11 ms·

Google Nexus 7 and Android 4.1 - Mini Review

152 points by JoelSutherland 14y ago

orangeapple 14y ago
Anyone with experience on 7" tablets, is it practical to take notes with in math lectures?
- kenjackson 14y ago
  Not with the onscreen keyboard. If it can use a stylus like the Note then maybe. Although I'd probably go for an iPad 2. It's twice the price (at $399), but will be a lot more usable.
  - orangeapple 14y ago
    Yeah, with a stylus of course, I was hoping this would be suitable for taking in class notes - a lot of writing equations and whatnot as oppose to typing with the on screen keyboard. The new iPad is $519 for cheapest one. :(
    - frou_dh 14y ago
      I wouldn't worry about it. I have used several styluses and note-taking apps on the iPad and in the end the handwriting experience is still horrible compared to pen and paper. It's just not happening on hardware that assumes input is coming from a finger many, many times larger than a natural pen point. iPad is a great buy for lots of reasons but handwritten note taking isn't one of them.
- Tyr42 14y ago
  Maybe the Surface will be better.
  - zanny 14y ago
    Why not TF700?
JoelSutherland 14y ago
Hardware-wise, this is competitive with the very best Android tablets that are currently out. Only the Transformer Prime Infinity seems to best it, and that isn't available for order yet. This is certainly a case of 'price as a signal'. The Nexus 7 is being repeatedly compared with the Kindle Fire in spite of its specs. This must be Google's intention. It's likely that is the only (large) market that remains for Android tablets.
- huggyface 14y ago
  The Nexus 7 is being repeatedly compared with the Kindle Fire in spite of its specs. By the tech media, most of whom simply want to avoid the whole boring iPad market only argument. In the real world this is direct competition for the iPad, with a very significant draw of price. People aren't generally suckers, and they don't want to pay more if a less expensive product satisfies their needs.
Shivetya 14y ago
Really would have preferred they found a way to have the rear facing camera. If anything I would take it in preference over the front facing one. With experience around the iPad (both generations) and the Kindle Fire I found outside of games the kids were having way too much fun making videos. Adults tended towards pictures but kids tended toward videos, many about tormenting each other. Which mean the old iPad and Fire sat relatively unused - there were like "if I have too". I do like the size of seven inch tablets, its easier to one hand use them while reading at the table and eating, like a modern day paper. You would be surprised how ungainly feeling the larger iPad feels being used this way. The Fire became my table reader simply because of its form factor.
- nodata 14y ago
  Google hangouts with a rear-facing camera would be a disaster. Maybe the next version will have two cameras.
- AncientPC 14y ago
  I disagree. I've been to concerts and football games where people are holding up iPads up high to record videos / take photos. It's a distraction and a nuisance. I say good riddance. I have my phone / DSLR to take photos, but I regularly video chat with friends and family and appreciate the front camera more. A 7" tablet seems more suited for the latter.
moe 14y ago
I think this device will sell like hotcakes, smart move by google. It's the first android tablet that I'm considering, and at this price-point that means I'll probably buy it. I have a hunch I won't be the only one with that train of thought.
- hahainternet 14y ago
  I bought one for my sister. She doesn't have a lot of disposable income and has to support two children. The cost was low enough that it's not a significant burden (£159 + shipping)
- bookwormAT 14y ago
  I think the big question is if Google is actually serious in advertising and selling the device to customers. Google does not often run aggressive advertising campaigns, and so far they are not selling the device anywhere but in the US.
  - runjake 14y ago
    I can answer that: they aren't interested in advertising and selling the device to consumers. If they were, they wouldn't have been announced at a developer conference. Although oddly, they are advertising the Nexus 7 off the Google homepage.
    - mkaltenecker 14y ago
      Do you really think that's so clear cut? I/O has visibility well outside the developer community, it gets covered in the mainstream media. Just today I read about it on the website of the most widely read German news magazine (an article is linked prominently on the front page and it's the lead article in the technology section). Like Apple, Google can and probably is using their developer conference keynote to announce things to consumers.
    - smackfu 14y ago
      By that logic, Retina Macbook Pros are only for developers too.
mmobile 14y ago
