As predicted, Google unveiled the ASUS-manufactured Nexus 7 tablet today at its I/O conference in San Francisco.
Available at the $199 price point – with a $25 credit for Google Play – for the 8GB version, and $249 for the 16GB edition, the tablet is currently available for pre-order and will ship mid-July.
The Nexus 7 is powered by a Tegra 3 chipset with a quad-core CPU and 12-core GPU, which amounts to “basically 16 cores” according to Android product manager Hugo Barra.
During the keynote Google said the tablet will have a screen with a resolution of 1280×800, a front-facing camera, and the usual connectivity options like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC. The Nexus 7 will run the latest release of Android, Jelly Bean.
As Google is promoting the integration of the Nexus 7 and Google Play as well as launching at the $199 price point, this device is set to compete head to head with the Amazon Kindle Fire.
For the Canadian consumer, this will be a battle between which company’s store has more content available: currently the Kindle Fire’s appstore is not available in Canada essentially crippling the device north of the 49th parallel. In Canada, Google Play does not offer music but has a wide selection of movies and books available.
