Lucky Number 7

It’s the perfect size for reading books, websites, magazines and news feeds. Photo by Ariel Zambelich/Wired

The Nexus 7 is a device tailored to consuming digital entertainment. The operating system is confined to a portrait landscape, and there’s an app tray persistent across the bottom of the homescreen. The only time the Nexus 7 shifts into landscape mode is when the content you’re consuming calls for it, such as watching a movie or playing a widescreen game.

The smaller form factor makes the Nexus 7 ideal for reading books, and magazines are a joy to read here as well, thanks in part to a “text view” mode that pulls the text from an article out of its magazine layout and into a more easily consumable e-book-style view.

As good as it is for running apps, the Nexus 7 did leave me with one complaint that persists across all Android tablets — there still aren’t as many tablet-optimized apps for Android as there are for the iPad. A 7-inch screen makes this deficiency much less of a problem than it is on 10-inch tablets. But for key apps like Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo, Fandango and Foursquare (just to name a few), you’re stuck using a stretched phone app. The experience isn’t horrible, but when compared to what’s available on the iPad, it’s obvious things could be better. It’s a shame too, because when it comes to entertainment, you can use the Nexus 7 to do nearly everything you can do on an iPad, but the smaller number of tablet-specific apps leaves the device feeling less capable.

I would also like the Nexus 7 to have included a rear camera, but there is a front-facing 1.2-megapixel camera that’s good for video chat and passable for photos. Bluetooth and NFC (two features common in phones but not lower-priced tablets) are included here, as well as a gyroscope and accelerometer.

The build quality on the Nexus 7 is excellent. The display looks fantastic, and the rest of the device is best-in-class. It’s thin (0.41-inches) and lightweight (about 12 ounces). At 4.7 inches wide and 7.81 inches tall, it’s small enough to fit in the back pocket of a pair of jeans. The back is covered in a black rubberized plastic that’s dimpled — it feels sort of like a pair of leather driving gloves. The design really works. The Nexus 7 looks classy, and it’s comfortable to hold with one hand or two. Throwing it into a purse, messenger bag, backpack or coat pocket is no problem at all.

Since it’s a smaller tablet, battery life is about the same as a large smartphone: 7 or 8 hours under normal use. Watching HD movies or playing games non-stop will blow through that in half the time or less. But overall, battery life is about what one would expect.

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