Google may have chosen the creator of its new Nexus phones

Nexus 6P
HTC might be back in the driving seat

Update: Reliable Twitter source LlabTooFer has confirmed more details on the rumoured HTC Nexus phones and suggests the devices already have codenames of T50 and T55.

Original: The Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X only emerged back in September, so it's likely that we're many months off seeing 2016's Nexus phones, but we're already hearing whispers about who might be making them.

According to a post on Weibo by Mocha RQ, HTC is in line to make both Nexus phones this year, which would be a big win for the company given that Google usually splits the workload between different manufacturers.

Details of these handsets are thin on the ground, but the same leak points to 5.0-inch and 5.5-inch screen sizes, down from the 5.7-inch and 5.2-inch sizes we saw last year.

Believable yet suspect

That would make a certain amount of sense, as 5.7 inches seems a bit large for mass market appeal, even for a phablet.

Techradar contacted HTC to see if the brand would confirm the rumor - or even just admit it was open to working with Google to make the new Nexus duo - but the company declined to comment on the possibility.

Handing HTC the reins wouldn't be such an odd choice either, as the company has a lot of experience with the Nexus brand, from building the original Nexus One to the more recent Nexus 9.

We'd still take this rumour with a massive helping of salt, as it's very early to be hearing about new Nexus phones and it's not clear where the tipster got their information from.

It's also at odds with another early rumour that suggests Huawei could be in line to make one of this year's phones.

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

Latest in Nexus Phones
From Nexus to Android One: a brief history of purist Android phones
Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P could get Google Assistant soon
Best Google Nexus 4 case: 10 to choose from
Best Google Nexus 4 case: 10 to choose from
Google Nexus 3 coming with Ice Cream Sandwich - sounds tasty
Google Nexus 3 specs detailed
Google Nexus S2 on the horizon?
Google planning further Nexus phones?
Android 2.3.3 incoming for the Google Nexus S
Android 2.3.3 update rolling out to Nexus S and Nexus One
Latest in News
Rainbow Six Siege X promotional art.
The Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege X 6v6 mode might finally pull me away from Black Ops 6
Silent Hill f
Silent Hill f will present players with 'a beautiful yet terrifying choice', and I can't wait to see what it is
Google Chromecast 2
Google is finally rolling out a fix for broken Chromecasts – just as new bugs appear on the Chromecast with Google TV
Garmin Instinct 3 in Neotropic Green
"I'm an idiot": Garmin user reveals how fixing one setting completely changed their training after months of making no progress
The main battle pass characters in Fortnite Lawless, including Midas, Sub Zero and a large wolf-man
You'll finally be able to play Fortnite on Windows 11 Arm-powered laptops as Epic Games partners with Qualcomm
DeepSeek on an iPhone
OpenAI calls on US government to ban DeepSeek, calling it ‘state-subsidized’ and ‘state-controlled’