A render has been doing the rounds on mobile tech sites which has been generating speculation that a Nexus 10 2 launch is imminent, possibly alongside the Nexus 5, which is expected to be announced at the end of October.
While it is perfectly possible that Google will launch a Nexus 10 successor alongside its Nexus 4 successor, we think this particular picture isn’t proof in the slightest. We actually think it’s unlikely the Nexus 10 2 will emerge at the same event as the Nexus 5, primarily because of the nature of leaks and rumours in relation to forthcoming releases generally means that if it was coming, we would have seen much more about it by now, as we have with the Nexus 5. But, never say never.
Anyway, onto the reasons why the Nexus 10 2 leaked image, which emerged on imgur.com, is a hoax. Well, first of all let’s have a look at the Nexus 5.
This is precisely what the Nexus 5, and Android 4.4 KitKat, will look like when it launches. There’s no question about this. The above image appeared on the Google Play store with the Nexus 5 product listing momentarily before Google recognised its blunder and pulled it down, but not before a few dozen tech sites took a screenshot. In other words, it’s about as official as it gets.
We have previously observed the changes from the Android 4.3 interface and what’s new in Android 4.4 KitKat in a side-by-side comparison. If a Nexus 10 2 does emerge, at any point from now on, it will almost certainly be packing Android 4.4 KitKat as well, and although it will be tablet optimised it will certainly share many of these UI changes, there may be some subtle differences, but what it certainly won’t do is re-use elements from Android 4.3.
And that’s why the Nexus 10 2 leak is a fake, because there are plenty of UI elements which are clearly from Android 4.3 and not at all in keeping with the new, fresh-faced Android 4.4.
Take a look at our photoshopped image below – here we’ve used colour coded boxes to point out the areas of the UI which clearly contradict the Nexus 5’s leak of Android 4.4 KitKat. We’d encourage you to look at the areas we’ve highlighted on the un-edited image at we've re-posted alongside it to get a clearer view, and compare them to the image of the Nexus 5 (which we'll also re-post again below for convenience) to see how they’re different from what we know about the Android 4.4 KitKat UI.
Look at the area at the top highlighted by the white box. This is the notification bar, which in Android 4.4 KitKat will be transparent with bright white notification icons, as we can see on the Nexus 5 image. Here, it is the old style black bar with bright blue icons, which we’ve seen on multiple iterations of Android prior to KitKat. If you look closely you can also see there’s a band below this which is slightly more faded than the rest of the background which looks suspiciously like it’s come across from a copy-and-paste job of the background on the Nexus 5 image – there’s really no reason for it to be there.
Now look at the area at the bottom highlighted in red. Again, the last few Android versions have featured this white dividing bar between the homescreen page and the app tray, but on the Nexus 5 running Android 4.4 this has been replaced with a dotted page indicator and nothing more.
Look at the two icons highlighted by blue boxes. The middle one is the app drawer icon while the one on the right is the camera shortcut. Both of these appear the same as in Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. However, as the Nexus 5 leak shows, Android 4.4 KitKat will feature new icons for each. The app drawer icon no longer has an outer ring and is now a solid, translucent circle with a shadow behind it, while the six dots appear more circular. Meanwhile the camera icon is now lighter in colour, more stylised and appears to be pointing straight at the user rather than being angled slightly downwards.
Lastly, look at the yellow box at the bottom. This is the navigation bar featuring Android’s on-screen touch controls. As with the notifications bar, in Android 4.4 KitKat this bar is now transparent rather than black as it used to be and as it’s presented on the Nexus 10 leak. The icons are also now bright white rather than a darker grey.
by pbriden via Featured Articles
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