Do want REALLY bad, this is pretty much everything I wanted from a tablet. 7″, pretty fast, Android (got a lot of payed apps already for Android) and with a fair price. Dear Google please sell to us danes soon!
Also excellent review, nice to see it in video format, though there are some small interlacing problems.
Apologies for the interlacing, it’s part of an early conversion process that was necessary because my software updated and broke how it works with files from my camera!
Hopefully it’ll get ironed out soon though, and we can do more video stuff like this :)
I know how time consuming video production & processing is, even for what on the face of it looks a point, shoot & talk exercise but that was really good.
Really want one, funds are an issue but I think I’m going to sell my HP Touchpad running ICS along with Touch Stone charger & keyboard to get one of these, I was slightly reticent with regards to stepping down from 10″ screen, but as you point out it is rather cumbersome and 16:9 is better for all the video content that is around these days and the 7″ size allows for less cumbersome reading.
That was a fantastic surprise for a Monday morning, I can imagine it was a lot of work but it looks great in 720p and was a nicely paced and informative peak at the Nexus, thanks Peter! Can I also say I really like your shirt, I have one just like it ;)
For Rooting look now further than XDA Developers. I’ve linked the Nexus 7 rooting guide below. Move up a level or two in the forums to find custom roms, tips and tricks.
Nicely done video review.
I’ve spent a year or two with Android and didn’t get on with it too well. It does pretty much what everything else does so I can’t really fault the OS, just that it didn’t “feel” right for me. Always hearing about the latest version but not being able to upgrade to it (usually a mobile network carrier or device manufacturer fault, not Googles) really annoyed me and there’s no way I’m wasting time “rooting”.
That said – the Nexus 7 looks great for those who do like Android and get the most out of the open source / rooting. The price is brilliant and Google would do well to advertise the hell out of it, especially now Apple have been nadged for filing too many complaints of competitors copying Apple designs (victory for everyone). It has the guts to run some impressive software / games / media and would be a straight swap for a kindle as it does more for just a few extra squids.
But i’m holding on to my pounds for Microsoft Surface, as with the iPad I am confident the Surface will do many more things better. Also streamline the whole Windows 8 / Win Phone 8 experience. Quite the sucker for premium tech and very tempted to get a MacBook Pro Retina too (amazing tech). Android just doesn’t offer that premium feel and I’ve always found no matter what tech they wrap the OS up in – there’s hardly anything to take advantage of it or really push its limits.
I think this is the same impression I have, at least from owning an Android phone. Things feel a little clunky, don’t work all that intuitively and the massive range of screen resolutions and processors mean games and apps have that ‘lowest common denominator’ feel sometimes.
That said, I love the Android home screen ethos, with all the live stuff, but not necessarily the implementation.
I would like one of these though, if for nothing else that my daughter, who’d use it for videos and the odd education app, if such things exist on the Android store.
I did encounter one issue with the store though – you can’t buy gift cards so it makes it almost impossible to not link a credit card through Google Wallet. That might end up being an issue for parents whose kids learn how to work the store very early (my young nephews are only flummoxed by the iOS password entry at purchase now…)
I do like the Android homescreen, have done since my Hero.
Phones I’ve had (thanks to working for Vodafone):
Hero
Galaxy SII
Sensation
Sensation XL
HTC One X
Wildfire
Xperia Arc
Xperia Neo
All great phones that “serve” their purpose but never offered a premium or fluid experience. I bought the Galaxy SII and HTC One X because I was sold on the specs! But no matter what was inside there were still widgets not loading correctly, something working fine but then updated and not working at all, social clients not updating at the set intervals etc etc. Yet I kept buying the latest and greatest Android device because it had great specs!
Now i’ve had the Lumia 800 and the iPhone 4S. The Lumia 800 did everything I wanted, a second or two slower than other devices perhaps – but hey; proof a 1.5ghz single core cpu can still hold up against a quad core beast of a cpu (One X). But most of all it feels “premium”. Of course – the iPhone 4S still feels like the most premium device, as does the iPad, I just had to make a choice between Windows and Apple – which boiled down to gaming in the end. With a Windows or Apple device I know everything will work that much better because it is purpose built for the OS (Apple more so) and I don’t need to worry about fragmentation.
