Nexus 7 |OT| Google's $199 7-inch tablet by Asus

DagsJT said:
I'm actually starting to have second thoughts about replacing my iPad 2 with a N7 now. Seeing far too many comments about poor quality Android apps for tablets.

I could sell my iPad 2 32GB for £250 maybe, and then it'd cost £199 for the N7 and then shipping (£10 I'm guessing?) ... so I'd be losing 32GB and losing app availability for the sake of £40-odd.

Decisions...
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I believe that this affordable tablet will greatly change the landscape of the Android tablet app offering, but that's just a prediction of mine.

teiresias said:
7" is a weird size that I think presents problems since phone-centric apps mostly work fine on a screen that size that making tablet-centric apps built for a 7" screen may not be worth the effort (in either the Android or iOS ecosystems) for developers. Of course, this is currently a bigger issue on Android since there are Android phones out there with much larger screens than anything available as a phone on iOS.
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Indulging Twitter & Facebook to apply the Holo guidelines to their apps equals to winning half the battle.
 
Cheebo said:
Do you really need the Transformers movie and the Bourne book? The $25 for the store is nice but the vast majority of decent android apps are free.
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Is that all? I thought there was more shit then that. Yeah I guess I could pass on that stuff then.
 
Vic said:
Indulging Twitter & Facebook to apply the Holo guidelines to their apps equals to winning half the battle.
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They should have done this long ago. Throw some cash about and at least the two apps that nearly everyone will download when they get an android tab will actually not look like a stretched piece of crap. The average customer will not want to or know about downloading a third party app.

I realise they're competing with them with G+ but smh google.
 
Cheebo said:
Do you really need the Transformers movie and the Bourne book? The $25 for the store is nice but the vast majority of decent android apps are free.
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The GameStop Nexus 7 has the 25$ credit and the Transformers movie. No mention of the book, though.
 
I'm selling my SGT and will buy this with the proceeds. I was shocked to see the SGT still going for ~$200 on ebay! Might as well unload it at that price while I can!

I do still have a Touchpad; I just like having one of each size.
 
I'm very tempted with this. It looks like they've done some soul-searching and are taking the right steps.

I've always been an iPod kinda guy, and iPads are pretty darn expensive. A tablet sounds very handy and I'm willing to bet that Apple won't produce a real iPod touch successor this year either, so this may be my best bet.


So many other cheapo android tab options seem crappy, but this looks to have decent muscle to it.
 
All of the videos I've seen show the N7 in portrait orientation instead of landscape.

If someone manages to find the opposite, please let me know. I'm really curious what the home screen and browser look like in landscape.
 
mclaren777 said:
All of the videos I've seen show the N7 in portrait orientation instead of landscape.

If someone manages to find the opposite, please let me know. I'm really curious what the home screen and browser look like in landscape.
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The PhoneDog video shows Chrome in landscape.
 
mclaren777 said:
All of the videos I've seen show the N7 in portrait orientation instead of landscape.

If someone manages to find the opposite, please let me know. I'm really curious what the home screen and browser look like in landscape.
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I don't think the home screen rotates for landscape.
 
Greyface said:
Then it'd be the 7" tablet that gives the best value for money along with being the best 7" tablet period. It's supposed to get ICS this month and imo that should make it almost on par.
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I see it has a better SoC and .7" more. Anything else to differentiate it?

Edit: Wait that's the older Exynos in the SGSII. Tegra 3 is pretty much on par.
 
mclaren777 said:
Thanks for pointing that out.




You're right, it doesn't rotate in the PhoneDog video. The more I learn about this tablet, the less I actually want it.
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Because the homescreen doesn't rotate you want it less... really? You can always use an Android 3.0+ launcher. It's a non-issue.
 
giga said:
I see it has a better SoC and .7" more. Anything else to differentiate it?
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Super AMOLED+ display, back camera, optional versions with cellular, MHL and USB host supported out the box, 16GB storage by default,
MicroSD card slot
 
DagsJT said:
I'm actually starting to have second thoughts about replacing my iPad 2 with a N7 now. Seeing far too many comments about poor quality Android apps for tablets.

I could sell my iPad 2 32GB for £250 maybe, and then it'd cost £199 for the N7 and then shipping (£10 I'm guessing?) ... so I'd be losing 32GB and losing app availability for the sake of £40-odd.

Decisions...

Edit: Losing 16GB I mean.
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Consider what you are doing with the thing. Do you want it just because it's new or shiny, or do you actively think the iPad 2 is too big and would prefer a smaller screen?

