My Nexus 7 arrived a few weeks ago, and since then I’ve given it a spin for every facet of my tablet use. I’ve used games, text editors, Evernote, a couple books, magazines, Mint, and hit the widgets big time. I’m a fan of immersing oneself in the environment so I also used the keyboard quite a bit in both orientations.
People who know Android better than me have written plenty of reviews already, so I’ll try to not waste your time. Besides, after getting to know the Nexus 7 I only have questions about why seven-inch-ish tablets—let’s call them “mid-sized tablets”—exist.
The build is great. The Nexus 7 is sturdy, light, and the rubberized back makes it a pleasure to hold, so much that it makes me wish Apple would ease up on its obsession with anodized aluminum for the iPad. Placing the headphone jack on the bottom is a strange choice, though. Instead of sitting the Nexus 7 upright in a dock, I wonder if Asus bets on people resting it flat on a table and listening to audio. That way you don’t waste an extra foot or so running the cable around the side of the device to the top.
Obviously, the next version needs a mobile data option, be it in a separate “Nexus 7 with 4G” model or a one-size-fits-all package that Google and Asus just eat the costs on. Considering that the iPad’s mobile data edition is rumored to account for around one quarter of total iPad sales, two different models may be the most cost effective approach for now.
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean does indeed feel like a great release. A lot of the sluggish and unresponsive behavior I’ve experienced on many other devices is gone, though there are still a number of strange and often aggravating oversights. For example, it’s a pure Android device but Google+ and its photo services are built into the OS. That means there’s no way to create a new photo album without doing it in the Google+ app (thereby handing your photos over to Google, even if in private) or installing a file manager with which to dig into the system and manually create a new folder.
I’m not going to nitpick Android, though, because there’s a much larger problem with not just this device, but this emerging class of mid-sized tablets, which would include Apple’s rumored “iPad mini,” if it exists.
Besides free-flow text and games, this tablet size feels caught in gadget purgatory. Even though I have great eyesight, I had to increase book text size a couple times. Things like magazines, comic books, and even the web are almost always illegible, and making the web useful on the Nexus 7 requires a tedious and constant amount of zoom in, zoom out, and panning. Some content is tough to read even on a 9.7-inch iPad screen. Will .85” of extra space and resolution on a supposed 7.85-inch iPad mini really make that much difference?
The Nexus 7’s screen size makes thumb typing in portrait marginally more comfortable than a smartphone, especially when compared to the relatively tight confines of my iPhone’s 3.5-inch screen. But typing in landscape on the Nexus 7 is an awkward pain. If I accidentally hit Android’s software Home or Back buttons instead of the space bar one more time, I’m going to make Google engineer voodoo dolls and do very, very bad things to them.
The landscape keyboard on an iPad display is already nearing cramped netbook territory (hey, remember those?), but it’s still very well in the “takes time to adjust to” region. I’ve written a good number of 1500-2000 word pieces on my iPad (including this one), and have seen plenty of people in coffee shops typing quite well that way.
The Nexus 7′s landscape keyboard feels firmly planted in the “prohibitive to use” end of the ballpark. It’s just too small. Again, I have a hard time believing a keyboard on an iPad mini will fare much better.
Some apps are able to slightly improve the prospects of this 7-inch tablet, such as Mint. It displays more useful information per screen over its smartphone counterpart, as well as a spending chart that offers a lot of information at a glance. But it feels like that utility is the exception, not the norm.
The more I use my Nexus 7, the more I am perplexed by its existence. It’s too large to fit in most pockets, yet too small to display almost every type of content one would want to consume, including the very stuff Google pre-loaded. It’s too large to trigger the mobile version of most websites, yet too small to be useful for any data input that could be considered a worthwhile improvement over the constraints of a smartphone. If I’m going to need some sort of a “not my pocket” bag to cart my tablet around, the tablet may as well be full sized.
In short, the Nexus 7 feels like the worst of both worlds: too large to be as portable as a smartphone, yet too small to be as useful as the “tablet” name suggests.
Stepping back to look at the mid-sized tablet category, I’ve used a Kindle Fire and read a lot of the arguments and technical speculation in favor of the rumored iPad mini. I still don’t get it, though I am certainly open to being convinced.
For now, I wonder if the whole point of these things is to cut costs and say “look! We have a [cheaper than the regular iPad] tablet too!” But that’s not a good reason to make a product, and it’s definitely not the first step towards making a good product.
How about this…
Not everyone’s work requires thousands of words of typing day. Projecting your own use case on everyone else much?
And why is fitting n a pocket such a primary requirement? Half of the population rarely use pockets at all, a bags are more and more common for the other half.
Get out of your little world.
Why do you go onto someone’s blog and then blast them for their reviews when based on how THEY use the device. He feels inclined to provide his thoughts on a device, which he paid his own money for, based on his usage of the device. Why do you have to be so offensive?
