Review: Google’s Nexus 7 tablet

The Google Nexus 7, is without a doubt one of the best tablets ever released running Android. Officially announced back in June 2012, the Nexus 7 seemed to slip through our hands in the form of reviews, this is the first review of the device since June 2012. Either way, the device is still very current with Google even announcing a 32GB version of the tablet recently.

The Google Nexus 7, made by Asus comes with a 7 inch screen which puts it into the fairly small category of tablets. This is compared to the iPad mini’s screen which is 7.9 inches which is over 30 inches larger. The Nexus 7 has 216 pixels per inch with a resolution of 1280×800 pixels. Just for reference the iPad mini has a pixel density of 162 pixels per inch, so you are getting more pixels with the Nexus 7 tablet.

The Nexus 7 doesn’t have a great standby time, with the tablet only able to stand-by for 12.5 days before you will have to charge it again. With most tablets you should be able to get close to a month of stand-by time, which does put this tablets battery life on the lower end of the spectrum. You should then be able to use the tablet for 10 hours before having to go to the charger.

The tablet has 1GB (1024MB) of RAM, comes with either 8GB, 16GB or 32GB storage options and has a NVIDIA Tegra 3 1200MHz quad-core processor.

The design of the Nexus 7 is nothing special, but it doesn’t look really bad either. It has quite a basic design, being the usual quite black tablet we see quite a lot. One design feature which the tablet does lack is a back camera. This is one feature I am not complaining of, because I’ve always found taking photos with a tablet quite odd. Watching people recording and taking photos with iPad’s has always seemed quite dorky to me and does look very odd.

The tablet does come with a front-facing camera though, which is 1.2MP. This also allows you to have video calls with the front-facing camera in 1080p HD.

The Nexus 7 weighs 345 grams, is 1cm thick, 12cm wide and 20cm tall. This does mean the tablet is a bit heavier than some of the rivals, with the tablet slightly heavier than the iPad mini which won’t be noticeable at all.

One thing I’ve never liked much about the design of the Nexus 7 is the massive bezel around the screen it has. It is noticeable big and probably didn’t need to be that big. You should’ve shaved a few centimetres from the top and bottom and a few millimetres from the sides and it would’ve looked much better visually.

One thing which the Nexus 7 does well is its price point. The tablet is much cheaper than competitors and is almost dirt cheap. You can afford to easily buy a couple of them, but most people couldn’t say the same about the iPad mini or full sized iPads which are quite expensive. I guess where you do save price wise, you end up paying for with the actual tablet. Some will be very disappointed with no camera and a few other features, but overall you do have to understand that this is quite a cheap tablet.

Overall though, this tablet is a great buy for these Christmas holidays coming up and something which if you’re a fan of Android you will enjoy, and so will your wallet. It has a okay design, has Android 4.2 support and is fairly small for those looking for a smaller tablet.

Comparing this to the iPad mini is hard though. While I have compared a few features from the iPad mini in this short review, it does seem as though they are in two different classes. The iPad mini isn’t cheap, Is 33% larger in screen space than the Nexus 7 and has a much better build quality.

Depending on your needs, budget, operating system preference and what you plan on doing with the tablet comes down to whether this is the one for you. Yes there are tablets out there with much better screens, better performance, but those do begin to cost with all those extra features. A great buy for these Christmas holidays.