Google unveiled its next generation Nexus 7 tablet device on Wednesday at a press event in San Francisco.
It is the first tablet to ship with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro 8064 processor rated at 1.5GHz.
The new Nexus model also went from 216 pixels for each of the display to 323 pixels, the highest DPI of any tablet on the market.
“We’re staying focused on all the things that made the original Nexus 7 so successful,” “We’re staying focused on all the things that made the original Nexus 7 so successful,” a Google spokesperson told attendees.
The tablet is two millimeters slimmer than the original and 50 RAMs lighter. You’ll notice the difference as soon as you pick up the device.
“We really focused on simplifying core elements and decided on black-on-black … added a few glossy details and it feels great in your hands,” he said.
The device, which touts a high-definition LCD display, comes with 5.0MP rear-facing and 1.2MP front-facing cameras, Bluetooth 4.0 and a micro USB 2.0 port for power and data transfer.
Google is also shipping a new 4G LTE version, priced at $349, which comes unlocked and will work with any carrier. It boasts nine hours of video playback and 10 hours of web browsing.
The new mobile operating system will allow users to access restricted profiles, limiting content for certain users. This can be used not only for parental controls, but also in places such as mall kiosks to limit accessibility.
The specs were not necessarily a surprise, especially after the 16 GB and 32 GB devices popped up on Best Buy’s website hours before the event. The retailer’s site listed the price for the 7-inch tablet at $229.99 for 16GB of memory and $269.99 for 32GB. You can find the full listing on Best Buy’s site.
Google has been investing more in tablets in recent years.
“By the end of 2013, people will buy more tablets than computers,” Sundar Pichai, head of Google’s Chrome and Chrome OS projects, told event attendees.
Pichai also noted that there have been 70 million tablet activations. By the first half of 2013, he said, one in two tablets sold worldwide are now based on Android.
Although you can preorder the Nexus 7, it will be available on Google Play and Amazon as well as at retailers including Best Buy, GameStop, Walmart and Radio Shack starting July 30.
