Snapdragon 821 processor tipped for the HTC Nexus

Android N
The new Nexuses will feature Android N.

We've heard plenty of rumors about this year's Nexus phones, which we think will be made by HTC, and there's a fresh bit of insider gossip to add to the pile: apparently the top-end phone will boast the Snapdragon 821 CPU, say reports in Asia.

Although the difference would be slight, that would put the 2016 HTC Nexus a notch above all the phones from this year running the Snapdragon 820 - including the Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, HTC 10, LG G5 and OnePlus 3.

In fact, at least one of the new Nexus phones is tipped to be a modified version of the HTC 10 that was launched back in April. There's also word on the Nexus grapevine that Huawei could be involved as well, as it was last year.

Watching the clock (speed)

We know very little about the Snapdragon 821 - we were expecting Qualcomm's next mobile processor to be the Snapdragon 823 (possibly arriving with the Galaxy Note 7), so that would suggest this is a minor, interim bump in terms of power.

As India Today reports, the only other mention of the Snapdragon 821 so far has been in relation to the ZenFone 3 Deluxe from Asus, and apparently two of its four cores run at 2.3GHz (up from 2.1GHz in the Snapdragon 820). We're predicting 4GB of RAM to be on board the new Nexuses as well.

Still, every little helps when you're trying to churn through new levels of Slither.io or whatever the current game of the week is (or actually get some work done). All should be revealed around September or October when Google finally unveils the new devices.

Remember the Nexus 6P? We certainly do:

David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.