UPDATE: The original post is still at the bottom of this for anyone who cares, but I've revised my decision to this:
I've spent a lot of hours putting this tablet through the paces over the last couple of weeks and I'm 99.9% made up my mind to keep it for several reasons. While I stand by my earlier statement that Apple's easy customer service simply can't be beat, it just didn't end up outweighing the advantages of the 2013 N7 for me.
1. Value. I'm a self admitted cheapskate when it comes to electronics. I try to get the most value for the lowest cost and there's nothing out there that beats it in this category. I'm also possibly over-cautious about spending the least I can get away with because I've just never been confident of the longevity of modern day electronics (which is why I was considering an iPad for the basic peace of mind I could walk into the Apple Store near me at any time for hassle free replacements under warranty). Yes I'm so cheap that I wouldn't even spend the extra $40 for the 32GB because I'd only end up loading those extra movies once/year at the most. But I have found an elegant solution to that in case anyone is interested - If you only very rarely would load up on movies on special occasions like me, you can cram a whole bunch on your phone and stream them directly to your tablet using the WiFi File Explorer app. You don't even need your phone connected to data to do it. (also works for moving around any file types in general). I just tested it all out and it works great!
2. This Article really reminded me the reason I never wanted to switch to iOS is because of just how heavily I've grown accustomed to using many of the points discussed there. It's worth your time to click this link and read this short article, it will remind you why we prefer android in well presented points. This article was what finally drove home my decision with clarity.
3. Apps. Two of the biggest reasons given as iPad advantages are that the apps look more tablet oriented, and the quality of apps is somewhat better. While I'm not going to belabor those points, here's my feelings on it. The N7's screen size and aspect ratio are very similar to what a phablet would be. So an app designed for large android phones scaling in size for the Nexus 7 really isn't something I would call a disadvantage. On a 10" screen sure, point taken. But not on this device. Quality of apps also depends IMO. I usually only install from well rated developers so app quality hasn't been lacking in that regard.
4. The future. I'm not overly confident in Tim Cook's ability to wow us. Google on the other hand has been pleasantly surprising me non stop for the last year. The crowning achievement in more recent smartphone history IMO is Google Now which I use extensively. That was absolutely brilliant. Love or hate the Moto X, I also think the Active Notifications idea combined with the already existing and well done notification shade on Android is also exceedingly well done, and now thanks to developers everyone can use them. I also think the idea of using separate dedicated cores to power certain tasks on that phone was very efficient and clever engineering.
5. After being on my 3rd device this one appears to be mostly trouble free. Although this unit also has the 2-finger multi-touch behaviour that shows up in tester apps, it's not manifesting itself in regular use, and is so slight it barely shows up even in the tester app.
Lastly there's been some good feedback here. A small number of hostile responses as well, but that's to be expected on an all-ages forum (and most were from habitual repeat offenders anyway). But hopefully newcomers to the thread will realize that my intentions were sincere, just as the more mature responders have.
---original post below:
There appears to be 4 common issues being reported with the new n7: quirky multi touch, GPS lock, random reboots, and some with distortion at lower volumes. In before "mine is working fine": OK cool. But I had to return mine 3x and there are enough people having problems that it's made tech news. So I must ask myself if I want to stay with a device that Asus has clearly not done a proper job with, or buy the iPad Mini 2 in a couple of months which if Apple's track record continues won't be this problematic and will in all likelihood be on par with specs and display.
Another factor in my decision is that if I were a gambler, the odds of a launch with these issues out the gate could mean a mail in RMA to Asus at some point under warranty, whereas through Apple an RMA would consist of me getting in my car and having the clerk just grab me a new replacement off the shelf behind him and saying have a nice day
I just don't feel Android has hit the same level as Apple in tablets yet. I was hoping this one would be the "one". If there hadn't been so many screwups it indeed would have.
edit: also this
I've spent a lot of hours putting this tablet through the paces over the last couple of weeks and I'm 99.9% made up my mind to keep it for several reasons. While I stand by my earlier statement that Apple's easy customer service simply can't be beat, it just didn't end up outweighing the advantages of the 2013 N7 for me.
1. Value. I'm a self admitted cheapskate when it comes to electronics. I try to get the most value for the lowest cost and there's nothing out there that beats it in this category. I'm also possibly over-cautious about spending the least I can get away with because I've just never been confident of the longevity of modern day electronics (which is why I was considering an iPad for the basic peace of mind I could walk into the Apple Store near me at any time for hassle free replacements under warranty). Yes I'm so cheap that I wouldn't even spend the extra $40 for the 32GB because I'd only end up loading those extra movies once/year at the most. But I have found an elegant solution to that in case anyone is interested - If you only very rarely would load up on movies on special occasions like me, you can cram a whole bunch on your phone and stream them directly to your tablet using the WiFi File Explorer app. You don't even need your phone connected to data to do it. (also works for moving around any file types in general). I just tested it all out and it works great!
2. This Article really reminded me the reason I never wanted to switch to iOS is because of just how heavily I've grown accustomed to using many of the points discussed there. It's worth your time to click this link and read this short article, it will remind you why we prefer android in well presented points. This article was what finally drove home my decision with clarity.
3. Apps. Two of the biggest reasons given as iPad advantages are that the apps look more tablet oriented, and the quality of apps is somewhat better. While I'm not going to belabor those points, here's my feelings on it. The N7's screen size and aspect ratio are very similar to what a phablet would be. So an app designed for large android phones scaling in size for the Nexus 7 really isn't something I would call a disadvantage. On a 10" screen sure, point taken. But not on this device. Quality of apps also depends IMO. I usually only install from well rated developers so app quality hasn't been lacking in that regard.
4. The future. I'm not overly confident in Tim Cook's ability to wow us. Google on the other hand has been pleasantly surprising me non stop for the last year. The crowning achievement in more recent smartphone history IMO is Google Now which I use extensively. That was absolutely brilliant. Love or hate the Moto X, I also think the Active Notifications idea combined with the already existing and well done notification shade on Android is also exceedingly well done, and now thanks to developers everyone can use them. I also think the idea of using separate dedicated cores to power certain tasks on that phone was very efficient and clever engineering.
5. After being on my 3rd device this one appears to be mostly trouble free. Although this unit also has the 2-finger multi-touch behaviour that shows up in tester apps, it's not manifesting itself in regular use, and is so slight it barely shows up even in the tester app.
Lastly there's been some good feedback here. A small number of hostile responses as well, but that's to be expected on an all-ages forum (and most were from habitual repeat offenders anyway). But hopefully newcomers to the thread will realize that my intentions were sincere, just as the more mature responders have.
---original post below:
There appears to be 4 common issues being reported with the new n7: quirky multi touch, GPS lock, random reboots, and some with distortion at lower volumes. In before "mine is working fine": OK cool. But I had to return mine 3x and there are enough people having problems that it's made tech news. So I must ask myself if I want to stay with a device that Asus has clearly not done a proper job with, or buy the iPad Mini 2 in a couple of months which if Apple's track record continues won't be this problematic and will in all likelihood be on par with specs and display.
Another factor in my decision is that if I were a gambler, the odds of a launch with these issues out the gate could mean a mail in RMA to Asus at some point under warranty, whereas through Apple an RMA would consist of me getting in my car and having the clerk just grab me a new replacement off the shelf behind him and saying have a nice day
I just don't feel Android has hit the same level as Apple in tablets yet. I was hoping this one would be the "one". If there hadn't been so many screwups it indeed would have.
edit: also this
Last edited:
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