Would a nexus 7 be right for me?

[imattacus]

Hi, I've had an ipad 2 for the last 2 years and I for those 2 years I have in fact really enjoyed the experience and the knowing that if there's an app - It's on iOS. Now though my ipad is getting slow - a lot of the newer apps just lag it out a lot and it's not uncommon for me to have to wait 15 seconds for an app to load up.

So - I've been looking at the nexus 7 because buying a new ipad or even an ipad mini seems really expensive - especially considering some of the amazing android tablets and much lower prices.
I mostly use my tablet for lazy web browsing, just reading blogs and reddit etc.. But what is the most important thing for me is watching youtube and netflix at night in bed. I have heard great things about the nexus 7's screen quality but the only thing that concerns me is that it's only a 7 inch screen, 2/3 inches smaller than an ipad 2. How is watching video on the smaller screen? Is there anyone who's gone from a 10 inch tablet to a 7? normally I use headphones with my ipad - and I would probably do that with a new tablet aswell, but sometimes it's just nicer to use the speakers of the device. I've heard that nexus 7's speakers are quite poor quality. How do they compare to the ipad 2?

I use android for my phone and I think it's great - but on a tablet. I'm concerned that the tablet would just feel like a big phone because of how the android OS doesn't seem very tablet friendly. I might be completely mistaken on this - I've never actually used an android tablet. But this is my impression. Some of the tablets I see such as the LG G pad or the note 8 literally look like phones on steroids.

Also, I live in the UK - so watching american content from abc player etc has never been possible on my ipad. I have this theory that it would be possible with an android tablet if I used the hola unblocker app and sideloaded the abc app onto the nexus? Is this possible?

Based on all of this, do you think the nexus 7 is the right tablet for me or are there any other tablets out (or coming out soon) that would be better?

 

[Inhocmark]

I have an iPad 2 as well. I've found a few occasions where I miss a certain app that is on iOS that I can't find on the Play Store, but for the most part I've been quite happy. Your concern about video is unfounded, the 7 inch screen is plenty of real estate for close in viewing, especially with the look of the screen. It also helps that the Nexus 7 is 16:9 while the iPad is not...watching HD widescreen format on the iPad you don't get a full screen anyways. First time I loaded up Netflix and the entire screen was filled...a thing of beauty.

Part of that is ultimately that you're obviously comparing a bleeding edge tablet to one that's creaking around the bend to 3 years old so obviously everything is going to sing.

I find that Android is getting more tablet friendly. Its not iOS, but if you're looking at doing some web surfing, video etc etc you're fine. If you want 'better' tablet apps, then you may want to stay in the Apple ecosystem.

 

[douglerner]

I also have an iPad 2, and got the Nexus 7 when it came out. I find I tend to reach for an use the Nexus 7 much more than my iPad 2 now, because of the more convenient size, form factor and weight. And the display is beautiful.

I don't really have much advice about using it for netflix in bed though. I never even used my iPad 2 for that. I do watch netflix - but only on my iMac.

However, it strikes me that the Nexus 7 would be more comfortable in bed for something like that. The iPad 2 is just so heavy and the larger size would be a bit overwhelming for a close-up, in-bed view I would think.

I wanted to add a note about watching U.S. content though. I live in Japan, and do all the time on netflix, and also hulu. How? Simple. I have an inexpensive VPN account. When VPN is turned on, my Mac looks like it's in San Francisco. Let me know if you want a referral email. We both get a discount that way. But it's only like $50/year regardless.

That said, the Google Play store is stricter about location than the iTunes Store. You can only download from the region your Google Play store allows - and that depends on where you are at the moment.

And yes, the Nexus 7 has a built-in setup mode for VPN, as does the iPad 2 and Mac.

doug