OT: Google Nexus Tablet

[B1GEast]

Anyone have one, if so I'd like to hear more about it. I'm hearing there about to add a 3G verision in about 6 weeks.

 

[Huskies4ever]

Anyone have one, if so I'd like to hear more about it. I'm hearing there about to add a 3G verision in about 6 weeks.

I'm sure it will be awesome. I have an Amazon Kindle Fire (am using it now) and absolutely love it! Tablets are the new big tech craze. I would wait the 6 weeks. However, they are always upgrading these things.

 

[Drumguy]

I have one. I like it a lot. I also have an iPad2 and a Kindle as well (I'm a bit of a tech junkie). Other than the fact that not all apps are readily available yet for the 7" format, I like it a lot. It's a real computer vs the original fire (don't know yet about today's releases) and for $199 (including a $25 credit in the Play store) it's boatloads cheaper than the iPad. I've traveled extensively with both (and used both. Basically the 7" size is very protable - more so than the ipad. It's easier to read on (my Kindle app) than the IPad. I think the games are still more widely available on the iPad but for connectivity (wifi on both, no 3G), basic internet browsing and even watching movies and tv there's not that much of an advantage to the iPad to justify the extra cast - ergo we know Apple is pushing one out this month to compete. A caveat here - I still prefer to read outside with the Kindle but like to read on the Nexus more that the iPad - it's much easier to hold and the iPad is actually too bright imho for extensive reading. That's a real nice feature of Kindle - it crosses all products and actually will sync your books.

If you know much about Jelly Bean, which runs the Nexus7, there are some very cool features. Google Now is in its infancy and more of a gimic right now, but has amazing potential to be helpful, and seeing your traffic displayed in the morning as well as the weather is a neat feature.

I like it, runs most of my droid apps (USA Today is one I miss) but I use it for Flipboard, NY Times, watching shows and some games. It's Google family so everything Google runs really well on it and my office is Google Apps and documents. Google voice search is more accurate for searching than Siri but not as fun.

That said I also love my iPad and there are some games and apps not available yet for the Droid Play Store.

Summary: Great value for the price, portable as anything, meets most of my portability needs, essentially same as the iPad in a smaller package.

 

[spoop]

I got one to use around campus. What Drumguy said is pretty spot on, I love mine. The size is perfect and it's not that heavy, and it's fairly powerful. The $25 play store credit is nice, I'm not the kind of person that would buy a lot of apps so it's nice to have the $25 to spend when one pops up that looks really great.

 

[Fishy]

I like it, but there are some caveats.

There are some apps lacking, but I can't really say that there's one that is a complete deal breaker. (Instapaper was a huge hole for me - now closed.) Not being able to use it as a television stream with the Optimum App like I can with the iPad and the absence of a Amazon Prime app are two strikes, however.

I like the 7" screen, it's more portable and although the back lighting flickers significantly, it's pleasant enough to read on. (Resolution is just good enough that I don't find text to be jagged.) It's cheap enough that I don't particular care to baby it - the iPad feels expensive and that gets tiring to think about at times. Performance is pretty good - Jelly Bean is a far cry better than Honeycomb which was a duck* load of s***.

You also get a $25 Play credit (nice) and a free Tranformers movie (unnecessary cruelty).

The major cons -

This is an Asus tablet built to a cheap price point. Quality control was not job one - you can find a plague of complaints about some of the issues it has on the XDA forums.

Mine has a couple of issues, one of which became unmanageable.

The left side of the screen lifts up - you can feel it with your finger tip and simply holding it is starting to register an audible note from the screen. (It "snicks" as if I've meant to hit a touch target when I am actually just holding it - the digitizer is being manipulated by the movement of the left side.) That is annoying but endurable. The screen flickers badly. Again, endurable.

The killer - I can't charge the thing past 44%. I can leave it charging all day and it will get to 43 or 44 and then start a discharge-charge loop remaining right where it is. Resetting the device doesn't work. I can only squeeze about two hours of use out of it before it's just about dead.

