If you are considering buying a tablet and would like to learn some
info on the Nexus 7 from a real user / tech guy then read below. I don't
side with Apple or Android or Amazon. So I try to compare everything
fairly.
I've had the Google Nexus 7 tablet for about a week and it's better than I expected.
I
have had a bunch of Apple iPods and have a Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0
(Android 2.3). So I might reference those one in a while in this
article. Also keep in mind I never used Android 3.0 honeycomb so if I
say a feature is new it's possible it was in Honeycomb, but I'm
comparing it more to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) which is more of a phone
OS. I have never owned an iPad but use them a lot at work so I am aware
of how they function and their features. I may reference those once in a
while. I have not used a Kindle Fire enough to comment on it.
Why buy this?
I
never was able to justify why I would spend $500 on a tablet when I can
get a laptop for $500 and do more on it since it has a keyboard and is a
full operating system. But the price of the Nexus and the performance
got my attention.
Part of me wanted to see how a 7" tablets felt
and what it can help in my daily life, but more importantly I wanted
something I can play music on to my Bluetooth speakers with a good sized
screen. It works excellent for music, games web browsing, email and
internet. Everything runs very nice and it seems Android fixed most
issues from past versions. I also love the latest Google Voice feature.
Apples' equivalent which is Siri is something you currently can't get on
an iPad. That is one big reason why I'd get this over an iPad. I can do
things like say "Set Timer", "directions to" etc.
People don't
compare this to the iPad but actually now that I've played around with
it I feel you can kind of compare it to an iPad. Initially I really
didn't want the 7" screen and would have preferred a 10" but after
owning it I do now prefer the 7" because I can hold it in 1 hand. With a
10" like the iPad it's not as easy to hold. It's a nice size for games
and traveling.
The Nexus 7 is just as good as an iPad for games
and will save you about $200 over an iPad if you are looking for a
tablet device. Most popular games are available for Android. Android
tablets have not been popular so some apps you might find still need
some catching up.
Here are things I feel people might want to know or that I found important.
Home Screen:
Works
nice and very smooth, they added the feature Home Screen doesn't rotate
but this app will fix that for you and allow you to rotate the screen
when you turn the device horizontal. It's called "Ultimate Rotation
Control".
Microphone:
This still annoys me
with all Android devices I've tried yet! I thought they would have fixed
it by now. If you yell loud into the microphone it gets all distorted
more than it should. The Nexus 7 still does this. Now I've only tested
it in full on the Samsung Galaxy player. Both distort and annoy me.
Apples iPod touch can hand yelling and loud sounds a lot better than the
Nexus 7. It takes a lot to distort Apple device microphones. When I say
Apple devices I am talking about the Apple iPod and assuming their
other devices have the same mic. I do know the old iPod Nano video did
have a horrible mic but that is no longer around. Maybe there is a
better Android app out there for recording, I'll have to still look
around but I think part of this issue might be the "AGC". Some apps let
you shut it off. That definitely helped on my Galaxy Player 5. I record
me playing guitar and stuff with music on these devices which is why the
microphone to me is important.
Speaker:
The
speaker is pretty good but not blasting. It's kind of like an iPad
speaker I would guess, maybe a little lower. I don't have an iPad with
me to compare. The Nexus 7 defiantly is not louder than an iPad speaker
from what I can tell. My Galaxy Player 5.0 has better speakers. They
are a lot louder and more have a little more bass than the Nexus in my
opinion. If you are using the Nexus 7 with Bluetooth speakers to blast
music it's not an issue. Don't get me wrong you definitely can listen to
music on the Nexus 7 you just can't blast the heck out of a room with
it like a stereo that no one can talk over. It's a good volume.
Camera:
There
is no flash on the Nexus 7. There is only a front face camera, no rear
camera. There is no camera app on it, but you can download it from the
Play Store, just search for "Camera launcher for Nexus 7". Photos and
videos are what you would expect from a 1.2MP. Nothing amazing but does
take pictures and video if you have lighting where you are shooting.
There is no flash.
