The tablet wars are heating up after Samsung launched its new Galaxy Tab S3 just a few weeks back and with Apple all set to bring out some new iPad Pros. 

So any potential competitor is going to have to be at the top of its game if it wants to claw any marketshare away from these two giants. 

And Google is stepping forward to be that contender with its upcoming tablet, the Google Nexus 7 (2017).  It's not exactly clear whether the tech giant will release the device under this name.  Some tech watchers are posturing that Google will in fact launch the device as the Pixel 7. 

The logic behind this is the fact that Google decided to relaunch the Nexus 6P as the Pixel XL.  

As to when we could have the device in our hands, regardless of the name, Neurogadget reports that we could see it inside the latter half of the year, which would make it the first update in the Nexus tablet line for quite a while.

If Google decides to stick with the Nexus name rather than merge it into the Pixel brand, then the next device we can expect to see in the Pixel range is the rumored Pixel 2 smartphone.  

Google has yet to confirm that it is working on a second Pixel smartphone, but that hasn't stopped the rumor mill swinging into motion. 

Of course, no specs for now besides pure speculation, but one rumor doing the rounds is that it will be a trial device for the rumored Andromeda operating system.

Gigjets reports that the Nexus 7 may run on Android 7.1.1 Nougat out-of-the-box.  And it's possible that Google may follow the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 in making the Nexus 7 VR ready.

It's exciting to think what the Nexus 7 device will be like in reality.