Motorola-made Nexus phone to launch before the year is out?

Motorola-made Nexus phone to launch before the year is out?
Next-us up: Motorola

The Moto X might not be the only major phone Motorola has up its sleeve for 2013: it may even have a new Nexus phone up there.

Although Google has insisted and insisted that it's not showing its adopted manufacturer any preferential treatment over the other Android manufacturers, a tipster says that Motorola will release a Nexus smartphone in Q4.

In fact, that is literally what Taylor Wimberly, founder of AndroidandMe, said on Google+: "Motorola will release a Nexus smartphone in Q4 (that is not the Moto X)."

No to X

The site itself doesn't have any more details to impart, although as sources go, Wimberly is a pretty solid one. Who or what his sources may be is a different matter, though.

The Nexus phone trail has gone a little quiet in the past few weeks, after a flurry of rumours earlier this year which suggested that LG would make it, or HTC would, or that loads of companies would.

We've even gone as far as to say that Google needn't bother with Nexus phones anymore, now that you can get vanilla Android versions of top-end handsets like the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One.

Weirdly, it doesn't sound as though Google has taken our advice on board. We'll keep our eyes peeled for potential Motorola-made Nexus 5 specs ahead of the October to December launch period mooted.

News Editor (UK)

Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.