This tablet is a killer device—love its form factor, check this real-size views of the Nexus 7, it's really slick: Compared to an iPhone 4s: http://versusio.com/en/google-nexus-7-vs-apple-iphone-4s-64gb http://versusio.com/en/google-nexus-7-vs-apple-iphone-4s-64g... Compared to an iPad 3: http://versusio.com/en/google-nexus-7-vs-apple-ipad-3-64gb-wifi-cellular http://versusio.com/en/google-nexus-7-vs-apple-ipad-3-64gb-w... (You have to click in the top-right corner to calibrate your screen)
- jaems33 14y ago
  Not sure why they didn't include the option of 4G as being an advantage of those Apple devices. The size advantage of the Nexus 7 is great for mobility (honestly dislike carrying an iPad in my bag) but the majority of areas are not going to have wifi, hampering a bit of it's advantage.
  - simonh 14y ago
    It would push the price up too much to compete with the iPad. You can always tether.
  - akmiller 14y ago
    I don't see inclusion of 4G on any tablet devices as a plus. It drives up the cost slightly more and it has never really made sense for each device to have their own cellular connection. Most people who buy tablets are likely to have a smartphone so it would seem more appropriate to have tethering and use that one connection for multiple devices. I realize that's a personal choice, but I currently own an iPad 2, Kindle Fire, 2 Kindle Touches, and I just bought the Nexus 7. I'd rather pay for one connection and tether all those devices to that connection than each one have their own.
    - jaems33 14y ago
      "I don't see inclusion of 4G on any tablet devices as a plus." For you. For people like me, it IS a plus. That's why Apple makes two versions of the iPad. Not to mention tethering drains the battery.
bookwormAT 14y ago
Do you guys think it is pleasent to read structured documents (e.g. scientific papers or program code in PDFs) on a 7 inch device with 1280x800? That's a serious question, not a complaint: I have made bad experiences with 7 inches readers for this kind of stuff, but then the Nexus 7 has a lot of pixels.
- apl 14y ago
  Judging from previous 7" devices, no. The constant zooming disrupts my reading flow to the point of it not being worth the hassle. Third iPad iteration is great, though, unlike its two predecessors.
- kenjackson 14y ago
  I agree with apl, just not the right size. The resolution is great, but the screen size is just too small, IMO. With that said, maybe it's just the readers and file formats that suck. I can read Dover books just fine and the size of the paper is about the same as a 7" screen... Go figure.
- riobard 14y ago
  Reading two-column 10pt/letter-size PDF (most academic papers are formatted this way) on 1280x800 is not a pleasant experience, whatever the physical size. The only way you can read all those tiny footnotes is using the landscape mode at full-width (otherwise there won't be enough pixels to render), which means you'll have to scroll to finish just one page. Trust me, Retina iPad's 2048x1536 is what you want. That gives you a crisp-clear and better-than-average laser-printer quality in portrait mode for one whole page on the screen. Especially true if the papers you read contain anything with color or vector graphs. Plus iOS has the best font/PDF rendering engine in my opinion. YMMV, though.
- tehayj 14y ago
  I used my orignial Galaxy Tab a lot for reading PDFs. Works great for me. Get the ezPDF reader and you have everything you will want. The usability of the reader is what makes it stand out imo. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=udk.android.reader&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=udk.android.re...
j_col 14y ago
Given that existing Android tablets from OEMs are not selling greatly, if this tablet is a success will it not be to the detriment of these OEMs already taking a hit on Android? So basically Samsung etc. are now competing with Google in the Android tablet space :-( My personal feeling is that it was released in reaction to the Amazon Fire, which Google must be pretty pissed-off about given that it has sold well and is firmly on it's own Android branch, further deepening fragmentation. It's no coincidence that they are both 7" tablets for $200.
- tonfa 14y ago
  Does Google get a share from the sale of Nexus devices? I think it's samsung competing with asus rather than with google.
  - j_col 14y ago
    > Does Google get a share from the sale of Nexus devices? You mean they don't? News to me. > I think it's samsung competing with asus rather than with google. But Asus partnered/supported/whatever with Google, not Asus on their own clearly.
  - falling 14y ago
    Not really. Andy Rubin said this is being sold at cost, so either Google is paying for Asus' margin or none of them is getting a margin on this device, setting a price point even harder for manufacturers to match.
    - pyre 14y ago
      It would make more sense to me that "at cost" is relative to Google. Google pays Asus to manufacture these devices. I'm pretty sure that the payments to Asus include Asus' margin. The point being that Google is getting no margin.
      - falling 14y ago
        the point is that it makes no difference: either way the other manufacturers will not get the subsidization, so they can't match the price point.
jjm 14y ago
Can someone tell me if it is WebGL capable?
- tonfa 14y ago
