Google’s Kindle Fire-beating Nexus 7 tablets set to retail for $200 only

Aimed at being the best value for money $200 tablet in the market at the moment, the Google Nexus 7 is already threatening to dethrone the long-standing champ, the Amazon Kindle Fire. The tablet is created to make playing games and surfing the internet on handhelds much easier and Asus seems to have thrown everything but the kitchen sink in developing this kickass gizmo. Comfy to hold in one hand for longer durations, the Nexus 7 weighs just 12 ounces and measures 7.8” x 4.7” x 0.41”. The back of the device also features an anti-slip black rubber panel. The front of the tablet is dominated by a Gorilla Glass covered 7” IPS LCD screen. The screen has a huge black bezel all around that further accentuates the 1280 x 800 pixel display. Even though the display is more reflective, it is bright enough to be used outdoors as well. However, what makes the Nexus 7 really special is the fact that it is the first tablet in the market to use the Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" and supports both NFC-equipped Android devices as well as Bluetooth-enabled gizmos.

Google Nexus 7

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Google Nexus 7

Google Nexus 7

The Wi-Fi only tablet uses just the 2.4 GHz band at 802.11 b/g/n to connect to the internet and runs on one of the fastest mobile processors around, i.e., the Nvidia quad-core Tegra 3 chipset. When two to four cores are active, this unit runs1.2 GHz and in single core mode, it runs at 1.3 GHz. With a 55.9 fps rating, the Nexus 7 promises rock-solid graphics performance as well which makes gaming a true delight on the tablet. For the average net surfer, the Nexus 7 features a Chrome as the provided default browser with a better tab interface and 30 percent faster performance than the regular old Android browser. The first device to offer Chrome as a factory-fitted option, the tablet also features a zero-lag touch keyboard, smoother screen transitions and better stylus touch input processing thanks to "Butter" available solely on Android 4.1.

Other goodies on the tablet include a front-facing 1.2 megapixel camera, GPS, 8GB/16GB of storage, 1 GB RAM and a 12-core GeForce GPU. However, dazzling as the Google Nexus 7 may be both performance and price wise; it does have a few shortcomings the most obvious of which lay not with the tablet itself but with the variety and amount of content available for the Android device on Google Play. On this count, Play simply doesn’t match the vastness of the content available for Amazon’s Kindle Fire though someone with enough time and patience might wanna give Google around a year to get that straightened out.

A lack of HDMI-out and a slot for a MicroSD card as well as a somewhat short-ish battery life might also come back to bite Google in the proverbial behind though they still have plenty of time to remedy these problems when they release a second version of the excellent first effort. For those who just can’t wait to get their hands on the good stuff, the Nexus 7 is available for pre-order directly from Google costing $199 for the 8 GB version and $249 for the 16GB version.

Via: Gizmag/CNET