According to Google, all three problems are known issues and they are RMA'ing it for me - the replacement, which I received today, has been charging for about eight hours and is only at 68%, so my hope for a permanent resolution is not high. (The screen is also lifted on the left side. Interestingly - I took the backs off of both of them and they're both loaded with finger prints inside. There were changes made to these suckers on the fly, I think.)

Basically, I would wait a bit for them to work out the bugs.

 

[iam76]

i also have the nexus 7. Its the best device tablet wise i have owned... i have the ipad2 aswell which i find to be very good. I have heard of all the issues fishy had or listed above. MY tablet was from the second batch they sent out of the 16 gig version from the play store.

I highly reccomment the tablet but that is coming from a perfect working product... i on the other hand had a prime when they came out and mine was defective and i returned it.

so its hit or miss.. the 200 dollar price point is hard to beat.

Jellybean is pretty great compared to previous versions.. no more hiccups in the ui.

i prefer android to apples os but then again thats just me.

it will be interesting to see the new ipad mini.

 

[Drumguy]

I like it, but there are some caveats.

There are some apps lacking, but I can't really say that there's one that is a complete deal breaker. (Instapaper was a huge hole for me - now closed.) Not being able to use it as a television stream with the Optimum App like I can with the iPad and the absence of a Amazon Prime app are two strikes, however.

I like the 7" screen, it's more portable and although the back lighting flickers significantly, it's pleasant enough to read on. (Resolution is just good enough that I don't find text to be jagged.) It's cheap enough that I don't particular care to baby it - the iPad feels expensive and that gets tiring to think about at times. Performance is pretty good - Jelly Bean is a far cry better than Honeycomb which was a duck* load of s***.

You also get a $25 Play credit (nice) and a free Tranformers movie (unnecessary cruelty).

The major cons -

This is an Asus tablet built to a cheap price point. Quality control was not job one - you can find a plague of complaints about some of the issues it has on the XDA forums.

Mine has a couple of issues, one of which became unmanageable.

The left side of the screen lifts up - you can feel it with your finger tip and simply holding it is starting to register an audible note from the screen. (It "snicks" as if I've meant to hit a touch target when I am actually just holding it - the digitizer is being manipulated by the movement of the left side.) That is annoying but endurable. The screen flickers badly. Again, endurable.

The killer - I can't charge the thing past 44%. I can leave it charging all day and it will get to 43 or 44 and then start a discharge-charge loop remaining right where it is. Resetting the device doesn't work. I can only squeeze about two hours of use out of it before it's just about dead.

According to Google, all three problems are known issues and they are RMA'ing it for me - the replacement, which I received today, has been charging for about eight hours and is only at 68%, so my hope for a permanent resolution is not high. (The screen is also lifted on the left side. Interestingly - I took the backs off of both of them and they're both loaded with finger prints inside. There were changes made to these suckers on the fly, I think.)

Basically, I would wait a bit for them to work out the bugs.

I've read about those issues but I haven't had any, just to be a counterpoint!

 

[RS9999X]

If you are an avid reader you will own a Kindle at some point. It does one thing better than all the rest and the new $139 glowlight looks like a killer product. The size, weight and sunlight/glowlight factor are optimized for reading text.

The Nexus is the teaser streaming tablet. Good for streaming and most Android types of things. Good reader when inside but lousy outside or in sunlight. I hate the 8 GB memory. I'm waiting to see the reviews on the new Fire HD with 32 GB ($249). If the browser and local storage media handling are done well it would make a solid choice for me. Anything bigger than that (10.6") and I'm going back to Windows Pro 8 for productivity apps.

 

[dapriest]

I haven't kept up with the tablet technology.
If I get one of these, will my wife be able to read books she buys from Amazon? I guess I'm asking whether there is kindle-specific formats that can't be read/displayed by other vendors.
8gb vs. 16gb. That's just hard drive, right? Would 8gb be enough for a casual user? I'm assuming books and such won't take up much room at all, and we wouldn't have a need to store movies or other large items.

In sum, what do you think? At 200 bucks, I'd get one for my wife to keep her busy playing scrabble, watching streaming movies, and reading amazon books on the couch. Would this be a good option?

