Google Nexus 7 vs. Kindle Fire - An Unfair Comparison?

By Pooja Drubra | Jul 12, 2012 12:09 PM EDT

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Every time a new gadget is launched it receives two kinds of feedbacks. There is a group that rushes to the market and buys it the very first day. The second set of people are those who tend to get confused as to purchase that one or wait for a better one to get launched. Google Nexus 7 launch witnessed somewhat similar scenario with its counterpart from Amazon - the Kindle Fire.

As of now, it's being claimed that the Nexus 7 is currently the best 7-inch tablet that is available in the market. However, many say that it's not that good a deal. Apparently there are comparisons going on and slate-lovers are comparing it to Amazon's Kindle Fire. Amazon's tablet was the runaway hit last holiday season but now it seems Nexus 7 is stealing away the spotlight.

Apparently, with the Nexus 7, Google has finally taken a plunge into selling a tablet under its own brand name, which as of now is only available on pre-order from Google Play.

When compared to the beefy Kindle Fire, the Nexus 7 stood confident as more attractive and an elegant masterpiece from Google- measuring 7.8 inches tall and 4.7 inches wide. Its svelte body can easily be accommodated in a jacket pocket. It is even easier to cling to Nexus 7 owing to its rubbery textured back.

The glossy screens of both the slates measure same - 7 inches. However, the display of Nexus 7 has a higher resolution of 1280x800 pixels (216ppi pixel density), compared to the Kindle Fire's 1024x600 pixels (170 ppi pixel density) display, which, we must say, packs poor brightness. Also Nexus 7 display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass.

Moving onto what's on the inside, Nexus 7 comprises a powerful quad-core processor from Nvidia and twice the internal memory (1GB RAM) than that in Kindle Fire (512MB RAM).

There's another icing on cake - though both the tablets are devoid of rear-facing camera, Nexus 7 has a front-facing camera whereas Kindle doesn't have one. Same goes for GPS, Bluetooth and Jelly Bean OS. Nexus 7 gains 3 more cookies here.

And, let's not forget that Kindle Fire has no native Google apps and no access to Android Market. Moreover, Nexus 7 comes in 2 size options - 8GB ($199) and 16GB ($249) - whereas Kindle Fire comes in one size - 8GB - and one price - $199.

However, there is something exciting about Kindle Fire too and this is where it beats Nexus 7 - it is Amazon appstore for e-books, music, movies and videos that are loaded enough to keep a user happy and busy for a lifetime. And yes, Kindle Fire does boast of an excellent HTML5 browser (Amazon Silk).

It seems that this comparison war is never-ending phenomena. What one device boasts about, other lacks and vice-versa. What is true is that Nexus 7 gives more bang for the buck. But, comparing a tablet that's not even a month old with one that has been in the market for nearly a year, is unfair and aimless. Right now, Nexus 7 looks to dominate the entry-level tablet market. Will it help Google keep its lead over Amazon? That's a difficult thing to predict but things will become clearer when Kindle Fire 2 debuts.