  From: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/burnette/google-io-2012-android-fireside-chat/2637 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/burnette/google-io-2012-android-fi... Q: As a developer, WebGL is great. Chrome doesn’t support it on Android yet. When? A: It’s working internally. Issues are denial of service and GPU availability. There’s some work in Chrome OS to make it safer, and we’re looking at that right now to see if we can release it in a safe way. Some GPUs are more stable than others.
- jamesgeck0 14y ago
  The latest version of Opera Mobile supports WebGL, even on devices still running Android 2.3.
pragmatic 14y ago
Anyone notice this has a GPS and Magnetometer (compass). How useful will this be as a GPS without internet connectivity (wifi only)? A 7" tablet would be a fantastic GPS device form factor.
- nodemaker 14y ago
  You could tether your phone's cellular data.
- desigooner 14y ago
  Offline Google Maps in the next iteration of Android would mean that you could download the maps offline for the area you usually travel to/around and be able to use it as a GPS (not sure how the new offline maps would work w.r.t. re-routing and all that)
  - huggyface 14y ago
    Offline Google Maps in the next iteration of Android This is actually in the next iteration of maps...or rather the last iteration as it was released yesterday. If you upgrade Maps on an Android device, you get this functionality.
    - ars 14y ago
      ICS has had this for a while now.
      - huggyface 14y ago
        The mapping application is simply an app, having been decoupled from the OS back in, I think, 2.3? The labs functionality for offline access has been around for a while, but has been baked into the core app now. The point being that it isn't an 2.3, 3.0, 4.0, or 4.1 feature. It's a Google Maps feature.
  - dabeeeenster 14y ago
    I think routing requires a data connection.
falling 14y ago
I ordered one yesterday as soon as it was available, but I'm a little disappointed at Google forcing me to pay $14 for two day shipping on something that "delivers in 2-3 weeks".
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
andyjohnson0 14y ago
I'm disappointed that there's no microsd slot to expand the internal storage. I appreciate that they want us to use Google Drive, but thats only an option if you're somewhere with wifi. Apart from that, I'm very tempted. And I await Apple's reaction with interest.
- jgroome 14y ago
  I keep hearing that, but honestly, 16gb is quite a lot of space IMO. Obviously if you feel the need to carry around 64gb of videos at all times then you'll scoff, and I'm not saying 16gb is more than you'll ever need, but you'd be surprised at just how much you can do with that storage.
pajju 14y ago
Hardware is awesome - But what about Android 4.1? Android has never impressed me so far.
- ars 14y ago
  What about it? You didn't finish your thought.
6ren 14y ago
It's striking how Android devices keep improving CPU power, even though graphic smoothness is acknowledged as a key issue - while Apple focuses on GPU performance. Tegra 3 has quad CPU; Apple's A5X (iPad 3) has quad GPU. (the GPU cores aren't exactly equivalent, but Apple's is more powerful.) Apple also runs its CPUs slower - giving better battery life. This is because CPU lack of power isn't a problem (isn't even noticeable); but GPU lack is noticeable and a concern when you're using it. Also: you get more bang per buck from GPUs than CPUs - simply because graphics tasks are generally far easier to parallelize. In result, so you can have many graphics cores running at lower clocks, to get great performance with less battery drain. In the long-term big picture, the tablets with more CPU power will have more powerful applications written for them. This might be key for which tablets are the ones that end up replacing laptops/desktops. (In the background, a countervailing factor is that computation is moving to the GPU... so it could be that the tablet with the better GPU performance will win...) All that said, the Nexus 7, getting the below is very impressive: quad-core 1.3GHz CPU 340 grams 8 hour battery life (advertised...)
- vibrunazo 14y ago
  They spent a whole section talking about the Nexus 7 GPU and another talking about software improvements to FPS. They're obviously not taking it lightly. You're comparing apples to oranges. Different OSes and devices have completely different requirements. iOS have no true multi-tasking like Android does. So Android naturally is more CPU intensive since you'll usually have more stuff happening in the background. The new iPad has a larger resolution. So it's understandable it needs a powerful GPU for smooth graphics. You can't just compare the bang for the buck you get from CPU vs GPU looking at different OSes. The optimal point will be different for each. I'm sure google tried different setups that would fit the $200 budget. At the end of the day. All the matters is whether it can display smooth UX with a long battery life and good price. And it seems they got there.
eli_11 14y ago
Does anybody know if the Nexus 7 can read pdfs?

