Nexus 7 Owners, Reviews and Discussion thread (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

Yeah it's out for delivery today.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I picked up mine from Gamestop on Sat, after trades cost me $40 for the 16gb unit. It's a slick tablet, the best Android tablet I have owned. Jelly Bean with Butter is fast and responsive, I've owned an Acer A100, a Kindle Fire, and I currently own a transformer Prime, and the Nexus is the fatest of the bunch. The only downside of course the lack of the SD Card SLot, it really should be here and the tablet would be perfect, as it is thou if 16gb is ok with you , you cannot get a better Android tablet.

 

[Sam Posten]

Playing with mine now.
It's the best android UI yet. And it still stinks. Things are still buried in random places, buttons are too small to be effective, and overall the default color scheme seems pretty blah.
More later.

 

[Hanson]

You mean the Nexus 7 didn't come with sandpaper for your fingers?

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I don't find things buried or too small

 

[Hanson]

Neither did Mossberg, Pogue, or Siegler.

 

[Sam Posten]

They are welcome to their opinions even if they are wrong.
It still feels alien but my customizations are helping.
I like the 3d live backgrounds but am not convinced they are worth the battery drain or the UI hit. But I'm sticking with Spidey for now.

 

[Sam Posten]

Had to Google "Wusthof" - thought it was some new internet acronym I wasn't familiar with (and now everyone knows I'm not a foodie). I thought the guy trying to open it with his collar stay was the best.  

Sorry, missed this earlier. I really think he is using a very sharp and expensive ($200+) wushthof blade to open that box, which I found hilarious.
I'm a huge Wusthof fan. I knew having a good set of knives would be a good investment but I never knew just how good a professionally sharpened, forged blade could be. I actually look forward to using mine and this is from the guy who was so clumsy with a knife that he was embarrassed to cut a tomato for anyone but himself. They are serious coin tho. But worth it. I have been buying my frankenset of different handled pieces mostly as they go on clearance here:
http://www.cutleryandmore.com/wusthof/clearance
If you were to buy their top end 20+ piece set you'd be looking at close to $2k.
http://www.cutleryandmore.com/wblocksets.htm
Anyway, on the N7 side of things I got it mostly set up the way I intend to use it and it's OK. Not great but worth the $200 and a better deal than the Fire.
I love love love the grippy back. I kinda like the rubbery case. I kinda hate the way the rubber case covers the power and volume rocker buttons. I may take an xacto knife to it and cut that out, hoping some other guinea pig tries it first and posts a video showing how well it works or not.
I have yet to find a game on the Android or Amazon markets that really gives the Tegra 3D chip a good workout. If anyone has suggestions I am all ears. I bought Amazing Alex (by the same guys who make Angry Birds) and have very much been enjoing that fwiw.
Word was that it really had to use its own charger but all my mini usb chargers have powered it up just fine.

 

[peterjanni]

This is my first tablet device, I bought it to complement my nexus phone. Transferring over my apps and contacts was painless. I like the speed and responsiveness of the device. Customizing could take a while. I like how easy it is to create folders and google NOW has that high tech cool factor.
As for games, I don't think there are any made from the ground up tegra 3 games. Games and demo versions I've downloaded that make some use of the Tegra 3 are sonic 4 episode 2, puddle, dead trigger and riptide gp. There's something from nvidia called glowball which is an interactive tech demo of sorts that requires the tegra 3 processor.

 

[peterjanni]

Just updated my nexus phone to jellybean. A couple of observations regarding the nexus 7. The transformers movie is a streaming affair, I noticed under my data usage that its already used over 3gigs of bandwidth and I'm only about half way through. Yikes. I guess its good its not a download taking up all sorts of space, on the other hand, so much for watching this where there's no wifi to hook up with. I'm curious, I'm in Canada, so maybe its different south of the border, but all the movies I can access are rental only with no option to purchase. Is that the case in the U.S. as well.
Sam, Amazing Alex Free shows up as not compatible with my device and I can't even find a paid version available. I also downloaded Zen Pinball which you operate in portrait mode. If you download a table, however, there are issues, it didn't load for me. A review user stated you needed to go into the app setting, clear the data and force stop the app in order for the download to take place. That fixed things, but Zen really needs to get their act together as that wipes out all your progress in the game with respect to high scores.

