The fabled Nexus tablet from Google was finally officially announced and called the “Nexus 7” tablet today at the Google I/O 2012 keynote. This 7 inch tablet is the love child from both Asus, the creators of the Transformer Android Tablet series and Google.
But what makes it so special you might be asking? Well I’m glad you asked. Besides being the first effort from Google to have their own tablet running the Android OS they are able to finally have a piece of hardware into the Android eco-system, but not only that. The tablet is the perfect form factor at 7 inches, which also places it in direct competition with both the Kindle Fire and B&N Nook. but there’s where the similarities stop as the Nexus 7 will come with the Nvidia’s most recent Tegra 3 chipset, Wifi (no 3G/4G here), Bluetooth, a 1280 x 800 IPS LCD (216 ppi), a 1.2 megapixel camera (No rear facing camera) and will come with the latest version of the Android OS 4.1; Jellybean. Add to that the there will be two versions of the Nexus’s 7, both a 8GB version and a 16GB version at $199 / $249 respectfully.
Edit – If you’re looking for a decent hands on with the Nexus 7, head on over to Theverge.com where they have a hands on (http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/27/3120992/asus-nexus-7-android-tablet-hands-on) but also a hands on with Google’s take on the Apple’s Siri(http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/27/3121964/google-now-hands-on-with-jelly-beans-siri-competitor).
The Nexus 7 is currently up for pre-order over at Google play online store and at the official Nexus 7 website – http://www.google.com/nexus/#/7
Got to say I’m really tempted and I already have a Motorola Xoom and a Toshiba Thrive but at $199 I may just make that dive and pre-order one myself.
