So, I’ve mentioned in passing here and all over everywhere else that I have been using my new Nexus 7 tablet. It’s been one of my standard "long build up choices". I’ve known for a while I wanted a tablet and planned to get one for some time. Things finally culminated in the Nexus 7.
I actually went back and forth a bit between the Nexus and Barnes & Noble’s Nook HD for a bit. The Nook HD has superior hardware as well as a potentially useful HDMI port. It lacks a camera of any kind and comes with a locked down B&N version of Android. It would have to be rooted. I figured the Nexus was the way to go ultimately. The HDMI port would be less useful than it sounds and quite frankly, as much as I want to support B&N as an underdog, it’s getting really hard to continue to support them. I am sure that content deals are part of the hold up but they really seem to treat their digital customers as second class persons. At some point though a company needs to just tell these distributors to take it or leave it.
That’s a complaint I’ve made before elsewhere. I’m here to discuss the Nexus.
It’s a pretty spectacular product, and I’ve certainly been getting my money’s worth from it. I’m actually using it for more or less what I expected to use it for, consuming information of various types. It’s great for Facebook and Google+, it’s great for ebooks and digital comics, it’s great for reading news.
I’ve been working on decking it out a bit to make it more of a production device though. I ordered a case with included keyboard, though unfortunately it needed an adaptor I didn’t have and since the adaptor is shipping from China I’m waiting for a slow boat to send it my way… eventually. I also have a MOGA controller that I’ve been using some to play games on the device.
What’s most surprising, and something I had been hoping for, I actually use my phone less now that I have the tablet. It’s a good size for most activities and has much more storage for storing apps and such on it than my phone. Which leads me to a side note, the larger version really seems like the way to go space wise. I have already installed several of the more advanced games I have and each takes up like 2-3 GB each. It actually kind of blows my mind that a mobile game would be so huge but the graphics and performance result is pretty amazing.
I actually have one complaint so far, and it’s kind of a minor one. It lacks a rear facing camera. Yeah yeah, I will tell you how stupid it is to hold up a tablet and use it as a camera pretty much anywhere, but I have gotten into a habit of snapping quick photos with my phone and uploading them to Twitter or Google+. I managed to figure out how to activate the front camera for photos but it’s a pain target and snap without being able to actually see the interface.
Like I said, minor issue.
Anyway, I am sure I’ll discus this device some more in the future, but for now, the verdict is, it’s great.
Josh Miller aka “Ramen Junkie”. I write about my various hobbies here. Mostly coding, photography, and music. Sometimes I just write about life in general. I also post sometimes about toy collecting and video games at Lameazoid.com.