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Comparison of the Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire HD

The argument of who has the best $200 tablet has been easily won by the Google Nexus 7 over the Kindle Fire until now with the release of the Kindle Fire HD. From the start we will go ahead and say we still feel the Nexus 7 is the best low budget tablet even with the release of the new Amazon HD but the race is much closer. In fact its down to what you use it for and personal opinion as of yesterday.

Below we will compare some of the major features of each device, mostly from a hardware and overall software stance.

What is better about the Google Nexus 7 than the Amazon Kindle Fire HD:
First and formats the Nexus 7 comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean while the Kindle Fire HD will be loaded with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. If we know anything about Amazon they will likely never update to Jelly Bean for the simple fact that their version of the Android OS is so highly customized. Second major difference where the Nexus 7 wins is with its Tegra 3 quad-core processor while the Kindle Fire HD will be using the older dual-core OMAP processor. The Nexus 7 is also a lighter device weighing in at 340 grams with the Kindle Fire HD coming in at 395 grams. The Nexus 7 has Google Play and its 600,000 plus apps along with the ability to install the Amazon App Store while the Kindle Fire HD will only have access to the Amazon App Store’s 50,000 apps. A few of the other smaller features that the Nexus 7 will have over the Kindle Fire Hd is Google Now, NFC, Voice Commands, and a few others.

What is better about the Amazon Kindle Fire HD than the Google Nexus 7:
The one major positive hardware feature that the Kindle Fire HD has is its initial 16GB of storage capacity where the Nexus 7′s $200 model only comes with 8GB. Even when upgrading the Nexus 7 has up to 16GB of storage and Kindle Fire HD can hit 32GB. The Kindle Fire HD gets about 1 hour more from a full charge at 11 hours while the Nexus 7 lasts about 10 hours on one charge. Some of the other features that the Kindle Fire HD has that you will not see on the Nexus 7 is Dolby Digital Plus, and HDMI output, and a few other small ones.

What do the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD have in common:
One of the key features in a tablet is its screen resolution and both the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire Hd have a 7″ screen with a 1280×800 screen resolution. The difference is type with the Nexus 7 having a 1280×800 HD 216ppi and the Kindle Fire HD with its 1280×800 HD LCD IPS display. Both devices come with 1GB of RAM and a front facing camera. We aren’t sure what the camera on the Kindle Fire HD it but can assume it will not be much better if at all than the Nexus 7′s 1.2 MP camera. Both have about the same dimensions with the Kindle Fire HD about .15 mm thinner but 17 mm wider.

When choosing between the Nexus 7 or the Kindle Fire HD it will all come down to what you want to do with your Tablet. Those that are into gaming or molding will be better off with the Nexus 7 although if your reading books and watching movies the Kindle Fire HD may be the right tablet for you. Either way you will have a great piece of hardware. We personally like the Nexus 7 due to the pure Android experience and speeds but not all users will notice this.

Google Nexus 7 compared to the Amazon Kindle Fire

The big question is should I get the Google Nexus 7 or the Amazon Kindle Fire? Both are low cost 7 inch tablet and both are big names in the industry geared towards content like reading books, magazines, watching movies and listening to music. Amazon easily has a head start being the first of its kind to the market and having a years worth of publicity and sales under its belt. Both having price point of around $199 which one should you choose?

Google Nexus 7 vs Kindle Fire Price Point:
The Amazon Kindle Fire comes in one version with a price of $199 for an 8GB model which is exactly the same as the Google Nexus 7′s 8GB model at $199. This being said Google also has a 16GB model of the Nexus 7 for an additional $50. Even with Google having the upgraded model this seems to be a tie since the average user will be looking at the 8GB model if comparing the 2 on price.

