Google's new Nexus 7 with Android 4.3 hands-on
The new Nexus 7 is in our hands and as you'd expect, it's an improvement over last year's model in every appreciable way. The big show here is obviously the 1920 x 1200 screen, which Google claims has the highest pixel density of any tablet at 323ppi.
Context & Ripple Effects
Google's 2013 tablet refresh lands exactly one year after the original $199 Nexus 7 debut on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which reviewers had already crowned the best tablet $200 could buy. The sequel raises the bar on every axis — thinner, lighter, and a 1920 x 1200 panel Google says is the densest of any tablet at 323ppi — while nudging the entry price to $230 ahead of a July 30th ship date.
The software story is inseparable from the hardware one: the new slate is also the launch vehicle for today's announcement that Android 4.3 rolls out to Nexus devices starting today, making it the first tablet to ship with the update preinstalled. The pickup across Engadget, Ars Technica, gdgt, InfoWorld and others shows how much attention a modest spec bump still commands when it doubles as Google's annual Android state-of-the-union.
First-order effects
- Buyers choosing between last year's model and the refresh now weigh a $230 price against a visibly sharper screen — the pixel-density claim directly undercuts the value case of the 2012 unit still on shelves.
- Existing Nexus owners get Android 4.3 via over-the-air rollout beginning today, so Google's installed base receives the update before any competitor's device.
Second-order effects
- Rivals in the sub-$250 tablet bracket — Amazon's Kindle Fire line most obviously — are forced to answer on display specs rather than price alone, since Google held the increase to just over the original's $199 anchor while doubling down on resolution.
- App and media developers face accelerating pressure to ship high-density assets as Google's own flagship tablets make 1080p-class panels the reference baseline for the platform.
Third-order effects
- If the yearly cadence holds — 2012's Jelly Bean slate, this year's 4.3 device — the Nexus program cements its role as Google's annual mechanism for resetting the hardware floor that licensed manufacturers must meet.
- The resolution race Google itself seeded with the 2560 x 1600 Nexus 10 leak last October points toward panel quality becoming table stakes in tablets, shifting competition toward ecosystem and services differentiation instead.
The trend: Google is using yearly Nexus hardware refreshes paired with same-day OS updates to define each Android generation's baseline, pulling competitors into an escalating display-spec race at near-entry prices.