As expected search engine giant Google has unveiled its latest version of Nexus tablet made by Asus of Taiwant at an event in San Francisco in US on 24th July.
Google has not tinkered with screen size of the new tablet and the new Nexus tablet has the 7 inch screen same like earlier iteration, but its resolution has been enhanced and this new tablet sports FullHD resolution (1920 x 1200 pixels). It is powered by a quad-core 1.5 GHz Snapdragon Pro chip and Adreno 320 graphics chip, alongside 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage. Google Nexus Tablet variant with 32GB internal storage will also be available.
According to the Google, the processor of new Nexus tablet is around 80% faster compared to the chip that powered old Nexus 7. The graphics performance in the new tablet is up by 400% compared to its predecessor.
This tablet comes with 5MP rear and 1.2MP front camera. The new Nexus 7 will run on the latest Android Jelly Bean version 4.3. The new version of Android is also available for Nexus 4, old Nexus 7 and Nexus 10. The new tablet is also almost 2 mm thinner and weighs around 50 grams less than the old Nexus 7. It will be available in Wi-Fi and LTE versions. The newer Nexus 7 will have dual stereo speakers with 5.1 audio, and will sport Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and dual-band WiFi capabilities. The tablet has a 3,950 mAH battery that will last you for a good ten hours of active use and can be charged wirelessly.
The price of Nexus 16GB version is $229 and 32GB version will cost $269 in US and will be available on Goolge play store in US and in retail stores across US by this week-end. There is no word about its availability in India.
While unveiling the new Nexus tablet, Sundar Pichai, the head of Android and Chrome divisions at Google, said that Nexus 7 has been a huge success after it launched last year. It constitutes 10% of all Android tablets sold in the last year. “So far over 70 million Android tablets have been activated across the world versus a pace of about 10 million at the end of 2012,,” said Pichai.
Google and other traditionally non-hardware companies such as Amazon and Microsoft have begun making inroads into mobile devices as consumers increasingly access the Web on the go. It introduced its first tablet in June 2012, hoping to replicate its smartphone success in a hot market presently dominated by Amazon’s Kindle Fire, Apple Inc’s iPad. This new Nexus tablet will pose challenge to mini iPad of Apple and Kindle Fire HD of Amazon.
The updated Android 4.3 version unveiled by Google is similar to Android 4.2 in terms of user interface. But there are a few new features. Of these, the most important are new set of settings for multi-user accounts and ability to restrict content for different users on a device,similar to what Windows allows.
Google also unveiled the new device, called Chromecast, just for $35 which allows users to stream videos from an iOS or Android devices onto the big screen. Chromecast is a small stick roughly the same size as a thumb drive that can be plugged into an HDMI port on flat-panel TVs. It brings Netflix, Google’s YouTube site and other Internet content to what is usually the biggest screen in households.
Google wants to have a presence on TVs because it could open up a lucrative new channel for it to sell more ads, which bring in most of its revenue.
Google’s Chromoset will compte with Internet-streaming devices made by Apple and Roku. An Apple TV box sells for $99, while the least expensive Roku box capable of showing high-definition video goes for $80. Roku, a company that formed within Internet video subscription service Netflix Inc., also sells an Internet streaming stick similar to Chromecast for $100.
Earlier this year, Apple revealed that it has sold more than 13 million of its streaming boxes. Roku said its sales of streaming boxes surpassed 5 million units this year.
The Chromecast device connects with smartphones, tablets and personal computers to beam Internet connect to TVs. The Apple and Roku streaming boxes rely on a standard remote control to select Internet content.
(With inputs from AP)
