Very first impressions after owning it for all of a couple hours...
It feels more expensive than it was. Absolutely love how it feels in the hand, though it's heavier than I expected. Not as light as the Nook Color, for example. The back is perfect... feels like leather, and I'm one who put Zagg leather on the back of my iPad. So I love that. Will be great if they also come out with some sort of magnetic cover. We'll see. Until then, it will remain naked.
Screen doesn't grab you like my iPad3. In fact, it's rather underwhelming. Color saturation is bland, and the auto-brightness is too dim.
Was surprised to see a dock at the bottom, rather than how the rest of the tablets handle screen real estate. Installed Apex Pro, and there are some quirks when I quickly tried to set it up, so I went back to the stock launcher for now.
Some non-tablet apps like Facebook and Words with Friends aren't as awful in the 7-inch display, but the text can get tiny. Speaking of tiny text, I'm not sure I'll get used to reading a magazine on this size screen. My eyes aren't that good. And will require lots of pinching and zooming.
I subscribe to Entertainment Weekly which is available on the "Next Issue" app. The app installed, but promptly crashes.
Speed and smoothness of JB is crazy good. The Chrome browsing experience feels much faster than the iPad. First portable device where the browser feels almost laptop speedy. For me, that's my biggest gripe about any tablet and may be the biggest reason that this device may stay for me.
Best feature in my book is that it charges with a standard micro-USB. Great, great, great. I have a 2 amp charger that I use for most everything and it charges this tablet well without the need for another cable and odd connector.
I have to pack tonight for a trip and get some sleep for a long drive tomorrow, so it's a bad time to be tempted to play with this.
Jury is out on whether this causes me to sell my iPad, that cost more than double what I paid for this. Not totally sold on the 7 inch size until I hold the 10-inch iPad for a while. This is easily worth the price, but the question is whether it's enough of a step up from my Galaxy Nexus. If there were a Nexus 10 even without SD expansion, I'd be totally in.
My guess is there are crazy excited people that are too over-the-top about this device before they have it in their hands. They'll get it and will be impressed at first, but they'll be after the next thing far too quickly.
That's it for now. Off to play... I mean get ready for my trip.
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