Hasta La Gadget!

There are very few good, original movies these days. Most of what hits the silver screens are prequels as well as sequels of a particular franchise, and the audience continue to lap it up regardless. Well, I guess the same can be said of hardware, especially in the consumer electronics realm – narrowing it down to portable devices like smartphones and tablets. From the Samsung Galaxy S, we have seen it “grow” to end up at the Galaxy S4 at the moment, while the iPhone has ended up as the iPhone 5 till today, with whispers of an iPhone 5S or iPhone 6 on the way. The Asus-manufactured Nexus 7 tablet is no different, and it is all set to embrace a next generation model, simply known as the new Nexus 7.

Just what kind of hardware can you expect this sequel to carry? For starters, this 7” tablet is touted to boast of the highest resolution for a 7” tablet in the world – at 1,920 x 1,200 pixels on its 10-point touch IPS panel at 323ppi pixel density. Apart from that, a quad-core 1.5GHz S4 Pro Qualcomm processor would keep it chugging along nicely without any slowdown, where it is accompanied by an Adreno 320 GPU, 2GB RAM, and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean right out of the box. Should you wish to hook up the new Nexus 7, it can do so via NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11n connectivity, with the option of wireless charging capability thrown into the mix. In front lies a 1.2-megapixel shooter, while at the back there is a 5-megapixel camera.

Going on sale via Google’s online store in the US, expect the new Nexus 7 to hit other markets in due time. For those who were hoping that the next generation Nexus 7 tablets will arrive with the same price tags as before, you will be slightly disappointed. After all, better hardware does command a higher price point, does it not? Good thing Google and Asus have managed to keep overall costs relatively low still, where the 16GB model will retail for $229, which is $30 more expensive than its predecessor, but still a whole lot more affordable than the cheapest iPad mini. As for those who want to pick up the 32GB Nexus 7, you will have to fork out $269 for it.

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[ Nexus 7 tablet announced copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

If you’re getting ready to buy a brand new tablet on the smaller end of the spectrum and you’re deciding between the new Nexus 7 and the iPad mini, you may very well be asking yourself the wrong question. This comparison goes well beyond the basics – screen sharpness, body size, and processing power – and it’s not just about Android vs iOS, either. Unless you’re just planning on browsing the web, these two tablets are cut from completely different bits of cloth.

With the 2013 edition of the Nexus 7, you’re working with ASUS as a manufacturer, the same as the original Nexus 7 – Apple, on the other hand, manufactures their own hardware and controls their software experience top-to-bottom as well. This release from Google comes with Android 4.3, an upgrade to their operating system being made for the rest of their Nexus smartphone and tablet line just today as well.

The Apple iPad mini (this is the original iPad mini, mind you), works with a 7.9-inch IPS LCD display with 1024 x 768 pixel resolution, coming in at 163 PPI. The Nexus 7 (2013) works with a 7-inch display with 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution, that kicking it up to the new most densely-packed panel in the tablet universe at 323 PPI.

*Note: the smartphone market still wins with the HTC One bringing on 468 PPI, and if the pixels from the Nexus 7 were packed into the same space as the HTC One works with across a 4.7-inch display, it’d narrowly miss the spot for kingship itself.

Inside the iPad mini you’ve got an Apple-branded 1GHz dual-core A5 processor, while the Nexus 7 2 works with a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz, working with Adreno 320 graphics. The Apple iPad mini works with 512MB of RAM while the Google tablet ramps up to 2GB RAM.

We’ll have to wait for benchmark tests to see how these two compare, but when you’ve got two massively different operating systems and two rather different sets of hardware to run them, comparisons are best left to real-life use-tests. We’ll see how it rolls soon enough!

The Nexus 7 2 works with a 1.2 megapixel camera on its front and a 5 megapixel camera at its back, the same as the iPad mini – but as both machines work with completely different camera architecture (it’s not just based on numbers), we’ll have to wait – again – and see how the two compare in real-life video and photo shoots.

The iPad mini currently exists in three configurations as far as internal storage goes: 16, 32, and 64GB, while the 2013 Nexus 7 has been shown in 16GB and 32GB iterations. Nexus 7 2 works with Bluetooth 4.0, dual-band Wi-fi, 4G LTE with each of the USA’s major mobile carriers, and NFC. The iPad mini has these same features in-tact save the NFC – it has none.

UPDATE: The Nexus 7 works with T-Mobile while the iPad mini works with Sprint, while both can work with Verizon or AT&T.

Apple’s iPad mini uses its own unique Lightening cord to connect to your PC or the wall for power while the Nexus 7 2 uses a standard microUSB port. The 2013 Nexus 7 works with wireless charging – QI standard wireless charging, that is – as well.

The Apple iPad mini has a relatively wide range of costs, different for each of its storage sizes and connectivity: $329 (16GB Wi-Fi), $429 (32GB Wi-Fi), $529 (64GB Wi-Fi), $459 (16GB 4G LTE), $559 (32GB 4G LTE), $659 (64GB 4G LTE). The Google Nexus 7 reboot rings in at $229 (16GB Wi-Fi), $269 (32GB Wi-Fi), $349 (32GB 4G LTE), and at the moment appears to be starting shipping on the 30th of July, 2013, with 4G LTE editions coming “soon”.

Nexus 7 2013 vs iPad mini: more than a pixel race is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

After Google’s Nexus 7 announcement today, we had the opportunity to put the new device through its paces and it did not disappoint. The new unit is noticeably lighter than its predecessor and its narrower form factor makes it easier to fit in a back pocket without busting seams.

Read more…

Google unveiled the latest in its flagship tablet lineup, the new Nexus 7, at a low-key media event Wednesday morning.

Google this week brings a new Nexus 7 to the market along with software updates that will allow full-screen sharing through Hangouts. What this means for the lay person is that, when you connect with a friend or colleague with the Android app Hangouts, you’ll not just be able to do video and text chat, you’ll be able to share the images on your tablet’s screen as well. This includes document editing as well.

NOTE: This feature was shown by Google as a PREVIEW, meaning it won’t be released today, but some time in the near future. We’ll let you know when it’s time!

In a wave of app updates that’ll certainly be coming to all Android devices sooner than later, the Nexus 7 was demonstrated to be working with a boost to Google Drive, as well. There you’ll have a new more user-friendly interface with tiles and a new navigation drawer.

This ties in well with a recent bit of chat on extending the Chrome screen mirroring abilities we saw earlier this year to Android. Soon both mobile devices and your desktop machines will be able o share heir abilities in more than just file folders. It won’t matter which machine you’re on, you’ll be able to access the other from anywhere.

For now, you’ll want to stick around SlashGear’s Android portal all day long – we’ll be seeing more on the Nexus 7 reboot and a vast collection of updates to Android Jelly Bean with 4.3.

Nexus 7 brings Hangouts update for tablet-based screen-sharing [UPDATE] is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.