While Amazon and Apple have made big noises about their impressive looking small tablets, Google has stayed surprisingly quieter despite having arguably the best model in the ‘mini’ market.
Produced in conjunction with hardware firm Asus, Google’s Nexus 7 device runs on the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system and comes complete with all the familiar Google applications such as the Chrome browser, Gmail and YouTube.
With high levels of functionality and performance, the Nexus 7 is a serious competitor to Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Apple’s new iPad Mini.
At less than £200 for the 32GB model (reviewed here courtesy of Wren Kitchens), the Nexus 7 also offers tremendous value for money in the increasingly busy field of budget tablet computers which have 7-inch displays or close to.
What I’ve found when playing with other similarly priced devices in the past is that they have tended to look and feel inferior and low-grade, like cheap, shoddy ‘economy’ imitations of higher end and higher priced models.
This definitely isn’t the case with the Nexus 7. The price is at the lower end of the scale, but the quality isn’t. Everything with this device feels premium, including the thin but lightweight design, the sturdy but sleek build, the responsive and clear display of the touchscreen and the smooth running of the applications.
This feels like a durable machine, which hasn’t just been thrown together.
As well as being well made, the tablet is also powerful inside and boasts some impressive tech spec, including a Tegra 3 quad-core processor and 1GB RAM.
Other useful things it comes equipped with include a front-facing camera, accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscope and GPS.
Google boasts its device’s battery will do more than nine hours of HD video playback, 10 hours of web browsing or e-reading and up to 300 hours of standby time. I’ve seen no reason to doubt these claims so far, with my Nexus 7 only requiring infrequent charging.
While the Nexus 7 is undoubtedly useful for various business and work purposes, its main use for most people is going to be leisure and entertainment.
It’s an excellent bit of kit for watching movies and TV or listening to music.
The gaming experience, which is one area where I feared it would come up short, is also very good. I didn’t know how it would handle the bigger and more graphics-heavy titles but the Nexus 7 takes them in its stride. I’ve felt as comfortable playing games on this device as I am on my iPhone or iPad.
The screen doesn’t have the Retina display of Apple’s devices but it’s HD and is still very sharp and vibrant, with a 1280x800 HD display (216 ppi).
The Nexus 7 is closely integrated with Google Play so you get the full iTunes-esque and app store experience.
One area where I’ve been pleasantly surprised by is the quality of the e-reader. Along with the nicely illuminated screen there is a good range of options for setting the reading experience to your own personal tastes. When the device comes with so much more than just an e-reader, it makes me question why I would ever want to buy a gadget which can only do books.
One slightly annoying thing with the Nexus 7 is that when you’re not in a game or a movie it wants you to do everything in portrait mode when landscape would sometimes be more convenient. Just a small niggle.
Down the years I’ve stayed very loyal to Apple products and have tended to be dismissive of Android devices. After some initial awkwardness in trying out Google’s tablet, I’ve definitely been swayed and can see a lot of merit in the rival system.
As a portable device the Nexus 7 has really impressed me, not to the point where I’m ready to ditch my full-size iPad, but enough to make me think that I can use the two tablets in conjunction with each other. I can easily see myself slipping the Nexus 7 into a bag and taking it out with me for some on-the-move gaming, reading and watching, while leaving the bigger iPad at home to use in more relaxed moments.
The combination of the Nexus 7’s quality and its sub-£200 price points make it s a very attractive option if you’re in the market for a mini tablet for Christmas or beyond.
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