Google Nexus 7 vs Kindle Fire Form Factor:
The Google Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire seem to be pretty close when it comes to this as well both being 7-inch tablets and both being designed for portrait orientation. Both tablets have the same width at 120m with the Google Nexus 7 being about 8.5mm taller. The one thing that stands out with the Nexus 7 is that it is thinner by about 1mm with a curved back instead of the boxy feel of the Kindle Fire. Both devices have a soft back making it much more comfortable in your hands than most Android tablets. The Google Nexus 7 does have actual volume buttons instead of the on screen controls that the Kindle Fire has which is a nice feature that for unknown reasons was ignored on the Fire. As far as the screen goes the Nexus 7 has a higher resolution coming in at 1280×800 making it a much clearer display than the Kindle Fire. The Nexus 7 easily wins when it comes to its form factor and feel in your hands along with general use functionality.

Google Nexus vs Kindle Fire Hardware:
This Kindle Fire has a dual-core TI OMAP 4430 processor that runs at 1GHz and 512MB of RAM. The Nexus 7 however has a quad-core Tegra 3 processor which smokes the Kindle as far as speed goes with speed thats currently about as fast as it can be. The hardware on the Nexus 7 kills the Kindle Fire being that of a powerful gaming device as opposed to a reader with a little extra speed.

Google Nexus 7 vs Kindle Fire Content:
The content is where Google was really trying to stand out allowing users to not only have the Amazon market if they want it but the full Android market which was excluded from the Kindle Fire. This being said the Kindle Fire does have all of the Kindle services optimized and included without he tablet making it competitive. With this it was a close decision but we vote Google Nexus 7 simply because having Google Play is something that should be a part of any Android tablet by nature.

Google Nexus 7 vs Kindle Fire Software (OS)
Currently the Google Nexus 7 will be shipped with the newest Android OS Android 4.1 Jelly Bean which is not only the latest and greatest but is optimized for speed. The Kindle Fire is still running Android 2.3 Gingerbread, while heavily customized this is more than one Android OS behind the Nexus 7. With this we all know that Google will support and update their new child without the best they have to offer as it comes available so here we easily choose the Nexus 7

In conclusion if your choosing between the 2 we think that while the Kindle Fire is a great device that Google has came up with a worthy competition that wins in almost all aspects. If you strictly need a reader and aren’t interested in the added features and speed then the Kindle Fire is still a great tablet. Please let us know what you think and debate anything that you think we were unfair about in our comparison via comments below.

Google Nexus Tablet

We aren’t going to see Google’s Nexus Tablet now until July in an attempt to cut the tablets cost. The information was gathered over at The Verge who originally had announced that the Nexus was to be released in May. Google says that the launch is being delayed in a last minute attempt to tweak the highly anticipated Google branded Nexus tablet.

By working on tweaking the Android tablet Google hopes that they can reduce the cost of the tablet even lower than the originally announced $249. The tablet itself is being produced by Asus to be branded by Google and compete directly with the Amazon Kindle Fire. Since the Kindle Fire has a $199 price tag Google wants to get a little closer to that.

The Google Nexus tablet is to be a 7 inch Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet with a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. There are also talks that the tablet will be easily updated to Android 5.0 Jellybean as soon as the OS is available.

Two of the most impressive companies in the mobile industry have cloud based music services for computers and mobile devices. Google has its Google Music and Amazon has its cloud player.

Google Music will automatically upload your iTunes collection, music from your computer and your mobile device. It will even keep the playlists you’ve created in sync with your other programs. Google Music allows free storage for up to 20,000 songs which is about twenty times that of Amazons Cloud Player. You can tell the app on your phone which songs to keep cached locally and it automatically keeps a copy of recently played songs on your device so you don’t have to stream them again to play them. One great feature of Google Music is that it will allow you to take music that you haven’t purchased and place it in the cloud no matter how you get it.

Amazon Cloud Player does have a feature that you won’t find with Google Music, and that is the ability to purchase music to add to the cloud. Similar to Apple Amazon sells tracks for around one dollar each. Amazon Cloud will also give you 20 GB of free storage when you purchase a full album through its service for one year. You can get additional storage for $1 per GB per year if you need more than the 5 GB it offers for free.

Either way these services both blow Apples iCloud out of the water although neither currently offer an app on Apples App Store. Google does have a few advantages over Amazon making it the Cloud Music service of choice although those who purchase a lot of music from Amazon would be better suited for Amazons Cloud Player.