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Nexus AMA roundup: Google talks 5X and 6P names, Qi charging, T-Mobile band 12, & more

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A few Googlers that worked on the new Nexus 5X and 6P have taken to Reddit today to answer questions about the new devices that officially went up for pre-order yesterday following Google’s press event. Among some of the info shared by the team: Google is working to officially support Band 12 for T-Mobile by launch time, something that would require it to support VoLTE, and it also clarified some details about the lack of Qi charging this time around and security for the new fingerprint sensor features.

In addition, Google confirmed its thought process behind the names for the new devices, noting that X in 5X is “for the core of the Nexus brand (plus it sounds cool!),” and that the P in 6P is for “premium”.

Head below for a roundup for the most interesting info from the Reddit AMA:

On support for T-Mobile Band 12 by ship date:

We’re hard at work with T-Mo to get Band 12 on Nexus devices by ship date

On lack of Qi charging:

HL> Thanks for being a Nexus fan! We added Qi wireless charging starting with N4 because plugging in USB micro B was such a hassle! (Which way is up!?) With this year’s Nexii, we support USB Type-C which has a reversible connector so there’s no more guessing. AND it charges incredibly swiftly: 1% to 100% in 97 mins on the 6P for example (the first ~45 mins of charging is especially fast). Meanwhile, wireless charging adds z (thickness). So, ease of plugging in + fast charging + optimizing for thinness made us double down on Type-C instead of wireless!

On Fingerprint security:

Fingerprint features are securely encrypted on the device, and processed in the secure Trustzone protected area of memory. The Android 6.0 fingerprint APIs do not provide any access to the fingerprint material to apps. Fingerprint features never leave the device and are not shared with Google (so for example if you setup a new phone, you need to re-enroll your fingers). If your phone is ever lost or stolen you can easily find, lock, and erase your phone using Android Device Manager.

On camera bump:

The “bump”? We call it a visor internally :) Nice, respectful name, eh. Jokes aside, the blurry-cam leaks (which always are unfortunate) misrepresented the device as most such leaks do. The visor looked distorted, which was sad given how much effort was put into designing it well. The design was driven by major engineering challenges (putting in a great camera with big sensor for amazing low-light performance, LDAF, flash, antennas, nfc coils, wifi 2×2 mimo antennas) and still keeping the form nice looking, and optimizing for thin/light/comfortable feel in hand. You’ll see the high-res images on our sites and the product videos on YT and also great hands-on videos all suggesting the contrary to how things came across when they got leaked.

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Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s weekly Logic Pros series and makes music as one half of Toronto-based Makamachine.