I finally got around to my review:
http://ninjafrog.tumblr.com/post/28888180324/nexus7
Nexus 7 Review (From An iPad User)
http://ninjafrog.tumblr.com/post/28888180324/nexus7
Nexus 7 Review (From An iPad User)
My Nexus 7 Review (From An iPad User)
- Thread starter jayman16
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Totally disagree with bur post on some of the cons. I own an android phone, iPhone and an iPad.
The thing that bothers me the most (as with several other iOS users) is that the is is so simple its just out right stupid. The fact that apple has to resort to a screenful of icons that do nothing except show a picture of a static image. Of course its fast, there's nothing to do when scrolling.
The notifications in iOS is useless. I constantly see 1 week old emails in my iOS notifications screen.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
The thing that bothers me the most (as with several other iOS users) is that the is is so simple its just out right stupid. The fact that apple has to resort to a screenful of icons that do nothing except show a picture of a static image. Of course its fast, there's nothing to do when scrolling.
The notifications in iOS is useless. I constantly see 1 week old emails in my iOS notifications screen.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
The reson iOS is "fast" it's because it doesn't do true multi-tasking. It literally shuts everything down except foreground app. This works great in the era of Palm OS. But as you notice in Android, more and more apps are always on continuously. (eg. all those widgets, web apps, etc are all running and doing something on the background)
Apple will be in a lot of trouble when it tries to put on "widget, because then it will have to do true multi-tasking... (then we will see what iOS lag is.)
It's easy to force user only to push one icon at a time. It doesn't need quad processor/1.4Ghz just to show 4 rows of icons. Of course the damned thing will be insanely fast, since all the processor is doing is flipping pages that contains nothing but 4 rows of icons. But that won't be enough anymore... Let's talk when iPad is doing full service widget and multi-tasking like android.
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The lack of physical buttons does get very frustrating... I don't have anything with virtual keys but i know the buttons on my sensation piss me off occasionally when i hit back instead of space. I actually find myself missing the space bar a lot because i try to avoid the back button instead. Swiftkey helps for that correcting words.
And god is the back button on android annoying. I hate how it's like the lottery, hmm... what was i doing before this place... let's see, nope crap, home screen.
But for all that, android is still fun because of widgets and the openness. I think it's like mac vs windows for me... I enjoy having the company of both. Since you don't like your nexus 7 as much anymore... let me give it a whirl? =D
And god is the back button on android annoying. I hate how it's like the lottery, hmm... what was i doing before this place... let's see, nope crap, home screen.
But for all that, android is still fun because of widgets and the openness. I think it's like mac vs windows for me... I enjoy having the company of both. Since you don't like your nexus 7 as much anymore... let me give it a whirl? =D
I have the nexus 7 and an iPad 3. I do like customizing my nexus 7 with widgets and such but I actually like the way my iPad handles "multitasking". I use both for different circumstances. I hate web surfing on the nexus and reading PDF files but I prefer the form factor more for gaming on the nexus. Both work great for email and video for me. I don't think any device can fully satisfy all my needs but the combination of the two covers me across the board. I have to credit google and asus. I have never liked android but this completely changed my mind and I find myself promoting both to family and friends based on their needs. When I travel I mount my nexus 7 on my dash for navigation which is tethered to my awesome iPhone 4s so they as well as us here can play nice together lol
I'm not an Apple fan really, but I've owned an iPad 1 and now have an iPad 3, but think of myself as more of an Android fan...
Your cons are wrong, they are your opinions of course. But I think when you spend some time with Android they probably won't really bother you much. Here are my thoughts on those things you mentioned...
The 16:10 form factor (it's not 16:9).
I do actually like Apple's 4:3 ratio quite a bit. I wish someone would make a high quality Android tablet in that form factor. While I don't dislike 16:10. I do like holding my tablet in portrait mode and with 4:3 it's still wide enough in portrait that websites are still readable.
With the Nexus 7 though I'm liking 16:10 more than I probably would on a 10 inch tablet. With a 10 inch tablet I can't really hold a tablet one handed in landscape mode for too long because of the weight, hence why I like portrait mode. But with this 7 inch Nexus 7, I find it's light enough that I can hold it in landscape mode one handed and not be uncomfortable.
It's strong point is most of the screen is used when playing videos. There is some letter boxing (most videos are 16:9 and the screen is 16:10), but it's minor and some apps have the soft keys dimmed on the screen, so just enough room for them and still seeing all of the video. It's perfect.
Chrome does get cramped feeling though in landscape with the tabs and address bar and menu bar at top and the softkeys on the bottom. I wish Chrome had a full screen mode so bad. Maybe some day. Until then there is Dolphin.
The keyboard realestate is a non issue for me since I'm busy looking at the keyboard when I'm typing anyway.
Soft keys.
