Tech Newest Nexus 7 tab-worth a buy

Paddy McGee

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So, since I decided to cheap out on the presents for my family(the pricks are getting bulk-bought tins of Roses), I thought I'd make up for it by buying myself a lovely Christmas tablet!

Well... It's subsidised by the fact that we rarely buy each other presents in my house- 20 or 30 quid here and there.

Anyway, I have been looking at a few different choices(from an ipad mini to an Acer with windows 8), and The new 32gb Nexus 7 seems to be a stand out.

However, I'd love some opinions on whether these are worth buying.

So far, I've come to a few conclusions:

They're affordable(with few stores going further than €310 total) and give you great bang for your buck.

The screen is stellar. Probably too sharp, but I love it.

Android is a usable system. I don't mind it on my phone. I'm one of those crazy people who actually LIKE windows 8 though...

Google(while they are trying to take over the world one Chromebook at a time) do offer some good services.

Sadly, the store isn't quite as stocked as the apple store.

Of course, the lack of expandable storage is a pain in the hole, and Cloud Storage hasn't really gotten my 100% trust... Although, I'm not sure if I'd fill up the 32gb model anyways.



Anyway, what do you boys and girls think? Go for it? I won't have the cash to go for a premium ipad or Surface, so any other options will have to be cheaper than those. :D
 
I have a friend who has a nexus 7 and he really likes it. I've had a reasonably good experience with android so far, though I've never owned an android tablet, only a phone. The store has enough on it, though I never looked at apps for typing stuff up on my phone (I say this because I use my iPad to work on - I don't know if yours is for work or play or both :lew:) I've had a play around with the nexus 7 and it seems like a half-decent tablet and the price is very reasonable. If you're going to go for an android tablet, from what I know about them all I'd say the nexus 7 is your safest bet.

Though if you're looking at a nexus 7 have you looked at the iPad minis? More expensive than the nexus 7 but the same screen size and they do exactly the same as a full-size iPad does, and much cheaper than a full sized iPad. If you're wanting to do work on it, Words is also a really good app and you can easily convert the files to Microsoft word files. I also much prefer iOS to Android but I guess it's a matter of personal preference.
 
Aye, I gave a the iPad Mini a look and a test in PC World. I didn't feel much of a difference between the two, but then I looked at the price.

If I was to go for the same memory sized ipad mini, it'd be about 180 quid extra. I could wait for it, see if the prices go down in January. I doubt it though.

The two OS's aren't particularly hard to adapt too. Very similar...

Ah, this would be for both work and play. Easier to lug around a tablet than a laptop, and my phone doesn't seem to want to do anything at all; the heap of shit that it is.


I'd been looking at Windows 8 tablets with MS Office bundled, but they're even more expensive and I haven't heard much good word about them, so yeah.


:hmmm: I'll have to get back and reconsider it... Maybe the money might be better spent on alcohol and homeless people to whom I accidentally give fivers to when drunk.
 
iPad Minis, like every other Apple product on the market, aren't going to see much - if any at all - price drops down the line. Apple doesn't believe whatsoever in allowing any drop in its bloated profit margins. If you don't wish to blow a premium price on a tablet, I wouldn't advise any iPad. The new iPad Mini with Retina is anything but value for money.

This may largely also depend on what operating system you prefer. Just bear in mind that iOS has the largest library of apps, while Android tablets suffer the problem of scale-up phone apps that don't quite deliver the same quality of experience. I heard that it's been getting better, and even if you're saddled with blown-up phone apps, they shouldn't look as bad on a Nexus 7 as say, a 10-inch Android tablet. Then again, iOS is inherently closed and restrictive by nature, so if you prefer a more flexible, customisable OS, Android's unmatched in that regard.

My opinion? Get the Nexus 7. It's just the best value for money, and it simply embarrasses the entry price point of the new iPad Mini. The screen is just as good as Apple's offering, as you've no doubt seen for yourself, and it should come with the latest Android software by now.
 
I have the 2012 Nexus 7 and I love it, and the 2013 updates look really solid. That little tablet can do infinitely more for you than an iPad would, but if you're the sort of person that just wants a simple user experience it will facilitate that as well. Me, I ended up unlocking and rooting mine just to see what it's capable of, and honestly it's like a new tablet again with a custom ROM and kernel. But I also used it a long time before that running stock everything, and the experience was far more convenient than what Apple has to offer. So it's the best of both worlds, to be sure.

Also, for office concerns there's now AndrOpen Office, which as the name suggests is just Open Office ported to Android. I've been using it since it was released, and while there's still a few bugs in the system, it is amazing to have a full office suite on my Android devices and it gets updated every few days to work out the remaining kinks. When I'm able to plug in a mouse and keyboard I pretty much forget I'm using a tablet at all. And it plays nice with DropBox, so I can immediately switch between devices and work on one document continuously.

Bottom line is, if you're going to use it like a normal person, it's great. If you're willing to get your hands dirty and push the device for all it's worth, there's no comparison.
 
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