Anyone considering a Nexus 7 tablet?

[Kerry56]

This new Android tablet from Google is quite tempting. With a pretty impressive set of specs, these are almost, but not quite iPad killers. If Google didn't have such resistance to extended storage, this would be an amazing new product. I just can't see getting one with no chance of extra storage space...the lack of a microsd slot makes it a no-go for me.

Unless of course, someone comes up with a relatively neat method of using the microusb port for that. Anyone have any information on that? It would still be a fairly clunky solution physically, but better than nothing.

I understand the hackers are quite happily rooting the device, so maybe use of external usb storage will be forthcoming soon.

Of course, lacking this one feature leaves an opening for Google's competitors coming after them. I may just wait and see what they can come up with in this bargain basement price level.

[Albert]

A friend (I use the term loosely) pointed out the Nexus 7. Without that, I wouldn’t have given it another thought.

In my focus of studies, it would be nice to have the tablet for software development (should I like to take a bit of initiative). In this way, it would be a great piece of hardware capable of running alongside some good hardware. Maybe it doesn’t have every feature that every other tablet has, but that’s okay.

Now, if I ignore the educational aspect, and look at it like I look at my computer, phone, etc… Well, it’s not quite something I would totally go after, but only due to the shorness of storage. In my style of living, I am very much offline and disconnected from any kind of network whatsoever. All my media will have to be local to the device, and I will have to have enough storage that I won’t have to sync every time I want to change media out. I can put a few bits of my favorite video clips and music on there, but at the end of the day, I would end up having to get a MiFi to make good use of the tablet.

Ignoring the storage of music and movies, it would be perfect for me. Good specs at a decent price seems like a promising combination, and I would definitely get some good use out of it as a reading device when within range of WiFi (or books & cached content when offline). I’m not a heavy game player, but knowing I could sling birds around without hesitation is nice. It would be handy to have support for external devices beyond a handful of Bluetooth devices, memory cards, and a select few cameras (yes, I’m looking at the iPad for that one).

Even the front camera might be of use to me as I keep in contact with friends spread all over the place once school is back in session. It could save me the trouble of breaking out my laptop while still affording a bit of screen real estate so I can actually see with whom I’m chatting.

One thing people still worry about is application support. The number of quality applications for Google’s ecosystem is increasing, but tablets still fall behind phones in that category. Given that I can’t use web applications for everything, and given that Google is only just getting into providing offline support for some of its own web apps, that would be a cause for concern if I didn’t want to try third party apps. But I suppose I would be primarily using this thing for school and in Web-connected environments when I needed anything that doesn’t have a full app version, so no real worries there for me.

[Kenshin]

Google has just started shipping in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia.

http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=2667319&ctx=plusone

In the US:

We’ve shipped all standalone Nexus 7 8GB orders (e.g.: those without a case, charger or Nexus Q) that were ordered through July 13.

By the end of day on July 19 (PDT), we will have shipped all standalone Nexus 7 16GB orders placed through July 11 (PDT), and upgraded these orders to overnight shipping. We will process the remaining standalone Nexus 7 16GB orders (those ordered after July 11 and through July 13) by the end of next week with overnight shipping. Orders placed after July 13 (PDT) will ship according to the quoted timeframe when you purchased.

If you ordered your tablet with a case, charger or Nexus Q, your Nexus 7 will ship this week with overnight shipping, in some cases ahead of the rest of your order. But don’t worry, the rest of your order will be on its way soon.

In Canada:

We’ve shipped all Nexus 7 8GB orders. We are in the process of shipping Nexus 7 16GB orders and will ship them in 1-2 weeks.

In the UK:

All Nexus 7 8GB orders will ship by July 20 (BST). All Nexus 7 16GB orders placed through June 30 (BST), will ship by July 20 (BST). The remaining Nexus 7 16GB orders will ship next week.

In Australia:

All Nexus 7 8GB and Nexus 7 16GB orders will be fulfilled by the end of day on July 19 (AEST) and will arrive in 3-5 days.

So maybe there are some members here who by now have received Nexus 7. The 16GB version costs $50 more. The analysts say the only difference is the 8GB flash storage space which probably added manufacturing cost by about $8.

Though it doesn’t have an external card slot, iPad’s selling very well without one. Google sells cloud storage so but they don’t make their own NAND chips. Maybe they want Nexus users to use their cloud service (US$20 for 500GB a month.)

I would have ordered at least three or four units if it were available here at that price.

[alan1476]

I ordered one since my son took my 7" Amazon Kindle Fire.

[Kenshin]

[QUOTE=alan1476;2645203]I ordered one since my son took my 7" Amazon Kindle Fire.[/QUOTE]

I have neither and Amazon isn’t selling Kindle here yet though the company owns some of South Korea’s largest online retailers. Since the introduction of Apple’s third-generation iPad and Google’s Nexus 7, Samsung and Amazon haven’t announced any serious tablet product.

