The ASUS Google Nexus 7 is a very popular, keenly priced Android tablet. If you want to buy one you currently have only two choices; a version with 8GB of storage and a version with 16GB of storage, they are otherwise identical. Since there is no SD card expansion available in these machines many users opt for the 16GB version, it is the more popular of the two choices. A Japanese customer who had made the prudent decision to go for more storage has been twice rewarded by his purchase.
A Japanese buyer, known as @oppese on Twitter, recently purchased what he thought was a 16GB ASUS Google Nexus 7 tablet to find that the device had 32GB of built-in storage. The Nexus 7 box, and packaging label indicates that inside should be a 16GB version of the tablet but he found that he got more than he bargained for after turning the device on. In the system properties storage information pages he found that that he had over 27.58GB of space free on his new Nexus 7 device!
There are rumours, according to The Japan Daily Press, that a 32GB model of the Nexus 7 will be made widely available by the end of October. Pocket Droid says the launch date will be around 24th October and there have been previous sightings of 32GB Nexus 7 devices.
We reported about rumours of an updated ASUS Google Nexus 7 tablet last week. However those rumours consisted of there being a fork in production and a low end $99 model being produced while the new $199 model would have upgraded spec and be “ultra-thin”. Interestingly the new 32GB model isn’t any different in appearance to the current Nexus 7 models, so it’s definitely not ultra-thin. However early price indications do show it to be the same price as the 16GB version currently on offer. A double storage upgrade without a price increase is not to be sniffed at. It’s probably a proactive move by ASUS/Google as we await the launch of the similarly sized Apple iPad mini.
Incidentally the ASUS Google Nexus 7 has just won overall Gadget of the Year and Tablet of the Year awards at the T3 Gadget Awards 2012 ceremony held last night.