So... do you like the Nexus 7...?

[kregg]

In Jelly Bean, Adobe Flash is completely unsupported, but somehow it is bundled with Chrome. I'm not really expecting (or hoping) it will last too long. I'd prefer to let the browser do the work now that browsers have come a long way from the times when we needed plugins.

[Icyculyr]

In Jelly Bean, Adobe Flash is completely unsupported, but somehow it is bundled with Chrome. I'm not really expecting (or hoping) it will last too long. I'd prefer to let the browser do the work now that browsers have come a long way from the times when we needed plugins.

Ah yeah, I see, thanks. How does it feel? Comfortable to hold? Temperature when gaming or in general use?

[honeybee]

I can definitely think of a few gestures that suit Windows 8 lol...

Oddly if they do bring out decent tablets running Win 8 (and not astronomically high prices), it would be a good alternative to the notebooks carried by many managers. All desktop apps would work seamlessly, plus I expect there would be some cloud computing to boot, and the whole experience would be much more seamless than today's world of berries and apples one can only see out of the windows. Everything would be within the windows, a truly integrated environment.

My manager could then be running the latest demo of our product on the tablet, my CEO can browse through emails on a single device instead of worrying about sync-ing it between the Exchange folder, his laptop and the mobile, we could write so many productivity apps for the sales and marketing teams without having to worry about the apps running on every conceivable mobile platform. And my IT team wouldn't have to worry about implementing any additional security measures for non-Windows devices.

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[kregg]

Ah yeah, I see, thanks. How does it feel? Comfortable to hold?

The device has a certain weight to it that doesn't feel too heavy; you can hold it, but it's not lighter than air. The back feels like a smooth golf ball, so it's really comfortable to hold. The bezels on the side are skinnier than at the bottom, but that's because if you hold it in landscape, your palm can fit snuggly on the device within the bezel comfortably. The back edges is tapered off, unlike the Kindle Fire, which is just this rectangular block, so it feels a bit thinner than it really is.

Temperature when gaming or in general use?

My personal experience is that it never gets more hotter than slightly toasty, and I've played:

• Grand Theft Auto 3
• Shadowgun (the one I paid for hasn't got Tegra 3, and to be quite frank, I really cannot be bothered to fork out money for the same game but fancier water and physics)
• Minecraft
• Modern Combat 3 (utter rubbish, knock-off COD clone for mobiles)

I've got other games like World of Goo, Max Payne, EDGE, and Canabalt HD which I briefly tried, and it's a comfortable experience where you can actually use the touch screen controls nicely, and the screen size is big enough where your hands don't engulf the entire screen. It's actually quite a pleasant experience from the Galaxy Nexus where the screen was huge, but not quite huge enough for playing games or watching TV/Films/Youtube etc.

[Icyculyr]

Oddly if they do bring out decent tablets running Win 8 (and not astronomically high prices), it would be a good alternative to the notebooks carried by many managers. All desktop apps would work seamlessly, plus I expect there would be some cloud computing to boot, and the whole experience would be much more seamless than today's world of berries and apples one can only see out of the windows. Everything would be within the windows, a truly integrated environment.

My manager could then be running the latest demo of our product on the tablet, my CEO can browse through emails on a single device instead of worrying about sync-ing it between the Exchange folder, his laptop and the mobile, we could write so many productivity apps for the sales and marketing teams without having to worry about the apps running on every conceivable mobile platform. And my IT team wouldn't have to worry about implementing any additional security measures for non-Windows devices.
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That's true, but the problem is these tablets will always be expensive, and heavy, and have much worse battery life than an ARM based tablet. It's the nature of what they are. On top of that it can be difficult to use apps designed to be used with a keyboard and mouse on a ~21 inch display, with only a touch screen and a 10 inch display.

The device has a certain weight to it that doesn't feel too heavy; you can hold it, but it's not lighter than air. The back feels like a smooth golf ball, so it's really comfortable to hold. The bezels on the side are skinnier than at the bottom, but that's because if you hold it in landscape, your palm can fit snuggly on the device within the bezel comfortably. The back edges is tapered off, unlike the Kindle Fire, which is just this rectangular block, so it feels a bit thinner than it really is.

Ah that sounds pretty good...!

My personal experience is that it never gets more hotter than slightly toasty, and I've played:

• Grand Theft Auto 3
• Shadowgun (the one I paid for hasn't got Tegra 3, and to be quite frank, I really cannot be bothered to fork out money for the same game but fancier water and physics)
• Minecraft
• Modern Combat 3 (utter rubbish, knock-off COD clone for mobiles)

I've got other games like World of Goo, Max Payne, EDGE, and Canabalt HD which I briefly tried, and it's a comfortable experience where you can actually use the touch screen controls nicely, and the screen size is big enough where your hands don't engulf the entire screen. It's actually quite a pleasant experience from the Galaxy Nexus where the screen was huge, but not quite huge enough for playing games or watching TV/Films/Youtube etc.

