HTC's Nexus 8 tablet to be an Android L poster boy: 64-bit Tegra, 4 GB of RAM and 8 MP camera
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We were wondering what's up with the Nexus 8, or the rumored premium Google tablet, made by HTC, and today a barrage of leaks might be hinting at an encroaching announcement. First we have a source claiming that the tablet, which has been referred to as Volantis or Flounder so far, is codenamed T1, and will feature an 8 MP rear camera, alongside 1.6 MP front-facer. A little digging in the tablet's firmware has also returned the unsurprising fact that it will ship with Android L out of the box, without any HTC Sense overlay shenanigans.
Meanwhile, the Nexus 8 tablet might have already be doing the certification rounds in South Korea, as from the local FCC came this gem of an entry below, that depicts a device coded "0P8210000" to have passed certification. The back of this gear was shown about a month ago by @evleaks, marked Flounder. It carried the same letter and number sequence, and was claimed to be of the real Nexus 8.
In fact, Rhoda Alexander, director of tablet and monitor research at IHS Technology, recently confirmed the speculation, saying that the Google Nexus 8 is likely to be a "high-performance" device, with "volume production expected to start in July or August." She also adds that "this will be a lower volume product, carrying a premium price tag to support the specifications."
The HTC-made Nexus tablet is expected to be a more premium device than Google's current Nexus 7 tablet, as we would expect from HTC. There should be a metal chassis wrapping an 8.9" 2560x1600 pixels display. The current leak also claims a 64-bit Tegra processor, paired with 4 GB of Elpida memory in 2x2 GB configuration will be in store, making it the first Android device taking true advantage of Android L's 64-bit backend. A Qualcomm-made LTE modem will be in the models with cellular connectivity, and, as claimed above, an 8 MP rear camera, too. All this breathtaking goodness is unlikely to come as cheap as we've come to expect from the Nexus line, though. Google's poster slate is speculated to have a price tag north of $300, but, given that Samsung's Tab S 8.4 with the same resolution retails for $400, the Nexus 8 will likely be priced lower than that, perhaps in the $350 region.
As for a release date, we had a tipster claiming that the tablet won't star at the Google I/O conference, as was previously thought, but will be announced at a later event, just like last year. This jibes with the claimed Q3 announcement, while the July/August production ramp-up indicates that the Nexus 8 could be unveiled next month, in time to steal some thunder from both the IFA expo, and the Apple product announcements then.
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