In news that you can file under ‘worst kept secrets’ or ‘least unexpected surprises’ Google has officially unveiled its new Nexus 7. The tablet, which follows on from last year’s small tablet winner, debuts with a slightly lighter profile, weighing in at 318 g, more than 20 g lighter than the original Nexus 7 (review).

Even more notable though, is the improvement in screen resolution. The new Nexus 7 boasts a resolution of 1200 x 1920 pixels and an impressive pixel density of 323 ppi. This is quite a bump up from the original Nexus, which sported a 1280 x 800 resolution and 216 ppi, and also bests the specs found on the iPad Mini (1024 x 768, 163 ppi).

Additionally, the new Nexus 7 has received a bump up in memory as well, to 2 GB, alongside the quad-core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro 8064 doing duty as the processor this time around (the original Nexus sported the still very respectable Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor).

Two ships ahoy!

Not surprisingly, the Nexus 7 similarly will ship in two variants, a 16 GB and a 32 GB model. Alas, a 64 GB model was not announced, which would have been a welcome addition to the range, especially considering the fact that once again, the Nexus 7 does not have a microSD card slot (why, Google, why?!).

Considering that Acer’s latest entry level 7.9” A1 tablet managed to cram a microSD slot in without breaking the bank, we suspect that adding the option for some external storage would certainly have been possible for Google as well.

Anyway, small disappointments aside, what the new Nexus 7 does have, is Android 4.3, Bluetooth 4.0, a five megapixel camera and a claimed ten hours worth of battery life (nine hours if watching video).

The tablet will apparently be launching Stateside at the end of this month with a price tag of $229 for the 16 GB model and $269 for the 32 GB iteration. Users can also expect to see a Wi-Fi and 4G model in the weeks to come, although that will breach the $300 mark.

Additionally, it looks like a global rollout is planned for the near future, although sadly South Africa does not appear to be in the first wave, which will instead concentrate on the UK, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Canada, France and Australia.

To the point

Nonetheless, given how strong a contender the original Nexus 7 (review) was and still is, the fact that there is a successor in the pipeline is welcome news indeed. We suspect that, while on UK shores a future king was born this past week, this new Nexus 7 may well similarly step up and claim its throne on our list of the kings of the small tablet world when it does arrive on our shores.  

In recent news, rumours swirled that Apple may not update its small tablet offering, the iPad Mini, with a Retina display this year, and that instead this would only make an appearance in early 2014.