NexPhone multi-boot phone shipment delayed to March 2027

Nex Computer said it has delayed NexPhone shipments until March 2027, attributing the slip to antenna interference around the USB connector and multiple housing defects that required redesigns, founder Emre Kosmaz wrote in a blog post.

Nex Computer unveiled the NexPhone in January as a multi-boot smartphone supporting Android 16, Debian Linux and Windows 11 on Arm, with a preorder retail price of $549 and an initial shipment target in the third quarter.

Kosmaz said getting the antennas right took longer than expected. The device performed on middle and higher frequency bands but required further work on lower bands after Nex Computer’s engineering partner traced interference to the area around the USB connector, forcing revisions to the housing and antenna boards, additional prototypes and retesting.

The Chinese New Year holiday added another delay, Kosmaz wrote.

Tooling for the outer shell is complete, but first molded housings showed uneven seams, texture defects and fit problems with smaller parts. Matching housing, buttons and the SIM tray cover across suppliers required several revision rounds, and Kosmaz said the company has no outside funding, making each extra development cycle harder to absorb.

Hardware delays have not stopped software work. Nex Computer says development units are running Android 17, though the phone still needs to pass validation and certification. Google began rolling out stable Android 17 to Pixel phones in June.

The company has modified Android’s desktop mode to handle real files and folders rather than only shortcuts, added a Recycle Bin for deleted files and is developing File Drawer, a dual-pane file manager for the desktop environment.

Linux and Windows support remain works in progress. The Debian environment runs inside Android as an app, and Nex Computer is writing drivers to improve hardware support when the phone boots into Windows 11.

The NexPhone’s preorder price was originally $549; new reservations now start at $599. Nex Computer said customers who reserved the phone at either price will keep their original price. The company warned the final retail price could exceed $599 as rising memory costs make production expenses harder to pin down and said it will announce the final price once costs are clearer.

The hardware includes a Qualcomm QCM6490 system-on-chip, 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, a 6.58-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 64MP Sony IMX787 main camera. Nex Computer also plans to include a USB-C hub in the box.

Reservations placed at $549 or $599 will retain their original price, the company said.