HP appears to be prepping a new version of its 2013 Slate8 Pro model

Apr 4, 2014 12:04 GMT  ·  By

The HP Slate8 Pro tablet has been introduced back in December of last year, but a revamped version appears to be coming our way soon.

A new HP Slate8 Pro model with Android 4.4.2 KitKat onboard has been spotted passing through the FCC not so long ago. Back when it was first launched, the tablet ran Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, so it appears a bit bizarre HP is not pushing the OTA update for the slate, but launching a new version altogether.

The only explanation to this dilemma is that this is in fact a new Slate 8 Pro version and we should expect some improvements in the hardware department as well. This might turn out to be minor modifications, like the addition of an LTE module.

We have recently seen a lot of companies push out LTE-enhanced versions of their tablet products, including NVIDIA with its Tegra Note 7 and ASUS with its Fonepad 7 models. These slates were showcased at MWC 2014 a few months ago and will make it to retail soon enough.

So HP might have picked up the trend concerning LTE and is looking to add the same standard in one of their Android offerings. On the other hand, the overhaul might turn out to be in the vein of the Lenovo Yoga 10.

Also at MWC, we saw the new Yoga tablet model arrive with an improved display resolution and a more powerful processor. It would be indeed interesting to see a more powerful HP Slate 8 Pro arrive in the wild.

For those who don’t remember the specifications of the tablet, we’ll refresh your memory. The HP Slate8 Pro comes with an 8-inch HD display with a resolution of 1,600 x 1,200 pixel resolution and 253 ppi, which is pretty impressive.

The tablet draws life from an NVIDIA’s Tegra 4 processor combined with 1GB of RAM and comes equipped with two cameras (8MP on the back and 2.1MP in front).

The Slate8 Pro has been marketed at the professional market, so HP has equipped it with productive applications like Kingsoft Office, HP File Manager and HP ePrint.

The addition of 4G to a business-targeted slate like this can only increase the value of the device, allowing customers to stay connected everywhere.

Anyway, this is just speculation at this point, so take it with a grain of salt, until we have more information about the new tablet version.