Google is said to be preparing a second-generation Nexus 10 tablet for Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month. The device will reportedly offer a quad-core processor and faster graphics, making it a significant improvement over its predecessor — which was only launched last November.

Bright Side of News, a site that covers the semi-conductor industry, claims it saw the new Nexus 10 at CES earlier this month, but it was disguised within an existing Nexus 10 body. So how did they know it wasn’t the same tablet? Because a benchmark test showed that the performance between the device and the original was like “night and day.”

The benchmark also revealed different internals, including a quad-core processor, and a new 8-core Mali-T678 graphics processing unit. This would make the new Nexus 10 significantly snappier than its predecessor, which only offers a dual-core Exynos 5 processor, and a quad-core Mali-T604 GPU.

If Google did unveil a new Nexus 10 at MWC next month, it would come just three months after the original made its debut in the United States. Refreshing the device so soon seems a little hard to imagine — and quite possibly a little hard to stomach for new Nexus 10 customers. However, Bright Side of News claims that the device won’t actually be available for several months — possibly going on sale during the back-to-school period.

If that’s the case, the device could actually get its grand unveiling at Google I/O this summer, which seems to make a lot more sense. We’ll be at CES next month, though, so if Google does have anything new to show off, you’ll hear about it as soon as we do.

• SourceBright Side of News
• ViaDroid Life