Google Nexus 5 Release Date One Step Closer With Nexus 4 Fire Sale?

The Google Nexus 4 is now up to a third cheaper. Could Google be setting the stage for the Nexus 5's arrival?

Google has now lowered the price of their hit smartphone from 2012, the Google Nexus 4, by up to a third in some markets. The Google Nexus 4 now comes at a price that's $100 lower than it has before, with the 8GB version of the device coming in at only $199 (The 16GB Nexus 4 now costs just $249). And that's without a contract, putting the price of a fully independent Google Nexus 4 at the same level as the top Apple and Samsung devices on-contract. If you bought the Nexus 4 recently, Google is offering price protection, according to GigaOm.

So what does this mean for the Google Nexus 5? As the U.K. tech site put it, "This is no doubt Google setting the stage for the Nexus 4's successor or a new iteration of the same device." We're putting our money on a successor in the Nexus 5, which is likely to make its presence known by November at the latest.

The Nexus 4 comes with a 4.7-inch WXGA IPS display with 1280 x 748p resolution. It's powered by a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro, assisted by 2GB of RAM. The device has an 8-megapixel main camera and a 1.3-megapixel front facing shooter. However, if you want 4G LTE speeds, don't go for the now cheaper Nexus 4, as it's only a 3G phone.

What you may want to do is wait a couple months for the Nexus 5, which, if following the same time frame as the Google Nexus 4, should be unveiled around the fifth birthday of the Android operating system in late October or early November. Meanwhile, the new Google Nexus 7 2 has been released in the U.K. and Europe, with its LTE incarnation tipped for a release date of Sept. 13, at least in the U.K.