Asus announce Nexus 7 UK launch date as August 28th

Google have announced the UK launch date for their latest tablet, the new Nexus 7, as August 28th.

Taiwanese manufacturer Asus built the tablet and announced the release date at an event yesterday in London. The new Nexus 7 should be available to order soon from Google’s online store, though when it will be available in shop windows is yet unknown.

The tablet comes in two sizes, with a 16GB model costing £199 and a 32GB model costing £239. The Nexus 7 is the middle-child between the 4-inch smartphone, the Nexus 4, and the larger ten-inch tablet, the Nexus 10.

The updates to the Nexus 7 include a true 1080p HD screen and a resolution of 1920 x 1200. At 323ppi the pixel density is the highest of any tablet, and far outstrips the iPad’s Retina display of 264ppi. Whether consumers will notice the difference is debatable.

What should be noticeable though is the tablet’s speed. With a new 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and 2GB of RAM Google claim the Nexus is 80 per cent faster than the old model.

Early review of the Nexus 7 have been positive, with The Verge describing it outright as “a better tablet than the iPad mini” noting that ”it's so comfortable in one hand, the screen is incredible, and its performance is virtually flawless.”