HTC 'Flounder' gets Wi-Fi certified - is this the Nexus 8?

We haven't heard much from the rumoured Nexus 8/Nexus 9 in a while but it seems the tablet has just popped up again, and in a fairly official capacity.

An HTC slate received Wi-Fi certification earlier this month but it slipped through without notice, only to be spotted now by Droid Life.

The certification information doesn't reveal much but it does tell us that it's an HTC tablet and, more excitingly, references the 'flounder' name, which along with Volantis is a codename for a slate long believed to be the new slab, which is parading around rumour land under both 'Nexus 8' and 'Nexus 9' guises.

Given the certification this is obviously a Wi-Fi slate, but two different SKU's are listed, so it's possible that one of them is 3G and 4G enabled too, though they could also be a reference to different colours or storage sizes. The device is also listed as running Android L, as you'd expect from a new Nexus.

Super slate

That's about all the listing reveals but the fact that the Flounder is now Wi-Fi certified suggests that it's probably more or less a finished product and one which will hopefully be out soon.

Going by previous rumours it should be worth the wait as we've heard talk of a 64-bit Tegra K1 processor, an 8.9-inch QHD display and 4GB of RAM.

We're expecting Google to announce the Nexus 8 (if that's what this is) sometime around October, so the wait should be almost over.

• The Nexus 6 is probably coming soon as well.