Google Nexus 7 – Eat the Jelly Bean

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There’s been rumours floating around for a while, but finally Google has their Nexus 7 tablet available for pre-order.  Based on Google’s latest Android version, Jelly Bean, the 7″ tablet made by ASUS has a Quad Core Tegra 3 processor, a 1280 X 800 screen, 8 hour battery life, and will come in 8 and 16GB variations. Like the Kindle Fire, there are no expansion slots, with Google’s intent being for you to purchase  all your digital media such as  music, movies, apps and books, from the Google Play Store.

Prices are $199 for the 8GB model and $249 for 16 GB model.

12 thoughts on “Google Nexus 7 – Eat the Jelly Bean”




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  2. I’m thinking of getting one, but first I want to see the Kindle Fire 2 has to offer, and also see if Apple comes out with a 7″ iPad (I like the 7″ form factor). I have an Lenovo Ideapad a1 and I am not very happy with it or Android. My iPad first gen is much better than the flaky Lenovo, and the Apple OS is much more together than Android.

  3. I could well endanger my Gadgeteer merit badge here….. 🙂

    There’s two things that appeal to me about the Nexus 7: Quad Core Processor and Price

    I’m hoping though that we’re not getting into a Microsoft style upgrade here where we need better hardware just to support the operating system. Jelly Bean looks nice however perhaps I’m becoming a bit blaise about the whole thing, but there’s nothing that revolutionary about it (nor Honeycomb). A lot of the functionality being built into the OS are things that I’ve had on Gingerbread using third party apps for a while. That’s the nice thing about Android being so open, people can find shortfalls in the OS and address them easily and cheaply.

    For a lot of the stuff I do, the Quad Core Processor is not going to make that much difference in performance.

    Just like the Amazon Fire, Google is using the old Gillette razor and blade model; sell the unit cheap and make your money on the sale of apps/movies/books. The price point they’ve set will certainly given the Amazon Fire a run for it’s money and will also increase the market share for Google.

    I really like the 7″ form factor. It’s a nice compromise between useability and weight/size (my first tablet was the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7″), and the screen will look nice with the high resolution. It’ll even fit into your back jeans pocket if push comes to shove.

    The fact that the unit has no external storage threw me initially, but if I really sit back and think about it, in everyday use is that really an issue? I’ve got over 1TB of online storage via various providers and heaps more than that in local storage. Transfer,storage and streaming of data isn’t that big an issue these days. The Cloud is the new floppy disk 🙂 The issue comes where you need offline storage only, something that probably isn’t going to affect a lot of people where they’ll be using their Nexus.

    Another thing that I found strange on first read of the specs was that they didn’t include an external display port so that you can share your Google movies/TV on your big screen, but on reflection that’s obviously where the Nexus Q comes into play.

    While I won’t be buying one, this can only be a good thing for the consumer. Google will sell a butt load of these but to me it’s a niche product for first time tablet users, those who want a cheap Android device and those who are willing to mainly consume from the “Googleverse”.

    For those who are “more advanced” Android users I’m guessing that Google’s strategy is to set a standard for hardware manufacturers. Every review of a new Jelly Bean device will find itself compared to the $199 Nexus 7. Hardware manufacturers will have been set a very high standard for both performance and price and need to have innovations that can draw consumers away from the budget Nexus. That being said I’m not expecting to see 10″ tablets with quad core and 3G and SD slots and active digitisers at the same price point 🙂

    In the end, as always it comes down to your particular usage as to whether this will be a good unit for you. Standard disclaimer: YMMV 🙂

  4. Thank you Ian for your wonderful insight and help on this new 7″ tablet 🙂

    The first minus is no SD slot. That’s one reason I didn’t by the Kindle Fire. I will be using it to store movies, maps and such on long trips, maybe hiking trips where there are not any ‘Clouds’ except the rainy kind.
    The missing back camera (what I mostly use, not the front where folks could see my cragginess) is minus two. That’s another reason I didn’t get a Kindle Fire.
    No cell 3/4G option…

    I think I now want something with a removable battery so I can switch over when one runs down, but all tablets that I’ve seen don’t have that option.
    I do like the 7″ form factor, too…
    Maybe I should get a smart phone, but which one? The Samsung Galaxy III?
    Whatever I do get it has to be rugged for hiking- I’m going to use it for GPS and maps so I won’t get lost 😛

    Hey, type in GPS into Google Play to see all the great Apps they have for hiking 🙂

    1. @Bob I bought the Nexus 7 to review. So far I haven’t been excited enough about it to use it for very long. I hope to get some good one-on-one time with it this weekend. I agree 2 of your cons. I am also disappointed that it lacks an SD card and 3/4G. I don’t care about the camera. I don’t use my iPad to take pix and wouldn’t use the Nexus 7 for that either.

      As for smartphones, the SGS3 is a nice one. Or for something even bigger, how about the Galaxy Note?

  5. @Julie I have been looking at the Samsung Note and Galaxy III- I have a Samsung Dart and find the build quality very well for under $100 and rugged, but just a little bit under-powered but it runs everything better than my Lenovo A1 (piece of garbage). The screen resolution is bad for reading websites but everything else I can read okay. The front camera is very good!
    I would like one device to take hiking, and a smartphone would cover phone, camera, GPS and Maps, blogging, music, video…. Dang this could goe on and on!!!

  6. @Bob

    Rugged and removable battery , Panasonic Toughbook FZ-A1………

    http://panasonic.net/avc/pc/product/full.html

    I had the chance to play with a prototype in the early days. It was so prototype that the OS wasn’t even optimised to…ummm…work properly.

    Of course it’s 10″ so not overly portable and and I must admit you do pay a premium for the Toughbook range though the differential with “normal” notebooks has reduced substantially over the last couple of years……

    Then again you might want to just consider a “normal” phone/tablet with an otterbox housing or similar and add an external battery extender or even go greener and try a solar charger!

    My big dilemma at the moment is that my phone is really just that a phone, my tablet does most of the “heavy lifting these days. Android phones are getting bigger and bigger with larger screens and to me less pocketable. On the flip side my eyes are getting worse and I might need a bigger screen so I can actually read what’s on the screen properly as the 3.7” on my current phone does cause me some issues at times 😛

  7. @Ian I mostly have the solar panel and external battery figured out. I mentioned that on another post here on The Gadgeteer. Being independent on the trail is what I’m aiming at 🙂

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