Google have designed the Nexus 7 to contend with the Amazon Kindle Fire and the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet. The Nexus costs $199 and Google said that the tablet could be pre-ordered from the middle of July. So will you be heading out to get it?
Google Nexus 7 review
The Nexus 7 comes with a 7 inch screen, as does both of the other tablets, and is designed in plain black. One of the most noticeable of its features and one that makes it stand out above its competitors is the low resolution front facing camera. This is good for video chats but when it comes to taking photos it is almost impossible. Unlike the Kindle Fire, the Nexus 7 has a microphone for audio conferencing too.
The Nexus 7 comes with a higher resolution display than that of the Fire and the colours are also more vivid. It is also lighter and thinner, slightly, than the Kindle Fire. Google have given the Nexus 7 Bluetooth and GPS so these come in handy for using with navigation software. It also comes with NFC support so it can be tapped against other devices to transfer information and pay in stores.
What makes the tablet stand out from the Fire and Nook tablet is the software it comes with out of the box. It runs the latest stock Android 4.1 with the name of JellyBean. The stock ROM provides hundreds of thousands of apps, a lot more than the competitors, and there is diversity. Interestingly you are able to read Kindle books on the Nexus 7, whereas you cannot read books from Google on the Kindle Fire. Google try to get users into the Play Store to purchase apps, music, books and movies and they entice users with a $25 credit.
The Nexus 7 has plenty of RAM and a processing chip that is powerful and which is very slick and fast. Moving from app to app is easy and you cannot do this on either the Nook or the Fire. With the latter two you have to close the app and then go to the main menu.
One of the downsides to the Nexus 7 is storage. For $199 you get only 8GB and around one quarter of this is overhead, making it 5.9GB for use. Users will soon fill this up. You can get the 16GB for $249 and it may be worth it as there is no SD card support, which the Nook has but the Fire does not.
Users may have issues with some of the apps not working thanks to JellyBean being the latest OS. This issue was noticed with the MX Player as developers have not yet had time to rewrite apps.
While the screen size is a step up from a mobile phone at 7 inches, it is nothing compared to the iPad, so if you were looking for a cheaper replacement for the iPad, you could be disappointed. Reading full screen documents and magazines can be a bit tricky on the Nexus 7.
All in all the Nexus 7 is a great entry into the smaller tablet market and while it may not be perfect, it does give the Fire and Nook a run for their money. If you think it is an iPad killer, it is far from it. If anything, this is likely Google’s way to weed out all those cheap Android tablets that have been popping up on the market over the past few years. So if anything, it is going to cannibalize sales of Android tablets in the lower price range.