 

[iam76]

yes its the best option for that atm. u can get the 16g one for a lil more. and i'd recommend the http://www.dodocase.com/products/hardcover-for-nexus-7 for a sexy little book like case

 

[RS9999X]

I haven't kept up with the tablet technology.
If I get one of these, will my wife be able to read books she buys from Amazon? I guess I'm asking whether there is kindle-specific formats that can't be read/displayed by other vendors.
8gb vs. 16gb. That's just hard drive, right? Would 8gb be enough for a casual user? I'm assuming books and such won't take up much room at all, and we wouldn't have a need to store movies or other large items.

In sum, what do you think? At 200 bucks, I'd get one for my wife to keep her busy playing scrabble, watching streaming movies, and reading amazon books on the couch. Would this be a good option?

Kinde is a software. You can download it to Windows, Apple, Android and HP WebOS and Linux. It syncs your library between devices.

You can get that now. It's free.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=sa_menu_karl3?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

I don;t stream as much as I load content on mine to play remotely so I need the larger drive. Ypu may not need that if you have WiFI around the house and that's the primary use. The only other issues are clarity and screen size. That's where the Amazon Fire HD is positioning itself.

 

[Fishy]

I haven't kept up with the tablet technology.
If I get one of these, will my wife be able to read books she buys from Amazon? I guess I'm asking whether there is kindle-specific formats that can't be read/displayed by other vendors.
8gb vs. 16gb. That's just hard drive, right? Would 8gb be enough for a casual user? I'm assuming books and such won't take up much room at all, and we wouldn't have a need to store movies or other large items.

In sum, what do you think? At 200 bucks, I'd get one for my wife to keep her busy playing scrabble, watching streaming movies, and reading amazon books on the couch. Would this be a good option?

If that's what you're looking for, I would probably recommend just getting her one of the Amazon tablets.

You can get a Kindle app for the Nexus, but you're kinda shut out of streaming Amazon Prime video - there is no Google app for it and Jelly Bean doesn't support Flash, so Prime's not available. That is currently a pain point for me...fortunately, I have about 8,000 other gadgets around.

 

[Huskies4ever]

I haven't kept up with the tablet technology.
If I get one of these, will my wife be able to read books she buys from Amazon? I guess I'm asking whether there is kindle-specific formats that can't be read/displayed by other vendors.
8gb vs. 16gb. That's just hard drive, right? Would 8gb be enough for a casual user? I'm assuming books and such won't take up much room at all, and we wouldn't have a need to store movies or other large items.

In sum, what do you think? At 200 bucks, I'd get one for my wife to keep her busy playing scrabble, watching streaming movies, and reading amazon books on the couch. Would this be a good option?

Getting a tablet for your wife for the above reasons would be great. Perfect even. It is amazing how much content you can store on one of these devices.
Again, I have a Kindle Fire and love it. The funny thing is, I got it as a Christmas present, and still have yet to download an e-book. I have comic books, movies, games, and plenty of apps. I love surfing the web. I am using it now, as I type. It's great to go online when my nephews are over and sabotaging the computer. The 7 inch screen is fine, very portable, and for $200, you can't go wrong. No issues yet.
My mom has a Nook and loves it, but she did have a problem getting it to turn on once and had to have someone look at it. Hope this helps a little.

 

[RS9999X]

There are work arounds for getting Flash on a Nexus to use Amazon Prime. Not optimized yet but functional.


http://www.geardiary.com/2012/07/20...ia-and-flash-content-to-play-on-your-nexus-7/

 

[Fishy]

There are work arounds for getting Flash on a Nexus to use Amazon Prime. Not optimized yet but functional.

Don't buy a Nexus tablet expecting that to work - eventually, as with the previous Flash-friendly options, it won't. (Given that mobile Flash is EOL, it will never be optimized.)It

I've sideloaded an old Dolphin HD apk and an old Xscope apk with a Flash apk and tried to run Prime that way - it will crash within seconds of trying to pop the movie to full screen mode. (The newer versions of Dolphin eliminate Flash support entirely - the option to turn it on is grayed out. Xscope, I assume to capitalize on their standing as one of the last Flash browsers, is now a $4 app...not paying for a lousy browser.)

