Google I/O 2012: Google Nexus 7 tablet officially announced, starts at $199

The Google I/O conference kicked off a few hours ago and as expected, the brand has taken the wraps off their first Google branded tablet, the Nexus 7. Talks of the price being paramount to the tablet’s success had been since quite some time and Google added a ton of high-end hardware to the mix and have kept the price down to a minimum by pricing it at $199 for the base model, which comes in a storage capacity of 8GB.

As for the specifications, Google’s Eric Schmidt, last year, had said that this would be a high quality tablet and Google have delivered on all counts. This model comes equipped with a 7-inch IPS display that boasts a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels and is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core Tegra 3 chip. As for the memory, Google have added a 1GB RAM, which should be able to match up with the best in the business. This tablet should be a gamer's delight  and Google has touted it to be a serious gaming device as the brand has added a 12-core NVIDIA GeForce GPU as well to the fray.

The Google Nexus 7 tablet unveiled

This tablet, manufactured by ASUS is not just designed to take on Apple’s highly successful iPad, but will also pose a stiff threat to the Amazon Kindle Fire and Google aims to tackle the competition better with its pricing strategy. The Google Nexus 7 tablet is available in two storage capacities, which are 8GB and 16GB and the brand has priced it extremely competitively at $199 and $249, respectively. This puts rest to the countless rumours surrounding the pricing of the tablet, some of which had pointed out that the price would be in the sub-$200 price bracket.

As far as connectivity is concerned, there had been rumours that the Google Nexus 7 tablet would not come equipped with 3G connectivity, in order to keep the price to a minimum and the brand have done just that. The connectivity options found on this flagship Google Nexus 7 tablet, include Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth and NFC capabilities. This tablet also comes with Google Wallet pre-installed. As for the camera featured here, it comes as no surprise that Google has just added only a front facing camera that can be used for video calls, but what is interesting is that this camera can shoot HD 720p videos.

When it comes to the size, this 7-inch tablet measures 198.5 x 120 x 10.5 mm and weighs 340g. These dimensions allow it to go head-to-head with the Amazon Kindle Fire.

The Google Nexus 7 will be the first device running on Google’s latest operating software, which is Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. As for the availability, consumers from United States, Canada, Australia and the UK can pre-order the tablet from the Google Play store. Google have announced that the delivery for this tablet is scheduled for mid-July.

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