Will Google’s upgraded Nexus 7 challenge Apple’s iPad mini?

The new Nexus 7 tablet is shown next to an older version during a Google event. (AP)

Published Friday, July 26, 2013

By Joseph George

Google has just announced its new revamped Nexus 7 with three major upgrades – screen resolution, wireless charging and a brand new Android 4.3, putting pressure on Apple and its much-anticipated next edition of iPad mini.

The company has once again tied up with ASUS for the second edition of the Nexus 7.

“Together with ASUS, we took what you loved about the original Nexus 7 and made it even better,” a posting on the official Google Blog said.

“The first thing you’ll notice is the sharpness of the screen: The 323 pixels packed into every inch of the screen makes it the world's highest-resolution 7-inch tablet. It’s lighter than ever, with more than nine hours of HD video playback and 10 hours of web browsing or reading. Nexus 7 now features stereo speakers and virtual surround sound from Fraunhofer (the inventors of the MP3 format), giving you rich and immersive audio,” the note added.

With this announcement, Google has clearly announced its intention to take on the market leader Apple and its iPad mini and all other major tablets in the 7 to 8 inch series.

A side-by-side comparison between Apple’s iPad mini that was launched in 2012 and Google’s second edition of Nexus 7 (2013) would look like this:

To start with the new Nexus 7 will come packed with 1.5GHz quad-core SnapDragon S4 processor, compared to the iPad mini’s 1GHz A5 processor.

Nexus 7 will have the just announced Android 4.3 while the iPad mini currently runs on iOS6 but could soon be upgraded to iOS7 when it is launched later this year.

Google, as mentioned earlier, has really ramped up the display into its new device - incorporating a 1,920-by-1,200-pixel resolution into its 7” display.

The 7.9” iPad mini continues to come with an LED-backlit, multi-touch IPS display at 1,024-by-768 pixel resolution.

The Nexus 7 comes with a 2GB memory and a maximum of 32GB internal storage compared to iPad mini’s 512MB memory and a max of 64 GB storage.

Google also announced that it is incorporating dual-stereo speakers with Fraunhofer surround sound into Nexus 7 compared to built-in speakers inside the iPad mini.

Nexus 7 will have NFC connectivity. There’s no NFC in any of the Apple products and Apple fans have rated it as one of their top wish lists on a forthcoming Apple product.

The camera and battery life of Nexus 7 and the iPad mini currently are the same as both have a 5MP rear camera and a 1.2 MP front camera and offer up to 9 to 10 hours of active usage.

Finally, it is the price that could steal the show. Google Nexus 7 has announced that it will start retailing at $229 (Dh840) for a 6GB Wi-Fi and $269 for 32GB Wi-Fi and $349 for a 32GB 4G LTE. In comparison, the Apple iPad mini starts at almost $100 more as a 16GB Wi-Fi unit is priced at $329. A 64-GB 4G and LTE unit is priced at $659.

Yet, Apple continues to dominate the tablet market with sales of 19.5million iPads during the first quarter of 2013. IPad mini, despite its lack of Retina Display, has been immensely popular among Apple fans and amounted to almost 60 per cent of all iPad sales during the first quarter of 2013.

The second edition of the iPad mini is scheduled to be released this year too but may not come with Retina Display due to severe shortage of Retina Display panels.

The Taiwanese Economic Daily News in its report also said that the release dates could be postponed to the first quarter of 2014.

The second generation of Nexus 7 will be released into the market by the first week of August, and reports quoting supply chain sources in Taiwan have already estimated a target of eight million units this year but also noted how it might be difficult to achieve due to supply chain constraints.