Sep 05, 2016 03:57 AM EDT By Vinay Patel, UniversityHerald Reporter

Google will drop the 'Nexus' branding for its smartphones as well as tablets, recently surfaced reports suggests; while the old Nexus 7 (2013) finally gets unofficial Android Nougat ROM with AOSP 7.0.

While avid fans continue waiting with bated breath for the next Nexus device, a slew of speculations around Google's Nexus 7 2016 tablet release date, specs and pricing details have been doing rounds online. However, it looks like fans are in for a huge disappointment as latest reports indicate that the search engine giant has ditched the Nexus 2016 brand in favor of Pixel for its impending batch of smartphones.

Moreover, rumors are running rampant that Google is likely to get rid of the Nexus name for its highly-anticipated Nexus 7 2016 tablet, TheNextWeb reported.

As far as Nexus 7 2016 tablet specs and features are concerned, the purported tablet is said to come powered by NVIDIA's Tegra X1 processing chip and pack Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, a mammoth 128GB internal storage that can be further expanded up to 2TB.

Huawei is said to be manufacturing the next-gen Nexus 7-inch tablet.

Rumors are running rampant that Google's next gen tablet will come preloaded with Android 7.0 Nougat, the tech giant's latest OS. The Android N is said to bring in an array of awe-inspiring features to the tablet such as revamped folder designs, updated camera app, new emojis, launcher shortcuts, multi-window support, updated Doze app, a night mode option and the VR (virtual reality) platform dubbed as Daydream.

There are reports which indicate that Google Nexus 7 2016 tablet will be up for grabs for $260, and is likely to give Samsung Galaxy Note 7 a run for its money thanks to the tablet's impressive features and specs. The Google Nexus 7 2016 is slated to hit the store shelves by Thankgiving (November 24).

Although most of the speculations may seem feasible, these are nothing more than shot in the dark, and readers are advised to take these rumors with a big grain of salt as the makers have neither confirmed nor debunked these rumors until now.

Meanwhile, it looks like the old Nexus 7 (2013) is on the verge of receiving Google's latest OS, Android Nougat as an unofficial AOSP has reportedly surfaced, TechTimes reported.

Google officially rolled out Android 7.0 Nougat earlier this week on a slew of Nexus devices except the older Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 (2013). This is not at all surprising though as both the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 (2013) have more or less three years on the market and Google does not support them with new OS versions any more.

Nevertheless, after the Nexus 5, it's finally time for the Nexus 7 (2013) to receive the unofficial AOSP Nougat ROM.

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