The tablet, made for Google by Asus, features a seven inch 1280 by 800 resolution high definition IPS display and of course a front facing camera (1.2 megapixels may not be the best camera resolution but is fine for video chats and also suitable for use with facial recognition apps).
The new tablet will ship with the as yet unreleased new version of Android known as Jellybean (Android 4.1) and the inclusion of nfc, bluetooth and gps make this a very impressive tablet when you consider the price starts at just £150 for the version with eight gigabytes of storage. Yes, as you may have guessed the Nexus 7 does not have space for a memory card.To price such a well spec'd tablet at such a budget price Google and Asus, who make the Nexus tablet for them, have had to find ways to save money and so the sd slot didn't make the cut.
Will a tablet with eight, or sixteen (if you buy the higher priced model), gigabytes of storage really be worth buying? For dedicated gamers maybe not, you can easily use up that much space installing games such as mass effect, deadspace, grand theft auto three and so on but for anyone other than hardcore gamers the answer is a definite yes.
First there is the size. A seven inch tablet is easy to hold in your hands, easy to carry with you (in a bag or case for example) and is the perfect size to use as an e-reader or browsing the internet. It's also great for gaming as, aside from the lack of storage, gaming on a seven inch tablet is actually quite an enjoyable experience and being small, but not too small, high def graphics squeezed onto a seven inch screen look stunning and of course thanks to a built in gyroscope and accelerometer you can also use it as a controller in some games.
For example in Asphalt your tablet can become the steering wheel of your in game car simply by moving in the direction of travel, as you would turn a steering wheel you just turn the tablet slightly and the car moves with you.
The target audience for Googles tablet will be those who might otherwise purchase tablets like the Kindle Fire but make no mistake they are not planning this to be just a glorified web browser and book reader.
The Nexus tablet is also intended to be used for casual gaming and streaming video (hence the reason why the Play store has just been updated to include tv shows as well as, for those who want to read on the go, magazines) and for satellite navigation (for which a seven inch screen comes in much more useful than those on most dedicated satellite navigation systems which tend to be a lot smaller).
Opinion is divided as to just how well the Nexus 7 tablet will sell but don't be surprised if it does a lot better than some pundits expect.
Why?
Android has a lot of users, those with phones (or more recently pocket tv devices such as the Mk802) but not tablets are more likely to get an android tablet if they choose to buy one because they are already used to the way it works and can use their apps on both phone and tablet.
It has a very hard to beat price. You just can't buy a similar size tablet with a quad core cpu, twelve core gpu, high definition ips screen, nfc, gps and bluetooth for a similar price. And when it goes on sale in the next few weeks (in UK, USA, Canada and Australia first, followed by more countries sometime after) it will also have the destinction of being the only Jellybean android available.
But the biggest reason this will do well is because it can be a jack of all trades, do them all equally well, satisfy the needs of most users and do so for the cost of a much lower spec product. This, coupled with Googles brand name and guaranteed system updates when new versions of Android are released, will make this the tablet of choice for a wide variety of people.
The thorn in Googles side, Apple, may have something to say about this though. Rumours continue to persist, as they have for months now, that the Cupertino company plan to release a seven inch ipad this year. There is no firm evidence of this other than mostly anonymous sources so it's far from certain to be true however if Apple ignore the advice of the late Steve Jobs, who said seven inch tablets were doomed to failure, and release a mini ipad at a similar price it could make things very tough for Apples rivals.
However releasing a budget priced mini ipad might also harm Apples status, the company is known for producing products that market at a notably higher price than its competitors which helps encourage an image of them as higher status items and entering the arena of budget tablets could damage this, perhaps tarnishing the air of prestige that many Apple owners associate with the company.
One thing is for sure, it's going to be a good year to buy your first tablet.
