Google Nexus 7 Review (8GB)

So,it is hot for Google Nexus 7 these days,let us review it.

Yep, the Nexus 7 is yet another black tablet (unless you got one with a white back at Google I/O) in the long line of black tablets. Yet, it does its best to break from the cookie cutter mold of most slates. Chief among those efforts is a rubbery, leathery, grippy back texture, similar to what we saw on the Acer Iconia Tab A510, but with both "Nexus" and "Asus" embossed on it. It may not look like much, but the inclusion of this seemingly small bit of design panache makes the tablet one of the most comfortable tablet.

Then there's the bezel. Held in portrait, the right and left side bezels of the tablet are refreshingly thin, while the top and bottom are thicker than what I usually find on 7-inch tablets. While the thicker bezel design can be useful as a place to rest your thumbs while holding the tablet, they are a bit too thick for my tastes and make the tablet feel needlessly long.

Speaking of holding, the Nexus 7 is noticeably lighter than the Kindle Fire and thanks to its beveled bottom and painted silver trim, actually looks thinner. Or at least sleeker. There's definitely some kind of slimming illusion going on, as I wasn't the only one to think it much skinnier than the Kindle Fire. Turns out, it is thinner, but only by 0.04 inch.

The Nexus 7 is held in portrait mode and viewed from the front, the 1.2-megapixel front camera sitting in the middle of the top bezel is the lone distinguishable feature. On the right edge toward the top is the power/lock button, closely followed by the volume rocker. Following the right edge down and around to the bottom reveals a headphone jack, with a Micro-USB port in the middle of bottom edge. Right above that, on the back is a horizontally-aligned two-inch long speaker slit.

it will be the first device to ship with the latest incarnation of the Android OS, version 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean. Though Android 4.1 on the Nexus 7 is just as customizable as previous incarnations of the OS, the way it's presented here feels much more controlled and focused, and while a bit less intimidating to the uninitiated, it also feels a bit constraining.

Android 4.1 teaches typing

One of the purported new Android 4.1 features is improved precision when typing on the soft keyboard. After taking the Nexus 7 out of the box, I wanted to quickly put this to the test. I usually make lots of mistakes when texting on my iPhone 4 or even when testing typing precision on other tablets, so my typing skills aren't exactly legendary. However, when signing in to my Google account on the Nexus 7, I was able to type quickly, without making a single mistake.

Siri-ous voice recognition

There's also now a Siri-like voice recognition app that allows you to search the Web with your voice. It's not so much an assistant like Siri -- it won't schedule meetings for you or remind you to call your wife when you leave work -- but it will recognize phrases like "Who are the Oakland A's playing today?" and return the answer via a voice response as well as a crude graphic showing a recent final score. "Where can I get some pizza?" returns a Google Maps listing of restaurants nearby that serve pizza. The current version of Siri on the iPhone 4S could keep up with the food queries, but not so much the sports.

Hardware features

The quad-core Tegra 3 inside the Nexus 7 is the same 1.3GHz chip we've seen in most recent Android tablets, including the 12-core GPU. The Nexus 7 also includes 1GB of DDR2 RAM, as opposed to the faster DDR3 RAM the Asus TF300 uses. The Nexus 7 also has 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi support, Bluetooth, a gyroscope, an accelerometer, and GPS. There's also support for Google's NFC-based technology, Android Beam.

With Android Beam you can send Web pages, maps, and files, but not apps, however. To work, the two compatible devices have to touch back to back, and in the case of the Nexus 7 the device must touch the upper-right corner of the tablet's back to work. And work it does. Web pages or maps travel fast; however, pictures and larger files obviously take a bit more time to copy over.

Performance

The Nexus 7 sports an IPS screen with a wider viewing angle than the Kindle Fire's and even wider than you see on some 10-inch Android tablets. The 1,280x800-pixel resolution packed into a 7-inch display gives visuals like text and graphics a sharper look than what I'm typically used to seeing on most 7-incher.

The Nexus 7's screen looks great and feels responsive; the tablet feels well-built and does a good job of demonstrating its power in games and movie performance. The lack of built-in expandable storage or a back camera is a bummer, but it's understandable given the dirt-low $200 (for 8GB; $250 for 16GB) price.

Google is off to a good start here. The specs are impressive, the Android 4.1 OS feels simplified while retaining its flexibility, and TV shows and purchasable movies are welcome additions to the Google Play store. However, while the Nexus 7 is clearly the best 7-inch tablet available, Kindle Fire owners will still be treated to a better-implemented ecosystem and more video options, especially if they're Amazon Prime members.

To be an iPad killer, you'd need to gather a universe-size amount of app support. and that would only be your first step. The Nexus 7 isn't an iPad killer, but it could be the first step on the road to a much more competitive tablet market.

from cnet