152 points by JoelSutherland 14y ago

orangeapple 14y ago

Anyone with experience on 7" tablets, is it practical to take notes with in math lectures?

kenjackson 14y ago
Not with the onscreen keyboard. If it can use a stylus like the Note then maybe. Although I'd probably go for an iPad 2. It's twice the price (at $399), but will be a lot more usable.
- orangeapple 14y ago
  Yeah, with a stylus of course, I was hoping this would be suitable for taking in class notes - a lot of writing equations and whatnot as oppose to typing with the on screen keyboard. The new iPad is $519 for cheapest one. :(
  - frou_dh 14y ago
    I wouldn't worry about it. I have used several styluses and note-taking apps on the iPad and in the end the handwriting experience is still horrible compared to pen and paper. It's just not happening on hardware that assumes input is coming from a finger many, many times larger than a natural pen point. iPad is a great buy for lots of reasons but handwritten note taking isn't one of them.
Tyr42 14y ago
Maybe the Surface will be better.
- zanny 14y ago
  Why not TF700?

JoelSutherland 14y ago

Hardware-wise, this is competitive with the very best Android tablets that are currently out. Only the Transformer Prime Infinity seems to best it, and that isn't available for order yet. This is certainly a case of 'price as a signal'. The Nexus 7 is being repeatedly compared with the Kindle Fire in spite of its specs. This must be Google's intention. It's likely that is the only (large) market that remains for Android tablets.

huggyface 14y ago
The Nexus 7 is being repeatedly compared with the Kindle Fire in spite of its specs. By the tech media, most of whom simply want to avoid the whole boring iPad market only argument. In the real world this is direct competition for the iPad, with a very significant draw of price. People aren't generally suckers, and they don't want to pay more if a less expensive product satisfies their needs.

Shivetya 14y ago

Really would have preferred they found a way to have the rear facing camera. If anything I would take it in preference over the front facing one. With experience around the iPad (both generations) and the Kindle Fire I found outside of games the kids were having way too much fun making videos. Adults tended towards pictures but kids tended toward videos, many about tormenting each other. Which mean the old iPad and Fire sat relatively unused - there were like "if I have too". I do like the size of seven inch tablets, its easier to one hand use them while reading at the table and eating, like a modern day paper. You would be surprised how ungainly feeling the larger iPad feels being used this way. The Fire became my table reader simply because of its form factor.

nodata 14y ago
Google hangouts with a rear-facing camera would be a disaster. Maybe the next version will have two cameras.
AncientPC 14y ago
I disagree. I've been to concerts and football games where people are holding up iPads up high to record videos / take photos. It's a distraction and a nuisance. I say good riddance. I have my phone / DSLR to take photos, but I regularly video chat with friends and family and appreciate the front camera more. A 7" tablet seems more suited for the latter.

moe 14y ago

I think this device will sell like hotcakes, smart move by google. It's the first android tablet that I'm considering, and at this price-point that means I'll probably buy it. I have a hunch I won't be the only one with that train of thought.

hahainternet 14y ago
I bought one for my sister. She doesn't have a lot of disposable income and has to support two children. The cost was low enough that it's not a significant burden (£159 + shipping)
bookwormAT 14y ago
I think the big question is if Google is actually serious in advertising and selling the device to customers. Google does not often run aggressive advertising campaigns, and so far they are not selling the device anywhere but in the US.
- runjake 14y ago
  I can answer that: they aren't interested in advertising and selling the device to consumers. If they were, they wouldn't have been announced at a developer conference. Although oddly, they are advertising the Nexus 7 off the Google homepage.
  - mkaltenecker 14y ago
    Do you really think that's so clear cut? I/O has visibility well outside the developer community, it gets covered in the mainstream media. Just today I read about it on the website of the most widely read German news magazine (an article is linked prominently on the front page and it's the lead article in the technology section). Like Apple, Google can and probably is using their developer conference keynote to announce things to consumers.
  - smackfu 14y ago
    By that logic, Retina Macbook Pros are only for developers too.

