Google's follow-up to the Nexus 4 smartphone, the Nexus 5, seems to have become the new blue-eyed boy of the rumor mill. The latest rumor suggests that the Nexus 5 will be smaller than its predecessor and focus on "compactness."

While the emerging trend for 2013 smartphones is a bigger 1080p screen, reports indicate the Nexus 5 will buck that trend and sport a 4.5-inch 720p display instead.

This news is courtesy of Phone Arena. The report also claims that the IPS screen of the Nexus 5 will "take up 88% of the front of the phone."

"According to information our tipster got, the Nexus 5 will skip on the 1080p craze and launch with a 4.5-inch 720p IPS screen. The display will take up 88% of the front of the phone, the most of any phone, and that should mean a drastically narrower bezel," notes the Phone Arena report.

According to Phone Arena "the key words about the Nexus 5 are compactness, huge battery life and great camera."

Previous reports have pointed to a 5.2-inch OLED screen with 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution, A Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 clocked at 2.3 GHz, a 3300mAh battery, and a 16-megapixel camera. The Phone Arena report, however, hints at a 4.5-inch 720 p screen, a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, a 2800mAh battery and a 9-megapixel CCD camera.

Last week, rumor had it that the Nexus 5, codenamed "Megalodon," would pack in a Nikon-branded camera. The rumor seemed to have a grain of truth in it, considering Google's Vic Gundotra let slip that "we are committed to making Nexus phones insanely great cameras. Just wait and see."

With the latest report pointing to a CCD camera, the question arises: will the Nexus 5 transition from the current CMOS technology used in smartphones to CCD?

The report does not disclose a launch date or who the manufacturer of the Nexus 5 will be. It remains to be seen if Google sticks with LG or brings another company on board.