The Google Nexus 7 - An Ignorant Review
I've recently become the proud owner of a new Asus (Google) Nexus 7 tablet and a few people have asked how it's going, so I figured it easier just to do an entry here - plus it means that I may get the fire in the belly to start writing here again.
So what exactly is the Nexus 7 some may be saying. It's simply a tablet a bit like a iPad, but 7" as opposed the 10" and it runs on the Android Operating System, unlike the iPad and its more restrictive iOS. Why the change? I honestly don't know. Having had an iPhone and an iPad for a few years, I simply figured it was time for a change. Being one who likes his toys, especially new ones, when it came time to renew my wife's phone I gave her my new iPhone 4S and opted to get a Samsung Galaxy 3. In fact the first time I had seen one in the flesh and actually played with one was while I was waiting to be served in the Telstra shop - which surprisingly was only a couple of minutes.
Having not used Android before, there was the usual settling in period, but what struck me was the high degree of flexibility. The ability to set things up exactly how you wanted it was overwhelming at first, having never really been the type of person who spends a great deal of time and effort customising themes and desktops on their laptops or phones. But a happy medium was met, and once I worked out the Android way of doing things, it became so much easier.
Once I established that a lot of the applications I used for work were also available the Google Play store I came to the realisation that and upgrade of the iPad may be on the cards too. I bought the iPad a couple of years ago as an experiment to see how well I could use it in the classroom for presentation delivery, and in this task it performed very well. The size of it was offputting sometime as when you carried it around you felt, well, like one of those wankers that walk around with their iPad under their arm.
After a bit of research I settled on the newly released Nexus 7 put out by Google. Relying on Google for a lot of my day to day services, the fact that the tablet was designed to slot directly into the Google infrastructure was a definite plus - which honestly was always a bit of an abortion under iOS.
I'm not going to go into the specs of the thing, they can be easily found elsewhere on the interwebs. But I opted for the 16gb version, which has only wi-fi. None of the units have 3G in them, but considering my iPad did neither, it's not a big problem. For $319 it's the right price without getting all the bells and whistles that I won't really need anyway.
The unit is 7", which is about the same size as a Kindle, and light enough to be held comfortably in the one hand. The back has a nice rubberised coating that makes it feel a lot more secure. The screen is nice and clear, with a good sized border around it so you're not inadvertently touching the screen. I have heard reports of some people having issues with build quality, but I've not seen much of that besides a ridge down the right hand side where the screen doesn't sit completely flush with the frame. It's no show stopper, but it is just evidence of it budget price.
So far the unit has worked flawlessly. I've used it mainly for reading - I'm thinking it may make a worthy substitute for my Kindle, something the iPad could never be - as well as some other low end stuff. I've viewed documents and made some minor editing without dramas, although the on screen keyboard and small screen size does limit things somewhat. I haven't installed any games on it yet, so I can't comment on its performance on that front. Although I haven't done a lot of it, from what I've seen, viewing videos is very clear and comfortable. The screen size is a good compromise between a screen that's large enough to be comfortable to watch and trying to watch Gone With The Wind on a postage stamp. Another thing I like about the tablet is that it's got proper GPS in it, not the bullshit 'location services' from Apple that relies on the mobile network. It has got a front camera, but it's not much chop for taking photos, although it's good enough for video calls such as Skype, which I think was its intent anyway. And seriously, who the hell came up with the idea of taking photos with a tablet. Don't those people with their iPads realise just how stupid they look holding it up to take a shot.
The unit isn't without issues though. None of them really big problems. One of the minor annoyances is that there is no physical home button, with home, back, and tasks buttons all being soft buttons at the bottom of the screen, meaning that you can accidentally hit them while typing. The headphone jack sits on the bottom of the unit, which can be a bit uncomfortable when holding it in portrait. I also wonder about the risk of long term damage happening to the jack because of this - we've experienced a similar issue with my son's 3DS. Because it is so new to the market, accessories are still quite limited, but I can see this increasing as the market develops. I have heard people comment that tablet apps for Android are quite limited. Depending on what you want to do, this may be the case, although I haven't had any issues. The Home screen is set at five pages, and you can't add or remove them, which is a bit restrictive, but for greater flexibility you can still install a custom launcher and adjust things to suit. It is charged using a Micro USB connector which, after being used to the iPhone connector, feels small and flimsy and I'm worried I may break it. I'm confident it won't happen, but you just can't be too sure.
A few comments on Android as a whole. Now that I've gotten used to it, I find it's so much more preferable to iOS. You don't like the default email client? Change it. System keyboard too restrictive or simply a pain in the arse? See what other ones are out there and select one of those to use. Want information such as your calendar, data usage, or weather displayed on your Home screen? Find a suitable widget and drag it to where you want it. The underlying thing to it all is flexibility. Being able to set credentials for various services such as Google, Dropbox, Skype, Twitter, etc, means that you're not re-entering them each time an application wants to use them. Everything just seems to be interlinked so well together, and sharing between applications is truly a breeze. There seems no real cause for dodgy workarounds like you can have to do with Apple. Also it is so easy to do things like print from your Android device. I downloaded one application, it detected my printer, and successfully printed to it. Regardless of whether it sat on Apples 'approved' printer list.
The thing that seems to be missing though is a true Push system, with things like email etc being checked at user set intervals. This may seem a bit of a backward step - I certainly did - but then you have to ask yourself do you really need to be notified of emails, Twitter mentions, or Facebook likes the second they happen, or is it sufficient to wait maybe 15 mins for the next update. Some things seem to push, but not all.
The Google Play store has a good variety of apps which will continue to grow. Some may find their favourite apps aren't there, or that they aren't as polished as their iOS counterparts, but the converse is true in a lot of cases too. Concerns have also been expressed that without the strict Apple infrastructure, malicious applications could slip through. From what I've seen, as long as you remain within a reputable market place - Google, Amazon, Samsung, etc - then you're pretty safe. Although it's prudent to install a virus scanner just to be on the safe side. Another nice thing is not having to enter your password every - fucking - time an application updates. I found the transition to Android pretty much the same as when I made the move from Windows to Linux. It does pretty much the same thing, it just doesn't seem as polished in places. But all in all I've seen it as a positive step.
Final verdict on the Nexus 7? I love it. Nice size. Easy to hold. Operating system is very user friendly once you get used to it. So far I've used it mainly for content consumption, and it's been ideal for that. It's suitability for content creation is limited. Having said that I've typed this entire entry using the tablet along with my Apple Bluetooth keyboard - I just hope the marriage of opposing forces doesn't push the planets out of orbit and kill us all. Would I recommend it? That would depend on what you want to use it for. If you want it for social media, reading, etc then it's ideal in size and feel. But if you need more than that, then a bit more consideration needs to be made. As I said content creation is limited, but then again so too is the iPad. My advice is to have a look at the Google Play store and see what's on offer and see if there's apps there that will meet your needs. Another bonus is that you can do all this without having to deal with the cluster fuck that is iTunes.
As a unit, it's great, and as the infrastructure develops further it will be harder to beat, especially at this price. Since changing over I haven't had much cause to miss my iPhone nor my iPad. Which is pretty impressive considering I often wondered how I would survive without them. Of course your mileage may vary.