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At the annual Google I/O developer conference in San
Francisco, the audience were 'wowed' in unison as Hugo Barra , the
Director of
Google Product Management, announced that the Nexus 7 will be
powered by a
NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor and a 12-core GPU. With a 1280
X 800 HD
display and a starting price tag of $199, there is no other 7-inch
tablet with
this much value for money.
Of course, Google has come out with this device not
to compete with the iPad, but to loosen the grip the Amazon Kindle
Fire has on
the market, and it seems the Nexus 7 will just shrug it aside.
Here is a comparison between the
Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire
Google Nexus
Display: 1280 x 800
Weight: 0.75 pounds
Thickness: 0.41 inches
Processor: 1.3 Ghz Quad-Core
RAM: 1 GB
Price: US$199
Amazon Kindle Fire
Display: 1024 x 600
Weight: 0.91 pounds
Thickness: 0.45 inches
Processor: 1.0 Ghz Dual-Core
RAM: 512 MB
Price: US$199
As you can see in
the specs comparison above, the Nexus 7 kills the Kindle Fire in
every department. Its
battery life is also better than the Kindle Fire, and is deeply
integrated with
many Google products, such as YouTube, Google Reader and Gmail.
The only drawback
with Nexus is that it is fairly low on storage, with only variants
of 8 GB and
16 GB available, and no microSD slot for expansion of memory.
However,
potential Nexus 7 customers do not need to fret. The tablet is
tightly coupled
with the Google Play Store, which offers Android apps, music,
movies and
magazines to the user. Since Google Play is cloud based, any
content from the
store can just be streamed onto the Nexus 7, so the shortage of
memory is far
from a killer blow.
Would you like a
Jelly Bean?
Google also
revealed the new version of Android, 4.1, which has
been named Jelly Bean. This OS will be ported with the Nexus 7. It
offers some
cool new features. The most exciting new feature would have to be
Google Now,
which basically functions as a smart virtual assistant. It uses
the user's
search history, location, and calendar to make intelligent
suggestions that
will make their life easier. For example, it will remember your
usual route
from home to work, and suggest alternative routes with less
traffic. It can
recommend good restaurants while you are walking down a street,
and even
suggest a dish to order at a food joint. It can also be queried
with general knowledge
questions, to which it will provide responses in the form of
'cards', which are
like virtual flash cards of critical information. There are many
other
interface-related features that have been added in 4.1, which make
it better than
its predecessor, IceCream Sandwich.
In conclusion
It should be a
no-brainer that the Nexus 7 trumps the Kindle
Fire. Both in terms of hardware and software, Nexus is set to be a
hit in the
tablet market. Although the tablet will not usurp the throne of
the iPad as
king of tablets, it definitely signals Google's intent to grab a
strong
following in the market. The Nexus 7 is currently only available
for order
through Google Play in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. It is
currently not
clear if the device will be released in the Indian market.