14 DAY TRIAL // Motorola and Google have been working on Project Ara for a few years, but after the search giant sold the US-based handset maker to Lenovo, the project remained under its own umbrella.
There haven't been any Ara-branded devices commercially available until now, but that doesn't mean there won't be any in the future.
In this regard, a Project Ara tablet made an unexpected appearance at GFXBench, but fans of modular devices shouldn't get their hopes too high.
This tablet that goes by the model number A8A01 is just a prototype unit that will never be commercially available in this form, assuming the specs listed at GFXBench are accurate.
The Project Ara tablet runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system, which is no wonder since it's a Google device.
Another unsurprising feature of the tablet is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor inside, which is paired with 3GB of RAM, an Adreno 430 graphics processing unit and 32GB of internal memory.
Is this a real modular tablet?
The fact that the tablet is packed with Qualcomm's last year's top-of-the-line chipset suggests that the slate has been put together in 2015.
Other specs of the tablet include a 13.8-inch capacitive touchscreen display with full HD (1080p) resolution and at least 5-finger gesture support.
The weird thing is the slate features a VGA rear-facing camera and a 5-megapixel photo snapper in the front. We believe the prototype unit wrongfully reported some of the specs. The issue applies to all specs, so there might be other things that GFXBench benchmark did not get it right.
Last but not least, the Google Project Ara tablet has also been confirmed to include Bluetooth, compass, GPS, NFC (Near Field Communication), gyroscope, light sensor, pedometer, Wi-Fi, accelerometer, and barometer.
It would be interesting to find out which of the tablet's components are swappable. The camera and display should be replaceable, but other specs might be upgraded as well.