The Nexus 7 is a collaboration between Google and Asus to create a stock Android tablet to run alongside its already popular Nexus range of phones.
The specs are impressive with a 1.3ghz Quad-core Tegra 3 processor with 1gb of RAM.
It has a 7” 1200 x 800 HD backlit IPS display with 216 PPI. This may not be as impressive as the 4th Gen iPad or Nexus 10 but it is still beats the iPad Mini, which runs an 8” 1024 x 768 display at 168 PPI.
The Nexus comes with two different storage capacities, 16gb and 32gb, but no MicroSD slot for expanding that further, which is a shame for those that like to store their lives on a device. But looking at the current competition, not many do and you can often find them sitting on store shelves at double the price or more, again, like the iPad Mini.
Looking at the device from the front you will notice a lack of any hard buttons, only a 1.2mp front facing camera at the top of the device.
The left side of the device has nothing but a 4 pin connector for use with the upcoming Nexus Dock, and as we move down we find a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and the normal MicroUSB used for charging and data transfer. On the right hand side there are two physical buttons for power/sleep and a volume rocker. Finally the back hosts the normal Nexus and Asus branding plus the speaker at the bottom.
Using the tablet, you won’t find your fingers or thumbs getting in the way of playing games or surfing the web as Asus managed to include a nice sized bezel.
Using the Nexus 7 on a day-to-day basis is great thanks to the 4325mAh battery. Eight hours of active use is promised, and with a full charge I have been getting 2-3 days of quite frequent usage out of it which includes checking emails, YouTube, social apps and a huge amount of web surfing, much more than I used to achieve from my Galaxy Nexus.
In short the Nexus 7 is a brilliantly priced, brilliantly specced tablet. For those of you who don’t care about the 7” screen and limited storage capacity this is definitely a great buy for a pure Google experience, a fast Android OS and great performance. The Nexus 7 is the way to go.