 

[RS9999X]

Don't buy a Nexus tablet expecting that to work - eventually, as with the previous Flash-friendly options, it won't. (Given that mobile Flash is EOL, it will never be optimized.) )

Non-compatibility is what Google wants.

All of which reminds me I'm never going to be much of an Android user longterm. By the time Ubuntu is squeezed onto a Samsung Galaxy V Phone Apple and/or Microsoft will be light years past the 'open source - come root my Android fork' crowd.

 

[IMind]

Non-compatibility is what Google wants.

All of which reminds me I'm never going to be much of an Android user longterm. By the time Ubuntu is squeezed onto a Samsung Galaxy V Phone Apple and/or Microsoft will be light years past the 'open source - come root my Android fork' crowd.

That might be part of it... but the sooner Flash dies a long overdue death the better.

 

[Drumguy]

One other big advantage of the Nexus over the Fire is using swype to input. It's predictive text and you use your finger to "draw" words. It may or may not save time.

Basic rule on all of these gadgets is they all are pretty darn good and all have some faults and most are better at something than the others - pick those key features you like and price and that should help narrow the choice.

To add my $.02 to the book reader though, I use my Kindle app on every device I own. I'm a Amazon Prime member but don't stream video so that's not a feature I care much about. I do read books on all my devices but least on my iPad - it's heavy and bright compared to the Nexus and the Kindle reader (not a fire).

 

[kibblesnbits]

I like it, but there are some caveats.

There are some apps lacking, but I can't really say that there's one that is a complete deal breaker. (Instapaper was a huge hole for me - now closed.) Not being able to use it as a television stream with the Optimum App like I can with the iPad and the absence of a Amazon Prime app are two strikes, however.

I like the 7" screen, it's more portable and although the back lighting flickers significantly, it's pleasant enough to read on. (Resolution is just good enough that I don't find text to be jagged.) It's cheap enough that I don't particular care to baby it - the iPad feels expensive and that gets tiring to think about at times. Performance is pretty good - Jelly Bean is a far cry better than Honeycomb which was a duck* load of s***.

You also get a $25 Play credit (nice) and a free Tranformers movie (unnecessary cruelty).

The major cons -

This is an Asus tablet built to a cheap price point. Quality control was not job one - you can find a plague of complaints about some of the issues it has on the XDA forums.

Mine has a couple of issues, one of which became unmanageable.

The left side of the screen lifts up - you can feel it with your finger tip and simply holding it is starting to register an audible note from the screen. (It "snicks" as if I've meant to hit a touch target when I am actually just holding it - the digitizer is being manipulated by the movement of the left side.) That is annoying but endurable. The screen flickers badly. Again, endurable.

The killer - I can't charge the thing past 44%. I can leave it charging all day and it will get to 43 or 44 and then start a discharge-charge loop remaining right where it is. Resetting the device doesn't work. I can only squeeze about two hours of use out of it before it's just about dead.

According to Google, all three problems are known issues and they are RMA'ing it for me - the replacement, which I received today, has been charging for about eight hours and is only at 68%, so my hope for a permanent resolution is not high. (The screen is also lifted on the left side. Interestingly - I took the backs off of both of them and they're both loaded with finger prints inside. There were changes made to these suckers on the fly, I think.)

Basically, I would wait a bit for them to work out the bugs.

I haven't had any of those problems. In fact, I've been extremely impressed with the overall quality. I waited over a month before buying one so perhaps it was from a later production run.

In any case, I use the Nexus 7 more than my iPad2 because the form factor is more convenient yet it has a high enough resolution that you can browse full web pages and run various e-reading apps without a problem. I bought an very inexpensive fake leather case with USB keyboard (instead of the more expensive Bluetooth keyboard that I never really used with the iPad) on eBay making it extremely convenient for answering email while traveling. The keys are a bit small but it's still better than using the on-screen keyboard on either the Google or Apple tablets. Then I just pull it out of the case and settle back for a little tablet style reading before crashing for the night.