The cur­rent iter­a­tion of the ASUS-built Nexus 7 sports a 7-inch 1280×800 IPS LCD. There is a rumor the next ver­sion of the Nexus 7 will increase the pixel count to 1920×1080. Casey Johnston, Ars Technica:

The next Nexus 7 may increase the res­o­lu­tion of its dis­play to 1080p and main­tain the rela­tion­ship between Asus and Google, accord­ing to a report from Digitimes. The follow-up has been rumored for some time, but now Digitimes sug­gests Google will tweak the device with updates while main­tain­ing the start­ing $199 price.

The shift from 1280×800 to 1920×1080, if true, will require the exter­nal chas­sis design to change as well. The aspect ratio of 1280×800 is 16:10; the aspect ratio of 1920×1080 is 16:9. So the 1920×1080 Nexus 7 will be taller (in por­trait mode) or wider (in land­scape mode). This aspect ratio change will result in a more iPad mini-like tablet.

All small­ish tablet designs will tran­si­tion from bezels with uni­form widths all around like the 9.7-inch iPads to one that has the longer bezels slimmed down like the 7.9-inch iPad mini. I don’t think Apple does every­thing well, but there does seem to be a trend: Tablet man­u­fac­tur­ers fol­low what Apple does when it comes to the over­all look, feel, and expe­ri­ence of using a tablet. The thin­ner longer bezel on the iPad mini will be copied by every­one else mak­ing a 7.x-inch tablet. I don’t know for sure, but I’m pretty sure.

Nonetheless, a 1920×1080 Nexus 7 for US$199 would be quite the bargain.