Google have unveiled the Nexus 7, a new tablet which is aimed at the cheaper end of the market and will retail at £159 for the 8GB version and £199 for the 16GB model.
You get an awful lot of bang for your buck, starting with a 7 inch screen running at 1280×800. This is powered by a 12 core GPU and backed up by a quad core Nvidia Tegra 3 CPU.
Running Android 4.1 “Jelly-bean” the tablet comes pre-loaded with Google apps such as Gmail and will also come with ‘tons of free cloud storage’.
Google say the lightweight 340g tablet will play for an impressive 8 hours if you are watching videos or 300 hours on standby.
On the downside there is no Micro SD slot and 16 gig will be quickly used up if you are a fan of HD movies, the cloud storage will be invaluable.
For more information head over to the Nexus 7 site.
Sounds quite good although a Nexus 7 is only one third as good as Altern-8 (joke for rave fans!)
Tanzil
dear oh deary me. that is nice.
Awayze
Great price if you’re a student but Android lacks apps like GoodReader and games.
tonycawley
No it doesn’t at all. Android has millions of good games, and is perfectly capable of reading PDF files.
KeRaSh
This. If I didn’t already have two 10″ tablets at home I’d be all over this. 10″ is perfect for home use but on the go I can definitely see the advantage of a more portable 7″ tab.
Awayze
GoodReader is the BEST PDF app ever! The developers said its not possible on Android due to API’s or something despite loads of requests for it.
tonycawley
Quite honestly, I spend less than a minute a day reading PDF files, and when I do it, it’s at work, not on my phone or a tablet. Tablets for me would be fun, PDF are boring, work-related nonsense.
As far as I’m concerned, if I can read the PDF, I can read the PDF. I dont see how one reader can be better than another, it’s just got to display it for me.
Anyway, each to their own, the ability to read PDF files is not a deciding factor for me when choosing leisure electronics, but perhaps it is for you?
Amphlett
I’m with Mr Cawley here. There are thousands of great Android games and plenty of PDF readers.
A PDF is just a static document to be read, nothing exciting. Whether I read a PDF in a whizz-bang app or a bog standard PDF reader is neither here nor there.
TheDeathAvenger
@Awayze More like they built it with only iOS in mind and would have to basically start from the ground up in order to have it on android.
cc_star
A particular pdf reader is a reason to spend £400 on a tablet over £200? wut
Re. Gaming… There’s hundred of thousands of games & thanks to the Tegra 3 chip in this it will be able to do all the high class console-like gaming too.
Add to that the fact that Android has emulators of just about everything from DOS, NES Master System, Megadrive through to PSOne & N64 there’s no shortage of classics
Then there’s the native support for USB control pads or PS3 controller via Bluetooth
I’d say it’s got every chance of being the home of mobile gaming.
Previous Android tablets haven’t sold in high enough numbers for devs to make specific apps/games for them, the tablets have been iPad priced and just haven’t sold as a result, but a machine as capable as this at half the price of the iPad? I think it will sell & when it does it will attract devs.
Jumping Monks
Have they said when it’s being released?
Dr_mohannad
Yeah, it’s available for pre order now , and will be available in two to three weeks, the screen is too small for a tablet though
DJ Judas
Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Granted using a 10 incher on a solid surface is superior to 7″, but I never use mine at a surface nowadays and it is perfect for handheld usability.
cc_star
I’ve got a 10″ tablet, it’s great for sofa browsing & stuff, but this being the same size as the Kindle Fire, about the size of a book (but thinner) should be amazing for portability as well as being big enough for sofa browsing, it is HD resolution and 216ppi (not a million miles away from double that iPad 2) so it will be able to pack a lot of detail into the screen
DJ Judas
I’d replace my current 7 inch tablet with this in a heartbeat if only it had a micro-SD slot, still, for anyone yet to dip their toes into the tablet pool it’s a brilliant option at a great price.
ron_mcphatty
It looks amazing but because I have speakers for apple products I’m sort of stuck with them now. Fingers crossed for a 7inch iPod touch this year!
tonycawley
This is one of the main reasons I will buy NO Apple products, their proprietary nonsense that prevents you using other devices. I try to keep everything I have interchangable, so until Apple change their ways I wont buy anything of theirs (I know I’m in the huge minority).
MrJimmy
big agree – etched in my memory is the day I was in Carphone Warehouse looking to upgrade my iPhone 3 to either a iPhone 4 or an Android – the iPhone was without doubt the best hw in the shop, but I walked out with an HTC Desire because Apple purposefully broke my iP3 with that iOS4 update it couldnt handle. Outrageous, NEVER again.
cc_star
Yep same happened to me, took 6 months to fix it with 4.1 & it still wasn’t great.
Screwed my Dad’s iPod Touch too, which he’d only bought about 6 weeks before.
Disgusting!
ico
DJ Judas’ 7″ and 10″ comments earlier raised a distinctly childish pfnar pfnar from me I have to admit. Read out of context it’s comic genius. Read in context it’s sensible feedback. The lack of sd slot seems a bit silly though. It’s def not an ipad replacer in my book but could be tempted to flog my kindle and buy it as it benefits from the cheap-enough-to-take-out-of-the-house-without-being-too-scared price tag.
DJ Judas
I’d love to admit this was the intention when I was typing it, but I only realised after it was written :P seemed like too much effort to make it innuendo-less when it was already there though.
ico
Leave it be. It’s just perfect as is. Like one brush stroke too many can spoil a painting. Your comment shall live on in well deserved infamy. Great stuff!
Tomhlord
This is killer.
Erroneus
Picking on up first chance I get. Guess I have to import it from UK, if they are not sold out right away.
Roynaldo
Sold. When i can afford it.
hazelam
that looks pretty damn nice, i’d love a tablet, but the ipad is way out of my price range, so a price like that is much closer to what i could afford.
shame about the memory though, 16 gig isn’t actually a lot these days.
but hey, maybe when i can afford one of these they might have a newer model with an sd card slot.
KeRaSh
I have a 16 GB tablet an I’ve yet to run out of space. I don’t have to keep my whole music and movie database with me all the time. I just transfer what I need.
Got a 32 GB HTC One X and I don’t know what to do with all that memory space. :P
cc_star
Google Music holds 20,000 tracks. Sorted.
Not officially available in the UK of course, but I got it launch by doing the workaround that’s published all over the web.