Well what do we have here? Rightware’s Power Board has posted a benchmark result for a previously unknown device going by the name “Google Asus Nexus 7”. Based on the specifications outed – an NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor and a 720p resolution – this looks like it very well could be the much-rumored and long-awaited Nexus Tablet. The benchmark was run only once, but the brand in particular – simply listed as “Google” – is very promising.

Android Police dug a little deeper,  finding that the device in question is codenamed “Grouper”, keeping Google’s older tradition of codenaming devices after fish. (The Motorola XOOM was designated Wingray and Stingray for the Verizon and WiFi versions.) even more interesting, the Nexus 7 seems to be running Android 4.1, labelled “JRN51B”. This may be the Jelly Bean update we’ve heard about, which was previously assumed to be Android 5.0.

A more gradual update to 4.1 seems likely for Google I/O in June, where the Nexus Tablet – or indeed, the Nexus 7 – is presumed to be revealed. Based on months of rumors and speculation, Google is aiming for as low a price point for their latest developer device as possible, probably sliding in at $200 to compete with the cheapest of tablets and LCD e-readers. Now if only we could see it in the flesh… we’ll just have to wait a month (hopefully) to find out.

11 COMMENTS

    • If it does have a 4G radio, quadcore, 1gb RAM and priced at 200, there’s going to be a lot of phone manufacturers scrambling to justify smartphone prices.

    • First
      of all, Tegra 3 and LTE don’t play nice yet. I just don’t get
      it. So would someone please explain why you would need 3g or LTE on a
      tablet? I don’t take my tablets out of the house except when I go to
      the airport cell phone lot to wait for someone or go on vacations
      which out out of the country. In that case I load up movies or
      audiobooks on the SD and I’m good to go. I tether from my Galaxy
      Note, if needed. So it just seems unusual to pay a 2 year commitment
      on a device that is out dated in 6 or 8 months? Don’t people use
      tablets on the sofa, or hanging around the pool or surfing yourself
      to sleep in bed. I am retired so, don’t need one at work. That must
      be it. You take them to work> no wait a minute, don’t they have a
      network you tap into? Just curious. I can’t get cable on the farm, so
      I have to use my phone for internet access. But I don’t need 2
      contracts. I just buy the $10GBs with AT&T LTE in Central Florida
      bumping download speeds up to 49MB. It’s $100 a month but only one
      contract?

  1. Now just need to know how much RAM, internal memory and if it’s sporting an sd expansion slot. Cameras less important to me on a tablet; phone covers that well.

  2. Do we really want to start Apple-like pre-release hype situations in the Android world? We saw it so often raised and re-raised expectations, such that when the release finally came, it was always a massive disappointment. Nowhere has it been announced that there’s a June release, but this article will give that impression. What then if there is no such announcement at I/O? There’ll be rumours of production problems? For not meeting a deadline they never said they’d meet? Why can’t we all just wait for the announcement dates provided by the manufacturers and actually be positively surprised by what’s released. Let’s leave the Apple world to their hype-disappointment cycles.

  3. this thing could go very good or bad
    a 7 inch tablet with a tegra 3 would be cool
    but for 200 the rest of the specs will be low

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