To be fair, the article does stink of classic flamebait so harsh reactions are to be expected. Which would honestly answer one importantly glaring question – why did he buy this in the first place? And why so flippantly only to blog about how it wasn’t like his iPad?
"Half of the population rarely use pockets at all" Holy Crap, REALLY!?
Agree with almost everything in the post, but it still completely misses the mark.
Things Nexus 7 is great for:
Video
Kindle
Photo viewing
Twitter, Facebook, Google+
Evernote
Games
Why isn’t that enough? (more than enough really)
I haven’t used the Nexus 7, but from Kap’s comments and your article it sounds like mid-sized tablets fit the ‘for consumption’ frame. Is that not a valid form of computing? Do we need everyone to be content creators or capable of?
Yours is the only review I’ve read citing media consumption issues, but the consensus is this isn’t a content creation device. It’s universally excepted that the form factor is ultimately better for reading for longer durations. Think paper-back book versus A4 magazine.
You’re projecting yourself on the rest of us, and we have different needs, and apparently different pockets as well.
I want a bag-free portable drawing setup I can use to do sketches and such (all of my work is digital, please don’t suggest pen and paper), so I can get out of my nerd cave but still get work done. I’ve tried using a laptop, but it’s just too much to haul the laptop around, and the wacom tablet, etc, etc (and those macbook->tablet conversions are too expensive). Having tried to do some serious illustration work on an iPod Touch, the screen is just too small. An iPad is thus the natural choice, but it’s a bit big.
My pockets are plenty big enough to store a 7" tablet. A proper iPad won’t fit in them, but a 7"er probably would. That’s a huge freaking deal.
Goldilocks? Jeez
Did I miss David projecting anything on anybody else? He wrote about his experience with the device and talked about "me, myself, and I". Where did he say anything about how the device would work for others, never mind insisting that it wouldn’t?
Mostly where he speculated about why the product category even exists. He called them out for making a supposedly bad size just so they could undercut the iPad on price.
He directly says about 5 or so times, that the whole idea is just bad. Not "bad for me", but just bad, unqualified – bad in an absolute sense. Stuff like "The Nexus 7′s landscape keyboard feels firmly planted in the "prohibitive to use" end of the ballpark. It’s just too small." Or: "It’s too large to fit in most pockets, yet too small to display almost every type of content one would want to consume, including the very stuff Google pre-loaded."
These are absolute statements. Absolute statements by nature mean they apply to everyone. It doesn’t matter if he talks about his own experience a few sentences before – if he makes an absolute statement about it, it means he’s concluding his experience applies to everyone.
So yeah, you missed that bigtime. And if that’s not what he intended, he needs to not make absolute statements like that.
Interesting take on it. I am a long-time iPad fan and love my iPad 2, but was given a Nexus 7 recently and have been using it for all tablet tasks in order to get the best view of its capabilities and competitiveness.
Some things I agree with you on. The keyboard is too small to be used for anything ‘long-distance’ and the screen is too small for any meaningful web browsing. However, I’ve been blown away by how much I like the ‘feel’ of a 7 inch tablet. It is so much more portable than the iPad and I instantly feel it is a better suit for the morning commute etc. It is more subtle and of course lighter so can be used with one hand(ish). Google Currents (and others like Zinio) makes consuming magazines (check out the fantastic specifically-formatted All Things D mag) easy and the screen size and portability lend itself to a decent reading experience. It seems to me that the apps themselves seem to waste the advantage though by not making proper use of screen real estate or consuming-friendly features like gestures and multi-touch. I’ve not found a single app that is better on Android than its equivalent on iOS, which considering the promised ‘open’ nature of Android has been a real disappointment.
My iPad now feels like the reliable work-horse. If in doubt, it will always get me from A to B, and I think the iPad screen size is far easier to be productive with, but I definitely think there’s a market for a 7 inch device, it is just that the execution (hardware AND the apps) needs to be that much more precise, because every pixel counts.
All in all, for £159 it is an amazing piece of kit. The inconsistent quality of the apps really let it down, and I’ve noticed two manufacturing faults so far that are being widely discussed online (loose front panel and screen flickering in low light).
"Will .85” of extra space and resolution on a supposed 7.85-inch iPad mini really make that much difference?"
Yes.
Remember that it is also 4:3 and therefor a 7.85 screen will be almost 40 percent larger than the 7" tablets: http://www.macrumors.com/2012/07/10/why-apples-7-85-inch-ipad-mini-isnt-a-7-inch-tablet/
I have the Nexus 7 and I agree with you for the most part, except I’m not quite so dismissive on the form factor. I think as the days of wireless projection come along, these devices will become the absolute way to go. I also find the size to be perfect for Kindle books or light reading on the nets.
I do agree that it is mainly for consumption and as the size shrinks, the ability to ‘do work’ for long assignments or long periods of time shrink as well.
As far a great for video, it is, but the arbitrary and spontaneous video playback in some apps (Youtube videos from Twitter links) or the lack of working controls in some videos is quite irksome.
