Samsung Talking with Nvidia on Galaxy Tab 2?
The Tegra 2 could be in the next Samsung Galaxy Tab.
Having just made its big debut at IFA, the Samsung Galaxy Tab sits poised and ready for Verizon to officially announce its support here in the States (which apparently may be on Thursday). However Samsung is already looking into the future, gearing up for a possible Galaxy Tab 2 in Q2 2011.
The big news surrounding this rumor is that Samsung is in talks with Nvidia to incorporate the Tegra 2 chip. According to a "highly reliable source in Seoul," both companies are in the final stages of negotiations. The current tablet--the Samsung Galaxy Tab--uses Samsung's internally-developed Hummingbird processor. Using Nvidia's chipset could mean that Samsung wants to take on Apple in the mobile gaming sector.
Additional reports indicate that the next Galaxy Tab model will use Google's Android "Honeycomb," the version slated for release after Android 3.0 (Gingerbread) launches in Q4 2010. Hands-on reports stemming from Gingerbread indicate that the updated OS is more of a Froyo upgrade for smartphones, and not tablet oriented. Honeycomb will supposedly be more tablet friendly.
The current Galaxy Tab model uses Android 2.2 (Froyo) even though Google specifically said that this particular build wasn't optimized for tablets. The difference is that--according to Hugo Barra, director of products for mobile at Google--the Samsung Galaxy Tab is more like a big phone than a tablet.
As always, both Samsung and Nvidia refused to comment on rumors.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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e_man Highly unlikely, when one considers the Orion processor they have in the works, that will be a Cortex A9 Dual Core, just like the Tegra 2.Reply -
e_man Also, I doubt that gingerbread is only a smartphone oriented upgrade. Considering the attention tablets are getting, and that fact that Google's not stupid.Reply -
Drag0nR1der Replythe Samsung Galaxy Tab is more like a big phone than a tablet.
Like an iPad then... -
fatdoi iFanboy just go away.... we don't need constant reminder of your iSteve on every comment thread.Reply -
saturnus ReplyUsing Nvidia's chipset could mean that Samsung wants to take on Apple in the mobile gaming sector.
How so? The processor already used in the Galaxy Tab is already more powerful than the one used in both iPaddle/poddle. There's no immediately need for a more powerful processor. The Galaxy Tab also runs Flash from day one, so there's literally millions of games immediately available. together with Android C64, PSX and upcoming N64 emulators the Galaxy Tab, or any Froyo enabled device already completely pwns the ipaddle/poddles as a gaming platform.