But you know what – when I find myself with a little extra cash I probably will get the Nexus 7 too, 4 core cpu and the lastest Android right? I simply HAVE to try it myself regardless :-/
Android stuff will never have the high end (relatively) music production and djing apps that the iPad has. djay, Meta.DJ, Fruity Loops, iSequencer, the Korg stuff.
That’s a major draw for me, and 99% of why I got an iPad.
I don’t know what apps/widgets crashed on your One X but I have yet to run into a single issue with mine. No slowdowns or anything. It’s really annoying when I have to use my iPhone 4S for work purposes coming from the One X. The whole OS just feels very restrictive and I got used to the larger screen very fast.
Just yesterday I flashed a JB alpha rom on my Galaxy Tab 10.1 and it’s smoother than ever. The urge to buy a Nexus 7 went away. It was already great with the ICS rom I was running but this is a completely different kind of awesome. :)
Nope, but with regards to your quality issue with Android as a whole… I haven’t a clue about Samsung’s stuff they feel like plastic dummy phones in a shop to me, but this Nexus 7 seems to have quite a bit more of an input by Matias Duarte (Android’s Director of User Experience & maybe Google’s too following the redesign of Google interfaces and apps) & he seems to have given more attention to detail throughout the OS & device than anything that’s gone before it.
This video he did with The Verge highlights a lot of the little changes with 4.1 that add up to quite a big deal and also the focus on the Nexus 7 hardware design.
Obviously it’s all within a budget of £159 so it’s not really comparable to something around that was around £400+ at the same stage in its life, but it certainly seems like everything is tied together better from the point of view of the hardware & OS & its certainly driving devs to make tablet optimised apps on a scale they haven’t done before.
But no, high tier apps and Android aren’t natural bedfellows thanks to the sideloading ability of pirated apps where simply Googling “App name apk” generally ends up with ability to download premium apps for free, whether this changes with Jellybean which supports encrypted apps with per device activation I don’t know, I presume cracked apps will appear just the same putting off premium app makers for good. Although a Jailbroken iOS device allows a similar thing there is a far higher number of willing-to-pay customers for that not to be such a huge issue for devs in bringing bigger budget projects to the a device.
I should have worded it better, sorry. It’s a waste of time “for me” because I’m likely to fluff things up and ruin the device.
I don’t have the “know how” to mess around with an OS that way, but perfectly understand and appreciate the benefits of such an option. I’m the kind of (simple) person who wants the device to do what I want it to do out of the box.
Interestingly – I sampled HTC phones rooted and without Sense and immediately wanted sense back on :-/
If you knew which apps I’d used that crashed I’d be a little freaked out tbh.
The iOS is restrictive, as is Windows Phone 7.5 and the soon to be 8 no doubt. But I find they function very well within those restrictions and most certainly benefit from such measures put in place.
I do like that you can just “mount” an Android device as a removable drive and throw music / videos / documents on it, even carry PS3 game saves on it. But then I really don’t mind using Zune or iTunes to do most of the work for me and keep all my stuff in one place and linked to just one account. To each their own
Good review, and nice to hear someone who actually knows what theyre talking about.. Ive seen so many video reviews on other sites that essentially boil down to “ooh this is cool, it can do x and y, look i’ll show you, oh wait thats not right, erm, anyway you get the idea”
Erroneus
Do want REALLY bad, this is pretty much everything I wanted from a tablet. 7″, pretty fast, Android (got a lot of payed apps already for Android) and with a fair price. Dear Google please sell to us danes soon!
Also excellent review, nice to see it in video format, though there are some small interlacing problems.
Peter Chapman
Apologies for the interlacing, it’s part of an early conversion process that was necessary because my software updated and broke how it works with files from my camera!
Hopefully it’ll get ironed out soon though, and we can do more video stuff like this :)
Erroneus
Sounds good, love to see video reviews like this.
Tuffcub
Got the green screen working then? :)
Peter Chapman
Yep, it’s all about the lighting!
plutoniumdragon
Liked the review as video vibe, more maybe?
