Google unveiled its Nexus 7 tablet and Android 4.1 update. We did deeper and take a more technical look. But that's not all. We go over some new additions on Google+, and share a quick demo of an impressive HTML5-based game (hold the laughter, please).

There were two gadgets announced at Google I/O 2012: Nexus Q and Nexus 7. We covered both announcements yesterday, and we'll dig deeper into the hardware once we get back down to Southern California. In the meantime, though, we wanted to share some of our thoughts on the 7. 


As Google's first branded tablet, the Nexus 7 is an impressive device. We've always considered tablets complements to the digital experience; they don't really replace anything, though. To that end, the 10" tablets cycling in and out of our lab seem to come across as neat gadgets. But a piece of hardware with a 7" screen is a lot smaller, and thus more manageable.

Manufactured by Asus, the Nexus 7 is much more portable than many of the company's own branded products. Google is clearly going after customers tempted by the Kindle Fire (not an altogether bad piece of hardware; read The Amazon Kindle Fire: Benchmarked, Tested, And Reviewed). With both priced at $200, Google has this one in the bag. To recap, the Fire is chunkier, uses a version of Android that prevents you from accessing Google Play (previously Android Marketplace), lacks a camera, and employs a lower-end OMAP 4430 SoC.


In contrast, the Nexus 7 is slimmer and only weighs 340 grams (Kindle Fire is ~415 g). It actually feels a lot more like our E Ink-based Kindle Keyboard (third-gen) than the Fire. There are no app installation restrictions, and it runs Android 4.1, rather than Amazon's more tightly controlled Android 2.3-based ecosystem.
The Nexus 7 also includes a decent front-facing camera/mic, which will let you Skype to your heart's content. This was a feature lacking from the Fire. Performance should also prove to be impressive, since the Nexus 7 employs a version of Nvidia's Tegra 3,.

GLBenchmark 2.1.4	Transformer Pad (TF300T)	Transformer Prime (TF201)	Nexus 7
SoC	Tegra 3 (T30L)	Tegra 3 (T30)	Tegra 3 (?)
Android	4.0 (ICS)	4.0 (ICS)	4.1 (Jelly Bean)
Egypt Standard	5752 frames (51 FPS)	5720 frames (51 FPS)	5968 frames (53 FPS)
Egypt Fixed	62.768 s (45 FPS)	65.250 s (45 FPS)	59.279 s (48 FPS)
Egypt Offscreen (720p)	7178 frames (64 FPS)	7122 frames (63 FPS)	7073 frames (63 FPS)
Pro Standard	2796 frames (56 FPS)	2744 frames (55 FPS)	2830 frames (57 FPS)
Pro Fixed	22.982 s (54 FPS)	23.599 s (53 FPS)	22.515 s (56 FPS)
Pro Offscreen (720p)	4006 frames (80 FPS)	3827 frames (76 FPS)	4095 frames (82 FPS)

According to Google, Jelly Bean makes this tablet faster than Asus' Transformer Prime. While the Nexus 7 doesn't have a clear lead, you can see in the scores above that GLBenchmark seems to support that claim to some degree
Amazon didn't set out to make the Fire a fast, sexy chat-enabled tablet, though. It's a content purchasing and delivery mechanism. Google clearly has nice hardware, but without the same retail presence, its Google Play store might not realize the same level of success.

Googles’s first tablet impresses in a big way. Light, lean, and packed with Jelly Bean, the low-priced Nexus 7 hits the sweet spot and plays all the right notes. If the “perfect” tablet is what you seek, the one-of-a-kind Nexus 7 might be it.
Despite the flurry of recent Google-branded device launches, I believe the company will have a hard time shaking the perception that it's primarily a software company, much like Amazon is a commerce company with a tablet device that makes it easier to spend money on Amazon. But what's Google's play in its Nexus 7?
Up until now, Google's many hardware partners have been the ones actually doing battle with Apple for market supremacy. This works out well for Google, though, freeing the company to focus on a more robust software ecosystem (fragmented as it might be) as its partners throw themselves at innovating on the hardware side.
As a result, what we have now is a remarkably diverse landscape of Android-based devices appealing to almost every need.
A perfect tablet, if there is such a thing, requires hardware and software that serve to complement each other. For example, Sony’s Tablet S is a multimedia buff’s dream because it includes so many home theater-inspired design cues. The Tablet S has a great audio setup, it's ergonomic, and it includes a built-in TV remote. Likewise, the Kindle Fire is perfect for Amazon addicts because its Android ecosystem is specifically modified to support all things Amazon. Hardware and software that appears to have been designed in concert creates a magic far greater than the individual pieces on their own.
And that's why Apple's tablets succeed. Apple is obsessed with controlling both sides of the design and manufacturing process. Could that have been Google's impetus for working more closely with a hardware partner on its own branded tablet?


