Google’s heavily rumored Nexus 7 tablet will include a 1.3-GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM, and will start $200, according to a detailed report by Gizmodo Australia.

With Google’s I/O conference starting Wednesday, chatter about the upcoming tablet was sure to get louder. Like Google is doing with the unlocked Galaxy Nexus Android phone, rumor has it that Google will sell its own tablet running its Android OS. The tablet will be built by Asus but branded and sold by Google.

The report from Gizmodo seems to confirm much of what we’d already been hearing, making it a near certainty Google will introduce a tablet with these specs this week. The Nexus 7 tablet will have a 7-inch IPS display with 1280-by-800 resolution, 1.3-GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera. Battery life should run around 9 hours on a charge. The device will run Android 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean, even though Google will likely introduce Android 5.0 at I/O.

On the pricing front, Google will offer a model with 8GB of local storage for $200 and a 16GB model will run $250. While the cost significantly undercuts the price of the $400 iPad 2, that will not be the primary competition. Because of its cost structure and similar apps, the tablet will become a powerful competitor to the Amazon Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet, and other less expensive Android-based tablets.

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