14 DAY TRIAL // The Nexus 8 has been in the rumor mill a lot lately. There have been multiple theories surrounding the upcoming device, but the most recent point towards the Nexus 8 arriving with an 8.9-inch display and 2K resolution. And here’s a concept to show you what such a tablet might actually look like.
But first, a quick tour up memory lane. Google has been widely expected to abandon the making of 7-inch tablets and take up larger slates instead.
The tech giant is being pressured by phablet makers that have been spawning the market with devices sporting large screen sizes, so tablet makers must find a way to better differentiate between categories in the eyes of consumers.
Not to mention, the small sized screen tablet ecosystem has been getting increasingly crowded with multiple products, especially cheaper ones coming out of Asia. Nevertheless, in a recent interview, IHS Technology’s Rhonda Alexander has claimed that Google will also roll out a third generation Nexus 7 product at some point in 2014. So maybe the Nexus 7 saga has not come to an end yet.
Nevertheless, the Nexus 8 envisioned by Alexander is an 8.9-inch slate with a pretty steep price tag. The tablet is also expected to arrive with the new Android 4.5/ 5.0 when it’s going to be unveiled at Google I/O in June, a detail that will probably boost the appeal of the product. Also, the tablet should sport a pretty capable 2K display.
Anyway, designer Miguel Cruz has recently come up with a Nexus 8 concept that shows a tablet with 2K display, running an interesting flavor of Android.
Cruz doesn't abide by the rumors, so in his concept, we're dealing with an 8.2-inch tablet with a 2K 3D display and 32 or 64GB of internal storage.
Under the hood, Cruz imagines a powerful next-gen 3.2 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 900 CPU combined with 3GB of RAM.
There’s also a 128GB version available for power users, fitted with 5GB of RAM. In the photography department, we have a 5MP frontal camera and 15MP back snapper that can shoot 4K video.
Cruz’s imagination goes further into the future as he claims that the Nexus 8 will run Android 4.7 as the default OS. What keeps everything alive is a hefty 6100 mAh battery.
As a design curiosity, you can see that the tablet is a bit thicker on the left and thinner on the right, making the slate look like a triangle in lower profile. The idea is that the thicker area can be used as a stand. What do you think?