mmobile 14y ago

This tablet is a killer device—love its form factor, check this real-size views of the Nexus 7, it's really slick: Compared to an iPhone 4s: http://versusio.com/en/google-nexus-7-vs-apple-iphone-4s-64gb http://versusio.com/en/google-nexus-7-vs-apple-iphone-4s-64g... Compared to an iPad 3: http://versusio.com/en/google-nexus-7-vs-apple-ipad-3-64gb-wifi-cellular http://versusio.com/en/google-nexus-7-vs-apple-ipad-3-64gb-w... (You have to click in the top-right corner to calibrate your screen)

jaems33 14y ago
Not sure why they didn't include the option of 4G as being an advantage of those Apple devices. The size advantage of the Nexus 7 is great for mobility (honestly dislike carrying an iPad in my bag) but the majority of areas are not going to have wifi, hampering a bit of it's advantage.
- simonh 14y ago
  It would push the price up too much to compete with the iPad. You can always tether.
- akmiller 14y ago
  I don't see inclusion of 4G on any tablet devices as a plus. It drives up the cost slightly more and it has never really made sense for each device to have their own cellular connection. Most people who buy tablets are likely to have a smartphone so it would seem more appropriate to have tethering and use that one connection for multiple devices. I realize that's a personal choice, but I currently own an iPad 2, Kindle Fire, 2 Kindle Touches, and I just bought the Nexus 7. I'd rather pay for one connection and tether all those devices to that connection than each one have their own.
  - jaems33 14y ago
    "I don't see inclusion of 4G on any tablet devices as a plus." For you. For people like me, it IS a plus. That's why Apple makes two versions of the iPad. Not to mention tethering drains the battery.

bookwormAT 14y ago

Do you guys think it is pleasent to read structured documents (e.g. scientific papers or program code in PDFs) on a 7 inch device with 1280x800? That's a serious question, not a complaint: I have made bad experiences with 7 inches readers for this kind of stuff, but then the Nexus 7 has a lot of pixels.

apl 14y ago
Judging from previous 7" devices, no. The constant zooming disrupts my reading flow to the point of it not being worth the hassle. Third iPad iteration is great, though, unlike its two predecessors.
kenjackson 14y ago
I agree with apl, just not the right size. The resolution is great, but the screen size is just too small, IMO. With that said, maybe it's just the readers and file formats that suck. I can read Dover books just fine and the size of the paper is about the same as a 7" screen... Go figure.
riobard 14y ago
Reading two-column 10pt/letter-size PDF (most academic papers are formatted this way) on 1280x800 is not a pleasant experience, whatever the physical size. The only way you can read all those tiny footnotes is using the landscape mode at full-width (otherwise there won't be enough pixels to render), which means you'll have to scroll to finish just one page. Trust me, Retina iPad's 2048x1536 is what you want. That gives you a crisp-clear and better-than-average laser-printer quality in portrait mode for one whole page on the screen. Especially true if the papers you read contain anything with color or vector graphs. Plus iOS has the best font/PDF rendering engine in my opinion. YMMV, though.
tehayj 14y ago
I used my orignial Galaxy Tab a lot for reading PDFs. Works great for me. Get the ezPDF reader and you have everything you will want. The usability of the reader is what makes it stand out imo. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=udk.android.reader&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=udk.android.re...

j_col 14y ago

Given that existing Android tablets from OEMs are not selling greatly, if this tablet is a success will it not be to the detriment of these OEMs already taking a hit on Android? So basically Samsung etc. are now competing with Google in the Android tablet space :-( My personal feeling is that it was released in reaction to the Amazon Fire, which Google must be pretty pissed-off about given that it has sold well and is firmly on it's own Android branch, further deepening fragmentation. It's no coincidence that they are both 7" tablets for $200.

tonfa 14y ago
Does Google get a share from the sale of Nexus devices? I think it's samsung competing with asus rather than with google.
- j_col 14y ago
  > Does Google get a share from the sale of Nexus devices? You mean they don't? News to me. > I think it's samsung competing with asus rather than with google. But Asus partnered/supported/whatever with Google, not Asus on their own clearly.
- falling 14y ago
  Not really. Andy Rubin said this is being sold at cost, so either Google is paying for Asus' margin or none of them is getting a margin on this device, setting a price point even harder for manufacturers to match.
  - pyre 14y ago
    It would make more sense to me that "at cost" is relative to Google. Google pays Asus to manufacture these devices. I'm pretty sure that the payments to Asus include Asus' margin. The point being that Google is getting no margin.
    - falling 14y ago
      the point is that it makes no difference: either way the other manufacturers will not get the subsidization, so they can't match the price point.

jjm 14y ago

Can someone tell me if it is WebGL capable?

