If you thought we had heard the last from Mountain View at their I/O conference, then you were very wrong. Yes Google announced Jelly Bean, the newest version of their mobile operating system, (read about it here) but there is yet more to learn.
You may be familiar with Google's Nexus range of phones. A Google-specified set of handsets, designed to showcase the best 'vanilla' version of Android, without the turgid crapware or ham-fisted skin that often comes with the green robot. The set of phones has been very successful, and successfully serves as a flagship model for the Android march.
But what about tablets? Well El Goog has struggled in this particular area, with almost all the Android tablets struggling to gain traction in an iPad dominated world. There have been complaints of sluggishness, poor battery life and a Marketplace almost totally devoid of tablet apps.
The only exception to this has been Amazon's Kindle Fire. Whoch has carved out a niche for itself as a cheap as chips, Amazon centric entertainment 7 incher. Well get ready, because Google has just killed the Kindle Fire. Behold: the Nexus 7 tablet.
BEAUTIFUL, CHEAP AND QUALITY HARDWARE
The new tablet is made by Asus, which you may know from the keyboarded Transformer series, and is actually a really nice machine. It's thin and light, and the back is made from some sort of material that feels really nice. It reportedly feels like a mix between rubber and leather, a sensation which helps to create a premium finish for what is definitely a budget tablet.
Around the front is a very luxurious 7 inch IPS screen, and while the resolution can't quie match in iPad 3 in terms of sheer pixel pushing, it's bright and sharp enough to provide a comfortable experience when sucking down the Google koolaid.
Inside the tablet is a quad-core Tegra 3 proccessor, and performance is reportedly very snappy indeed. The chips inside make use of the new enhancements in Android 4.1's 'Project Butter' to ensure that everything launhces and runs quickly and smoothly.
Speaking of Android 4.1, there have been several nice updates to the Google Play store. You can now buy magazines to read on your phone or tablet, and TV episodes are now available for renting or buying.
But what makes this tablet special is not it's hardware, or software, or anything available on the Play store. It's the price. At just £159 for the 8GB version of this tablet, the Nexus 7 offers amazing value. It has comparable or better specs to many current £400+ tablets, at a price that rivals the Amazon Kindle Fire. Watch out guys, Google means business now.
