Having used the Nexus 7 for the last three months, is it still the portable, tablet of delights it was when I first pulled it out of the box and was caught in all the kissitipadtheresanewtabletintown-hype….or is it now being used as £200 table place mat?
I compared the iPad Mini, iPad and Nexus 7 rigorously before making a final choice. The iPad 3, whilst an awesome tablet with a beautiful HD screen, super-fast processor and Apple’s famous App Store, is ideal for using at home on the sofa, but just isn’t very portable outside the house or office. The smaller iPad Mini on the other hand, with it’s lower resolution non-HD screen, just seems like a version 0.1 of what the iPad Mini should and probably will be in the next few months when a new version is released - it just didn’t seem very future-proofed and a bit rushed to market to compete in the 7″ tablet space. I also toyed with adopting the Kindle Fire, but this is essentially a tablet for beginners and is slightly restricted by the fact that Amazon will continually push you towards their own content, apps, music and videos - and on screen adverts!?! No thanks.
The Nexus 7 however, comes with a quad-core processor courtesy of Nvidia, a high-resolution display, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, 32GB of storage and Android 4.2, all wrapped up with a 7 inch display, really nice-to-hold rubberised casing and at a very reasonable price of under £200. It’s a great spec for the money and a solid build, although not to the premium quality of the aluminium-encased iPad, hence partially, the lower price. The size also means that the screen is large enough for watching movies and playing games but also remains portable for using whilst travelling as well as at home. The only downside on the portability front is the severe current lack of official case support from Google and ASUS. ASUS sell a rubber case on their website but it’s a pretty basic model, making no use of the magnetic sleep feature the Nexus supports and unable to be used as a stand iPad Smart Cover-style. After debating for a good couple of weeks on which case to buy, I opted for this one from Amazon which is a Smart Cover copy - a great case for the money and a super-slim profile which doesn’t add much bulk to the Nexus 7.
“Anyone having similar concerns can stop now - everything works brilliantly together…”
Now I’m an avid Mac and iPhone user and aside from testing, reviewing and the occasional device switching, haven’t really used an Android product as my main device since the Google G1. I wasn’t sure of a) how well I’d get on with having to use this operating system versus iOS, b) whether my Mac and iPhone would even want to talk to the Nexus 7, for transferring files, etc and c) if I’d miss any of the apps I use daily on the iPhone that could have easily been loaded onto the iPad had I opted for one. Anyone having similar concerns can stop now - everything works brilliantly together and Android 4.2 is a really slick operating system that just keeps getting better. Whilst there’s always room for improvement, you can’t really fault it as a touchscreen operating system. Given its open source nature, if there’s something it can’t do in the default build, you can usually find yourself an app in the Google Play store that will do it - or from a third-party website if you’re happy to allow non-Google authorised apps to be installed. I have a great file explorer app installed that gives me a full desktop-style view of the Nexus 7’s files and content - it works so well it feels like it’s part of the tablet’s own operating system.
If you want to transfer music or films to the Nexus 7 via your Mac or PC, just plug in the provided USB cable and via the downloadable Android File Transfer software, you can transfer all your files using drag and drop. There are also numerous over the air solution available from the Play store. Video format not compatible with the Google Video Player? No problem, just download one of the many other video players available on Google Play - the one I installed plays just about anything so I don’t even use Google’s own version and no longer have to worry about converting video to make it compatible with the device.
In terms of apps and games, Google’s Play store is far from being the once poor neighbour to Apple’s App Store. Nearly every major app publisher and brand now produce their apps for both operating systems and all your favourites should be there, plus some extra gems that you’ll only find on Play. Developers are increasingly starting to release apps on Play before iOS so you may even grab some new launches before Apple users.
“In terms of apps and games, Google’s Play store is far from being the once poor neighbour to Apple’s App Store.”
If you’re not already using an Android device and therefore have perhaps paid for some of your favourite apps on your Windows, BlackBerry or Apple phone, yes you may have to pay to download these again on the Nexus 7 but what I’ve found in the past three months is that I haven’t actually re-paid for anything that I already have on my iPhone, apart from Angry Birds Space and even then I could have got it for free on Play but opted to pay extra for the tablet-worthy HD version. The fact is, that after all the playing around with different apps, buying the top sellers that week, etc, the apps that get most use day to day on the Nexus 7 are all free to download. These include Sky+, Netflix, The Sims, Amazon Kindle, eBay, Facebook, Spotify, Flipboard and StumbleUpon - all free and all slick user experiences on the Nexus 7 (although Facebook still needs work in general, not just on the Nexus). These combined with Google’s easy to use film rental, digital magazine/newspaper subscriptions and music service (which include 20,000 songs worth of cloud storage for your own music files) make the Nexus 7 a great content and media consumption device at home and out and about. Those good chaps at Remoteless have even made their Spotify Remote app compatible with Android and Apple so you can use the Nexus 7 to control your Mac’s Spotify player.
The Tegra 3 processor and high-res screen means the Nexus 7 performs well as a gaming tablet too. Just download Real Racing 3, Shadowrun or Riptide for some great showcasing of the Nexus 7’s processing power and graphics. You can even hook a Playstation 3 controller via USB for some games if they’re compatible.
Summary
The Nexus 7 is a great tablet with an even better price. Yes Google are relying on you using more or their other services but they’re not forcing you to - Android on the Nexus 7 remains as open or closed as you want it to be. The gorgeous screen, fast processor, 8 hour battery life for video playback, 10 hour for web browsing, masses of memory (16GB or 32GB) and intuative operating system make it a pleasure to use. There are a few software bugs here and there and the internet browser Chrome probably crashes more than it should but these are minor faults in what is easily the best 7″ mini tablet on the market and gives the bigger tablets a run for their money too. Having used the Samsung Galaxy, iPad 3, iPad Mini, Playbook and Kindle Fire - the Nexus 7 is definitely the one to recommend.
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