£159 8GB; £199 16GB
When Google announced that it was making its own tablet, many quite rightly observed that few of the company’s previous products had been the greatest successes in the mass market. While 2008’s G1 handset, in the distant past, delighted some geeks, it was hardly a device to challenge the iPhone. For the search giant to take on the mighty Apple iPad was, at least, ambitious.
Google, therefore, hasn’t done that. Its new Nexus 7 tablet takes on Amazon and the Kindle instead, and aims to encourage users to watch more films and read more books on a small screen than previously. It does not hope to surprise and delight in quite the same way that Apple’s many apps do. Whether it’s Angry Birds or Draw Something, the next craze is unlikely to be driven by the Nexus 7, in part because of the relative lack of Android tablet-specific software.
In fact this is a tablet that is ruthlessly functional – its screen is excellent (1280x800 is passable HD), its battery life an implausible nine hours that kept me entertained from London to San Francisco, its speed powered by an advanced quad-core processor that seems at 1.3GHz to respond more intuitively than ever to the touch of an impatient user’s fingers. These are not qualities previously associated with Google’s devices, but now they are simply what make the device good enough to demand serious attention in a sea of other Android tablets.
Indeed Asus, the manufacturer, has not excelled its previous standards of design, which with the popular Zenbook laptops have been all beautiful brushed steel. Here costs have been shaved through offering big margins around the screen and a plain black unit. Build quality is excellent and robust, with not a mark on it after my weeks of vigorous, regular use.
The software is also the best Google has ever made, but this is a media consumption device more than anything else. So yes, Jelly Bean offers a host of features that utilise Google’s search capabilities to provide signed-in users to instant access on, for instance, the time back home if they’re travelling, or the weather and local sport scores if they’re not. Swiping up from the bottom of the screen brings up this ‘Google Now’ stack of cards, but in fact it’s renting films or buying books that the firm hopes will happen most.
Reorganising apps and widgets on the homescreens is now easier than ever, but this is a tablet aimed at people who, in all probability, have not used an Android tablet before. There’s a front-facing camera for video calls, which few seem likely to use, but is nice to have, just as there is improved dictation and voice recognition, which few people, at least for now, seem to be taking up with huge enthusiasm.
This is why the Nexus emphasises the ‘Play Store’, rather than its Android roots. When you first fire it up the main screen is about movies and novels, and for the first time the peerless Chrome web browser comes as standard. This makes the Nexus 7 an irresistible, inexpensive 7” tablet. At £159, it’s now very much more difficult to justify buying any sort of Kindle – with the Kindle Touch at £109, the extra £50 for a device that does so much more than just read books is very inexpensive. The £15 included to spend at the Play Store is an added bonus, tempting people in and making it much more likely they’ll spend more. Amazon offers films to buy, compared to Google’s rent-only option. Whether that matters is a personal choice, but for myself I have no desire to own media if I can inexpensively access it whenever I want to. In this context, the relatively low 8GB storage seems less problematic, but if I were buying a Nexus 7 tomorrow I’d want the 16GB version nonetheless. The possibility for expansion via a MicroSD card would have been a useful addition. More content is available in America, but Google’s reach is only becoming more global.
The Nexus 7 is not, however, likely to tempt many iPads users away from their devices. The smaller 7” screen is portable in a way that the iPad is not, but it consequently compromises the amount of screen available. The Nexus 7 is a functional mass market device akin to a newspaper, while the iPad is a glossy magazine with which to relax. When reading, that’s obvious because magazines on the Nexus 7 feel cramped, while books feel fine.
That raises questions, of course, over whether the two devices are really better companions than rivals. The iPad for home and the 340g Nexus 7 for throwing in a bag and taking anywhere. Both will let you check your email, but neither is ideal for typing a novel-length reply. There is, of course, the issue that the Nexus 7 lacks 3G connectivity that iPad users can spend extra money purchasing; in my use this lack was occasionally inconvenient, but only when I really wanted to check something online. With the device clearly aimed at media consumption, there’s few who would really want to download a film over 3G.
But anyway, that comparison would be to misunderstand Google’s ambitions: the Nexus 7 is not for geeks or tablet fans. It’s for a much wider market.
The superb Nexus 7 is, overall, the device that deserves to take tablets from a niche category dominated by the iPad to a truly mass-market phenomenon. The Kindle is still killing most printed books; tablets will reshape how we perceive films, TV, music, and books once again. The iPad kick-started that, but it is cheaper, excellent devices such as the Nexus 7 that will begin a new phase. A smaller iPad, much rumoured, may yet be the device to finish the job. Such renewed competition between Apple, Asus, Google and others is only to be welcomed – it will hasten the future.
Specifications
Software : Android 4.1 Jellybean
Processor : 1.3GHz quad-core NVidia Tegra 3
Memory: 1GB
Storage: 8GB/16GB; no expansion slots
Display : 7" backlit IPS capacitive touchscreen, 1280x800 pixels
Connectivity : Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
Ports : Micro USB, 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera : 1.2 megapixel front-facing
Battery : Li-ion 4325mAh
Size : 199x120x10mm
Weight : 340g
