If you’re excited to finally own the talked about tablet by Google and Asus, join the club. We last heard about rumors to bring the public a powerful yet affordable tablet many moons ago, and we finally saw the press conference unveiling the Nexus 7 tablet.

What’s most exciting is that we’re finally seeing a tablet option in the $199 price range worth buying. Sure, the Kindle Fire is still a pretty great deal, but its specs are lackluster at best, making it not the best option for anyone looking for an everyday tablet. To top it off, the Kindle Fire isn’t running up-to-date software, either.

You know what the Nexus 7 will ship with? The newest version of Android called Jellybean, which is Android 4.1. Ice Cream Sandwich, the last major update of Android that took the world by storm, was a fantastically huge improvement over Gingerbread (2.3.4). But with Jellybean comes even more fluidity and speed thanks to “Project Butter”  that Google discusses. Their main objective was to bring consumers a super smooth experience, and Jellybean is the first version of Android to show this off.

They did an amazing job, and with the additions of Google Now, which some are saying is better than Siri, the notifications menu, increased speed and a new and improved UI, you can see for yourself how good it is. Also in the mix for Jellybean are the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Nexus S, so even phones will be able to enjoy Jellybean. Of course, the Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus will be the first ones to get the update, but the Nexus S will not be far behind. I suspect it’s easier to put it out for these devices first because they don’t need to delete the software keys, because on the Nexus S you still have hardware buttons, so they’ll need to tweak the code a bit. Not a big deal.

The specs of the Nexus 7 tablet:

• Quad-core Tegra 3 processor
• 1 GB of RAM
• 1280 x 800 resolution 7-inch IPS display
• Android 4.1 Jellybean fresh out of the box
• 8 GB of storage for $199 or 16 GB of storage for $249.99
• 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera
• No back camera, but who uses that anyway? Nobody?
• Google Now

You can pre-order the Nexus 7 tablet now via Google Play, and it will ship in mid-July. Have fun!

About the author:

Joe Petchonka loves writing pieces on technology like the most recent tablets or smartphones, but he also loves helping people learn how to write so they can do some professional writing as well.