Needless to say, the company's dramatic Nexus 7 unveiling at its I/O 2012 event came as no surprise. The Nexus 7 is Google's first official tablet offering. But it's the product of many lessons learned from a number of hardware partners, so we expect it to hit the ground running, without the teething pains observed from a number of other first-gen Android-based designs.

Tablet	Operating System	Screen Size	Resolution	Price
Nexus 7 (8 GB)	Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)	7"	1280x800	$199
Nexus 7 (16 GB)	Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)	7"	1280x800	$249
Kindle Fire (8 GB)	Customized Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)	7"	1024x600	$199

We think that the Nexus 7 is a very sexy-looking tablet. Its svelte design turns heads, as does its list of features, respectable 8 GB of storage capacity on the base model, and $199 price tag. It also appears as direct competition for Amazon's popular Kindle Fire. The main differentiator is that Google's Nexus 7 runs a completely unaltered version of Android 4.1, code-named Jelly Bean, giving it access to Google Play, a feature sorely lacking on the Kindle Fire. 


Under the hood, Nexus 7 offers brawn to match its beauty, employing Nvidia's powerful Tegra 3 SoC. As we noted in Asus Transformer Prime TF201: A Tablet With A Higher Calling, Tegra 3 doesn't actually offer the best GPU performance, despite the chip's pedigree. However, Nvidia argues that the currently-available benchmarks aren't able to tap into the platform's potential. And it's telling to us that many of the more graphically-intensive games for Android are either optimized for or outright require Nvidia's hardware.

Specifications	Length	Width	Height	Screen Size	Resolution	Aspect Ratio	Weight
Google Nexus 7	7.8”	4.7”	0.41”	7”	1280x800	16:10	0.75 lb.
Amazon Kindle Fire	7.5"	4.7"	0.45"	7"	1024x600	16:10	0.89 lb.
Apple iPad 2 (3G)	9.5"	7.31"	.34"	9.7"	1024x768	4:3	1.33 lb.
Apple iPad 3 (3G)	9.5"	7.31"	.37"	9.7"	2048x1536	4:3	1.46 lb.
Motorola Xoom	9.8	6.6"	.5"	10.1"	1280x800	16:10	1.5 lb.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1	10.1"	6.9"	0.34"	10.1"	1280x800	16:10	1.3 lb.

More than anything else, we're impressed with the Nexus 7’s physical design. It was easy to fall in love with the Fire's 7" screen, and we immediately started eschewing the tablets sporting larger screens. They simply felt too cumbersome to carry around. But, like the Fire, Google's Nexus 7 makes it more mobile.

Both the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire are roughly the same size as a typical e-book reader. Amazon's Fire is a beefcake at 0.89 lb and 0.45” (11.4 mm) thick, though, whereas the Nexus 7 only weighs 0.75 lb. and measures 0.41” (10.45 mm) thick. The difference in weight doesn't appear so distinct, but it also doesn't convey how much more comfortable the Nexus 7 is to hold and use. The Kindle Fire's frame is squared-off and blocky, which frankly feels a little awkward. The Nexus 7 employs tapered and angular edges, with a textured rubber back cover.
Many folks find fault with the fact that Google's Nexus 7 lacks a rear-facing camera, but I think that's a completely unnecessary feature on a tablet. If I need to take a snapshot, I reach for a smartphone. The folks I've seen taking pictures in public places using tablets look ridiculous. Now, a front-facing camera is more important, since it can conceivably be used for videoconferencing. And the Nexus 7 includes a 1.2 MP sensor with a built-in microphone expressly for that purpose. The Kindle Fire, on the other hand, does not have a front-facing camera. Advantage, Google.

The development history behind the Nexus 7 is shrouded in some mystery. It was originally known as Asus’ Eee Pad MeMo 370T, and if you flip the Nexus 7 over you'll find a label with the 370T model number. Google's Eric Schmidt stated the company would unveil a tablet back in December of 2011, and a year later, at CES 2012, Asus announced that it would sell its MeMo 370T for $249. Oddly, the MeMo 370T disappeared from view shortly after, and Asus acted as if its CES announcement never happened.
In retrospect, Google may have been impressed enough with the MeMo 370T that it contracted with Asus to produce the Nexus 7. Some have pointed out that Asus is an odd partner choice after Google acquired Motorola Mobility, but that merger was not completed until May 2012. The Nexus 7 would have had to be in development already.