I'm fine with them. But yeah I've hit the home button instead of the space bar. The Nexus 7 uses the phone UI by default. I like like the tablet UI with the soft keys being off to the left side and the menu bar and notifications being on the right side. And you can switch to that UI if you are rooted and following a simple guide.
I do sometimes wish Android had a home button. My Touchpad and Nook Color with Android do and it's nice to be able to wake the device up with that button on the front instead of having to search for the power button on the side. But other than that, I don't really miss physical buttons much.
Back button.
Never thought much about the back button in Android. I guess I've exited an app quite a bit that I didn't mean too, but I guess I've gotten used to it and just go back into the app. I think always knowing where the back button is outweighs the occasional mess up on my part.
Project butter.
Android still needs more work to match iOS's smoothness. Agreed.
Tablet apps.
Hopefully in time this will improve. The issue is we've had Android 2.x for phones and Android 3.x for tablets. Android 4.x unified things, but it's still on a minority of Android devices. And developers just seem to love Apple more (guess it's easier when developing for a hand full of devices versus hundreds).
Seeing the DirecTV on my iPad and then on my Android, I want to cry.
Audio.
Never though of multitasking audio as bad. Whatever is playing is usually found in the notification tray, so if something is still playing, I can pause or stop it very quickly.
Your cons are wrong, they are your opinions of course. But I think when you spend some time with Android they probably won't really bother you much. Here are my thoughts on those things you mentioned...
The 16:10 form factor (it's not 16:9).
I do actually like Apple's 4:3 ratio quite a bit. I wish someone would make a high quality Android tablet in that form factor. While I don't dislike 16:10. I do like holding my tablet in portrait mode and with 4:3 it's still wide enough in portrait that websites are still readable.
With the Nexus 7 though I'm liking 16:10 more than I probably would on a 10 inch tablet. With a 10 inch tablet I can't really hold a tablet one handed in landscape mode for too long because of the weight, hence why I like portrait mode. But with this 7 inch Nexus 7, I find it's light enough that I can hold it in landscape mode one handed and not be uncomfortable.
It's strong point is most of the screen is used when playing videos. There is some letter boxing (most videos are 16:9 and the screen is 16:10), but it's minor and some apps have the soft keys dimmed on the screen, so just enough room for them and still seeing all of the video. It's perfect.
Chrome does get cramped feeling though in landscape with the tabs and address bar and menu bar at top and the softkeys on the bottom. I wish Chrome had a full screen mode so bad. Maybe some day. Until then there is Dolphin.
The keyboard realestate is a non issue for me since I'm busy looking at the keyboard when I'm typing anyway.
Soft keys.
I'm fine with them. But yeah I've hit the home button instead of the space bar. The Nexus 7 uses the phone UI by default. I like like the tablet UI with the soft keys being off to the left side and the menu bar and notifications being on the right side. And you can switch to that UI if you are rooted and following a simple guide.
I do sometimes wish Android had a home button. My Touchpad and Nook Color with Android do and it's nice to be able to wake the device up with that button on the front instead of having to search for the power button on the side. But other than that, I don't really miss physical buttons much.
Back button.
Never thought much about the back button in Android. I guess I've exited an app quite a bit that I didn't mean too, but I guess I've gotten used to it and just go back into the app. I think always knowing where the back button is outweighs the occasional mess up on my part.
Project butter.
Android still needs more work to match iOS's smoothness. Agreed.
Tablet apps.
Hopefully in time this will improve. The issue is we've had Android 2.x for phones and Android 3.x for tablets. Android 4.x unified things, but it's still on a minority of Android devices. And developers just seem to love Apple more (guess it's easier when developing for a hand full of devices versus hundreds).
Seeing the DirecTV on my iPad and then on my Android, I want to cry.
Audio.
Never though of multitasking audio as bad. Whatever is playing is usually found in the notification tray, so if something is still playing, I can pause or stop it very quickly.
And iOS users dont? My friends don't use apple very much but I have a friend with iFon 4S, and I always remember he is tapping one or more times OS to recognises his touchs. This is just a part, you are total apple "lover" on your review.
I just aggree about software keys, they suck.
Do you really have a hope to get an Apple device for $250? Good luck
I am really bored of reading Apple fans reviews. They are way too "fair".
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Low end Chinese tablets already hitting sub $150. This is powered by dual cores A10, 50nm. By the time apple fans done waiting for magical mini iPad to show up, low cost chinese tablet will be dual core, 40nm. 1.2GHz or so. (in other word, current high end iPad.) Allwinner is already reported to work with ARM creating next generation low cost CPU.
Apple has zero chance winning price war competing against Android.
