As rumored earlier today, Google announced the new HTC-made Nexus 9 tablet. Based on Nvidia's Tegra K1 SoC and designed around a 9-inch 2048x1536 screen, the quite thin Nexus 9 tablet will hit pre-order as of October 17th and ship to early birds on November 3rd.
Unlike the Nexus 6 phablet, which is based on Qualcomm's 32-bit Snapdragon 805 SoC, Google's new Nexus 9 tablet will run on a 64-bit Nvidia Tegra K1 SoC, allowing it to experience all the benefits of 64-bit Google Android 5.0 Lolipop OS. In case you somehow managed to miss it, Tegra K1 64-bit SoC is based on dual-core Denver CPU part clocked at 2.3GHz and Kepler GPU with 192 shader cores. In case of Nexus 9, the Tegra K1 is paired up with 2GB or RAM and either 16GB or 32GB of non-expandable storage.
With precise dimensions of 228.25 x 153.68 x 7.95 mm and a weight of 425g (436g for the LTE version), the 8.9-inch Nexus 9 looks quite good, despite HTC's and Google's choice to stick to only a brushed aluminum frame and plastic back, rather than a full aluminum body. The new Nexus will be available in Indigo Black, Lunar White as well as Sand color a bit later.
The new Nexus 9 is based around an 8.9-inch IPS LCD screen, protected by Gorilla Glass 3, with QXGA 2048x1536 resolution which adds up to 288ppi of pixel density. As you could have guessed, we are looking at 4:3 aspect ratio which should align well with photo lovers and put it neck to neck against Apple's iPads.
The rest of the specifications for the new Nexus 9 tablet include an 8-megapixel f/2.4 auto-focus camera with LED flash, 1.6-megapixel f/2.4 front camera, all the usual sensors including GPS, ambient light sensor, gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer, 802.11ac 2x2 (MIMO) WiFi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1, LTE support, dual front-facing speakers with HTC BoomSound and dual microphones, and a 6700mAh battery which should be enough for around 9.5 hours of WiFi and 8.5 hours of LTE browsing, according to Google.
Google will also launch an optional keyboard dock alongside the Nexus 9. It will magnetically attach to the back of the tablet and should provide a decent typing experience to those that need it.
According to early information, Google's Nexus 9 should be avialable in three versions, 16GB WiFi-only, 32GB WiFi-only and the 32GB 4G LTE version. While pre-orders should start on Google Play Store as of October 17th, the Nexus 9 is expected to ship to early buyers on November 3rd. The first details regarding the price suggest it would be priced at US $399 and US $479 for two WiFi-only models while the 4G LTE one should sell for US $599.