Google Nexus 8 Tablet May Have Intel Inside
More insider talk in the supply chain.
Unnamed sources from the upstream supply chain report that Google will likely enter the 8-inch tablet market in mid-2014. That's around the same time frame Google unleashed the second generation Nexus 7 tablet last year: July 2013.
Does that mean Google won't produce a third generation Nexus 7? Sources claim that the current model has experienced less of a demand compared to the first-generation model, which saw the better half of six million units sold. That low demand is partially due to the actual price tag, which is more than a number of other 7-inch models on the market.
As it stands now, the Nexus 8 may use Intel's Bay Trail-T platform, although Qualcomm is said to be fighting to be the SoC provider. Sources also said that Asus will likely be the R&D partner for this project mostly because the company already has a working relationship with Google. Additional details are expected to be revealed sometime after MWC 2014 next month.
Google "accidentally" revealed its 8-inch tablet back in November. When scrolling halfway down the Apps and Entertainment page, visitors can see a woman smiling down at a tablet in her hands. This device does not appear to be the most recent Nexus 7 tablet nor the Samsung Nexus 10 tablet, but an unannounced device in-between those sizes sporting Android 4.4 "KitKat."
Given that Google has a 7-inch and 10-inch tablet, why bother with an 8-inch model? Because the device would compete directly with Apple's iPad mini and Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 tablet. And given that the Nexus 10 has a starting price of $399, the 8-inch model could possibly undercut both competing tablets in price.


Oh I believe it, trust me. I guess I'm just surprised that the average consumer sees it that way, while they certainly don't seem to mind spending money on overpriced and under-powered samsung products (the galaxy tabs, not the phones). Google promises update support for Nexus devices for a minimum of two years. this would only work for a 'high-end' device in this rapidly evolving mobile market.
My problem is with the consumer who buys a $50 7-inch tablet, then complains that half of the apps his friends have won't run on it... the same consumer may proceed to find out that he bought his tablet on a 'limited time SALE, all sales are final' event where he can't get his $50 back -_-
The official support window for Nexus devices is 18 months from launch.
https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/3507867
Reasoning for Me and friends is microSD slot. Just take a look at all the reviews, the nexus is not perfect because there's no microSD.
Give us microSD slot! with low pricetag and this will be perfect.
I have owned three N7v2 and tried three more in-store. I have found at least one show-stopping problem (something that I would not tolerate on a $200+ device) on all of them. All of them had touch screen issues ranging from chronic ghost touches to touches failing to register or sticking, all of them were crashing far more frequently than my N7v1 did, two of them had rear camera issues, one of them (the third) had chronic freeze/restart issues (it would randomly lock up for several seconds or show a corrupted screen then shut down or reboot - and this could occur even while the tablet was cold/idle on the home or daydream screen), most of them had trouble locking on GPS satellites, the USB connector on all three I owned was too loose to provide a reliable PC connection for transferring files, etc.
When you get six out of six unacceptable/defective devices in a row from different sources, confidence in the product goes pretty far down the drain. Many people on Google's Nexus 7 forum were reporting similar experiences of going through 3-6 devices to get a seemingly flawless unit and some of them posted again a few weeks later reporting that their "flawless" units started exhibiting signs of one or more common defects.
Those threads died out about two months ago; not sure if that is because people gave up or problems got solved. Many people were hoping 4.4 would solve the N7v2's many issues but initial reports were mixed bags of fixed and worse. During boxing day, I tried N7v2 demo units running 4.4.x in three different stores and they seemed to still have the same issues they had back in August so I decided to give up on the N7v2.
The N7v2 has nice specs but seems to have significant QA issues.
On the CPU side, Bay Trail is only about even with Snapdragon 800 but on the IGP side, the 800 is ~60% faster and the Tegra K1 later this year is supposed to be 2-3X as fast so Intel has not won that race yet. Intel got an unexpected lead on CPU perf/watt but is still limping along for graphics.
There is also the matter of how much Intel charges for their x86 SoCs vs what Qualcom, Samsung and friends charge for their ARMv7/v8 parts. With so many device manufacturers/vendors competing around the $200 price point, a $10-20 difference in SoC pricing can make a significant difference.
For me, the "perfect size" is the largest size that will fit in normal coat and pants pockets with little to no effort and 7" tablets like the N7 v1/v2 are already stretching that limit... maybe 8" with (much) thinner borders. Above that, additional carrying accommodations become necessary and personally, that ruins the point of having a mobile device.
Nvidia had a hard time getting design wins for the Tegra 3 before everyone else started launching devices with newer SoCs, Tegra 4 did not get many design wins before everyone else started launching devices with more powerful SoCs so unless Nvidia gets their act together this time around with K1, we probably will see most device manufacturers launching new products based on some other SoC.
As for the N8, the Intel thing is only a rumor at this point... and Intel's HD4600 seems grossly under-powered for a 1200p display so I would be a little surprised if Google made that much of a compromise since I bet games account for a fair chunk of their Google Play revenue.