Overall, I like the device and find myself carrying it with me if I’m going to ride the train or spend a short time in a coffee shop. If I know I’m going to need to answer emails or write a test or something along those lines I generally bring my iPad (big emails? keyboard) or my MBAir. The Nexus 7 isn’t really well suited for those tasks.
At release, the fastest place to get it was GameStop or Staples (in VT they had them when everyone was sold out!) with no extra charge – and Sears was taking orders to be fulfilled b4 August. http://goo.gl/scjMV is the same price I got my 16GB from Play. There’s no surprise if stores like Amazon overcharge – it’s 1. a marketplace (like newegg but not tiny) and 2. a competitor so unpredictable things happen. I can’t even find a reason to buy stuff like this from Newegg (?). All cash – no Apple ID/Personal Data to get "borrowed" by the FBI and handed out to activist hackers in lots of 12 million. Too soon?
Wireless authentication failures usually take time for a reason and timeouts are subjective – to force it to stop, slide down your notification, click setup and turn wifi off/on to manually reset the radio. That said, Android also has issues (bugs) with many 802.1x networks and I’ve only gotten it to work by using a vendor-supplied security app to configure it.
I’m pretty sure most Apple devices require iTunes and in turn a Credit Card. Or, if not – describe how much actual "use" you getting from these devices?
Since Gingerbread, Android has had to adopt some changes to be Enterprise-friendly at the corporate (ie. UH accounts IP on Google may vary from conventional Google hosting account due to a contract) and device level (enforcing corporate device security policies).
And, by choosing to use your device for work, BYOD as you will – you choose to agree to their terms on how they want to personally identify you in order to adhere to a set level of practical security… all while still being something enforceable on a consumer device (ie. a credit card). Because we are consumers in a capitalist society and don’t have tattoo-branded smart-cards.. yet. This is for your protection and less painful.
I’m feeling no pains on older Android devices – the perfect companion for a Nexus 7. Different Androids can’t really be compared on a flat scale because the market is so "fragmented" as they like to say. The old GB does everything the Nexus 7 can’t and as good as any other device out there.
We’ve had the chance to enjoy the iPad 2 for about a year and it was an interesting toy – but that’s all it seemed to be. It was worthless for basic tasks such as youtube (no HD) and consuming apps (none of our bank cards worked from two states; old and new accounts). So after a year of struggling with Apple’s poor support (they wanted me to buy something but promised to refund, lol) – Junior was glad to see all the Apps he loved quickly replaced on an Android and then-some.
I recommend trying out the next Humble Bundle as a decent example of a free market – it doesn’t require a Google account ever be used on the device, supports charity with complete transparency and even has it’s own installer app. This is one example of how to get apps conveniently from someone you trust.
If someone wants the comfort of living under the guise of a dictatorship like Apple or Google they have to trust them – or someone else; like children. Otherwise, you have to trust yourself not to goof up and make a bad decision (install a bad app and practice unsafe computing). This type of fortitude, with adequate levels of discipline, are not easily circumvented by just any shady app.
That said, it doesn’t make sense to want something and complain about it at the same time which is what I see a lot of in your article. Very flip-floppy and non-specific for many things:
1. Describe what you call "create a photo album." You mention storing files in folders… which seems to be missing a feature you’re looking for(?) or that you don’t like Google+/Picasa so.. where or how DO you like to store your pictures? I’m sure there’s an app for that.
2. You may want to get your eyesight checked again or your Nexus 7 brought in for repairs – text should not be illegible. I read mine on the bus at full arms length without issue.
3. I find portrait-typing very blackberry-esque… though this is totally by preference; too many apps for that. Anything less than 5 inches and I’m using swype. I’ve always hated landscape typing in any tablet – you say it’s too small and I say it’s too big; my thumbs don’t reach comfortable that far all the time – though I will do it sometimes. Unless you mean touch-typing which to me is better described as "prohibited" use. Like the iPad’s camera, I see most public tablet touch-typing as a kind of graceless brooding behavior with it’s own special circle of hell reserved for it’s patrons.
4. Pockets. I wear all kinds of tight and loose fitting denim and khaki work and casual clothes – the N7 fits in all of them. Even my wool slacks that are now too small. I think just speaks more directly to your preference for tiny pockets.
5. You say mobile sites don’t trigger but not which ones. Today I was on slashdot, spankwire and the FBI’s website and the mobile versions were front and center.
6. Mint is one of the worst apps ever and ranks up with Facebook in useless boobs of the century.
7. Don’t suggest using the N7 as a smartphone; it’s not one. Nothing lost + nothing gained.
8. It’s not here to compete with iPad. They will still be available – only now they’ll be even more "exclusive."
9. Why does squarespace request access to my Google Docs+Contact or Twitter feeds and Activity? It’s a bit much…Forced posting as anonymous coward.
For now, I wonder if the whole point of these things is to cut costs and say “look! We have a [cheaper than the regular iPad] tablet too!” But that’s not a good reason to make a product, and it’s definitely not the first step towards making a good product.
Exactly so.