Google Nexus 7 Black Wi-Fi 32GB Tablet - NEXUS7ASUS1B32

Nexus 7, great bang for your buck

This is a great little tablet. If you just use it as a reader, it would be sufficient, but it also has the ability to do what most computers can do, albeit with ...Read complete review

This is a great little tablet. If you just use it as a reader, it would be sufficient, but it also has the ability to do what most computers can do, albeit with a much less efficient keyboard.

Size:

Big enough to comfortably view movies and great for books. Magazines (in unmodified form) are tough to read, but you can switch the view to text only. The Nexus 7 is comfortable to hold with one hand or two. With the Blurex Case/Cover, this thing is sleek and yet really easy to hold book-style with one hand or in landscape mode on a stand, for reading or watching movies.

Function:

I'm not a tech-nerd, don't know very much about specs beyond RAM and Hard-Drive space, but I am comfortable with Android. I have had Android phones for the past two years and prefer them to apple phones (my wife has had iphones for several years - she loves them). If you have never used Android, there's going to be a short learning curve, but it's well worth the effort. Jelly Bean and Ice Cream Sandwich (I think those are the names of the operating systems) are very smooth and intuitive. It's very easy to modify your user experience, even as a beginner tech-wise, but those who really want to mess with their device can root the Nexus 7 and set it up however they want.

Charging is easy. Volume buttons are right next the power switch, which is annoying until you get trained to not accidentally shut it off in the middle of a movie while trying to adjust the volume. I wish they had put it on top, but this is a very small complaint.

I'd recommend the 32 gig over the 16 gig, for 50 bucks you get more than double the space (a few gigs are used for the operating system and built-in apps).

Troubleshooting:

So far, any bumps I've run into have been rectified with 5 minutes of google searching. For example, my Nexus hard drive was not showing up when I plugged it into my MacBook, but after a few clicks, I figured out the App I needed to download onto my Mac to make it work. Problem solved.

Colors, crispness of screen, etc.:

The screen is great, nice color contrasts, vivid movie-watching experience, very crisp. It's very easy to read even small print on this device. I have had the brightness setting well below 50% most of the time and it is fine in inside-light conditions. Outside, with lots of glare, you'd want to up that. For reading in the dark, I'd recommend downloading a screen filter app, which reduces brightness even more to make reading really comfortable in the dark.

Google:

You can sync everything through google, makes things really easy. Calendars, e-mail, google docs and use the google play store for apps. Again, very easy and intuitive.

Compared to iPad mini:

My wife has the iPad mini and she loves it. It's a very nice device, not much to complain about it. The colors seem a bit more vibrant than on the Nexus 7 (the Nexus is still good, though), and the user interface is probably even more intuitive than the Nexus 7. For someone who is really tech-phobic and just wants something that works without too much modification, you might want to consider the mini. However, it's almost twice as expensive, so keep that in mind. In my opinion, though, the Android platform is better on tablets, while Mac outshines other PC's for laptops (just my opinion!).

Conclusion:

I'm very happy with this tablet, still can't believe how inexpensive it was for what you get. This thing is the perfect size between a phone and a PC, gives you most of the PC experience but with a screen that is big enough to watch movies and read (unlike most phones). I highly recommend this product.