Google Announces New Nexus phone, Nexus 10 tablet and Jelly Bean Update - Wired

LG and Google’s Nexus 4 smartphone features wireless charging and NFC. Image: Google

Hurricane Sandy killed Google’s planned Monday morning media event in New York City, but that didn’t stop the big G from making some noise today. The company took to its corporate blog to officially announce the much-anticipated Nexus 4 smartphone and Nexus 10 tablet, as well as an update to its Android Jelly Bean operating system.

Google also increased the storage space available on the Nexus 7 tablet while maintaining its pricing. Here’s the rundown on Google’s latest flagship devices, all of which will be sold through Google Play.

Nexus 4

The LG-built Nexus 4 is the successor to Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus. The latter was introduced a year ago, but the improvements here seem largely incremental. The Nexus 4 features a 4.7-inch display, up from 4.65-inches, and where the Galaxy Nexus has a 1280 x 720 display, the Nexus 4 boasts 1280 × 768 resolution with a density of about 320 pixels per inch. The new handset gets Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 quad-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, NFC, wireless charging, an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front shooter.

The Nexus 4 will also include a new feature called Photo Sphere that will allow users to take 360-degree panoramic images and upload them to Google+ (of course) and Google Maps. The new handset, which Google and LG designed in collaboration, will run on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean (no Key Lime Pie nickname yet). The update delivers Gesture Typing, which lets users type by sliding their fingers over the letters they want, as well as wireless streaming to Miracast-capable HDTVs. Miracast is the TV industry’s answer to Apple’s AirPlay. The Nexus 4 will also have a built-in micro-HDMI port.

The new flagship Android handset will go on Sale on Nov. 13 â€" $300 with 8GB of built-in storage or $350 for 16GB, both sizes unlocked and without a carrier contract. T-Mobile will also sell the 16GB Nexus 4 for $200 on a 2-year contract.

Nexus 7

Google and Asus’ Nexus 7 was already our favorite 7-inch tablet. But on Monday it got a bit more compelling with upgraded storage at the same price plus a 4G HSPA+ variant. The 8GB Nexus 7, which sold for $200, has been scrapped. In its place is the 16GB Nexus 7 (previously $250). Now, $250 will get you a new 32GB Nexus 7. The HSPA+ Nexus 7 will feature 32GB of storage for $300 and will run on both AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s HSPA networks.

Google and Samsung’s Nexus 10 tablet features the highest-resolution display of any tablet available. Image: Google

Nexus 10

Does Google finally have a full-fledged iPad fighter? After watching Samsung, Asus, Acer, Motorola, Toshiba and so many others unleash 9- and 10-inch tablets only to get bulldozed by Apple, Google is taking matters into its own hands with the Nexus 10.

The new tablet, built in collaboration with Samsung, has one big bragging point â€" the highest-resolution display of any tablet on the market â€" a 2560 x 1600, 300ppi, 10-inch touchscreen. Google promises about 9 hours of continuous video playback and about 500 hours of standby time. Despite being a Nexus device, the new tablet picks up on the design language of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Note 10.1. It features a pair of front-facing stereo speakers on either side of the display (when it’s held in a landscape orientation) plus an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 1.9-megapixel front camera for video chats. Under the hood, there’s a dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM and built-in NFC. It also gets a built-in micro-HDMI port.

Like the Nexus 4, the Nexus 10 will ship with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. One new 4.2 feature Nexus 10 users may enjoy is the ability to have multiple user profiles on a single device. With a simple swipe from the lock screen, a user can select which user profile they want to get into and then see all of their apps and Google Play content as well as account information for Calendar, Gmail and other Google apps.

The Nexus 10 will ship on Nov. 13 (same day as the Nexus 4) at a price of $400 for 16GB of storage and $500 for 32GB.