A couple years ago, it might have seemed like any $200 tablet was just going to be a piece of junk, but with the Kindle Fire, and more recently the Nexus 7, it’s become clear that $200 is a viable price point for quality tablet hardware. Is that as low as things can go, though? A new rumor suggests that Google is looking to push the envelope again, and has plans to release a new Nexus tablet for just about one hundred dollars.
Supposedly, ASUS and Google are at work on the follow-up to the highly successful Nexus 7. The report, from Digitimes’ “industry sources”, claims that there are two such tablets on the way. One would be a hardware-refreshed version of the Nexus 7 we know now, again hitting the $199 price point, while there would also be a new $99 version.
The big question is what Google and ASUS would have to cut back on to meet that price. It’s hard to go much smaller than seven inches and still call yourself a tablet, but it’s always possible we could see something just a smidge smaller. The rumors also mention a new manufacturer for displays, so that might be one area that gets squeezed to maximize cost savings.
According to this source, both new Nexus tablets could be out by the end of the year.