tonfa 14y ago
From: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/burnette/google-io-2012-android-fireside-chat/2637 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/burnette/google-io-2012-android-fi... Q: As a developer, WebGL is great. Chrome doesn’t support it on Android yet. When? A: It’s working internally. Issues are denial of service and GPU availability. There’s some work in Chrome OS to make it safer, and we’re looking at that right now to see if we can release it in a safe way. Some GPUs are more stable than others.
jamesgeck0 14y ago
The latest version of Opera Mobile supports WebGL, even on devices still running Android 2.3.

pragmatic 14y ago

Anyone notice this has a GPS and Magnetometer (compass). How useful will this be as a GPS without internet connectivity (wifi only)? A 7" tablet would be a fantastic GPS device form factor.

nodemaker 14y ago
You could tether your phone's cellular data.
desigooner 14y ago
Offline Google Maps in the next iteration of Android would mean that you could download the maps offline for the area you usually travel to/around and be able to use it as a GPS (not sure how the new offline maps would work w.r.t. re-routing and all that)
- huggyface 14y ago
  Offline Google Maps in the next iteration of Android This is actually in the next iteration of maps...or rather the last iteration as it was released yesterday. If you upgrade Maps on an Android device, you get this functionality.
  - ars 14y ago
    ICS has had this for a while now.
    - huggyface 14y ago
      The mapping application is simply an app, having been decoupled from the OS back in, I think, 2.3? The labs functionality for offline access has been around for a while, but has been baked into the core app now. The point being that it isn't an 2.3, 3.0, 4.0, or 4.1 feature. It's a Google Maps feature.
- dabeeeenster 14y ago
  I think routing requires a data connection.

falling 14y ago

I ordered one yesterday as soon as it was available, but I'm a little disappointed at Google forcing me to pay $14 for two day shipping on something that "delivers in 2-3 weeks".

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

andyjohnson0 14y ago

I'm disappointed that there's no microsd slot to expand the internal storage. I appreciate that they want us to use Google Drive, but thats only an option if you're somewhere with wifi. Apart from that, I'm very tempted. And I await Apple's reaction with interest.

jgroome 14y ago
I keep hearing that, but honestly, 16gb is quite a lot of space IMO. Obviously if you feel the need to carry around 64gb of videos at all times then you'll scoff, and I'm not saying 16gb is more than you'll ever need, but you'd be surprised at just how much you can do with that storage.

pajju 14y ago

Hardware is awesome - But what about Android 4.1? Android has never impressed me so far.

ars 14y ago
What about it? You didn't finish your thought.

6ren 14y ago

It's striking how Android devices keep improving CPU power, even though graphic smoothness is acknowledged as a key issue - while Apple focuses on GPU performance. Tegra 3 has quad CPU; Apple's A5X (iPad 3) has quad GPU. (the GPU cores aren't exactly equivalent, but Apple's is more powerful.) Apple also runs its CPUs slower - giving better battery life. This is because CPU lack of power isn't a problem (isn't even noticeable); but GPU lack is noticeable and a concern when you're using it. Also: you get more bang per buck from GPUs than CPUs - simply because graphics tasks are generally far easier to parallelize. In result, so you can have many graphics cores running at lower clocks, to get great performance with less battery drain. In the long-term big picture, the tablets with more CPU power will have more powerful applications written for them. This might be key for which tablets are the ones that end up replacing laptops/desktops. (In the background, a countervailing factor is that computation is moving to the GPU... so it could be that the tablet with the better GPU performance will win...) All that said, the Nexus 7, getting the below is very impressive: quad-core 1.3GHz CPU 340 grams 8 hour battery life (advertised...)

vibrunazo 14y ago
They spent a whole section talking about the Nexus 7 GPU and another talking about software improvements to FPS. They're obviously not taking it lightly. You're comparing apples to oranges. Different OSes and devices have completely different requirements. iOS have no true multi-tasking like Android does. So Android naturally is more CPU intensive since you'll usually have more stuff happening in the background. The new iPad has a larger resolution. So it's understandable it needs a powerful GPU for smooth graphics. You can't just compare the bang for the buck you get from CPU vs GPU looking at different OSes. The optimal point will be different for each. I'm sure google tried different setups that would fit the $200 budget. At the end of the day. All the matters is whether it can display smooth UX with a long battery life and good price. And it seems they got there.

eli_11 14y ago

Does anybody know if the Nexus 7 can read pdfs?