New benchmarks remind us what we can expect from HTC Volantis

 

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2013 Nexus 7. Photo: CNET

According to a leaked CPU-Z report, HTC’s upcoming Nexus tablet, codenamed Volantis, is set to be the first device on the market to feature Nvidia’s 64-bit Tegra K1 processor clocked at 2.5GHz. This revelation comes just days after renowned leaker, @Evleaks, took to Twitter to publicize his suspected specifications for the slate, which incidentally match up perfectly to the news we’re seeing today.

Nvidia claims that its latest system-on-chip is 1.5 times more efficient than any other mobile GPU currently available and states that its sheer power and performance capabilities won’t sacrifice precious battery life — an issue that many graphics processing unit’s face. This chip also bundles support for DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.4, so it comes as no surprise that it can run Unreal Engine 4 without even breaking a sweat.

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HTC Volantis K1 CPU-Z results. Credit: TKTechNews

To put all of this processing power into perspective, we need to take a deeper look at the Android operating system. At this precise moment in time the latest developer build, Android L , features compatibility for OpenGL ES 3.1 and not 4.4. This makes the Tegra K1 SoC a perfect choice for Google’s next Nexus tablet as it will have the ability to cope with all future updates whilst maintaining best-in-class performance. That’s pretty awesome for what’s rumored to be a ‘budget-friendly’ device.

Other notable specifications include an 8.9-inch display with a stunning resolution of 2560 x 1600 (just like the Nexus 10), Corning Gorilla Glass 2 protection, a colossal 5GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, an 2-megapixel front-facing shooter, 16/32GB of internal storage (non-expandable), Bluetooth 4.0, 4G LTE and a 9,00 mAh non-removable Li-Po battery, all enclosed in an aluminium unibody design with acoustics provided by HTC’s famous BoomSound audio system.

The Volantis is also expected to be the first device ever to ship running Android Silver (OS Alpha 1.4), which, for those unaware, is rumored to be the ‘premiere’ Android L experience. Manufacturers, like HTC, will build smartphones to Google’s exact specifications, pre-load them with minimal bloatware then sell them through major carriers — so that users can get the best possible experience without all the additional software and overlays that usually come bundled on modern-day devices.

Unfortunately, as with all leaks and rumors, we have to take these alleged specifications with a pinch of salt until Google or HTC provides us with some evidence with regards to what it has in store for its next flagship tablet, but hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer to find out.