Google Nexus 7: A Review

The Google Nexus 7 is the latest entry into the growing tablet market and a very worthy competitor to Apple's proprietary iPad. My dad picked up the Nexus several months ago, and after playing with it for about a week, I decided to pick one up for myself. It was definitely a good investment, and I'm very impressed with the features this small but relatively inexpensive package possesses. For those of you thinking about buying, hopefully my little review will provide some insight.

Software:
The Nexus 7 hardware is manufactured by ASUS, while the operating system is pure Google Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean). Like any Android device, there are five customizable home screens as well as several pages of apps and widgets. By default, several of the Google Play apps (such as Google Magazines) fill up your desktops, but they're easily removable.

Recent updates to the OS have added some interesting features, such as the ability to create multiple user accounts, the ability to add widgets to the lock screen, and 'daydream' screensavers showing information when the device is sleeping/idle, just to name a few. Overall, Android 4.2 appears to be very stable; I really haven't had any issues with crashing, and I rarely shut it down completely.

It comes pre-loaded with some of the essential apps, but is strangely lacking others:

• Gmail
• Google Calander
• Calculator
• Google Chrome
• Clock
• Google Currents (a tech news service)
• Google Earth
• Email (an email client for all your non-Google accounts)
• Google +
• Google Maps
• Google Messenger
• Navigation
• People (your Gmail Contacts)
• Google Play Store
• Google Play Magazines
• Google Play Movies & TV
• Google Play Music
• Google Voice Search
• Talk
• Wallet
• YouTube

What's missing:

• A camera app (try 'Camera ICS' from Google Play)
• A file explorer (try 'ES File Explorer' from Google Play)
• An office suite (try 'Kingsoft Office' from the Kingsoft website or Google Play)
• Facebook app (try the official app from Google Play)
• ebook reader for non-Google books (try 'Moon+ Reader' from Google Play)

Hardware:
On the hardware side, the Nexus 7 is solidly constructed and definitely doesn't feel like a cheap tablet. The back of the device is textured and doesn't slide around in my hand. In fact, the 'long and narrow' form factor makes hanging on to the device hand pretty easy. That's, of course, no excuse for getting a decent case. I picked up this ultra-slim case from Amazon and it works really well as both a case and a stand. The Nexus even automatically comes out of sleep mode when I open it!

The Nexus has very little in the way of physical buttons and external ports. On the right side, there's the power button and volume toggle switch. On the bottom of the unit we have a USB port and a headphone jack. The (rather short) charging cable that comes with the Nexus doubles as an AC power adapter (with the 'brick' connected to the end) and a USB data transfer cable, which makes up for the missing card slot.

The 7-inch capacitive touchscreen display is bright and clear, and the is very responsive to even the lightest touch. Fingerprints are, of course, a problem, but that goes for pretty much all touchscreen devices. I have noticed a flickering of the back light on my unit, but from what I understand, it's a known problem that's yet to be fixed. It's either caused by a flaw in the wireless card (which causes flickering when there's low signal strength), or a glitch in the brightness controls.

The unit's Nvidia Tegra 3 1.3 Ghz quad-core processor and 1 GB of DDR3 memory definitely gets the job done. Web pages load quickly, games and streaming media play smoothly and overall, everything most runs 'lag-free'.

I also hooked up an inexpensive Blutooth keyboard when I actually want to type something, and that works pretty well, too. I have noticed lag in the Blutooth signal on larger documents (especially with the most recent update...), but it doesn't seem to be a big issue.

Battery life is about what I'd expect for a device like the Nexus. For normal, everyday lite use, it'll go for a few days without needing a recharge. If you're playing games and watching videos, though, the battery drains pretty fast. Lowering the screen brightness and turning the Blutooth and/or wireless off helps.

Problems & Drawbacks
The unit does have a few drawbacks, however. If you're fond of using microSD cards on your tablet, you're out of luck on the Nexus 7. It has no micrsoSD slot and there's no easy way to hook one up externally. It ended up not being a big problem for me, but it would have been a nice feature, especially considering most low-end tablets have card slots.

The other missing piece of hardware is a rear-facing camera. Now, personally, I don't use my Nexus for taking pictures all that often (I still prefer a stand-alone camera for that), but when I do, using the front-facing camera is pretty awkward. Like the missing card slot, this was just another cost-cutting measure. On the other hand, the front-facing camera works pretty well for video calls (a la Skype) and the quality isn't too bad (720p).

There's one other thing I feel I should mention: beware of ASUS technical support! My dad had a pretty poor experience with them when he had to send his Nexus back for repairs after it froze up at the splash screen. It took them two tries to repair the device; the first time, the unit came back in worse condition than it started in!

Cost:
The price of the unit is fixed at US$199 for the 16 GB model and US$249 for the 32 GB version. While the 16 and 32 GB models are Wi-Fi only, a 3G/4G version for AT&T and T-Mobile customers has recently been released for US$299.

Overall, if you're looking for a fairly inexpensive tablet that works really well as a mobile productivity device, media platform, and ereader, I'd highly recommend the Nexus 7. It's not without its flaws, but it's also one of the cheapest high-end tablets on the market.