I think you'll be pretty disappointed at the usability of a 7 inch display, coming from an iPad. And the app selection is really not there yet, either.
 
Samsung fucks around with Android and ruins it. I don't want to deal with always having to root a device to get any use out of it. When it comes to Android my feeling is go Nexus or not at all.
 
giga said:
Hm, good stuff but not worth $300 more to me imo.
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Well yeah, most people won't want to spend $500 on an Android 7" tablet. Toshiba is currently shipping one with the same Super Amoled+ screen but with Tegra 3 and minimally skinned ICS. *shrug* I think those are better tablets even though the Nexus 7, Kindle Fire and Nook Color/Tablet will sell loads more.
 
Vic said:
Because the homescreen doesn't rotate you want it less... really? You can always use an Android 3.0+ launcher. It's a non-issue.
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You might as well be speaking Latin because I have no idea what you're talking about now.

But yes, the more I see of Android, the less it interests me. I had a hard time following PhoneDog's review because the interface just looks so busy and inelegant.
 
Greyface said:
Well yeah, most people won't want to spend $500 on an Android 7" tablet. Toshiba is currently shipping one with the same Super Amoled+ screen but with Tegra 3 and minimally skinned ICS. *shrug* I think those are better tablets even though the Nexus 7, Kindle Fire and Nook Color/Tablet will sell loads more.
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I think people need to get real. Toshiba, Samsung, Asus and even microsoft need to realise that the the only tablets people are prepared to spend £400 - £500 for are Ipads. A small amount of people will buy Android or a windows tablet but if you want to shift major units you are gonna also have to produce good quality tablets that cost the likes £200 - £300 max. Thats just the realities of the market. It may mean the tech heads aint happy as they dont get the latest fix of the best of the best but thats just the way things are right now. I'm not overly keen on a 7inch other than for my son to use but I'm hoping to see a Google 10 next year for £250 - £300.
 
liger05 said:
I think people need to get real. Toshiba, Samsung, Asus and even microsoft need to realise that the the only tablets people are prepared to spend £400 - £500 for are Ipads. A small amount of people will buy Android or a windows tablet but if you want to shift major units you are gonna also have to produce good quality tablets that cost the likes £200 - £300 max. Thats just the realities of the market. It may mean the tech heads aint happy as they dont get the latest fix of the best of the best but thats just the way things are right now. I'm not overly keen on a 7inch other than for my son to use but I'm hoping to see a Google 10 next year for £250 - £300.
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I somewhat agree with this. The only way to beat Apple right now is to undercut them as much as possible. 7" tablets in a $200-$300 range works well. If I'm going to go all out, and get a 10" tablet, its the iPad. The only device that has come close, IMO is the Transformer, and even that was outsold by a large margin compared to Apple's iPad.

That is, until Apple releases the iPad mini.
 
nemss said:
I somewhat agree with this. The only way to beat Apple right now is to undercut them as much as possible. 7" tablets in a $200-$300 range works well. If I'm going to go all out, and get a 10" tablet, its the iPad. The only device that has come close, IMO is the Transformer, and even that was outsold by a large margin compared to Apple's iPad.

That is, until Apple releases the iPad mini.
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The transformer is a beast and I would love one of those but i'm not looking to spend that kinda money on any tablet. Android or Ipad.

How likely is the Ipad mini rumour to be true and at what price point? Would Apple launch a Ipad @ $200. Would they want to split there own consumer base where many people choose to spend $200 rather than $400 on an Ipad?
 
mclaren777 said:
You might as well be speaking Latin because I have no idea what you're talking about now.
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You can install different homescreens/launchers with Android. Many of those have the option to rotate.

But yes, the more I see of Android, the less it interests me. I had a hard time following PhoneDog's review because the interface just looks so busy and inelegant.
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Well, those are personal preferences. The widget can always be removed and replaced with something that you like. The interface of the OS has been streamlined a lot since ICS.
 
If apple did release an ipad mini I would think hardware-wise it would be gimped compared the nexus 7. No way would they make a mini that is more powerful and with more RAM than the regular ipad.
 
liger05 said:
The transformer is a beast and I would love one of those but i'm not looking to spend that kinda money on any tablet. Android or Ipad.

