The tech giant has joined hands with ASUS to manufacture a 7inch tablet of their own which was announced in this year’s I/O developer’s conference in July. Tired of the half-baked efforts by other OEM’s, Google took it upon itself to launch a tablet to compete with Apple’s iPad. Google doesn’t actually manufacture the Nexus 7 tablet as it has done in the past with Samsung, Motorola, and HTC.
It has paired with ASUS to design and manufacture its slender tablet. It’s a smart move given the fact that ASUS makes some of the best Android tablets around but matching a rock-bottom price of £129 of Amazon’s Kindle Fire. It’s more of an effort to stomp out Amazon’s unwelcome version of Android rather than an attempt to dethrone Apple, the reigning tablet champ.
According to Android boss Andy Rubin, “Google’s profit margin bears the brunt of any sacrifices made, from selling hardware at cost and from tossing in generous perks such as £15 of Google Play credit for every Nexus 7 owner”. So is it worth your hard-earned money???
The current Nexus 7 tablet has a 7-inch HD touch screen display supporting 1280×800 pixel resolution. Packing 1 GB RAM, the Nexus 7 is blessed with a quad-core 1.3 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 mobile processor.
The native hardware is powerful enough to run the Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean latest update without any issues. It has a primary 1.2-megapixel camera in the front, which can record 720p HD videos, too, apart from supporting video chats. ASUS has added a 4325 mAh battery to make it last for 10 hours at least.
The Nexus 7 tablet is currently being offered in 8 GB and 16 GB storage options. The current 8GB version is being sold for $200 in the U.S and £159 in the U.K (Rs.10,600 approximately), while the 16GB version is available at $249 in the U.S and £199 in the U.K (Rs.13, 250 approximately). The new 32GB version with 3G support is expected to hit the market in a week with a price tag ranging from $250-$300 (Rs.13,250-Rs 15,900).
Google Nexus 7 Tablet Jelly Bean 4.1 Android Hands-on Demo Features:
The Telegraph has become the highest-selling Android tablet only 3 months after its release on July 27th. Though there’s no official confirmation, the Nexus7 was supposed to hit Indian shores post-September. Still, it’s available in India through a couple of online shopping websites at different prices.
Also, given the record sales, it has managed to achieve, it shouldn’t surprise that the company is expected to be readying a $99 version of its popular device by the end of 2012. The latest rumors are that Google could be deviating from its relationship with ASUS to release an even cheaper version of its hugely popular Nexus 7.
Richard Shim, an analyst at NPD Display Search, confirmed that the production of the $99 tablet is expected to start in December. And if the rumor is true, then it would be serious competition for Apple’s iPad Mini.
Although the Nexus machines are not as powerful or bulky as the iPad or Microsoft Surface, many consumers opt for them due to concerns over portability and price. Consumers are spoilt for choice as there’s no dearth of products to fit every need, so what’s your choice???
