HTC Nexus 8 Tablet Leaked: Is Codenamed Volantis and Has 64-bit CPU

t’s almost a year since Google released their last Nexus tablet. Even though the rumor mill speculates that the Mountain View-based company will ditch the Nexus family over a new project called Android Silver, fresh details about a new Nexus tablet have surfaced online.

The report comes from Android Police and it reveals quite a few details about the upcoming tablet. First of all e hear that HTC will be the manufacturer of what it seems to be the last Nexus tablet and that it’s known internally as Volantis (or Flunder).

The same source also revealed that the device will sport an 8.9-inch display which make us wonder whether Google will call it Nexus 8 or Nexus 9. If the report proves true, the display will have an resolution of 2048 x 1440 pixels (that’s a pixel density of 281 ppi). The screen resolution is at least odd as it doesn’t check out with either 4:3 or 16:9. There’s no mentioning about the technology used for the display, but we might be dealing with a Super LCD3 screen since we’re talking about an HTC device.

Android Police’s source also said that the HTC Volantis will pack 16/32 GB of native storage, 8 MP primary camera with OIS (optical image stabilization), and a 3 MP user-facing camera. The tablet will reportedly be underpinned by Nvida’s 64 bit-enabled Tegra K1 processor.

Anyway, we there are some doubts surrounding the accuracy of the picture. First of all the specs list mentions “aluminium zero-gap” construction, while the stereo front speaker that almost became a standard for HTC’s high-end devices are nowhere to be found.

The tablet measures 226.3 x 151.9 x 7.9 mm and has a weight of 418 grams, or 427 grams for the LTE-friendly model.

It seems that the HTC Nexus 8 will have a price tag of $399 for the 16 GB model, while the 32 GB variant will cost $499. The WiFi+LTE model might cost above $600. If the reports prove true, then the new HTC Nexus tablet will be way more expensive than the current Nexus 7. Well, premium hardware and design does come at expense.

Unfortunately, there are no details regarding the release of the new HTC Volantis tablet, but don’t expect it to see the light of day at this week’s Google I/O event. If Google stuck to their usual pattern we would be able to see the tablet in flesh about a month after the company’s annual developers conference.

The last two Nexus tablets were launched in July, synchronized with the debut of a new Android iteration, so chances are we might see the Nexus 8 / Nexus 9 later next month along with Google’s Android L release.