Monday, August 06, 2012

Google Nexus 7 UK price, specifications and release date | Expert Reviews

Google Nexus 7 UK price, specifications and release date | Expert Reviews


The budget Android market hasn't exactly inspired a lot of confidence, with poor-quality models dominating the range. Things look set to change, though, with the Google Nexus 7 – the Android manufacturer's own-brand budget tablet.
Designed and built by Asus – responsible for the rather excellent Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime – the Google Nexus 7 is available for pre-order in the Google Play store for just £159 including VAT for the 8GB version (a 16GB version is available for £199).
Google Nexus S rear with Asus branding
Designed and built by Asus, the Google Nexus 7 has impressive specs and a very low price.
It's certainly a budget price, taking on the ultra-cheap small-brand manufacturers and the likes of the Amazon Kindle Fire, which has still to see a UK release date.
Fortunately, price is the only thing that appears to be budget about this product. The 7in display has a 1,280x800 resolution, which is considerably higher than most budget models, and uses IPS technology, which should mean excellent viewing angles.
Google Nexus S front
An IPS screen should provide excellent viewing angles, while the 1,280x800 resolution display is a step up from most budget Android tablets.
Tablets around this price usually skimp on the processor, but a 1.3GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 system-on-a-chip means that this will be one of the most powerful tablets available.
Google is promising that the 4,325mAh battery will give up to eight hours' active use. This shouldn't put the tablet too far behind the new iPad, which has an 11,666mAh battery that lasted just over 11 hours when playing a video in our battery test.
It will be the first device to run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. This new OS will have improved voice search and Google Now, which gives you information as you need it, such as today's weather and the traffic situation for your journey to work.
Impressively, the Nexus 7 will be out in mid-July, with the UK Google Play store currently saying that devices will ship in two-to-three weeks. If it's anything like as good as it looks on paper, this will be the Android tablet to buy.