Video Review of the Google Nexus 7 Tablet

I've spent about a week with the Nexus 7 tablet now so I thought I'd do a quick video to capture my impressions:

If you'd rather read than watch, here are the highlights:

• I really like the 7-inch form factor. Since I have an 11" MacBook Air, 10-inch tablets don't feel all that portable to me. 7-inch tablets are very portable, very light, allow me to easily type with my thumbs, and are much easier to hold for long periods of time while reading.
• The performance is excellent. The combination of the hardware and Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) make the Nexus 7 as smooth and polished as any iOS device.
• The battery life seems very good. I didn't explicitly test it, but I've only had to charge the Nexus 7 a few times since I started using it. It may not be as good as something like the iPad, but I found the battery to be more than sufficient.
• I'm not crazy about the emphasis on the Google Play store by default. Since it competes with the Kindle Fire, the Nexus 7 is designed primarily as a content consumption device (which also justifies the very aggressive pricing — Google wants to make money on the ecosystem rather than hardware). Fortunately all the conduits into the the Google Play store are implemented as widgets which you can just delete in order to get a more traditional tablet experience. I should point out that I actually like the Google Play store and have used it several times already — I just don't want it to be the central experience of my tablet.
• My only complaint/request is that I want to be able to buy a higher-end version. I like this device enough that I'd happily pay more for a rear-facing HD camera and 4G wireless support. That said, I know Google is competing with the Kindle Fire, and the price is extremely aggressive for such a capable device. I think Google is doing the right thing for now, however I hope they release versions with more features in the future.

To summarize: great device which is absolutely worth the $199/$249 price.

Comments

[polyGeek]

How do you like the enhancements to the "Google Assistant" or whatever you call it that competes with Siri? I read a reviewers comments about it and he was stunned at how well it worked. For instance while at GoogleIO it noticed that he had a meeting in Mountain View and alerted him that he would need to leave soon to make it due to traffic.

[Rob Bevan]

How well do the Adobe Touch apps work on the Nexus 7?