Google Nexus 7 Vs Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus: Can Nexus 7 Outshine Galaxy Tab?

Google intends to unveil a 7in tablet co-branded with Asus at its I/O developers conference event this week, reports Bloomberg which claims to have obtained the information from two anonymous persons familiar with the matter. The sources said that Google's tablet will compete with Apple's iPad. The tablet will run on Android's upcoming operating system Jelly Bean. The device would be the first tablet to get Google's Nexus designation.

Earlier this week a training document obtained by Gizmodo revealed complete technical specifications of Google's forthcoming tablet. The document suggests that the 7in tablet will be named as Nexus 7 and it will be manufactured by Asus. Google Nexus 7 will be powered by Nvidia's quad-core processor and house 1GB of RAM. The Google Nexus 7 will come with two storage options-8GB and 16GB. The former model will be priced at $199 (approximately £130) and the later will cost $249 (approximately £160). The screen size of the Nexus 7 suggests it will be a competitor to other 7in series tablets including the Blackberry PlayBook and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus

Based on the speculated features, take a look how the upcoming Google Nexus 7 stacks up against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 which was unveiled on 30 September 2011 and is now available.

Display

The upcoming Google Nexus 7 will feature a 7in display with In Plane Switching (IPS) technology. The resolution of the display will be 800 x 1280 pixels and it will provide 178 degree viewing angles. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus features a 7in PLS LCD capacitive touch screen with a resolution of 600 x 1024 pixels and pixel density of 170 ppi. The display features TouchWiz UX user interface and 4-way rotation technology. The resolution of the display is slightly similar to Samsung's two other tablets; Galaxy Tab 8.9 (800 x 1280p, and 170ppi) and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (800 x 1280p, 149ppi).

Dimension

The Nexus 7 tablet will come with a height of 7in. The training document does not say much on the other measurement of the new device.

The Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus measures 193.7 x 122.4 x 9.9mm in thickness and weighs 345g. The Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is thick when compared to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 at 9.9mm thickness but a review by CNET suggest that the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is one of the thinnest 7in tablets.

Operating System

The Nexus 7 will run on Android's upcoming operating system (OS) Jelly Bean and the version number is said to be 4.1 not 5.0. The training document states that Nexus 7 will be the first device to run on Jelly Bean, new version of Android OS.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus runs on Android's OS v3.2 Honeycomb. A report by Sammobile suggests that Samsung intends to update the Galaxy Tablets including, Tab 7.0 Plus, Tab 7.7, Tab 8.9 and 10.1 from July this year.

Processor

The Nexus 7 tablet will be powered by an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz with GeForce 12-core GPU. In addition the device will house 1GB of RAM.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is powered by Exynos 4 dual-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz and houses 1GB of RAM. A processor benchmark test ran by Engadget states that the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is indeed a fastest performance delivering device.

Camera

The Nexus 7 will sport a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab sports a three megapixel main camera with auto-focus, LED flash, geo-tagging and smile detection. The camera can record video in 720p at 30 frames per second. The tablet also features a 2 megapixel front-facing camera. Both Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 pack similar resolution front-facing and rear-facing camera.

Connectivity

The Nexus 7 tablet will offer Near Field Communication (NFC) and Google Wallet. There is no information on the cellular connectivity of the tablet.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus offers Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, dual-band,Wi-Fi hotspot and Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP and HS. It supports data speed up to HSDPA 21 Mbps and HSUPA 5.76 Mbps.

Storage

The Nexus 7 will have two variants - 8GB and 16GB. The document does not mention anything whether the device will offer microSD card slot or not.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus offers storage options for 16GB and 32GB and offers a microSD card with an additional space up to 64GB.

Battery

The Nexus 7 is expected to pack a battery which will last up to nine hours.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is powered by a Li-ion 4000mAh battery. A battery test conducted by Engadget suggets that the device survived for eight hours and none minuets. The battery test involves a movie off the tablet with Wi-Fi on and brightness fixed at 65 per cent.