On the high end side, apple has no chance catching against android either on GPU front. Apple doesn't have its own architecture (as oppose to nVidia, qualcomm/ati, or samsung) Apple's chip will always have bigger size, use more power, running hotter, expensive to make, compared to same fabrication node. Apple CPU is the Chevy Suburban of CPU world.
some battery comparison
iPad3 ...11666 mAh
Nexus7 ...4326 mAh
Transformer TF700 ...6757 mAh
Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 ...7000 mAh
Apple has zero chance winning price war competing against Android.
On the high end side, apple has no chance catching against android either on GPU front. Apple doesn't have its own architecture (as oppose to nVidia, qualcomm/ati, or samsung) Apple's chip will always have bigger size, use more power, running hotter, expensive to make, compared to same fabrication node. Apple CPU is the Chevy Suburban of CPU world.
some battery comparison
iPad3 ...11666 mAh
Nexus7 ...4326 mAh
Transformer TF700 ...6757 mAh
Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 ...7000 mAh
I'm going to say this for everybody and also as a former apple fan who has seen the light.
"Who gives a sh*t about an iPad users lame opinion about an open os and a powerful device too complicated for simple minded sheeple!"
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
"Who gives a sh*t about an iPad users lame opinion about an open os and a powerful device too complicated for simple minded sheeple!"
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
I take the points about the soft buttons, but the touch responsiveness on my N7 is great. I think you might have a defective device?
seriously mate
you have the iBug therefore you can never review android fairly
iUsers somehow mix nostalgia with facts with delusions with whatever and hey presto, iPhone 1 was running at 60fps on it's thermo nuclear processor haha
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iFanBoys just stick to your devices, bias people shouldn't write reviews. Go away
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
Seriously, 4 out of the 5 first bullet points were "this is not like the iPad; I don't like it".
As for the remaining one, I don't actually trust someone who tries to compare speed by eye; unfortunately, as hamdir hinted, this is subject to way too much confirmation bias.
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Soft buttons are, in fact, an insanely good idea (though I admit they might be ahead of their time), because they're the only type that can be significantly modded. I'm still waiting for rob43 to get a N7 so that he can port over his Salad Bar II. And without softkeys, you can't implement features like edge swiping to bring up/hide the nav bar like in Glazed ROM; you're just stuck with an inflexible button orientation forever.
Finally, I can't honestly believe you're advocating reaching up to God-knows-where in each app just to hit a back button. If you really want to reach around everytime because that's what you do in iOS, then good for you; I'll be sticking to the back button that's near my fingers, tyvm.
As for the remaining one, I don't actually trust someone who tries to compare speed by eye; unfortunately, as hamdir hinted, this is subject to way too much confirmation bias.
---
Soft buttons are, in fact, an insanely good idea (though I admit they might be ahead of their time), because they're the only type that can be significantly modded. I'm still waiting for rob43 to get a N7 so that he can port over his Salad Bar II. And without softkeys, you can't implement features like edge swiping to bring up/hide the nav bar like in Glazed ROM; you're just stuck with an inflexible button orientation forever.
Finally, I can't honestly believe you're advocating reaching up to God-knows-where in each app just to hit a back button. If you really want to reach around everytime because that's what you do in iOS, then good for you; I'll be sticking to the back button that's near my fingers, tyvm.
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Thanks. Exactly what I thought. It seems like you're (OP) trying to be fair and professional but actually have an extreme bias and are giving cons because it's not like what you like, its competitor.
Sent from my Nexus 7.
Was this written by Apple!
There is no comparison iPad3 is £600 for top spec and Nexus 7 is £200, iPad3 is not 3 times better or worth 3 times as much!
Apple doesn't even have a product to compare to, closest would be iPod Touch.
iOS and Android both have strengths and weaknesses.
iOS is aim at the less technical consumers who needs big buttons, iTunes and want things to just work.
Android is Open Source and is aim at consumers with more technically knowledge & providing the ability for customisation.
I no longer own any iOS devices (previously iPhone4, iPad2) this is because every revision of iOS, Apple has locked that the OS even more.
- Example: you can no longer have direct access to GPU
- My £400 iPad2 cant play 1080p out of the box, iTunes movies are 720p, where as Nexus 7 plays both straight up at half the price.
Also, Apple hardware is old tech (they have never been cutting edge, they are more of a marketing company than tech)
They just take existing tech and put together in a shinny Apple stamped case and sell it to morons who are happy to queues for days and pay 3 times the price.
There is no comparison iPad3 is £600 for top spec and Nexus 7 is £200, iPad3 is not 3 times better or worth 3 times as much!
Apple doesn't even have a product to compare to, closest would be iPod Touch.
iOS and Android both have strengths and weaknesses.
iOS is aim at the less technical consumers who needs big buttons, iTunes and want things to just work.
Android is Open Source and is aim at consumers with more technically knowledge & providing the ability for customisation.
