Android Nexus 7: Initial thoughts

[iFish]

So, seeing as blogs are gone for the time being, I figured I'd talk about it here.

I bought a Nexus 7 last weekend and it arrived at my door yesterday, after playing with the device for 24 hours I think I want to give me initial thoughts on it and how I like the actual device itself.

Yeah yeah, I don't think I need to say that Android lacks proper tablet-optimized apps. But I'm making do with what I have(and it's working well!)

One thing I thought I'd hate is the 7" size, but it suits the needs of why I bought it: As a tablet to take to school with me. I like how the hardware actually feels in my hand, it feels sturdy, comfortable and welcoming. I'm a big fan of the faux-leather on the back, too.

The hardware specs are no slouch either, it's done everything I've needed it to do, and well. Not that I've been doing anything too intensive.

The first thing I did when I got it out of the box was OEM unlock the bootloader and root the thing, I wanted to install custom ROMs because I refuse to install any custom ROMs on my Galaxy Nexus due to reauthenticating Google 2-step verification is a long process and I'm really lazy. So I put CM10 on my Nexus 7. But I jumped back to stock for a little bit because I reallly wasn't interested in reinstalling all the Google Apps from the Play Store(the ones that weren't in the Gapps zip)

The screen is pretty nice, too.

I'm looking forward to seeing how my use of this tablet continues after a few weeks, though. Whether I go back to my iPad for school. We'll see. I also got this tabel for coding and development uses, so it won't go to waste

 

[mrtofu]

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[Sicklyboy]

I absolutely love mine. I got the first batch, 16GB.

The only things I do t like about it are the fact that it's an lcd screen instead of an amoled, my galaxy nexus' screen is gorgeous, and if I press the wrong way on the bezel of the nexus 7,you get the lcd compression marks. Also, lack of microsd is a little annoying, but not a deal breaker. Mhl would have been nice, as would a rear facing camera, but again, not deal breakers.

Also, not sure how later batches fared, but the first few at least had an issue where you would get unresponsive spots on the screen after using it for a while, and a loxk/unlock or reboot would fix it momentarily. After flashing aokp jb milestone 1 I no longer have the issue, as far as I've seen.

Sorry if the post has spelling or grammar mistakes, been out of power for 5 days from hurricane sandy and posting from a phone suuuuucks

 

[KingVamp]

One thing I thought I'd hate is the 7" size

Why?


Want to get a 7.7 inch one, but the prices for name brand are too high.

I just got my Nexus 7 too. I'm really enjoying it so far.


But overall I'm satisfied with my purchase. For those interested, here are my videos on manga/notebook.

Spoiler: YouTube

I thought you actually wrote on the tablet, not scan your notebook papers. Isn't that partially counter productive?
Have you tried taking note on it?

Viewing the manga on it is pretty sweet.

You should do a complete video on it.


How much does this tablet cost again? Would you trade for a 3g version? Go as far as use it as a phone if you can? Can you fit it in you front pockets?
Is it more power then you need for everyday regular uses?

 

[Zerousen]

How much does this tablet cost again? Would you trade for a 3g version? Go as far as use it as a phone if you can? Can you fit it in you front pockets?
Is it more power then you need for everyday regular uses?

200 USD for 16 gb, 250 USD for 32 gb.

Well, it's a 7" tablet. Are your pockets big enough to fit in 7"?

 

[mrtofu]

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[iFish]

I absolutely love mine. I got the first batch, 16GB.

The only things I do t like about it are the fact that it's an lcd screen instead of an amoled, my galaxy nexus' screen is gorgeous, and if I press the wrong way on the bezel of the nexus 7,you get the lcd compression marks. Also, lack of microsd is a little annoying, but not a deal breaker. Mhl would have been nice, as would a rear facing camera, but again, not deal breakers.

Also, not sure how later batches fared, but the first few at least had an issue where you would get unresponsive spots on the screen after using it for a while, and a loxk/unlock or reboot would fix it momentarily. After flashing aokp jb milestone 1 I no longer have the issue, as far as I've seen.

Sorry if the post has spelling or grammar mistakes, been out of power for 5 days from hurricane sandy and posting from a phone suuuuucks

Mine has the bezel problem. Not sure if it's a problem, though. I only have it when I press harder than I need to.

Also, Hikaru: You're not legally allowed to include Gapps with your ROMs. So that's why most people don't include them.

 

[Zerousen]

Mine has the bezel problem. Not sure if it's a problem, though. I only have it when I press harder than I need to.

Apparently if you aren't afraid to do any slight tweaking, you can fix the bezel issue by yourself. As for the Gapps, I know.

 

[xdifferentx]

i am currently in the market for a tablet at the moment, i was considering the nexus 7 but i've read it has poor color saturation, what's your thoughts on that?

 

[yuyuyup]

i am currently in the market for a tablet at the moment, i was considering the nexus 7 but i've read it has poor color saturation, what's your thoughts on that?

I'm no expert interpreting such factors, nor have I done a hands-on device comparison myself, but I think the screen is excellent through my amateur eyeballs. I think the reviewers that said such things are probably experts in detecting such flaws. I don't doubt they are right, but you need to consider the "color saturation" issue is not hugely damning in the otherwise great reviews. The device has it's drawbacks, the big one in my opinion is lack of rear camera. I know, many claim that taking pics with a rear camera is goofy, but if the tablet is in your hand and you want to take a pic or video of something, you can't use the device immediately on hand to do so. There ARE people that have connected webcams to an older Nexus phone, but they have modded the kernel etc looks like complex bullshit. Hopefully someone will figure out how to simply plug in any cam into an OTG cable. I don't know why this hasn't been done yet, can't find a good reason why not. I didn't think this could fit into my back or side pocket, but it is just barely portable enough, which is great. I read the screen isn't as durable as an ipad; there's another negative. But it's pretty great, you can even overclock it to 2 ghz, which would be way too hot, but still. I love mine, especially because gamestop gave me ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY BUCKS store credit for my original 3DS last week (had to be a fuck up on their part, even with the double-store-credit for system trade-in deal)

Other than the before-mentioned webcam hookup, you can hook up a DSLR camera easily for some reason.

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