 

[Sam Posten]

I think I got Alex on the Amazon Marketplace, check there.
Will look into those Tegra 3 demos, thanks!

 

[peterjanni]

Amazing Alex has been put back on the play store. Looks allright, but I"ve already overdosed on physics based puzzlers. You might want to check out that app tegrazone, it'll keep up to date on new tegra games.

 

[Sam Posten]

Sounds good

 

[Sam Posten]

I installed Tegra Zone thanks. I now know to search Amazon and Google Play for the term "THD" to find apps specifically built for Tegra HD playback. Still, nothing there really wowwed me.
I find it hard to argue against any of Frasier's reasonings here:
http://speirs.org/blog/2012/8/2/thoughts-on-the-google-nexus-7.html
I can live with it as a Kindle Fire replacement, but it should be so much more given how it is presented.

 

[peterjanni]

I installed Tegra Zone thanks. I now know to search Amazon and Google Play for the term "THD" to find apps specifically built for Tegra HD playback. Still, nothing there really wowwed me.
I find it hard to argue against any of Frasier's reasonings here:
http://speirs.org/blog/2012/8/2/thoughts-on-the-google-nexus-7.html
I can live with it as a Kindle Fire replacement, but it should be so much more given how it is presented.

I find it easy to argue with Frasier's reasonings. Number one app for me is easily Google Chrome which he barely mentions. Safari blows, it stinks. Its a wretched web browser, I dumped safari as a browser on my macbook a while back. Its slow, buggy, unresponsive, crash prone. Next is google mail, which, again I'll take over apple's mail. Not to mention, it wasn't that long ago, that apple was raping people by charging for email privileges.
Second, the ipad is a 4:3 device in a 16:9 world. This is a native 720p device which is what you want for both videos and gaming. The android gaming scene is set to explode. The biggest threat to that explosion is piracy.
You want extra memory for your ipad, cough up $100 for an extra 16 gigs. You want cellular, well, that's an extra $130 not to mention ridiculously expensive monthly data plans. Hell, the options on an ipad 3 are almost as much as a nexus 7.
I have a nexus phone, the nexus 7 is a complement for that phone. Its fast, responsive, stable, hasn't crashed on me yet. In short, it works for what I want.

 

[DaveF]

. Next is google mail, which, again I'll take over apple's mail. Not to mention, it wasn't that long ago, that apple was raping people by charging for email privileges.
You want extra memory for your ipad, cough up $100 for an extra 16 gigs. You want cellular, well, that's an extra $130 not to mention ridiculously expensive monthly data plans. Hell, the options on an ipad 3 are almost as much as a nexus 7.
I have a nexus phone, the nexus 7 is a complement for that phone. Its fast, responsive, stable, hasn't crashed on me yet. In short, it works for what I want.

I use Apple's email client to read my gmail account. My mom uses it to read her AOL account. That's not everyone's preference, but it's not as if there's no gmail access on the iPad.
Similarly...does the Nexus 7 give you the option to spend $130 to get cell data? It seems a weird complaint that Apple gives too many choices. Usually it's the reverse
At $199, my dad is interested in the Nexus 7. If he doesnt buy one, it could be a good Xmas present for him. It would complement his Android phone, and give some more web, email, Kindle options.

