it could be even clever-er. As the IB Times say "Should Google picks 2013 Cyber Monday as the Nexus 10 2 release date, the company is assured that its new 10-inch slate will enjoy coverage on the following markets: U.S., Canada, select markets in Europe and Asia plus Japan."

And what does it all mean? "In effect, by missing Black Friday, the new Nexus 10 will be in more regions and luring more buyers minus the pressure of having the unit on-hand. That would thanks in great deal to Cyber Monday."

Nice one Google.

Specs

Google's rumoured Nexus 10 2, or Nexus 10 2013, appears to have recieved the same accidental official leak via Google Play that its phone counterpart, the Nexus 5, enjoyed earlier in the month. A picture and spec sheet allegedly appeared momentarily on Google's web store before being removed again.

Some anonymous tipsters claim to have caught some screens of the leak and sent them in to PhoneArena and it would seem the Nexus 5 also re-appeared alongside the Nexus 10 2 during the hiccup.

The included spec sheet reveals the same 10.1-inch display at 300 pixels-per-inch with a 2560x1600 pixel resolution as the earlier Nexus 10. The rest of the hardware has been boosted though as we now have an 8-megapixel primary camera and a 2.1-megapixel secondary, a 9,500mAh battery (an increase of 500mAh) and, somewhat surprisingly, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core chip.

We say surprisingly because the Nexus 7 2 only got bumped up from an Nvidia Tegra 3 to a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro, so for Google to go right to the top-end processor isn't quite what we expected. If we're honest, this does make us a little suspicious.

The leaked image looks more believable than the last one, which was clearly faked. This could conceivably also be a fake, but it is a bit more convincing on the face of things. That wallpaper though. Hideous.

The proportions of the device appear to have been refined with a narrower bezel all round. The specs say it is now 258.9mm wide by 172.6mm tall, it's also lighter and thinner at 584g and 7.9mm respectively.

If the Nexus 10 2 does launch shortly then it will probably be alongside the Nexus 5, which is now tipped for November 1, but could show up any point between now and then according to various rumours. Naturally both devices will debut Android 4.4 KitKat.

But again, this could simply be an elaborate hoax, so do take it all with more than your healthy daily intake of salt.

"That" Leaked Image is Fake

A render has been doing the rounds on mobile tech sites which has been generating speculation that a Nexus 10 2 launch is imminent, possibly alongside the Nexus 5, which is expected to be announced at the end of October.

While it is perfectly possible that Google will launch a Nexus 10 successor alongside its Nexus 4 successor, we think this particular picture isn't proof in the slightest. We actually think it's unlikely the Nexus 10 2 will emerge at the same event as the Nexus 5, primarily because of the nature of leaks and rumours in relation to forthcoming releases generally means that if it was coming, we would have seen much more about it by now, as we have with the Nexus 5. But, never say never.

Anyway, onto the reasons why the Nexus 10 2 leaked image, which emerged on imgur.com, is a hoax. Well, first of all let's have a look at the Nexus 5.

This is precisely what the Nexus 5, and Android 4.4 KitKat, will look like when it launches. There's no question about this. The above image appeared on the Google Play store with the Nexus 5 product listing momentarily before Google recognised its blunder and pulled it down, but not before a few dozen tech sites took a screenshot. In other words, it's about as official as it gets.

We have previously observed the changes from the Android 4.3 interface and what's new in Android 4.4 KitKat in a side-by-side comparison. If a Nexus 10 2 does emerge, at any point from now on, it will almost certainly be packing Android 4.4 KitKat as well, and although it will be tablet optimised it will certainly share many of these UI changes. There may be some subtle differences, but what it certainly won't do is re-use elements from Android 4.3.

And that's why the Nexus 10 2 leak is a fake, because there are plenty of UI elements which are clearly from Android 4.3 and not at all in keeping with the new, fresh-faced Android 4.4.

Take a look at our photoshopped image below – here we've used colour coded boxes to point out the areas of the UI which clearly contradict the Nexus 5's leak of Android 4.4 KitKat. We'd encourage you to look at the areas we've highlighted on the un-edited image that we've re-posted alongside it to get a clearer view, and compare them to the image of the Nexus 5 (which we'll also re-post again below for convenience) to see how they're different from what we know about the Android 4.4 KitKat UI.

Look at the area at the top highlighted by the white box. This is the notification bar, which in Android 4.4 KitKat will be transparent with bright white notification icons, as we can see on the Nexus 5 image. Here, it is the old style black bar with bright blue icons, which we've seen on multiple iterations of Android prior to KitKat. If you look closely you can also see there's a band below this which is slightly more faded than the rest of the background which looks suspiciously like it's come across from a copy-and-paste job of the background on the Nexus 5 image – there's really no reason for it to be there.

Now look at the area at the bottom highlighted in red. Again, the last few Android versions have featured this white dividing bar between the homescreen page and the app tray, but on the Nexus 5 running Android 4.4 this has been replaced with a dotted page indicator and nothing more.

Look at the two icons highlighted by blue boxes. The middle one is the app drawer icon while the one on the right is the camera shortcut. Both of these appear the same as in Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. However, as the Nexus 5 leak shows, Android 4.4 KitKat will feature new icons for each. The app drawer icon no longer has an outer ring and is now a solid, translucent circle with a shadow behind it, while the six dots appear more circular. Meanwhile the camera icon is now lighter in colour, more stylised and appears to be pointing straight at the user rather than being angled slightly downwards.

Lastly, look at the yellow box at the bottom. This is the navigation bar featuring Android's on-screen touch controls. As with the notifications bar, in Android 4.4 KitKat this bar is now transparent rather than black as it used to be and as it's presented on the Nexus 10 leak. The icons are also now bright white rather than a darker grey.