Google Nexus 7 takes on the Amazon Kindle Fire and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0

The Google Nexus 7 tablet is finally official and it’s time to see if it can do the job it’s meant for – be a real-world alternative to the Amazon Kindle Fire and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0.

The Android tablet manufacturers (except for Asus and its Transformer prime) learned the hard way that their tablets need to be as affordable as possible to gain some traction. Amazon led the way pricing its Kindle Fire at $199 and made a huge impact, but eight months later there has only been one slate to come close to its price point, while still offering decent hardware – the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0.


That’s probably why Google took matters into its own hands and asked ASUS to manufacture the Nexus 7 tablet. Priced at the unbelievable $199 it brings a super-fast quad-core Tegra 3 chipset and a nicely sounding IPS screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. Some sacrifices had to be made, of course – a back-mounted camera didn’t make it to the specs sheet though, and neither did a microSD card slot. Now the question remains if the Nexus 7 is still enough of an improvement to finally make Android the leading platform in the tablet as well? Maybe the specs comparison below can lead us to the answer.

	Google Nexus 7	Amazon Kindle Fire	Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
OS	Android 4.1 Jelly Bean	Android OS, v2.3 (heavily customized)	Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
Display	7-inch IPS LCD	7-inch IPS TFT	7-inch PLS LCD
Resolution	1280 x 800 pixels	1024 x 600 pixels	1024 x 600 pixels
Height	198.5 mm	190 mm	193.7 mm
Width	120 mm	120 mm	122.4 mm
Thickness	10.45 mm	11.4 mm	10.5 mm
Weight	340 grams	413 grams	344 grams
Processor	1.3 GHz quad-core Cortex A9 (nVidia Tegra 3 chipset)	1 GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 ( TI OMAP 4430 chipset)	1 GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 ( TI OMAP 4430 chipset)
Storage	8 / 16GB	8GB	8/16/32 GB
microSD	No	No	Yes, up to 64GB
RAM	1GB	512 MB	1GB
Main camera	No	No	3.15 MP
Main camera Features	-	-	• Geo-tagging • Face and smile detection • Touch focus • 1080p video recording
Front-facing camera	Yes, 1.2MP (720p)	No	Yes, VGA
Wi-Fi	802.11 a/b/g/n	802.11 a/b/g/n	802.11 a/b/g/n
USB	microUSB port	microUSB port	microUSB port, USB On-the-go support
NFC	Yes	No	No
Bluetooth	Yes	No	Yes, v3.0 with A2DP, HS
Infrared port	No	No	Yes
Battery	Li-Ion 4325 mAh	Li-Ion 4400 mAh	Li-Ion 4000 mAh
Sensors	• Accelerometer • Gyroscope • Proximity • Compass	• Accelerometer	• Accelerometer • Gyroscope • Proximity • Compass
Availability	July, 2012	Currently available	Currently available
Price	$199 – 8GB $249 – 16GB	$199 – 8GB -	$304 – 8GB $332 – 16GB

Undoubtedly, one of the benefits of owning a Nexus 7 tablet would be the guaranteed Android updates. The device is shipping with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and is surely scheduled to receive many more of the Android releases to come. The Amazon Kindle Fire is very unlikely to see any updates and all and nobody knows exactly when, if ever, Samsung is going to update the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 from ICS to Jelly Bean.

However, a tablet is going to be largely used for multimedia, watching movies and listening to music, so storage space is crucial. To cut costs, neither the Nexus 7, nor the Kindle Fire have a microSD card slot. This is where the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 has a serious advantage and will probably be the preferred tablet by video enthusiasts.

In the end, though, it feels like the Nexus 7 is the best package of the three, being able to deliver a last-generation chipset and stock Android experience at a super attractive price point and its sales will probably reflect that.