Whilst it’s not the worst kept secret, I think that award goes to the Apple iPhone 6, the next Nexus tablet is pretty high up on the list. We’ve seen rumours that it’s going to be made by HTC, that it’s going to be powered by the Nvidia Tegra K1 processor and that it’ll have a super high resolution screen similar to the original Nexus 10. But what we don’t yet have is a price or even a launch date. Until now, because we’ve received word from an anonymous tipster revealing that O2 UK are planning to sell the still-unconfirmed new Nexus device, originally believed to be the Nexus 9 but now showing as the Nexus 8. The sheet details that the new Nexus will come with a new version of Android and be suitable “ideal for Nexus die-hards,” with a recommended retail price of £459 (about $750). However, when O2 started carrying the Nexus 7, they only sold the 32 GB version rather than the 16 GB version and the price was the same as buying from Google including postage. We don’t know if this particular model has LTE or not but given the high price and the expression “die-hards,” I would expect it to be the most extreme version of the Nexus 8. This might mean 64 GB of space, maybe 128 GB like the Tango tablet and probably LTE. For the 2013 tablet, it took O2 UK a few months before they started selling this.
It looks like we don’t have long to wait before Google announces the next Nexus tablet. I’m especially excited to see it confirmed that HTC are selling it. We’ve seen various rumours as to the release date, with 16 October being suggested, or 31 October. Either is fine with me, we have it confirmed that it’s coming soon! O2 already sell a range of tablets on what they call their O2 Refresh plan, which is essentially a 0% interest finance plan. Instead of a normal contract where the buyer pays so much a month and is committed for the full duration of the term, with steep early exit penalties, O2 Refresh means you pay back the value of the hardware plus a monthly service charge for the package. You are free to leave at any time as long as you pay back the balance of the hardware; there’s no early exit penalty. This is a model adopted by a few European models.
The other piece of really interesting news is that the carrier appears planning to launch a 8.0-inch Sony Tablet, called the Tablet Z1. We know of the Sony Z3 Compact Tablet so perhaps this is the same product. Sometimes, sales slides are made up before a product is announced or perhaps there’s another Sony Compact tablet waiting in the wings. The slide also shows another tablet with no clue as to what this is.
Who else is excited? It’s great to see the European carriers onboard with new product launches such as the Sony and the Nexus. We need to wait and see how much Google are charging for the device before we consider if O2 are expensive. Let us know in the comments below or via Google+.
