Try to act surprised: Google on Wednesday took the wraps off of its brand new next-generation Nexus 7 tablet. After a string of leaks and rumors that culminated with Best Buy prematurely putting up preorder pages, Google has finally made its second-generation Nexus 7 tablet official. In line with earlier reports, the new Asus-built slate features a 7-inch display with 1920 x 1200-pixel resolution, a quad-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, Adreno 320 graphics, a 5-megapixel camera, 2GB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB of storage, optional 4G LTE, HDMI output, NFC, wireless charging support and the newly unveiled Android 4.3 Jelly Bean operating system.
Google said that the new Nexus 7 tablet is 2 millimeters thinner than the first version. It’s also a bit narrower and 50 grams lighter, making it more comfortable to hold. It also has dual stereo speakers and virtual surround sound through the speakers or connected headphones.
Along with the impressive new specs, the Nexus 7 also gets a slight price bump compared to earlier models: The 16GB Nexus 7 costs $229.99 while the 32GB model gets a new $269.99 price tag or $349.99 with 4G LTE.
Google’s new Nexus 7 is available for preorder beginning Tuesday and the Wi-Fi versions launch on July 30th.
