At an event named ‘breakfast with Sundar Pichai’ Google has finally announced the new Nexus 7 tablet. There was little we didn’t knew about this new Google device already since it has been leaking on the Internet from last few weeks. In the unsurprising announcement the company introduced the successor to the original Nexus 7 tablet and detailed all of its features such as specifications, design and updates to the software.
Let’s take a look at Google’s official Android tablet, which has been manufactured by ASUS.
Design
The new Nexus 7 features an improved design over the previous model of the tablet but the overall look is mostly the same. The new Nexus 7 is 2mm thinner than the previous year’s model. The company has also made it lighter from the older version as it weighs 50g lower. The bezels of the new model are just like they were in original Nexus 7. The overall dimensions of the new Nexus 7 are 201 x 114.3 x 7.9 mm and it weighs 317.5g.
Features
The new Nexus 7 runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean OS. As the software update is a minor one there are not many changes this new hardware brings with itself however there are a few noteworthy ones. Android 4.3 on Nexus 7 features multi-user settings allowing users to restrict content at user level. This is a great feature for those who want to limit the content for kids.
Nexus 7 also features the Bluetooth Smart feature also known as Bluetooth LE of Bluetooth Low Energy. We reported about this feature when Android 4.3 ROM was leaked on the Internet and it was obvious that this feature will make its way to the new tablet. The new Nexus 7 also features support for OpenGL ES 3.0, which means that it will be able to support high graphics games. Google says that the tablet is capable of running 9 hours of HD video and can take 10 hours of web browsing. It supports wireless charging, something that has been added in this year’s model.
Specifications
Just like everything else the new Nexus 7 brings improvements to specifications as well over the previous generation. It features the same 7-inch display with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels. The resolution of the new model is upgraded from last year’s 1280 x 800 pixels, which is a change we all say welcome to. Internally the new Nexus 7 features a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro 8064 processor with 2GB of RAM. For graphics it has Adreno 320 chip.
Unlike the previous model this year’s Nexus 7 has a 5-megapixel rear camera along with 1.2-megapixel front one. The company has also added dual stereo speakers, which is an improvement over the last year model. Nexus 7 will be available in 16 and 32GB models. Other features include LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band and more.
Pricing and availability
At its special event Google revealed the pricing and availability details for the new Nexus 7 as well. The device will be available in separate WiFi and LTE models. The WiFi only model with 16GB storage capacity will be available for $229 while the 32GB model will be available for $269. The LTE model with 32GB capacity will be available for $349.
Google will make the tablet available for users in the US on July 30th while the pre-orders are live right now here at BestBuy. It will launch in other countries including Canada, UK, Spain, Germany, France, South Korea and Japan in next few weeks.