Smoothness and speed:
Yes
very smooth! They finally got the Android OS where screens slide and
effects are smooth like Apple devices. It sounds like a big fix for this
was in the Jelly Bean Android OS. My galaxy player doesn't have that
nice smoothness. The Nexus 7 defiantly runs apps and transitions to
screens faster and smoother than the Galaxy Player 5.0. You can watch
some videos to see the smoothness but I'd say it's the same as the iPad
smoothness. I haven't used the latest iPad though so don't take me up on
that. Just know its smooth! One issue I notice though on the Nexus 7,
which is minor. Is if I'm playing music using the default music player
and I was messing around with some widgets, adding them to the screen
and stuff. The music hung for a quick sec. I was using volume widgets.
This makes me think they need to set CPU priority to the music better or
something. But maybe it was just a poorly made app I was messing with.
Wallpapers:
It lets you use animated wallpapers on your home screen which is kind of fun.
Mass USB Connection Option:
It
looks like they finally killed this. This was where you can see your
Android device files on your computer like a USB drive. But you still
can see all the files and copy files to the Nexus 7 but it's as a
device. (On Windows 7) It seems to have caused Double Twist to not work
but I bought Double Twist Air and synched over Wi-Fi which worked OK.
Screen shots
Yes
finally you can take screen shots without a third party app. They may
have had this in their previous version of Android too but it's not in
Gingerbread. For the Nexus 7 just hold the volume button and power
button for a few seconds and it will take a screenshot.
Music
It
has a built in widget called "What's this song" It works like Shazam
and is built in for free. The music app seems to be like the previous
Android Music app with some little improvements here and there.
Car Stereo
I
tested the Nexus 7 with my Sony USB stereo in my car. It recognizes it
as a mp3 player only, I'm not too clear on how you would look for songs
and playlists though. You probably can't is my guess. I'd prefer to use
the auxiliary jack on my stereo so I can't control the music with the
Nexus Interface. That works great for me there just no charging.
Vibration:
There is no vibration on the Nexus.
Battery
It
doesn't show you the exact charge percent when you have it powered off
which would have been good. It only shows you an image that shows its
charge in 25% increments. The Nexus battery life is very good just as
the specs say.
I recommend charging the Nexus using their supplied
wall plug that comes with your Nexus. The manual also says it will
charge faster from the wall plug than a computer. This is defiantly true
from what I found.
With the Nexus 7 on and connected USB to a Windows computer, it took me about 3.5 hours to get the charge from 17% to 46%.
Something
that was strange was I left it plugged into my computer overnight and
it never reached 100% charge. It was around something like 92%
But
I then tested charging the Nexus 7 with the supplied wall charger plug.
And while the Nexus was turned on it went from a charge of 75% - 98%
in 1 hour.
So when they say use the wall plug charger you better
just use that because it does charge faster. I do have an ASUS
motherboard on a different computer I made that says its USB ports give
off more power. So I bet that will charge it fast also but I didn't test
it on there. Most people won't have that kind of computer.
Notes app
There is no pre-installed note taking app. There are plenty of free ones on the Play Store. I use AK Notepad.
Web Browsing
Web
browsing is very fast and uses Chrome. I don't have one to test next to
but it's at least the same speed as an iPad. Part of me wants to say it
might be a little faster than the iPad 2 but don't take me up one cause
I don't have proof.
Exterior
Screen is
really nice and I like the grip like backing on the Nexus 7. It makes it
feel like it won't slip out of your hand. I can hold it well in one
hand. I have average sized hands for a male.
Memory:
No
SD card expansion slot which is a negative but get the 16GB because the
OS uses a lot of space. I believe I had about 13GB free on the 16GB
model. So I'd recommend you get the 16 GB model.
Apps:
Overall
OK on the apps but some still are better on the iPad. For example my
cable TV company still doesn't support watching TV on android devices
where you can on the iPad. But I think now as Android tablets get more
popular they will start making an app for the Android.
Conclusion:
So
that's about it for now, I'll stop there. So to sum it up, no need to
worry about performance issues anymore on Android Tablets. For the price
you can't go wrong if you always wanted a tablet but didn't want to
blow $500 on one. The most unique thing about this tablet is the
combination of having the new Google Voice, the screen size of 7" and
the nice smooth interface like an iPad but combined with a fast
processor. All those things is what makes it a little different than
other tablets including the iPad. And also I would definitely get this
over the Kindle Fire. I don't see any reason for anyone to buy a Kindle
Fire over the Nexus 7. The Kindle Fire has a lot of stuff locked down.
