Photos of Nvidia's Tegra Note Tablet Leaked

By Kevin Parrish
published

Oh Nvidia, you can't deny it now.

The Nvidia tablet rumors refuse to die because, it seems, Nvidia may actually be working on a tablet despite the company indicating otherwise. New evidence of a tablet entry has emerged in the form of high-res product photos supposedly leaked by Taiwan's version of the FCC. Sources are also claiming that the Nvidia Tegra Tab and Nvidia Tegra Note are the same device.

The leaked images clearly show a 7 inch Tegra Note sporting what looks to be the same fine white-tip stylus Nvidia Jen-Hsun Huang used to demonstrate the company's DirectStylus tech during Computex in June. Heck, the leaked photos even show the exact same tablet he used to demonstrate the new Tegra 4 features. That said, at this point, what's the use in denying the tablet rumors?

So far, the specs include the obvious Tegra 4 SoC, a 1280 x 736 resolution, a 5MP camera with auto focus on the back (no LED flash), a camera on the front, and dual front speakers similar to what's used on the HTC One series. Also present is a Micro USB port, a Micro HDMI port, and a 3.5 mm audio jack. The tablet will also supposedly support microSD TransFlash memory cards.

The photos also show the stylus port parked between the power button and the Micro HDMI port on the right side when viewing the tablet horizontally from the back. The volume buttons and microSD card slot are strung along the top and what may be the microphone on the left side. A protective smart cover can be folded and set in three positions, similar to the iPad.

With all this mounting evidence indicating that Nvidia is developing an actual tablet (and not a reference design), why did we get a denial during Computex? "We will not build things that the market already has….such as smartphones, PCs and tablets," Huang said. Instead, Nvidia will continue to focus on GPUs for servers, data centers and mobile devices, he added.

Nvidia's Tegra Note could be revealed this week during IFA 2013 in Berlin, but we haven't seen anything in the pipeline regarding an official announcement, or even something of a hint. Last we checked, Nvidia said it doesn't comment on rumor and speculation.

The new gallery of leaked Tegra Note photos can be viewed here.

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Kevin Parrish
10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • It'll probably be a decent device like shield, but let's hope it isn't as overpriced as shield.
    Reply
  • nevilence
    el33t, really, why was this required?
    Reply
  • jase240
    In the day of 1080p+ tablets, this one still is way behind the times.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    11480703 said:
    In the day of 1080p+ tablets, this one still is way behind the times.
    I don't really see why people are so hung on 1080p on a 7" screen. The improvement over 720/768/800p is relatively minor under most normal viewing conditions. It may be "nice to have" but nowhere near essential in my book.

    And if Nvidia releases a Tegra Tab, it will likely be more gaming-oriented. At 768p, that cuts GPU power requirements in half which should allow better battery life while gaming.
    Reply
  • fulle
    The DirectStylus solution actually doesn't use a dedicated digitizer, but is a software solution that uses the Tegra 4 GPU.... which sounds terrible.. and is probably also responsible for the need of the lower res....
    Reply
  • michalt
    Nvidia builds white label graphics cards which are then shipped by partners. Likely they're going to be doing the same thing with this tablet; this will allow partners in places like China and India to build high quality, low cost tablets and still support Tegra. Rumors are they're doing the same thing with phones with their upcoming cpu/gpu/cell phone chip. I doubt we'll see an Nvidia branded tablet as that would annoy all of their partners.
    Reply
  • teh_chem
    Do people really care that much about T4 since it took forever and a day to come out ever since Nvidia started their hype machine about it? I might care more about it if really ended up being the mobile SoC killer. But alas, it mostly matches qualcomm's S800, which makes it look pretty lackluster given all the Nvhype.

    Regarding the resolution: I for one couldn't care less about super high pixel density panels in tablets. I'd much rather have a lower res screen and better battery life. To my eye, the difference between 720p and 1080p on a tablet screen is imperceptible.

    I also couldn't care less about styluses on tablets. I hate to point to something that Steve Jobs said in a talk as something I admire, but he was right: styluses for mobile devices is stupidly dumb. Yes, there will be people who respond to this saying that they love their stylus--and I'm cool with that. I just wouldn't waste R&D money on a piece of tech that so few people would actually care about.

    Still, I don't think NV will release a tablet of their own. I imagine they'll debut this device as some device manufactured by someone else, but the first commercially available tablet using the T4. My guess it'll be a joint announcement with whatever hardware partner they're going with. I think this is just leaks of their reference design unit. Didn't they have a T4 tablet on display at CES or something like that? Then again, I could be wrong.
    Reply
  • renz496
    But alas, it mostly matches qualcomm's S800, which makes it look pretty lackluster given all the Nvhype.

    isn't that fine already? even qualcomm publicly said that Tegra 4 wont touch their snapdragon 600 let alone the 800 earlier this year and yet T4 still able to compete with snapdragon 800.

    I imagine they'll debut this device as some device manufactured by someone else, but the first commercially available tablet using the T4.


    what do you mean by that? some of T4 based device already in the market like HP Slate x2
    Reply
  • shaun_shaun
    some hi-res images
    http://news.softpedia.com/news/7-Inch-Nvidia-Tegra-Note-Leaks-in-High-Res-Photos-380416.shtml
    Reply
  • urbanman2004
    Since their processor was ditched in Google's new Nexus, the rumor doesn't seem so far fetched.
    Reply