The Nexus line of tablets have always been some of the best out there, combining the increased dimensions of a tablet with the beauty of stock Android. Those of you on Verizon will be happy to hear that the Nexus 7 -2013 has finally completed its 4G LTE certification on the network, and will be sold through Verizon very soon, perhaps within the next week. Droid-Life has reported seeing actual tablets and cases in the back rooms of Verizon retail stores, which tell us that the retail launch is imminent. This version of the Nexus 7 comes in a blue box with the Verizon logo on it and “Verizon 4G LTE CERTIFIED” stamped discretely on the back, and the tablet itself is the 32GB variant. The Nexus 7 began Verizon’s certification process back in September 2013, and the process typically takes around a month to a month and a half. As to why it took until now for the tablet to be certified, we may never know. Perhaps the process was done back in October, but Verizon wanted to wait until the new year for some marketing reason, or maybe they just had more pressing details to attend to with the holiday season coming upon them… the list of possibilities is endless.
What you may not have known is that the Nexus 7 has always worked on Verizon’s LTE network, but you needed to be rather slick if you didn’t have a Verizon SIM to put inside of it. In a week or two when this device goes up for purchase, I see no reason why you couldn’t just take the LTE compatible model that went on sale months ago and get it activated the right way. Of course, Verizon might put in safeguards to prevent this if they wanted to be stingy about it, like perhaps requiring you to show a receipt for the device to prove you bought it from Verizon. As carriers get most of their income from data plans, I doubt this will be much of an issue. Regardless, this model will go on sale for $349 when it hits the shelves. What do you think? Will you be picking one of these bad boys up? Let us know that and any other thoughts in the comments!