Yeah that sounds fine. Thanks for the info!

[honeybee]

That's true, but the problem is these tablets will always be expensive, and heavy, and have much worse battery life than an ARM based tablet. It's the nature of what they are. On top of that it can be difficult to use apps designed to be used with a keyboard and mouse on a ~21 inch display, with only a touch screen and a 10 inch display.

Today, there aren't many laptops with a battery life of more than four hours. So the tablets don't necessarily have to have a great battery life. Plus in case of the scenario I talked about you are most likely to find some way of charging it somewhere.

As for the keyboard, I can always use a portable keyboard plugged into the USB or through bluetooth if I can't make it work with the onscreen one. Most likely the tablets will also work with the standard USB keyboards you find for a couple of dollars here.

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[Icyculyr]

Today, there aren't many laptops with a battery life of more than four hours. So the tablets don't necessarily have to have a great battery life. Plus in case of the scenario I talked about you are most likely to find some way of charging it somewhere.

That's true, but it could yield even less battery life than that. Perhaps even as little as two hours.

As for the keyboard, I can always use a portable keyboard plugged into the USB or through bluetooth if I can't make it work with the onscreen one. Most likely the tablets will also work with the standard USB keyboards you find for a couple of dollars here.
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That's true. If you connect a keyboard and a mouse then you'll be fine, but that stuff also makes it less portable if you've got to take them with you. A better solution than using a touch screen though.

[baja_yu]

I just ordered a Nexus 7. It should be here in a few weeks.

[honeybee]

With solid state drives in the tablets, you can get near-instantaneous startup/shutdown times. Heck, you could probably just switch it off by powering it off and then when you power it back up, everything is restored instantly. It might take some time to get this right, but that would be one feature I am willing to pay for.

I must have said this earlier too, a Windows 8 tablet with a fast processor, enough RAM, ability to output to a projector/screen/HDMI display, ability to connect an external keyboard through USB and a built in SIM slot for 3G would be a deadly combination - if priced right. The tablet will be able to do just about everything required, and the extra connectivity options are to enhance the productivity without limiting the user. That's something I am almost willing to pay for.

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[baja_yu]

Mine arrived a few days ago. And, it's fantastic. I have an iPad 2 as well, and to be honest, even if they cost the same I'd still go with the Nexus 7. It's very light, the screen size is just enough for all my needs and the wide form factor is much easier to use and handle than the boxier iPad. I do have bigger hands and I can type easily while holding it with both hands, though I think someone with smaller hands wont be able to. The screen is not as crisp as the retina iPad, but it's very good otherwise. The speaker isn't as good as the one on iPad and you sometimes hear distortion when it's at the loudest setting.

Software wise it's brilliant. The Jelly Bean Android is marvelous, iOS-smooth, lightning fast, with the new notification center, resizable widgets, Google Now predictable search etc. Voice commands and typing are fenomenal, very few mistakes, and it's lightning fast. Even works offline unlike Siri. Sometimes I have a feeling it types the word before I finish saying it. It has NFC, Bluetooth, GPS and WiFi, but no 3G. Some may find this to be a problem, but I wouldn't buy the 3G model anyway, same as my iPad. I have a unlimited data plan on my cellphone which runs Android and I just fire up the Wireless Hotspot app when I need to connect something else, so I'm not paying for two or more plans either.
Battery life is great. I've been using it extremely heavily, as it's a new toy, and I've yet to manage to drain the battery in a day. So with regular use it will be even better. Because of it's weight and form factor it's great for reading, but still a backlit screen so can't compete with the Kindle there, except if you read color books/magazines or PDFs. The number of available accessories is rather poor compared to Apple, but maybe it will catch up later.

On the app side, the Google+ app is fantastic, too bad I, and few others, will use it. Shame that FB can't make a decent mobile app. Google Play Music is great as well, but it has a serious issue as of now. Even though my music files are immaculately ID3 tagged, for some reason it groups songs into albums just by album name, disregarding the artist. So I have three artists crammed into one Greatest Hits album. This isn't an issue when using Winamp app, but it's not as good as Play Music.

Regarding memory, I don't plan to lug a lot of files on it so I got the 8GB model. A note on that, it's shared by the OS. So out of the box you're left with 6GB of usable space. For some this will definitely not be enough. Oh, and a small issue, if I put the screen on automatic brightness, it's a bit darker than I'd like so I keep it set manually. An option to set the sensitivity of the sensor would be nice. Oh, and the camera is a bit crappy. I like the idea of just having the front camera, but still it could have been better.

Overall 4.5/5

[honeybee]

Short and sweet! Nice review there.

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