The Nexus Player is here. It was almost a year ago that we encountered the first whispers of Android TV, and the first devices with Google's new entertainment-focused Android spin-off are expected to materialize this fall.
A new Asus device spotted by Italian site HDBlog.it on benchmarking site GFXBench, the Asus Nexus Player, might be part of that incoming wave of Android TV set-top boxes.
That name is nothing we've heard before, and it's one of the only hints to the device's purpose. Google has already listed Asus as a partner who will release an Android TV device.
The benchmark says the Asus Nexus Player runs Android L, but that may just be a placeholder on the site since no actual Android TV gadgets have launched yet.
Guesswork
Besides that the Asus Nexus Player is listed with a 1.8 GHz quad-core Intel chip with PowerVR G6430 graphics, 1GB of memory, 6GB of storage, and wi-fi.
Curiously the Asus device is said to have not one, but two separate displays, one at 23.7 inches and the other 31.9 inches. Both are 1080p.
If the Asus Nexus Player is a smart TV this could mean it will come in two different sizes, but it seems more likely that it's a set-top box that was tested on two different TVs. This is all speculation for now, of course.
Android TV devices will have extensive voice controls and range from smart TVs and set-top boxes to full-blown Android gaming micro-consoles like the Razer Android TV box.
Will it fare better than Google TV before it? That much remains to be seen, but we're expecting a big Android announcement - including Android TV and Android L news - soon.
