most people that complain about the N7 are outright delusional or exaggerating. techno-hypochondriacs. some simply have buyers remorse because they didn't need or barely needed a tablet. if you need a tablet, you need the n7. it's my first tablet and I was always waiting for something better to come out until the n7 2013.
here's my checklist of what I need out of a tablet.
high resolution screen - check
lightweight, easily portable with 1 hand holding - check
load websites in a rapid or timely fashion - check
play all forms of video at the highest resolution without a hiccup - check
play the best games of the time at between 30-60fps or more - check
and the n7 offers quite a bit more functionality than that. I honestly, will probably be happy with this device for about 5 years. I can't really see much changing in that amount of time that would make the device any less useful than it is today. example, websites really won't be any more demanding. video resolutions won't really be any higher. the only thing that will probably increase is the demand of hardware by games, which since I prefer PC for 'real' gaming anyways, won't really diminish the usefulness of the device. with a controller the n7 is more of a serious gaming device, but it's still no replacement for the performance of a desktop PC with a $200+ GPU....a console generally doesn't hold up to even a mid range PC either. So for the N7, it's really a device that should adequately serve people well into the future, although people will still buy newer faster tech as it comes out because they've got to have the best of the best.
basically, in computing, you reach a point where you reach an evolution in a device power/specs to where it becomes all a person needs for quite some time. for example, the best desktop consumer GPU's today, are less than or barely 2-3x faster than the best or even mid range GPU's from 2009. paying say $200 or more for something, then having to pay $200-300 or more again for something offering barely 2x the performance, is quite an investment for such a small increase...especially if you're already still getting 60fps or above or whatever you consider adequate. when things happen in say, 100 milliseconds, 200 milliseconds (i.e. 2x the performance) doesn't make a huge enough difference in the grand scheme of things. it's only when frame rates start going below 30-60fps for the vast majority of people, that they see it as a good time to upgrade, and many GPU's from even as far back as 2009, are still more than capable of delivering 30-60fps or more in even today's most demanding games.
I like to have the capability of playing new flashy games on my tablet, but I still prefer desktop PC gaming, and if I owned a console, I would still prefer that over mobile device gaming anyways. so for me, the n7 will be an adequate internet and media consumption device well into the future.
they could next year deliver a device with 2x the resolution, 2-5x the computing speed, and so on for $200, and I still wouldn't really feel compelled at all to replace my n7. they would have to focus more on ruggedness in order to catch my eye. a tablet I can accidentally drop or carelessly set anywhere without having to worry about damaging it.