The upcoming variant of Google's Nexus 7 tablet will apparently ditch Nvidia's Tegra 4 processor in favor of a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset.
The second-generation Nexus 7, manufactured by Asus, is said to sport a full HD (1920 x 1080) display, as opposed to the 1280 x 800 pixels featured by the current, first-generation variant. Moreover, Pacific Crest analyst Michael McConnell believes Google won’t rely on Nvidia for its chipset, but instead turn to Qualcomm.
Google's second-generation Nexus 7 should have a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro chip, while the first model utilized an Nvidia Tegra 3 system-on-chip. Qualcomm's Chief Marketing Officer recently criticized Nvidia's Tegra processors with the Tegra 4 believed to have been adopted by only Toshiba.
"Supply chain conversations indicate two reasons for Google’s selection of the Snapdragon APQ8064 over Tegra 4: competitive pricing, and a decision to single-source the application processor and 3G/4G modem to simplify logistics and create a fully pin-compatible platform interface," McConnell said.
Google's I/O conference (May 15 to May 17) should see the announcement of the new Nexus 7 model. While an unveiling at the event is unlikely, Google is also purportedly developing a Nexus 10 successor; it's said to be powered by a quad-core Exynos processor and an eight-core GPU.
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Zak Islam is a freelance writer focusing on security, networking, and general computing. His work also appears at Digital Trends and Tom's Guide.
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house70 Go with whatever chipset is better at the time. I personally think that Tegra is overrated.Reply -
lathe26 This sounds like a really nice upgrade. That said, I won't be selling my current Nexus 7 to get the second generation Nexus 7. I'm very happy with my current one.Reply -
mocchan Very excited for the next gen Nexus 7! I've been eyeballing the current tablet for awhile ever since my brother purchased one. Seems I'll be holding off for a while longer for the second gen!Reply -
clownbaby I'm not going to second guess google's decision after loving the nexus 7. I won't be trading in my original model for the upgrade, but I am very interested to see the next iteration of the nexus 10. It's certainly a fine product now, but wasn't quite the innovator to separate $400 from my wallet.Reply -
g00fysmiley I will eb excited to see what they scome up with fo rthe nexus 7 and 10, with there ws an in between like 8.5" though, 10.1 seems big, 7 seems to close to my phone and planning on getting a ntoe 3 so bordering on very close at that point. still an improved budget small tablet wll cause the rest of the tablet makers to step upReply -
xpeh Oh man, if they use the upcoming Snapdragon 800, I'll be forced to buy it. Plus, all of the first Nexus 7's bugs will be ironed out, hopefully.Reply -
blazorthon darkchazzAnything better than the overhyped tegra trash.Reply
Overhyped, yes, but trash seems going too far. -
killerclick Tegra 3 is great on the Nexus 7, it's still the fastest 7" tablet on the market, at any price. I can see how suckers who bought those expensive Transformer Prime/Infinity or Surface RT might feel disappointed, but it's not Tegra's fault.Reply