So last night I was finally able to receive my 16GB Nexus 7! I`ll just give you guys a quick run down as to why this is such a big deal to me. When it was announced that the Nexus 7 would go on sale at GameStop I pondered purchasing one. I had an old 5th Gen iPod Nano and a few Xbox 360 games and decided it would be worth getting rid of all that stuff and purchasing the Nexus 7. The day I go into GameStop to reserve my Nexus 7 was the day after the stopped taking reservations for wave 1, so i was of the first to get theres for wave two. So when i go to pay he asks me for my cell phone number and it turns out they had an older number on file. So I give him my new number and walk out a happy customer with my reservation. I was happy until GameStop starts selling to and giving out pre orders, I knew i wasnt going to be on wave one so I go back to GameStop to ask when they expect wave two and they tell me we were trying to call you because our wave one and wave two orders came in together and since you werent picking up we sold yours. I am still waiting for my GameStop Nexus but I went ahead and purchased one at Staples. I figure I can sell it when it arrives. I am a very impatient person.
On to my quick review. First thing I did after unboxing my Nexus was check for build quality. Ive been on these forums long enough to have read all the drama and defects some have had with there Nexus. Maybe its because mine is a second batch of Nexus 7 tablets Staples receives but my screen doesnt move or creek, and I must admit this device does feel premium. I showed it off to some Apple fanboys and they agreed that it looks very premium. My only tablet point of comparison is the iPad. I know that some of you guys think it isnt direct competing with the iPad but again its my only tablet point of comparison. I for one am a huge fan of the iPad so when i had the Nexus 7 in my hand first thing I thought was this thing is tiny! But after a day of use I must say its rather pleasant to use. The Nexus 7 is certainly lighter then the iPad3 and is much more comfortable to hold for extended periods of time. Another thing where it trumps the iPad is typing. This thing is wonderful to type on because of its size. Something else I read about was the screen of the Nexus 7 looking washed out, or it having flickering problems. While mine doesnt have the flickering problem I must say i was rather impressed with the screen. Though not "retina" I didnt think the colors were washed out and I thought the quality was rather high on a 250 dollar tablet. I am no screen expert but I was rather pleased and surprised with the quality.
The last time I used an Android device was when I had an Evo 4g and I rooted it and I was running a Cyanogen Mod 7 Gingerbread Rom. Now that I get to play around with Jelly Bean I have to admit Android has come a long way. Scrolling in the home screen and in the app tray was on par with any Apple device. It felt great. Where i wasnt pleased was scrolling within Chrome. It wasnt as smooth, and I dont think this is a Jelly Bean issue but more of a Chrome issue. Another problem I had with Chrome was when I loaded Android Central and hit the log in button nothing happened. It was almost as if it was a still image and after a second or two it registered and things were working fine. Again i dont think this is a Jelly Bean issue but more of a Chrome issue but something like that has never happened to me on an iDevice. Another quarell with Chrome that I have is its speed, I connected my iPhone and my Nexus 7 to the same wifi network and my iPhone always beat out my Nexus 7 in loading a web page even after i cleared history and cookies on my iPhone. Chrome isnt a slug but I wasnt blown away either.
Im very happy with my Nexus 7 purchase and im really hoping developers start making more optimized apps because that would increase user experience. For instance, i downloaded Android Comic Viewer, an app I used on my Evo 4g, its essentially the same app just blown up to fit the Nexus 7, so comic text is difficult to read. If it was optimized for a tablet form factor we wouldnt have that problem.
So how is it going with your Nexus 7? What makes you happy to own one and what things dont you like about it?
On to my quick review. First thing I did after unboxing my Nexus was check for build quality. Ive been on these forums long enough to have read all the drama and defects some have had with there Nexus. Maybe its because mine is a second batch of Nexus 7 tablets Staples receives but my screen doesnt move or creek, and I must admit this device does feel premium. I showed it off to some Apple fanboys and they agreed that it looks very premium. My only tablet point of comparison is the iPad. I know that some of you guys think it isnt direct competing with the iPad but again its my only tablet point of comparison. I for one am a huge fan of the iPad so when i had the Nexus 7 in my hand first thing I thought was this thing is tiny! But after a day of use I must say its rather pleasant to use. The Nexus 7 is certainly lighter then the iPad3 and is much more comfortable to hold for extended periods of time. Another thing where it trumps the iPad is typing. This thing is wonderful to type on because of its size. Something else I read about was the screen of the Nexus 7 looking washed out, or it having flickering problems. While mine doesnt have the flickering problem I must say i was rather impressed with the screen. Though not "retina" I didnt think the colors were washed out and I thought the quality was rather high on a 250 dollar tablet. I am no screen expert but I was rather pleased and surprised with the quality.
The last time I used an Android device was when I had an Evo 4g and I rooted it and I was running a Cyanogen Mod 7 Gingerbread Rom. Now that I get to play around with Jelly Bean I have to admit Android has come a long way. Scrolling in the home screen and in the app tray was on par with any Apple device. It felt great. Where i wasnt pleased was scrolling within Chrome. It wasnt as smooth, and I dont think this is a Jelly Bean issue but more of a Chrome issue. Another problem I had with Chrome was when I loaded Android Central and hit the log in button nothing happened. It was almost as if it was a still image and after a second or two it registered and things were working fine. Again i dont think this is a Jelly Bean issue but more of a Chrome issue but something like that has never happened to me on an iDevice. Another quarell with Chrome that I have is its speed, I connected my iPhone and my Nexus 7 to the same wifi network and my iPhone always beat out my Nexus 7 in loading a web page even after i cleared history and cookies on my iPhone. Chrome isnt a slug but I wasnt blown away either.
Im very happy with my Nexus 7 purchase and im really hoping developers start making more optimized apps because that would increase user experience. For instance, i downloaded Android Comic Viewer, an app I used on my Evo 4g, its essentially the same app just blown up to fit the Nexus 7, so comic text is difficult to read. If it was optimized for a tablet form factor we wouldnt have that problem.
So how is it going with your Nexus 7? What makes you happy to own one and what things dont you like about it?
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