HTC Volantis?

[Premium1]

So looks like the "flounder" will end up being the HTC volantis. Not sure how interested I am, and seems like we won't get the super cheap nexus tablet anymore if this holds true.
This Is Volantis, HTC's Nine-Inch Nexus Tablet

 

[anon(5857193)]

With the rumors of Android Silver, the nonexistent Nexus 6, and now this "expensive" HTC Nexus tablet, it looks like cheap Nexus hardware ended with the Nexus 5. I'm not too worried about it though... I'm ready for premium Nexus hardware and willing to pay for it.

That said, I'm really looking forward to seeing more Volantis details! This might be a great replacement for my Note 10.1/Nexus 7.

Rumored specs:

• 8.9" Display at 2048x1440 (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" body (that's 22.63x15.19x0.79cm)
• 418g (or 427g with LTE) (that's 14.74/15.1 ounces)

 

[Premium1]

With the rumors of Android Silver, the nonexistent Nexus 6, and now this "expensive" HTC Nexus tablet, it looks like cheap Nexus hardware ended with the Nexus 5. I'm not too worried about it though... I'm ready for premium Nexus hardware and willing to pay for it.

That said, I'm really looking forward to seeing more Volantis details! This might be a great replacement for my Note 10.1/Nexus 7.

Rumored specs:

I agree about the price. I know many are going to complain, but I am ready for some apple like hardware competition on android for the nexus/silver program. I will gladly pay a few more dollars for a more premium device.
It is also interesting to see google go back to Tegra chip, maybe the L version of android will usher in 64 bit chips if these rumors hold true. That and I am looking forward to see what the K1 chip can do. Hopefully it performs much better than the tegra 3 did in the nexus 7.

 

[quadtronix]

Volantis sounds sweet!! And looks good too... A little pricey but I'm definitely interested... I have the HTC One Max and love it, plus I had the DNA b4 that... Can't wait for N8.9 to arrive!! I'm all over it!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Premium1]

That screen resolution though seems a step back from the nexus 7 and other high end tablets. Maybe they will surprise us with a resolution more in line with the likes of the iPad and samsungs new tabs.

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

There are too many inconsistencies (as mentioned in the article) that lead me to think it's fake.

- 2048 x 1440 is NOT a 4:3 aspect ratio. The article says that it could be due to the navigation bar, however if you take the navigation bar into account and still keep this a 1440p device, it will drop from 2048 x 1440 to 1920 x 1440 pixels (an actual 4:3 ratio), a loss of only 128 pixels TOTAL: Not enough for the navigation bar.

- Article says it'll have dual-front facing speakers, of which none can be seen on the image. Hell there's even a giant LED light where the speaker should be.

- Looks like the Nexus 5's plastic build, not the HTC's aluminium zero-gap build.


While the image itself could just be a placeholder they were working with when designing the tablet, the resolution issue still doesn't make sense to me.

Hey, I'd love for all this to be true, and the next Nexus tablet is a premium, HTC built tablet with metal body and dual front-facing speakers, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[AnnDroid]

I am disappointed that it's only 2GB of RAM. We'll see in 2 days, hoping that many of these 'credible' rumors aren't credible.

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

I am disappointed that it's only 2GB of RAM. We'll see in 2 days, hoping that many of these 'credible' rumors aren't credible.

I don't think we're going to see anything about the new Nexus tablet at Google I/O.

And I don't think 2gb ram would be an issue. 2gb has been the staple for high-end android phones for 2 years now, and I don't think performance is an issue. Also remember that with KitKat, supposedly the OS has a much smaller footprint, so that may help with ram management as well.

 

[brosko]

Still nice to have that ram still.

 

[Scott7217]

So looks like the "flounder" will end up being the HTC volantis. Not sure how interested I am, and seems like we won't get the super cheap nexus tablet anymore if this holds true.

However, we can't rule out the possibility of affordable Google Play edition (and later, Android Silver) tablets. Manufacturers know that if they can put out a compelling product at an aggressive price, they will sell a lot of units.

 

[Premium1]

However, we can't rule out the possibility of affordable Google Play edition (and later, Android Silver) tablets. Manufacturers know that if they can put out a compelling product at an aggressive price, they will sell a lot of units.

But they don't really make a profit on those cheap tablets and the silver program is not rumored to be the low pricing like the nexus used to be. I think a lot of people are going to be upset if the nexus program and the pricing that came along with it. Plus there hasn't really been a premium nexus device that warranted the higher price tag. If this does indeed end up being true, I feel the tab s is a better option for the price, touchwiz and all.

 

[Premium1]

I don't think we're going to see anything about the new Nexus tablet at Google I/O.

And I don't think 2gb ram would be an issue. 2gb has been the staple for high-end android phones for 2 years now, and I don't think performance is an issue. Also remember that with KitKat, supposedly the OS has a much smaller footprint, so that may help with ram management as well.

Still nice to have that ram still.

Not an issue, but until there is 4gb of ram, the 64bit chip really doesn't take advantage of it. This was all discussed when apple went 64 bit for their latest chips but kept the ram low. Plus would be interesting to see what developers could do even if only for gaming with 4gb of ram and the tegra k1 chip.

 

[Scott7217]

But they don't really make a profit on those cheap tablets and the silver program is not rumored to be the low pricing like the nexus used to be.

Manufacturers need an incentive to make products. If they can't make a decent profit off of cheap tablets, they won't make them.

I'm not saying that it's impossible to make a decent tablet that's affordable. For example, I like what Motorola is doing with the Moto G smartphone. It has decent hardware and it's affordable. If Motorola could make a tablet version of the Moto G, I think a lot of people would buy it.

 

[Shilohcane]

From NVIDIA official site it almost confirms the Nexus 9 will be a 64-bit NVIDIA Tegra K1 (Logan) processor. NVIDIA claims that Tegra K1 outperforms both the older generations of the Xbox 360 and the PS3 but consuming significantly less power. On most benchmarks the Tegra K1 just blows away the Snapdragon 801 from what I read. The CPU package will include the NVIDIA Cuda GPU on-chip that runs the video seen at Google I/O and in the link below.

Having a 64bit CPU only does two things better than 32 bit unless your are doing some heavy scientific computing with very high or very low floating point numbers. One 64 bit advantage is it allow over 4GB or ram addressing which we won't need or see. The second is 64 bits allows much better quality graphics with lighting and shading that have really great detail. This lighting and shading from 32 bits just isn't close to the quality of 64 bit. (Look at the video inside the NVIDIA link below)

Google Brings PC Class Gaming to Android with AEP, Powered by Tegra K1