Google I/O, the annual developer’s keynote straight from Google’s headquarters in California, kicks off today and with it a range of rumors are about to be confirmed, crushed, or otherwise revealed.  One rumor that everyone’s been wondering about for months is finally here, and it’s better than anyone expected: the new Nexus 7, a Google-branded tablet to compete with the Kindle Fire.

This tablet is definitely a Kindle Fire competitor, coming in at the same price as the Kindle Fire for the 8GB model, but is also a powerful beast. Inside, you’ll find a speeding fast NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, with built-in NFC for using Google Wallet and other apps as well as a grand 1GB of RAM.

On the outside, you’ll see a 7″ IPS display with a 178 degree viewing angle. This is the same type of display you’ll see on an iPad, and even the screen density is about the same. The new iPad, with a 9.7″ screen, has a screen density of 264ppi, while the Nexus 7 has a screen density of 216ppi. It’s definitely a noticeable difference, but it’s still an impressive display and amazing for the low price. Along with that great screen, the Nexus 7 also has a 1.2MP front-facing camera, which is 4x the number of pixels of the front camera on the new iPad.

On the operating system side of things, the Nexus 7 comes with Google’s new Android 4.1 “Jelly Bean”, which is designed to make things even faster and even more beautiful.

The Nexus 7 is available now in the Play Store, and will ship in 2 to 3 weeks.

Interested in Google I/O? See news from this year with the Google I/O 2012 tag.