Played with both this and an Asus transformer and ended up getting the transformer – but only because of the larger screen both are great toys :)
cc_star
Brilliant Cb.
I know how time consuming video production & processing is, even for what on the face of it looks a point, shoot & talk exercise but that was really good.
Really want one, funds are an issue but I think I’m going to sell my HP Touchpad running ICS along with Touch Stone charger & keyboard to get one of these, I was slightly reticent with regards to stepping down from 10″ screen, but as you point out it is rather cumbersome and 16:9 is better for all the video content that is around these days and the 7″ size allows for less cumbersome reading.
Complete bargain for £159/£199
ron_mcphatty
That was a fantastic surprise for a Monday morning, I can imagine it was a lot of work but it looks great in 720p and was a nicely paced and informative peak at the Nexus, thanks Peter! Can I also say I really like your shirt, I have one just like it ;)
Peter Chapman
You’re obviously a man of impeccable tastes ;)
ron_mcphatty
Oh yes!
Amphlett
Nice review there CB.
For Rooting look now further than XDA Developers. I’ve linked the Nexus 7 rooting guide below. Move up a level or two in the forums to find custom roms, tips and tricks.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1766475
FRUIT0FDOOM
Nicely done video review.
I’ve spent a year or two with Android and didn’t get on with it too well. It does pretty much what everything else does so I can’t really fault the OS, just that it didn’t “feel” right for me. Always hearing about the latest version but not being able to upgrade to it (usually a mobile network carrier or device manufacturer fault, not Googles) really annoyed me and there’s no way I’m wasting time “rooting”.
That said – the Nexus 7 looks great for those who do like Android and get the most out of the open source / rooting. The price is brilliant and Google would do well to advertise the hell out of it, especially now Apple have been nadged for filing too many complaints of competitors copying Apple designs (victory for everyone). It has the guts to run some impressive software / games / media and would be a straight swap for a kindle as it does more for just a few extra squids.
But i’m holding on to my pounds for Microsoft Surface, as with the iPad I am confident the Surface will do many more things better. Also streamline the whole Windows 8 / Win Phone 8 experience. Quite the sucker for premium tech and very tempted to get a MacBook Pro Retina too (amazing tech). Android just doesn’t offer that premium feel and I’ve always found no matter what tech they wrap the OS up in – there’s hardly anything to take advantage of it or really push its limits.
Alex C
” Android just doesn’t offer that premium feel”
I think this is the same impression I have, at least from owning an Android phone. Things feel a little clunky, don’t work all that intuitively and the massive range of screen resolutions and processors mean games and apps have that ‘lowest common denominator’ feel sometimes.
That said, I love the Android home screen ethos, with all the live stuff, but not necessarily the implementation.
I would like one of these though, if for nothing else that my daughter, who’d use it for videos and the odd education app, if such things exist on the Android store.
Peter Chapman
Those apps certainly do exist – http://www.best-toddler-apps.org/category/android-top-10-apps-2012/
I did encounter one issue with the store though – you can’t buy gift cards so it makes it almost impossible to not link a credit card through Google Wallet. That might end up being an issue for parents whose kids learn how to work the store very early (my young nephews are only flummoxed by the iOS password entry at purchase now…)
FRUIT0FDOOM
I do like the Android homescreen, have done since my Hero.
Phones I’ve had (thanks to working for Vodafone):
Hero
Galaxy SII
Sensation
Sensation XL
HTC One X
Wildfire
Xperia Arc
Xperia Neo
All great phones that “serve” their purpose but never offered a premium or fluid experience. I bought the Galaxy SII and HTC One X because I was sold on the specs! But no matter what was inside there were still widgets not loading correctly, something working fine but then updated and not working at all, social clients not updating at the set intervals etc etc. Yet I kept buying the latest and greatest Android device because it had great specs!
Now i’ve had the Lumia 800 and the iPhone 4S. The Lumia 800 did everything I wanted, a second or two slower than other devices perhaps – but hey; proof a 1.5ghz single core cpu can still hold up against a quad core beast of a cpu (One X). But most of all it feels “premium”. Of course – the iPhone 4S still feels like the most premium device, as does the iPad, I just had to make a choice between Windows and Apple – which boiled down to gaming in the end. With a Windows or Apple device I know everything will work that much better because it is purpose built for the OS (Apple more so) and I don’t need to worry about fragmentation.
