Like the , the still-to-be-named new Nexus handset will be one of the first quad-core smartphones on the U.S. market when it launches, reports say.

And LG may not be the only electronics manufacturer to unveil a Nexus phone, reports , which says that several phone makers will get a turn at making a Nexus device. Consider this: Samsung manufactured the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus, Asus made the Nexus 7 tablet and HTC built the original Nexus One.

While other phones have shipped with quad-core processors this year, they've all used Nvidia's Tegra 3 chip, which lacked an integrated modem for 4G LTE. That made it a non-starter for U.S. carriers, who instead opted for dual-core processors in phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S III, HTC One X and HTC Evo 4G LTE.

While the new LG Nexus phone will be based on the Optimus G, it will look different and be modified to fit into the , which mandates that it ships with a stock version of Android, has the hardware power to run all "Nexus Games," and supports Google Wallet, meaning it's capable of near field communications (NFC).

LG's Optimus G uses a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro, a quad-core processor with LTE support. The chip promises more responsive photo capture, faster loading of large files and speedier Web browsing. It also features a powerful Adreno 320 GPU for high-end gaming, and supports 5.1 surround-sound playback.