It wasn't too much of a surprise, given all the leaks earlier this week, but Google earlier today announced its Nexus 7 tablet at the IO developers conference.
The tablet is made by Asus, and may be a modified version of the 7" Memo 370T tablet Asus showed off at Nvidia's press conference at CES. Both tablets run a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, though the Memo was announced at $250. Google's Nexus 7 is priced at $200 for an 8GB model and $250 for a 16GB version. It will ship with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Here are the other technical specs of note:
- Quad-core Tegra 3, 1GB RAM
- 1280x800 IPS display with Corning glass
- 340 grams (.75 pounds)
- 1.2MP front-camera
- 4325 mAh battery (supposedly 8 hours)
- Micro USB port, Microphone, GPS, NFC, standard suite of motion sensors
- Wi-Fi (no cellular)
The Nexus 7 is available for pre-order now on Google's Play Store. With shipping and tax (in California), the 8GB model actually comes out to $230, which prices it $30 more than the current Kindle Fire. It's also lighter and just a little thinner than Amazon's tablet. Google is also throwing in $25 of Play store credit as well as free copies of select books and video. Hooray for Transformers 3?