Nexus 7 Review

The new tablet from Google isn’t an iPad killer, and it’s not meant to be. It’s priced much lower and aimed at a different market. No, this one’s going directly after Amazon and their closed version of Android. Competing against the Kindle Fire is no easy task, it’s extremely low priced and doesn’t have the reputation of the Nexus branding to uphold. Thankfully apart from a few missing features like rear facing camera and expandable storage, Google haven’t sacrificed much to make the price bracket. In fact with the $25 credit on the Google Play Store, I find it hard to imagine Google isn’t taking a hit to the bottom line. Not that taking a hit on the device is a bad idea. The more devices in people’s hands, the larger the boost to the Google Play store purchases. A strategy which game console makers have been using for a long time.

The build quality on the version I have great given the price point. All seams are seated well, the screen is really very good (for the price point), and it feels solid and sturdy. The back has a slight texture which feels rather grippy so having the device slip from your hand shouldn’t be an problem. The one issue I have notices, which may be limited to the Google IO version, is that the back stains quite easy and once it does stain it’s very hard to remove. With the darker backing of the retail version this might not be as big an issue but for me with the white backing it’s plain annoying.

The Nexus 7’s screen, as I said, is pretty damn good. It has a great viewing angle thanks to the IPS screen, the colors are vibrant, and it’s leagues better than any of the first gen Android tablets. There has been a lot of talk on forums of washed out colors and pixelization at some brightness levels. I suspect these are thanks to some poor manufacturing calibration rather than the screens themselves. It’s important to note that I haven’t experienced any of these issues myself but that could be me overlooking small imperfections subconsciously based on the device’s pricing point, and that’s the important aspect here, the price point. It’s unfair to compare the screen of a $250 tablet against that of $500 + tablets, and even when unfairly compared it does admirably well.

The 4325mAh battery paired with the Nexus 7 provides more than enough power to get through a day of heavy usage, and with plenty of standby time this isn’t a device that will need nightly charging for the average user. The best part about this power plant is that it can be easily charged through the same MicroUSB cable we all know and love. No longer do you have to lug around a separate power adapter just for the tablet.

As you can probably tell I’m impressed by Google’s 7 inch offering. It’s a great form factor that is large enough to view most content without a lot of zooming yet small enough to fit easily in one hand. Granted there are a few issues here and there being reported, and some features are missing like expandable memory and a backwards facing camera, but for the price it’s a solid offering with direct Google updates, and performance to spare.