Google-Nexus-7-1

It’s now been a full year since the Nexus 7 was announced and Google began taking orders via Google Play. ย While it has served many of us admirably some feel that it has become apparent that with the release of other 7 and 8″ tablets a successor is required for it to maintain the top of the heap of the compact Android tablet pile.

We have reported onย various leaksย andย hints of a new versionย being available soon but there is still no definite word of a release from either Google or Asus, nor any other tablet manufacturer.

An expected announcement at Google IO in May failed to happen and many were disappointed when no mention of a second generation Nexus 7 tablet materialised. ย This is not surprising as in the past Google has been fairly effective at keeping leaks to a minimum. ย Many blogs, websites and fans are trying anything to glean even a small crumb of information about the release of this unannounced, yet hotly anticipated theoretical tablet.

One enterprising person took the initiative to contact Asus online help and managed to trick an admission from the Asus Live Chat Support. ย The way they did it was to ask Asus when the tablet with the model number K009 – an Asus made tablet that previously passed through the FCC with Nexus branding – was going to be released. ย The short exchange can be seen in the screenshot below.

asus_live_chat Screenshot 2013-07-01 at 7

The sneaky Android fan also managed to obtain some specifications which include a 7inch 1920 x 1280pixel display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, 2GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, a front and rear camera, and LTE support. ย Interestingly the support representative did state that these are not confirmed but they seem very specific to me if they aren’t official.

Screenshot 2013-07-01 at 7b Screenshot 2013-07-01 at 7c

The confusing thing in this conversation is that the end of Quarter 2 for the US was March 31st, – the US Fiscal year begins and ends in October- while the end of the Taiwanese fiscal 2nd Quarter was yesterday. The information has come from a customer service rep who is not going to know the inner workings of release dates worked out between Asus and Google so just how much credit should be placed on this conversation is debatable. While ‘leaks’ occur all the time in the lead up to a launch, this all seems too good to be true. ย Has anyone ever seen a support representative so willing to offer so much information, assuming they know anything at all? ย One thing for certain though is that a new version of the Nexus 7 will eventually pop up. ย It is coming, it’s just a matter of waiting until Google/Asus are ready. Perhaps, both companies are ensuring stock levels are high to avoid a repeat of the issues that surrounded the launch of theย Nexus 7 last year.

I for one will be definitely purchasing this tablet. Will you?

Source: Phonearena.
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Sean Royce

This is very interesting. I never saw that leak earlier, but odd of an ASUS employee to just give out information like that. Don’t they realize what us tech heads are going to do with it?

Andrew Palozzo

Also I don’t hold much hope for LTE support in Australia… Google have really shied away from LTE on all their nexus products.. even the google editions of the One / S4 only supported LTE in the US :'(

Anyway I’d be picking up a wifi model only… Until we get shared data plans, I don’t want to be paying for an extra service personally. Happy to tether.

Andrew Palozzo

My gf broke my nexus 7 just before xmas and bought me a nexus 10 to replace it..I didn’t really like the n10 and sold it just before google IO in anticipation of a new Nexus 7…. I’ve been hanging for the new nexus 7 since. Leaks have been few and far between too.

Sean Royce

You sold your Nexus 10 that was given to you for Christmas? Pretty low bro.

Andrew Palozzo

haha yeah, but no, it wasn’t a xmas present.. it was just around xmas time ๐Ÿ˜›

Sean Royce

I still stand by what I said.

Paul Walker

Provided it’s 1920×1080 or better, has LTE and a nice grunty CPU. I’m in. These rumored specs certainly fit the bill.

Montalbert

yeah but the thing is these have been rumoured for so long which makes me suspicious of this. But if this is it I’m in too ๐Ÿ˜€ Although a snapdragon 800 would be even better… hahaha

Sean Royce

SD800 on AOSP? That’d be amazing.

Duncan_J

I’m glad its 7″ this means no buyers remorse for getting my G Note 8.

Andrew Palozzo

Agree.. I’ll be picking up the new n7 for sure when it’s released but after spending some time with both the n7 / n10, i think it was clear the sweet spot for a tablet is probably the 8″ spot. For me the biggest reason was the n7 was too narrow to make good use of multi-column / tablet apps. The n10 wsa great, but just uncomfortable and too unwieldy. In-between would be perfect. I really loved going through falcon / reddit and reading topics on one side and the links on the other. It was a much faster way… Read more ยป