"‘Amazingly fast’ Google Nexus 7 wows tech pundits"

The Nexus 7. Getty Images

Google launched its very own tablet the Nexus 7, which it co-manufactured with Taiwanese computer maker Asustek.

The tablet called the Nexus 7 because of a 7-inch screen, is seen as a potential threat to Amazon’s Kindle Fire because of its price range, (the Nexus 7 will cost $199). Google’s hardware offering is already getting some rave reviews in the initial responses.

The tech specifications of the tablet include:

• IPS (in-plane switching) screen, with a resolution of 1,280×800 pixels.
• This is the first 7-incher to house a 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core CPU, which includes a 12-core GPU.
• It also has a Micro-USB port, 1GB of RAM, a 1.2-megapixel front camera (no back camera included).

According to Google’s blogpost, the Nexus comes with a load of free content, including movies like Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Books like The Bourne Dominion, magazines like Condé Nast Traveler and Popular Science, as well as songs from bands like Coldplay and the Rolling Stones.  

So what are the early reviews for the Nexus 7 like? The amazing speed at which Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is running on the tablet seems to have caught the attention of everyone at Google’s I/O conference where the Nexus 7 was released.

According to SlashGear,

The Nexus 7 was made to be a device with which you download and consume media from the Google Play store – movies, television shows, music, books, and magazines – and of course games.  The Nexus 7 has the bonus – if you can call it that – of having several hardware/software companies with vested interests in its success: Google, ASUS, and NVIDIA.

A faster OS means that users can download apps with at zip speeds and that appears to be a big plus point. The lack of an expandable memory is however being seen as disappointing news.

The device is also unbelievably light. The reviewers at CNET write,

Built by Asus, the Nexus 7 feels lighter than the Kindle Fire and the soft, textured back makes the tablet comfortable to hold. Apps loaded quickly… The screen looks great, feels responsive, and the tablet already does a good job of demonstrating its power in games and movie performance.

In terms of sound and video, the device also comes up top. According to TechCrunch, HD videos look sharp. Speaker placement is a bit weird but audio quality sounds pretty good. The textured rear looks and feels high-end. 

The initial reviews for the Nexus 7 are mostly positive. For those with a lower budget, Nexus 7 is a faster tablet, with Google’s latest OS and could be decent option. It won’t  be a replacement for the iPad, but it could provide a much better, and reliable alternative to all those endless Android tablets that are there in the market.