When the first rumor came out that Google was building a new iteration of the popular Nexus 7 tablet device for this year, there was a lot of hope that it will be released at the same time as that of the company's two new smartphones, the Pixel and Pixel XL. However, the new flagship range has already graced retail stores, while the Google Nexus 7 2016 is still nowhere to be found.

Nonetheless, there still is reason to believe that the device will finally be launched right before the end of this year. According to a recent report, Google decided it made more sense to retain the Nexus brand for this specific device, even though the smartphone segment has been completely rebranded from Nexus to Pixel. This could be because the search engine giant wants to ride on the good and positive reputation of the previous Nexus 7, which gave consumers an affordable yet capable tablet device.

If there is one very notable difference for the upcoming device compared to its predecessor, it is the prospect that it will be equipped with features that'll give it the ability to compete with the flagship devices of other major brands. For instance, several tech-related news outlets speculate that it will be wearing a Quad HD AMOLED screen and the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset. Those two potential specs suggest that Google is no longer offering a Nexus 7 with midrange hardware, something that the ASUS-made predecessor was literally all about.

Aside from the premium processor and display, it's safe to assume that the device will be equipped with at least 4 GB of random access memory (RAM) and 64 GB of internal storage. A battery with a capacity of 5,100 mAh should be more than enough to provide at least a day's worth of use.

No doubt, the biggest and most intriguing prospect for the 2016 version of the Google Nexus 7 is that it could come with the Andromeda operating system, considering that all other Google-powered phones and tablet devices today use the Android mobile OS.