Google is believed to have contracted LG to build its Nexus 5 smartphone. A new image of the smartphone has leaked before its rumored October unveiling.

The search giant is expected to hold an event sometime this month where it will officially announce its next-generation Nexus smartphone and launch the latest version of Android. There have been rumors for months that Google has once again asked LG to build its latest Nexus smartphone, the Nexus 5. Google and LG partnered last year on the Nexus 4 and the company recently cut the price of the handset in what many believe was a move to rid itself of inventory to make room for the Nexus 5. The new Nexus smartphone will be the first device to run Android 4.4 KitKat and has been reported to be based on LG's recently-released LG G2 smartphone.

A new image of the smartphone has been leaked on the MacRumor forums. The image matches a previous photo of the handset that was seen during the KitKat statue unveiling video on Google's campus. The company quickly removed a YouTube video of the event that showed the smartphone in use by Google employees and the handset had the same vertical Nexus logo seen above.

The Nexus 5 is expected to feature a 5-inch 1080 x 1920 Full HD IPS display with a pixel density of 442 pixels per inch (ppi). It will reportedly be powered by a 2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM and will be the first smartphone to run Android 4.4 KitKat.

The handset will include an 8-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization (OIS) and a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat. The smartphone's wireless capabilities are expected to include a 4G LTE radio, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, and GPS, and it will also include wireless charging out of the box. It is expected to be offered in 16GB or 32GB of internal storage configurations and use a 2,300mAh battery.

Google has not yet announced plans to hold an Android/Nexus event this month yet, but we'll be sure to keep you updated once it does.