Google Nexus 4, made in collaboration with LG, was revealed in 2012 and the smartphone is still one of the most popular Android handsets around. Now a few UK retailers have taken the Nexus 4 off their shelves, which seems to hint that the successor Nexus 5 is on its way.

UK retailers Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U have stopped selling the Nexus 4, although other UK retailers and Google Play Store are still selling the handset.

"We've heard so many leaks on the Nexus 5 now including various leaked specs and recently told of a report saying that LG was to be the manufacturer although this is not confirmed," reports Phones Review.

Apart from rumors that suggest that Nexus 5 may soon arrive, there are other rumors which suggest that Google is bringing in an updated Nexus 4 version with LTE and 32GB of internal storage. The company is expected to take the wraps off the refreshed Nexus 4 at the Google I/O developer conference next week.

The Nexus 5 is expected to have a 1.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor. However, some reports also point that the upcoming smartphone will have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, clocked at 2.3 GHz.

The next-gen Nexus smartphone is expected to boast a 4.5-inch 720p screen or a 5.2-inch OLED screen with 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution. Given the recent trend of bigger and over 5-inch smartphones, it is highly likely that the Nexus 5 will sport a 5-inch display.

Rumors suggest that the Nexus 5 will have a 9- to 16-megapixel camera, a bigger 3300 mAh battery and probably the latest Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie, which is still waiting to be announced.

We are not sure why UK retailers have stopped selling the Nexus 4 and a valid reason could be the launch of Nexus 5, but we have to wait until Google makes an official announcement of the device.