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Rumors that HTC are working on the next Nexus tablet have been quite prominent over the past few months, and we may have been treated to our first bit of early information. According to Android Police, HTC and Google have finalized plans to introduce a new 9-inch Nexus tablet that could be here by the end of the year.
Its internal codename is said to be “Volantis,” and if the rumors are to be believed then it could come to market tricked out with the following specs:
- 8.9″ Display at 2048×1440 (281ppi)
- NVIDIA Logan 64-bit processor (Tegra K1)
- 2GB RAM
- 16/32GB internal storage
- 8MP OIS main camera, 3MP front facing camera
- Aluminum zero-gap construction
- Stereo front-facing speakers
- 8.91″x5.98″x0.31″
- 418g
- 4G LTE option
Those are pretty impressive specs, and while none of it pushes the bar compared to what’s being done by the likes of Samsung it still sits close to the top of the totem pole. The leaked mockup shows a design that is quite familiar. The circular camera module on the back, the (hopefully multi-colored) LED notification light below the display and the clean, no frills design all scream Nexus.
Early pricing information says to expect the device to retail for $399.99 and $499.99 for the 16GB and 32GB versions, respectively. Unfortunately its rumored Q4 release window means it’s possible this won’t be the device we’re hoping to see at Google I/O, though we’re keeping our fingers crossed that Google unveils something just as sweet.
4:3 ratio… ill pass, Sucks for videos and such
Way to expensive. Was hoping for nexus pricing.
isnt that the same price as the Nexus 10 when it launched?
Yeah.
He’s a new comer……..he doesn’t know any better! haha
I love the whole “Nexus pricing” argument, but clearly folks don’t even know what that is.
The Nexus 10 was $399 for the 32GB from what I remember.
I paid $499 plus tax and shipping for mine on 11-21-2012 from the play store
Nexus 10 16GB was $399. 32GB was $499. I bought the 16GB when it dropped and paid the $399 + tax.
What is your idea of Nexus pricing? Sounds like you want a refurbished Kindle Fire $139.
Can’t justify $500 for an Android tablet. I’m digging my Nexus 7 esp for the price.
Hard to make out the front facing speakers though.
No external storage, LCD display, 2GB RAM = not the device for me.
hmm, i consider LCD display a plus.
Worse battery life, dimmer, lower contrast ratio, etc. The only advantage is that some manufacturers produce displays with better colour reproduction (which I’m not very concerned about on a tablet; I have a proper monitor for image editing). For games and apps for mobile devices I doubt I will ever prefer LCD over AMOLED.
I honestly don’t know how much of a difference it really plays on battery life. I feel like it must be pretty low on the list. I mean the G2 lasts just as long if not longer than the Razr Maxx, and these past few years HTC flagship phones seem to get about the same battery life as Samsung’s galaxy S series. I’m not saying there isnt a difference at all, but it seems to be pretty negligible to me.
Also it was under my impression the LCD was actually bright than AMOLED. At least it was last year, I havent had much time with the GS5, but i hear they improved their technology alot.
Contrast ratio you have a point.
I have nothing against AMOLED, the screens look good. But up until the gs5, HTC had best in class displays. I never really gamed on my tablet, pretty much used it for web browsing and drawing. We all have our preferences. But pretty much all displays look good now a days. Also iphone screen is nice. Small, too small, but it’s a really nice screen. And if im not mistaken thats an IPS or LCD.
It also comes with a packet of weak sauce.
wow, pricing is the same as the Samsung tablet S 8.4. I tried the Samsung in Best Buy over the weekend and it will be tough to beat. I know, pure android vs touchwiz, but that doesnt matter to me at all.
But it should matter because TouchWiz, thought it’s come a long way, still bogs down the software, especially when compared to pure Android.
TouchWiz includes some extra useful features though, Stock is just bare bones boredom. Still can’t customize your toggles for WiFi, Bluetooth, etc… – that’s just stupid.
PowerToggle on the GooglePlay for you my friend ;)
When I went from Galaxy Nexus to the Note 3, that’s one of the things I loved: I didn’t have to download 6 apps to get the functionality I wanted – it was just there. All I needed was Nova Launcher – which I put on every Android device these days.
touchwiz creates a more laggy user interface…… pure android For The Win.
The key to that for me would be the OLED display. I don’t know if I can handle TouchWiz though, I would need a GPe.
“Those are pretty impressive specs, and while none of it pushes the bar compared to what’s being done by the likes of Samsung it still sits close to the top of the totem pole.” Except for the very first Android device with a 64bit processor, front facing speakers, and a high quality aluminum button.
2GB RAM for a 64-bit processor is not impressive. If I am going to run a 64-bit processor, I want extra memory to make it worthwhile (4GB+). I am at least hoping that because of the way Android was designed that programs will not double in size (I imagine the Dalvik runtime or ART will make that unnecessary).
I am not sure how I feel about a 4:3 aspect ratio. Isn’t that just going to add to fragmentation issues? Isn’t that going to force applications to support both or look stupid with the empty space on the top and bottom.
Calm down. These are just rumors. As usual. No need to get worried about specs until the real deal is announced, if it actually happens at all.
64bit processors do not automatically mean 64bit OS. You know, I remember running Windows x86 on a 64bit processor with 128MB RAM about 14 years ago thanks to 32bit extensions.
Android doesn’t want to get into the extension mess like Windows. Frankly, that is probably the downfall of Windows in the long term (but made sense in the short term).
Since Android has a runtime, a 32-bit/64-bit OS may just be automatic. When you run a Java program, you can choose to run in 32-bit or 64-bit just by changing the JVM. Google would just have to create 32-bit and 64-bit runtime modules.
64-bit would be more complicated for NDK apps.
If it’s ARMv8 based there are a lot of other minor improvements the architecture has to offer, including register improvements, addressing, etc.
Apple has proven that ARMv8 / 64-bit based is very quick in their A7 processor with a lot less RAM than most Android devices.
Looks very nice, but isn’t 418g a bit weighty for a tablet? The Nexus 7 was only 290g and quite a few 8.x” aluminium tablets are below the 350g mark. I’ll be put off if this isn’t pocket-friendly.
I would hold out hope for another 10″ version, but at the rumored price of the 8.9, it may be too much. I can always hope they come out with a Galaxy Tab S 10.5 GPE/Silver edition.
Proudly made in the Free City of Volantis for the commoners, sellswords and kings alike.
The 4:3 ratio strikes me as very odd. That is very un-Nexus like, very un-Google like.
HTC sucks and they are too close to Apple. Poor battery life and HTC haven’t made a tablet yet worthy of buying.
2GB RAM for a 64-bit processor is not impressive. If I am going to run a 64-bit processor, I want extra memory to make it worthwhile (4GB+).
Terrible processor choice. Terrible dimensions. Terrible price. I predict another HTC tablet fail