 

[Sam Posten]

Peter i pretty much disagree with every one of your points, but ESPECIALLY with the belief that Chrome on Android is better than Mobile Safari on iPad. Seriously I don't even know where to begin there.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Originally Posted by peterjanni /t/322020/nexus-7-owners-reviews-and-discussion-thread#post_3952556
Just updated my nexus phone to jellybean. A couple of observations regarding the nexus 7. The transformers movie is a streaming affair, I noticed under my data usage that its already used over 3gigs of bandwidth and I'm only about half way through. Yikes. I guess its good its not a download taking up all sorts of space, on the other hand, so much for watching this where there's no wifi to hook up with. I'm curious, I'm in Canada, so maybe its different south of the border, but all the movies I can access are rental only with no option to purchase. Is that the case in the U.S. as well.
...

If the Transformers movie is through Google Play Movies, there is usually an option to download it to your device for viewing offline - even for rentals. That's the way it has worked on my Android (Gingerbread) phone, at least. My Nexus 7 should arrive sometime tomorrow.

 

[Hanson]

I bought my wife the 32GB Nexus 7 to replace her aging Galaxy Tab, which had a myriad of problems owing to the fact it was over 2 years old. It was a great device back in the day, but age turned it into a chugging dinosaur. The Galaxy Tab itself was a replacement for her broken iPod Touch, which she loved dearly. I had considered the possibility of getting the iPad Mini, but in the end I decided on the Nexus 7 due to three reasons: 1) It was cheaper. The MSRP difference is $80, but as it turns out, the vendors that carried the Nexus 7 either charged tax or charged shipping or both, and Amazon, which charged neither, tacked $20 on to the MSRP for some reason. I ended up settling for $270 at Amazon, but considering I could have bought the iPad Mini for $329 shipped, it was really a $60 difference. However, if you match up the two tablets gigabyte for gigabyte, I actually ended up saving $160 since the 32GB iPad Mini is $429. The screen on the Nexus 7 is higher resolution as well. 2) Chargers! Do you know how much a spare charger for the iPod Mini costs? $38 ($19 for the charging block and another $19 for the cable). Do you know how much a spare charger for the Nexus 7 costs? Nothing. Because it's the same microUSB charger and cable as all our phones take, and we have spare chargers all over the house. We have a charger on the nightstand so my wife can wake up to a fully charged tablet. Now I'm up to about $200 saved. 3) Recycled apps. I was able to install all of the apps I purchased on the Nexus 7, including all the games I bought during 10 cent and 25 cent sales. Plus I could load all of the Amazon apps I snagged for free. While my wife had a collection of purchased iPod apps, they would have looked ugly and run letterboxed on the iPad Mini. They would have to repurchased for the iPad with the $2 tablet tax (ie, the 99 cent iPod version typically costs $2.99 for the iPad). That saved me around $60 the first day. What are up to -- $260 saved so far? Now, I did lose the rear camera (the Nexus 7 only has a front facing camera for videochat). And the iPad Mini is sleeker and lighter with a larger screen. But in the end, what I saved by buying the Nexus 7 could have bought a second Nexus 7. The most important aspect of the tablet for my wife is gaming, and the games run smoothly without any lag or stutter. The screen is very nice and the whole unit feels light in the hand with a comfortably grippy back. The biggest negative is the speaker -- it's loud enough for gaming, but audio is pretty weak when playing videos. Battery life is just okay -- something like 5-6 hours with constant use (the screen usually takes 60%-70% of the battery). This isn't terrible considering the heavy use, but it feels like it's charging as much as it's being used. Overall, it's actually a bit of a miracle that I can buy a 32GB tablet that does everything really well for $270. There are a lot low priced of 7" tablets coming out, many coming in at $149 and under. But they all have lower screen resolutions and much less storage. It looks like the Nexus 7 will still be a great buy and excellent value well into 2013.

 

[Citizen87645]

A refresh of the Nexus 7 is expected to be announced tomorrow.

Info has already leaked about the specs, at a slightly higher price point, as well as Best Buy carrying the tablet this time around.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/21/new-nexus-7-press-shots-leaked/