How likely is the Ipad mini rumour to be true and at what price point? Would Apple launch a Ipad @ $200. Would they want to split there own consumer base where many people choose to spend $200 rather than $400 on an Ipad?
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I'm sure certain people will rationalize the use of a 4 in, 7 in, and 9 in version of the same thing.
 
timkunedo said:
If apple did release an ipad mini I would think hardware-wise it would be gimped compared the nexus 7. No way would they make a mini that is more powerful and with more RAM than the regular ipad.
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The current iPad has a lot better specs than the Nexus 7, if they released an iPad 3 but at 7 inches with iPad 2 resolution (for app purposes, the iPad 2 resolution works at the 7'8 screen size) it would be far gimped compared to the nexus 7. That currently costs $399 at 10 inches, it is not a stretch to get it down to 250 for 16 gb which is the same cost as the Nexus 7.
 
timkunedo said:
If apple did release an ipad mini I would think hardware-wise it would be gimped compared the nexus 7. No way would they make a mini that is more powerful and with more RAM than the regular ipad.
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They wouldn't have to. They could release a bare bones iPad mini for $250 and people would buy it in droves. Even at 8GB, people would empty the shelves for it.
 
I think Surface has a chance at taking iPad head-to-head since it has a software edge and doesn't have to worry so much about compatibility. Android is not moving up because the software market is still crappy and OEMs aren't making their own SoCs, they're just buying off the shelf Tegra 3s because that's really all there is. iPad specs will beat any Android device so they have to be cheaper. At least Microsoft can lean on Intel desktop chips.
 
Somnid said:
I think Surface has a chance at taking iPad head-to-head since it has a software edge and doesn't have to worry so much about compatibility. Android is not moving up because the software market is still crappy and OEMs aren't making their own SoCs, they're just buying off the shelf Tegra 3s because that's really all there is. iPad specs will beat any Android device so they have to be cheaper. At least Microsoft can lean on Intel desktop chips.
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There's a huge market that wants a tablet, but isn't willing to pay the exuberant prices of an Apple product.
 
Cheebo said:
The current iPad has a lot better specs than the Nexus 7, if they released an iPad 3 but at 7 inches with iPad 2 resolution (for app purposes, the iPad 2 resolution works at the 7'8 screen size) it would be far gimped compared to the nexus 7. That currently costs $399 at 10 inches, it is not a stretch to get it down to 250 for 16 gb which is the same cost as the Nexus 7.
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Scaling 9 in apps to 7 would be disaterous.
 
liger05 said:
I think people need to get real. Toshiba, Samsung, Asus and even microsoft need to realise that the the only tablets people are prepared to spend £400 - £500 for are Ipads. A small amount of people will buy Android or a windows tablet but if you want to shift major units you are gonna also have to produce good quality tablets that cost the likes £200 - £300 max. Thats just the realities of the market. It may mean the tech heads aint happy as they dont get the latest fix of the best of the best but thats just the way things are right now. I'm not overly keen on a 7inch other than for my son to use but I'm hoping to see a Google 10 next year for £250 - £300.
Click to expand...

I haven't been keeping tabs on Toshiba so won't speak on them (there is a gaffer who got the inside scoop for Toshiba tech and maybe he speak up here). Microsoft hasn't released their tablet yet so it's a bit premature to dismiss their prospects. Samsung and Asus though are clearly aware of the realities of the marketplace. Asus was aiming to make this tablet anyway before Google swooped in and blessed it with the Nexus branding. Sasmung is already selling a 7" Android tablet with ICS right now for $250. But you probably wouldn't know that because they don't have the mainstream awareness clout of an Apple or Google. Those tablets would be better than the Kindle Fire or Nook Color/Tablet but still sell much less. The nice thing about Samsung and Asus is that they make a range of tablets from the low end to the high end. It doesn't automatically mean tech heads won't be happy if they shift major units at the low end.
 
Been struggling to come up with a good reason to buy one of these. Got my computer for in the house, got my phone for outside the house. I could use it for sitting on the doorstep, maybe...
 
Same PPI on a smaller screen without scaling will crop out elements. Since most apps are written with fixed layouts the only way for them to be backward compatible is to scale them. You'd have to file you finger tips.

Apple is probably going to introduce the ability to do relative layouts soon though.
 
giga said:
Yep. Same minimum pixel (point) size.
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Ok so how does that translate from the phone to tablet? I don't see the UI connection to be honest. I thought it was just because they could use the same machines pumping out the old iPhone screens to just make the screens for the 7.85 iPad instead. i.e. it's a manufacturing, supply-chain decision not a UI decision.
 
Copernicus said:
Same PPI on a smaller screen without scaling will crop out elements. Since most apps are written with fixed layouts the only way for them to be backward compatible is to scale them. You'd have to file you finger tips.

Apple is probably going to introduce the ability to do relative layouts soon though.
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Another feature Android's had for years! :P
 
Does anyone know of a website that will compare all of the specs of the 7" tablets? Mainly screen resolution, PPI, etc?
 
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