14 DAY TRIAL // Judging by the avalanche of leaks having the HTC Nexus 9 at their center coming our way in recent times, we believe the tablet is not far from being finally unveiled.
But while we’re waiting on that, another interesting discovery is bound to draw our attention. The folks at Droid Life have stumbled upon something that can be called a puzzling piece of technology.
By now, we all know the HTC Nexus 9 will be powered by an NVIDIA Tegra K1, which has been proved to bestow pretty amazing performance on some Chromebook models (see our hands-on of the Acer Chromebook 13 and HP Chromebook 14).
A new Google tablet with NVIDIA chipset?
It appears Google plans to use a chipset from NVIDIA’s garden for a smaller tablet, which comes with a 7-inch screen (might as well be the Tegra K1). The device was spotted paying a visit at the FCC, passing through under the Google banner, so its launch seems quite immanent.
The product goes by the FCC ID A4R-NX74751 and is an oddity, to say the least. For starters, it seems to be powered by some sort of NVIDIA Tegra chip and has global roaming with LTE (bands 2,4,5,7 and 17).
On top of that, the battery keeping everything alive is manufactured by LG, so does that mean LG is actually behind the device per se? We can’t say whether this is the case or not, for the time being.
However, we can share with you the information that the battery is extremely small and comes in at 2,480 mAh, quite insufficient for a tablet.
Is it a tablet or a smartphone?
Remember that the Nexus 7 (2013) takes advantage of a 3,950mAh battery, so the question arises – is this a tablet or could it be a smartphone with a huge screen? Both scenarios could make sense and here’s why.
Motorola has just launched a new smartphone on the grounds at IFA 2014, in the form of the Moto X, and this handheld device takes advantage of a 2,300 mAh battery.
On the other hand, at some point word on the street had it that when Google finally launches the Nexus 9, it will also unveil a third-generation Nexus 7. This remains unconfirmed to this day, but it’s still a possibility.
Could LG have teamed up with Google and NVIDIA to produce another Nexus 7? This would be a scenario that would make a lot of people happy. As a matter of fact, last year LG was heavily rumored to be behind the next-gen Nexus 10, so the leap to a Nexus 7 tablet isn't a huge one. What do you think?