A microSD card slot, OIS, and wireless charging will be absent from the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P

So it turns out that three features that consumers often expect in a flagship phone will not be included with the upcoming Nexus phones. Android Police, the publication that has been the source of just about every Nexus-related piece of information surfacing in recent weeks and months, has clarified that both the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P will lack a microSD card slot, optical image stabilization (OIS), and wireless charging. It was originally reported that Google would implement these features in its latest round of Nexus hardware; however, that has ended up not being the case.

When it comes to storage, buyers of the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P will have to work with internal storage and Google Drive to keep items stored on their phone. This may not be a problem for those who buy the Nexus 6P as that phone will come with up to 128GB of internal storage, but the starting 16GB within the Nexus 5X could be an issue for many (and it only goes up to 32GB). Google clearly wants to transition people to be more reliant on the cloud.

Honestly, this isn’t that big of a deal. Many companies (even Samsung) are letting go of microSD card slots.

In 2012, the Nexus 4 debuted as one of the first devices on the market to feature wireless charging. The Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 also followed up with the same technology, too. But now, three years after the release of the Nexus 4, neither of the two newest members of the Nexus family are going to have wireless charging. It could be that Google wants to really push the USB Type-C port (as it has with another device) or the Doze feature from Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

Unlike ditching expandable storage, Google not including wireless charging is quite surprising. Even if the bodies of both devices are indeed metal, Qualcomm has a new technology that nixes a potential conflict for wireless charging.

Finally, the optical image stabilization (OIS) that the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 had in their respective rear cameras is also gone. This means that Google is leaving out a technology that disregards a bit of shakiness when the user is taking pictures. Cost is perhaps to blame for the decision to not have OIS in the phones. But Android Police has confirmed that the 1.55µm pixels in the image sensor makes it impossible to have OIS. Because of that, the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P could each have more dense sensor.

Google is holding an event tomorrow, September 29, in San Francisco where a myriad of new hardware and software will be revealed to the public. The Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P are expected to be made available exclusively through Google right after the event’s end.

Source: Android Police (1) (2) (3)

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