Meanwhile, my Galaxy Tab with its pathetic 1024*600 resolution refuses to be updated to something Samsung recently released. It has Gingerbread (2.3) Android.

One of the best parts of Galaxy Tab is WiBRO. In the US, it’s WiMAX of Sprint Nextel and Clearwire. There are some WiBRO/WiMAX service providers in Taiwan and Japan as well, but it’s truly a South Korean technology meant for 3G, 4G, and data communication both with computers and phones. Samsung and the South Korean government jointly developed WiBRO about ten years ago and KT later started commercial services. By then, it was already obvious the next standards would be LTE (the LTE FDD rather than LTE TDD) and LTE-Advanced. LTE is 3G, but LTE-Advanced is 4G. LTE FDD was first serviced in some of the Scandinavian cities, notably Sweden in 2009, and later by Verizon Wireless in the US in late 2010. South Korea had to switch to LTE as well since Samsung and LG depend on European and North American consumer markets and the largest players cannot dismiss the importance of standards. So what do we now have to do with WiBRO? It’s an awkward question. Things are getting worse as China Mobile supports and spreads China’s own version of LTE: the LTE TDD or TD-LTE. Sprint is working with China Mobile to bring TD LTE into the US market and KT of South Korea wants to use some of the spectrums it has access for TD-LTE, not WiBRO. Nobody in the government wants to be contaminated at such ideas as adopting Chinese technologies and standards and giving up the very standard the government officials and Samsung executives demonstrated and promoted several years back.

Nonetheless, WiBRO is quite sensible. My KT ‘data plan’ for Galaxy Tab costs something like US$20 a month. I can use up to 100GB in a month at the regular speed. KT says throttling might be applied beyond the 100GB mark, but it’s difficult to consume 100GB with phones and tablets in a month. I sometimes use this WiBRO on desktops and laptops as well, but mostly for web news and community activities only as downloading Windows 8 beta files via WiBRO takes too long. I have to pay far more than that for 350MB/month LTE and LTE is more difficult to share using wireless tethering and USB sharing.

It was a pity to have to buy iPad and iPhone without built-in WiBRO, naturally, for some South Koreans. Many knowing consumers therefore bought dedicated WiBRO adapters/receivers. It’s called ‘egg’ but it hardly resembles an egg. Standards are extremely important. A next-generation standard had better include all the advantages of its predecessors. LTE didn’t. Wi-Fi is also wireless standard and its subset includes 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, and so on. Whether a Wi-Fi supports 802.11n or 802.11ac, no country in the world has enough connections. Since it isn’t covering as widely and thoroughly as WiBRO, it’s also a limited standard. Using LTE like WiBRO can be disastrous in financial terms. It will be, of course, just the opposite for the service providers.

[Wombler]

Or you could wait for the Microsoft Surface to appear with Windows 8 and a keyboard built into the protective cover!

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/default.aspx

[B]Wombler[/B]

[xorsists]

[QUOTE=Wombler;2645240]Or you could wait for the Microsoft Surface to appear with Windows 8 and a keyboard built into the protective cover!

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/default.aspx

[B]Wombler[/B][/QUOTE]I am waiting on the new MS Surface I have an Ipad 3 but I can’t wait to run the new windows 8 on the new Surface when released.
I hope their pricing is comparable to Ipads or a little less would be nice wait and see.

[katialobinova]

I’ve Nexus 7, best tablet ever!

[ChristineBCW]

Katia, what do you use it for? What are your other devices? A smartphone? Desktop PCs or notebooks? What specific (or unique) uses does the Tablet offer you?

[Kenshin]

I had lunch with a colleague in Seoul on Sunday. After lunch, I visited his home. There was a Nexus 7, a gift his brother brought from the US. His middle-school son uses it. I lost my Galaxy Tab (WiBRO and 7.0 inch) at the end of August, not sure whether someone stole it or that typhoon carried it to the sea, but the LG Optimus LTE phone was also gone.

[Dee]

I use a Nexux 7 at work, and its a fantastic piece of kit.
It has a great IPS screen, Nvidia Tegra 3 processor and graphics.
It comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean preinstalled and is updatable to 4.2 when its released in a few days.
It also looks good and feels great in the hand.

[ChristineBCW]

I’m still uncertain what I - or anyone - uses a Tablet for. Is it a replacement for notebooks? Not for phones - too large for that. It’s not really a good computer replacement. It does handle all e-reader kindle-type. It’s easier to see when reading the Times, I know.

But I’m still not certain what services it offers that are superior.

Or is the weight and ease of transport vis a vis a notebook? Is it targeting that “don’t want to carry notebook-still want Internet easy viewing” service?