Google Nexus 7 Vs. Amazon Kindle Fire: Low Priced Tablet War Begins!

By Vincent Funaro, Christian Post Reporter Friday, June 29, 2012

This is the match-up everyone has been waiting for. With Google finally spilling the beans on its upcoming Nexus 7 tablet, Android fans are eagerly anticipating its release and want to see how it will match up against the current king of the low-end tablet market, the Amazon Kindle Fire.

Amazon's device was the first tablet to truly compete with Apple's iPad, but also opened up a new market for low-priced tablets. Google definitely noticed the success of the Kindle Fire, and with the Nexus 7, hopes to claim a piece of this newly formed pie.

Being that the Kindle Fire was released in November of 2011, its specifications are slightly less impressive. The tablet features a 7-inch IPS TFT active matrix display with 1024 x 600 pixel resolution, a dual-core processor, 8GB of internal memory, Android 2.3, Wi-Fi connectivity and a $199 price tag.

Google has raised the bar for $199 tablets, giving its Nexus 7 a 1.3GHz Tegra 3 quad-core processor, a 7-inch display with 1080 x 800 pixel resolution, 8GB of internal memory, and Android 4.1, JellyBean.

Google certainly has the advantage in terms of specs and design. The Nexus 7 is sleeker and thinner than the more bulky Kindle Fire. It also features a more crisp display, a top of the line processor and the latest Android software. The Nexus will also have built-in Bluetooth and NFC, and Google will offer a 16GB variant for $249.

However, the Amazon Kindle Fire has other advantages over the Nexus 7. Its free unlimited cloud storage for Amazon content will be hard for Google rival.

Android 4.1, JellyBean could also hurt the Nexus 7 since it will most likely be more complicated to use due to the many added features. The Kindle Fire features Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread, a software that is fairly old and simple to use. Average customers could lean more towards the Fire for this reason.

Sure the Kindle Fire has some slight advantages over the Nexus 7, but in order to truly compete with Google, Amazon will have to beef up the specs on the upcoming successor to its 7-inch tablet, and lower the price on the current version.

The Amazon Kindle Fire 2 is expected to ship in July and should feature some impressive updates.