Take this with a massive grain of salt, but BGR has just let loose an article detailing what they claim will be either the next Nexus phone or, if not a Nexus, simply the new Android reference handset. Far more exciting than that is what BGR's source has told them what kind of features the phone will be packing:

  • A 720p "monster-sized" display - exact size unknown (also, goodbye qHD - nice knowing you)
  • Dual-core processor @1.2 or 1.5GHz (either a TI OMAP 4460 or a ULP Qualcomm 28nm Krait Snapdragon)
  • Android Ice Cream Sandwich (possibly dubbed Android 4.0)
  • Software function buttons (ala Honeycomb - no more capacitive touch)
  • 4G LTE (yes, yes, yes!)
  • 1GB RAM
  • 5MP rear camera w/1080p video, 1MP front camera
  • Release around Thanksgiving

Unfortunately, several big questions remain unanswered. Namely, who is building this thing? Also, which carriers will be supported? LTE does narrow that down to AT&T and Verizon for the moment, so Sprint and T-Mobile customers may never see this device grace their respective smartphone lineups. Additionally, BGR's source couldn't confirm whether the device would actually bear the Nexus moniker, or would simply be a vanilla Android reference device like the Motorola XOOM. So the Nexus 4G name could go out the window - we just don't know.

And, of course, there's the elephant in the room - just how much faith should we put in this rumor? BGR is a well-respected blog, and they've broken a number of exclusives and rumors in the past that have panned out, and we don't think they'd go publishing this without substantial confidence in their source.

And hey, this is a good rumor - we're really hoping this one ends up being true.

BoyGeniusReport