But you know what – when I find myself with a little extra cash I probably will get the Nexus 7 too, 4 core cpu and the lastest Android right? I simply HAVE to try it myself regardless :-/
Tomhlord
You sound like a man that hasn’t tried JellyBean. Silky smooth yo.
Alex C
Android stuff will never have the high end (relatively) music production and djing apps that the iPad has. djay, Meta.DJ, Fruity Loops, iSequencer, the Korg stuff.
That’s a major draw for me, and 99% of why I got an iPad.
KeRaSh
I don’t know what apps/widgets crashed on your One X but I have yet to run into a single issue with mine. No slowdowns or anything. It’s really annoying when I have to use my iPhone 4S for work purposes coming from the One X. The whole OS just feels very restrictive and I got used to the larger screen very fast.
Just yesterday I flashed a JB alpha rom on my Galaxy Tab 10.1 and it’s smoother than ever. The urge to buy a Nexus 7 went away. It was already great with the ICS rom I was running but this is a completely different kind of awesome. :)
cc_star
Nope, but with regards to your quality issue with Android as a whole… I haven’t a clue about Samsung’s stuff they feel like plastic dummy phones in a shop to me, but this Nexus 7 seems to have quite a bit more of an input by Matias Duarte (Android’s Director of User Experience & maybe Google’s too following the redesign of Google interfaces and apps) & he seems to have given more attention to detail throughout the OS & device than anything that’s gone before it.
This video he did with The Verge highlights a lot of the little changes with 4.1 that add up to quite a big deal and also the focus on the Nexus 7 hardware design.
Obviously it’s all within a budget of £159 so it’s not really comparable to something around that was around £400+ at the same stage in its life, but it certainly seems like everything is tied together better from the point of view of the hardware & OS & its certainly driving devs to make tablet optimised apps on a scale they haven’t done before.
But no, high tier apps and Android aren’t natural bedfellows thanks to the sideloading ability of pirated apps where simply Googling “App name apk” generally ends up with ability to download premium apps for free, whether this changes with Jellybean which supports encrypted apps with per device activation I don’t know, I presume cracked apps will appear just the same putting off premium app makers for good. Although a Jailbroken iOS device allows a similar thing there is a far higher number of willing-to-pay customers for that not to be such a huge issue for devs in bringing bigger budget projects to the a device.
mrfodder
Newer version (which this runs the newest) allow users to set a pin for purchase protection. I’ve found it very useful with a 4 year old.
Amphlett
Why do you think that rooting your device is a waste of time?
FRUIT0FDOOM
I should have worded it better, sorry. It’s a waste of time “for me” because I’m likely to fluff things up and ruin the device.
I don’t have the “know how” to mess around with an OS that way, but perfectly understand and appreciate the benefits of such an option. I’m the kind of (simple) person who wants the device to do what I want it to do out of the box.
Interestingly – I sampled HTC phones rooted and without Sense and immediately wanted sense back on :-/
FRUIT0FDOOM
If you knew which apps I’d used that crashed I’d be a little freaked out tbh.
The iOS is restrictive, as is Windows Phone 7.5 and the soon to be 8 no doubt. But I find they function very well within those restrictions and most certainly benefit from such measures put in place.
I do like that you can just “mount” an Android device as a removable drive and throw music / videos / documents on it, even carry PS3 game saves on it. But then I really don’t mind using Zune or iTunes to do most of the work for me and keep all my stuff in one place and linked to just one account. To each their own
thommie
Post Office is a great book. That one and Ham on Rye are my favourite books of all time.
Peter Chapman
I think I prefer Factotum to Ham on Rye – just – but they’re all fantastic. I’m really tempted to re-buy them all digitally now too!
ohmikkie
Got one. love it.
Lymmusic
Good review, and nice to hear someone who actually knows what theyre talking about.. Ive seen so many video reviews on other sites that essentially boil down to “ooh this is cool, it can do x and y, look i’ll show you, oh wait thats not right, erm, anyway you get the idea”