The upcoming variant of Google's Nexus 7 tablet will apparently ditch Nvidia's Tegra 4 processor in favor of a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset.
The second-generation Nexus 7, manufactured by Asus, is said to sport a full HD (1920 x 1080) display, as opposed to the 1280 x 800 pixels featured by the current, first-generation variant. Moreover, Pacific Crest analyst Michael McConnell believes Google won’t rely on Nvidia for its chipset, but instead turn to Qualcomm.
Google's second-generation Nexus 7 should have a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro chip, while the first model utilized an Nvidia Tegra 3 system-on-chip. Qualcomm's Chief Marketing Officer recently criticized Nvidia's Tegra processors with the Tegra 4 believed to have been adopted by only Toshiba.
"Supply chain conversations indicate two reasons for Google’s selection of the Snapdragon APQ8064 over Tegra 4: competitive pricing, and a decision to single-source the application processor and 3G/4G modem to simplify logistics and create a fully pin-compatible platform interface," McConnell said.
Google's I/O conference (May 15 to May 17) should see the announcement of the new Nexus 7 model. While an unveiling at the event is unlikely, Google is also purportedly developing a Nexus 10 successor; it's said to be powered by a quad-core Exynos processor and an eight-core GPU.
