NEXUS 7: Time to buy a tablet methinks...

[nev]

The first review of NEXUS 7 is here.

[Morrolan]

So are you happy not to receive any phone calls sms on your sing number while overseas or you now going to carry a second iphone as your sim will only work in an iphone

well, i always have two phones anyway, so not an issue.

[nev]

According to this article, the 8GB model will be available from mid-July in the UK. 16GB model from Jul 27.

[nev]

It's here

[Morrolan]

and?

[nev]

and?

Just sharing the joy

[Morrolan]

and?

Just sharing the joy

I figured that, i meant: how is it?

[nev]

I figured that, i meant: how is it?

I know, I just got it out of the box when I posted that so I couldn't possibly comment

So, I spent the better part of yesterday and last night playing with it. My initial impressions:

Good:
- Jellybean incredibly smooth and reactive, compared to ICS. My phone has ICS, and it crashes often, and lags (but probably because of the 512MB of RAM)
- The display is very crisp and sharp.
- I really like the hardware, the matte, textured rubber back panel is very comfortable to hold and I imagine won't get dented or scratched. It's a very solid, well-designed tablet that looks a lot more expensive than it really is.
- 16GB is plenty of storage space. Even after loading all my books, music, and several movies I still have plenty of space (almost 10GB) for other stuff.
- The battery is long-lasting. It's been 24 hours since a full charge and heavy usage, but I still have 65% power.
- The pre-loaded Chrome browser is awesome, very fast and simple, no limits on the number of tabs to open. The history and bookmarks from Chrome on my laptop are also synced almost immediately. Much better than the crap Sony-designed one on my phone.

Not so good but I can live with it:
- No access to books and music on the Play store because I'm not in the US - but I knew this when I ordered, and I can load my own.
- The pre-loaded video player and ebook app won't play anything that were not bought from the Play store - but again I can simply get apps that can do these.
- It's heavier than my old e-reader (245g vs 340g) so it feels heavier after an hour or so of reading. I suppose I'll get used to it.
- Google Now is not very intuitive. It can set alarms and reminders by voice commands, but it took me a while to figure out how to delete/turn off the alarms. The voice command does not kill alarms or find the app that manages alarms. (Yes I spent a considerable amount of time talking to my tablet last night )
- Many apps are not compatible with the device (or maybe the OS, since it's so new).

BAD:
Google's handling of the pre-order process and the random shipment debacle. Not only other brick-and-mortar retailers manage to get the device on their shelves earlier, online retailers also managed to ship earlier to people who did not pre-order directly from Google. It was also maddening that they ship the device randomly, not in chronological order. I ordered mine on Jun 28, but many who ordered much later got their devices weeks earlier than me. It took 24 days from the date of pre-order to the day it arrived, more than the 2-3 weeks window Google initially promised. They also didn't ship the protective cover I ordered together with the device, and they didn't notify me that they're out of stock. No news so far either.

All in all, probably the best gadget you can get with $249. If only the shopping/shipping experience wasn't so traumatic...

[Fat Bob]

So the Bad has got nothing to do with the tablet, so all-in-all, sounds pretty damn good.

And yes, I really hate this "you're in Singapore, you can't have it". Have managed to sort it out for Amazon Kindle, can't be bothered with Apple iTunes, still working on android but reckon that's because of my SIM card. Hmmmm....

[nev]

So the Bad has got nothing to do with the tablet, so all-in-all, sounds pretty damn good.

And yes, I really hate this "you're in Singapore, you can't have it". Have managed to sort it out for Amazon Kindle, can't be bothered with Apple iTunes, still working on android but reckon that's because of my SIM card. Hmmmm....

Yes, the tablet is probably my best buy this year.

If you really wanna buy stuff from the Play store, you can use VPN. But then you'll need a US credit card... or a UK card to buy from Play store UK.

[Morrolan]

can't be bothered with Apple iTunes

FWIW, iTunes now apparently has music and movies on their Singapore store...