Nexus 7

[Gary]

I just bought myself a Nexus 7 tablet.
Great little 7" tablet running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean).
Anyone else get one?

[John]

Gary,

I got mine early when Asus shipped some to eBuyer before the official release so I've been using it for a while as part of my quest for an internet and presentation tool for travelling on university business.

It offers excellent value for money, BUT it has compromises to keep the price down.

Plusses: Excellent hi-res screen, light weight, fast graphics, decent processor.

Minuses: No video out, no memory slot, no rear camera, no 3G.

4.1 also imposes some limitations as it is beyond Adobe's cut-off point for Flash. As a result it has Chrome rather than the Android browser as its default web browser. Being so new, websites which cater for Flash-free browsing have not yet caught up so there is no iPlayer unless you install an unsupported Flash build and another browser (I use an early Firefox beta).

There are other 7" tablets with earlier versions of Android and more hardware, and correspondingly higher price.

If you don't need the missing features this should be top of the shopping list.

[Steve]

Guys,

I see Maplin have an offer on an android 4.0 7" tablet at present. Seems to be £63 with their £7 off voucher.

Did wonder if the family might like it for Web browsing etc.

Steve

[John]

Steve,

A similar model, the Scroll Excel 7", has good reviews on Amazon (but about £30 dearer).

John

[Gary]

I got mine on the day before launch date, it's the 16gb version.
Yes, there are some limitations, the no memory slot would seem to be the most important, but a very technical friend at work, who also has one has got around this issue. By rooting the device and using the mini USB charging slot to mount a USB cable and attaching a pen drive.
For the no 3G I got around that by tethering it to my smartphone.
No doubt in 18 months time, something will be available that resolves all these issues.
Steve - be very careful buying cheap tablets, generally they are rubbish.

[Steve]

Gary,

Steve - be very careful buying cheap tablets, generally they are rubbish.

Hmm.. I have to admit I never equate price with quality like that. Expensive can just as often equal rubbish in my view.

What matters is simply whether the item does what you need. A family wanting to surf the Web via WiFi is a very common need. Anyone spending more than £63 on that should perhaps be made to explain why...

I lashed out on an expensive new phone not long back, one of those Galaxy things.. the model I chose cost me over £60! I put my decades old PAYG number chip from my old iphone into it and away I went... it is doing much more than I need.. and has GPS, maps, android stuff, tethering, a touch screen etc etc. Even things like GPS tags on its photos.. not to mention it can make phone calls, neat... I chose it mainly because it is very small.

People often spend a fortune on things they really don't need or that will actually stop them doing the things they really should be doing. It is like with cameras, some folks buy larger and larger lenses at huge cost... but then take hardly any decent photos with them. They probably got to that point because they were taking lots of great photos with lesser gear and felt they must get the biggest and best and most expensive.. a huge mistake for most people... why, well one reason is the very size and weight of the gear needing to be carried.. it simply can't be.. so vast numbers of photos never get taken and the whole point of actually taking photos as and when the opportunity arises is defeated.

I could ramble more... but my point is a simple one... I strongly believe that folks who equate price with quality/what they need to get are often making a big mistake.. You may remember I used to be strongly into sales and marketing... and I used to sell a single product with 3 different labels on it... one cheap, one medium priced, and one expensive. I'd often make millions of pounds of extra profit from a single sale of the expensive one.. and it was identical to the cheap one, that some very foolish folks would not buy because it was cheap.

Generally cheap means good as long as the product meets your needs.

Yes, there are some limitations, the no memory slot would seem to be the most important

The cheap one has a memory slot. Not that you'd need it for home WiFi browsing.

Steve

[Andy]

A friend of mine bought a rubbish tablet that happened to be cheap. Screen didn't look too bad, but various things didn't work and it was a pain to use.

Andy

[Steve]

Andy,

I guess one of the cheapest little screen machines is the Kindle. You and Gary and John all have those and have recommended them I think.

Amazon say the Kindle Fire is a better buy than the iPad - a page on that here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...cId=1000719771

I think you get what you need whilst paying the least you can.

Your friend sounds like he got poor advice and chose something unsuitable, you probably need to introduce him to discussing his ideas on what to get here etc... Like we all tend to.

Steve

[Andy]

Steve,

Carole has got a Kindle Reader and I would recommend it for books and documents, but nothing else.

Amazon say the Kindle Fire is a better buy than the iPad - a page on that here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...cId=1000719771

They would say that! I'm sure Apple would say the opposite .... Anyway I don't think the Kindle Fire is sold in the UK.

Andy

[Gary]

The kindle is a great machine for reading Books. It's a completely different type of device to a tablet.
I have the kinde app on my nexus, so I could use it for reading, but the screen on the kindle is far better if reading is what you want to do. I'd only use the nexus for reading if so some reason I didn't have my kindle with me.

My view is that generally you get what you pay for. Yes sometimes you get great stuff cheap, or pay loads for rubbish.
So places like ukexpert are great for letting people know what's good and what's bad.
The nexus is good!

[Steve]

Gary,

So a really cheap machine is thought to be the best by all, if you want it for specific uses.

Hence my thought that a £63 home WiFi browser could be a great buy.

If anyone buys a machine they should ideally try it and read other users views on it etc... And so not make the mistake Andy's mate made.

The nexus will be much worse than some £60 machines at some things, the same as the iPad is etc. The important thing seems to be to get the machine that does what you need, while not getting ripped off.

Your message Gary about needing to try and change/overcome the failings of the nexus made me wonder what main use you plan for it.

I read some reviews of it, they seem to describe it as very good for some uses for a very cheap machine. Storage was talked of as poor. One reviewer noted that the screen is blank/black if you wear polarised sunglasses!

Steve