I no longer own any iOS devices (previously iPhone4, iPad2) this is because every revision of iOS, Apple has locked that the OS even more.
- Example: you can no longer have direct access to GPU
- My £400 iPad2 cant play 1080p out of the box, iTunes movies are 720p, where as Nexus 7 plays both straight up at half the price.
Also, Apple hardware is old tech (they have never been cutting edge, they are more of a marketing company than tech)
They just take existing tech and put together in a shinny Apple stamped case and sell it to morons who are happy to queues for days and pay 3 times the price.
What a tool. Save yourself time. You can sum it up in a sentence.
"it's not like an iPad".
"it's not like an iPad".
Man. No offense but your "review" sucks... Maybe you are better in some other crap then doing technical reviews.
You compare the nexus 7 to an ipad mini which we don't even know for sure there will be one, but and you are already able to mention how good it will be and what will be the price?
If you want to sound like an expert. Try to root your device, try to download a torrent file while you are browsing and synchronizing some folders of your computer with some of your nexus. Try to put a firewall where you decide what apps can read which informations about you. Try the SwiftKey keyboard, and some nice widgets. Go to your home server folders over VPN or ftp to stream your movie collection.
Do it on your ipad
I will order a nexus 7 as soon as it is available in my country.
Sent from my cyanogenmod 9 powered GT-I9000 using xda app-developers app
You compare the nexus 7 to an ipad mini which we don't even know for sure there will be one, but and you are already able to mention how good it will be and what will be the price?
If you want to sound like an expert. Try to root your device, try to download a torrent file while you are browsing and synchronizing some folders of your computer with some of your nexus. Try to put a firewall where you decide what apps can read which informations about you. Try the SwiftKey keyboard, and some nice widgets. Go to your home server folders over VPN or ftp to stream your movie collection.
Do it on your ipad
I will order a nexus 7 as soon as it is available in my country.
Sent from my cyanogenmod 9 powered GT-I9000 using xda app-developers app
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Here's a hint, the Nexus 7 shouldn't be compared to an ipad. They are two very different devices.
Guys, there are some people who will follow the Apple train to the grave. Let him have his review and rows of icons, while you customize and multitask for half the price.
Guys, there are some people who will follow the Apple train to the grave. Let him have his review and rows of icons, while you customize and multitask for half the price.
Apps: With the Nexus 7 having such great specs, I was hopping to really see what kind of muscle it had while at the same time checking out some great Android apps. I had a very difficult time finding quality apps in the store; made for a tablet. All the basic apps were there: twitter, Facebook, Dropbox, Netflix, kindle, but they all just seemed like phone apps stretched out. This usually results in large blank spaces and awkward buttons that are too big or too small for what they should be. Then the amount of apps is stunningly small. I have heard this before, but seeing it, was still shocking. I didn’t think it was THAT bad. Doing a search for a twitter app gives you maybe 3-4 usual apps, none that I liked. Next I looked for a Dropbox text editor and I found one. This is a category that is flourishing on iOS. There is an insane amount of Dropbox/markdown/iCloud text editors on iOS. Google Reader which I used everyday had a few very crappy apps in the store not including the built-in official Google Reader app in 4.1, which sucks as well.
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anybody know what this notepad/dropbox text editor he is talking about? Why can't he use random text editor and save it to drop box? It's hard to reply since he doesn't clearly say what app/specific feature he is looking for/what is his iPad app list. I thought just about any notepad sync with dropbox these days...
Hell there is one done by xda forumer too.. (Why can't he simply google 'android notepad dropbox'?)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=865456
the store search says 137...(discounting 4.1 filter. but I assume they all work in JB. How much more notepad choice does he need? if he needs something more complicated, he is looking for different tool.)
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=notepad+dropbox&c=apps
and there is 1000 entry for anything related to Tumblr. (I assume he is using notepad to collect material for tumblr, since he is on one) There got to be something in there for his need...
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=tumblr&c=apps
Also, what exact "reader" he is looking for? general RSS? There should be plenty of option than google reader.
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anybody know what this notepad/dropbox text editor he is talking about? Why can't he use random text editor and save it to drop box? It's hard to reply since he doesn't clearly say what app/specific feature he is looking for/what is his iPad app list. I thought just about any notepad sync with dropbox these days...
Hell there is one done by xda forumer too.. (Why can't he simply google 'android notepad dropbox'?)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=865456
the store search says 137...(discounting 4.1 filter. but I assume they all work in JB. How much more notepad choice does he need? if he needs something more complicated, he is looking for different tool.)
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=notepad+dropbox&c=apps
and there is 1000 entry for anything related to Tumblr. (I assume he is using notepad to collect material for tumblr, since he is on one) There got to be something in there for his need...
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=tumblr&c=apps
Also, what exact "reader" he is looking for? general RSS? There should be plenty of option than google reader.
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