11 ms·

Divine intervention: Google's Nexus 7 is a fantastic $200 tablet

199 points by Yoms 14y ago

monkeyfacebag 14y ago
"Paired with a keyboard, the Nexus 7 could easily serve as a mobile work solution just as the iPad can." I'd really like to believe this (and thus justify getting one), but I can't picture it. How would one prop up the screen? What keyboards are available and are they any good? I feel like Apple has reached a local maximum with the iPad as a consumption-oriented device and I'm just waiting to see who delivers the first tablet geared towards getting things done. MS appears to be promising this with Surface, but it remains to be seen how successful they are. To anyone on HN who has used an Android tablet for productivity purposes (writing, coding, etc), how has it gone?
- phaus 14y ago
  If a company really wants to get serious about a tablet designed for productivity, they will make one with an 11.6" or a 12.1" screen. 11.6" seems to be the smallest device size that you can attach a usable keyboard to. I understand that no one wants to risk making larger tablet, out of a fear that it will be too heavy, but each generation has brought us thinner, lighter devices. I'd gladly take an 11.6" screen over the current standard of 9-10 even if it added an extra couple of ounces.
  - jsight 14y ago
    I have an Asus Transformer TF101, with a 10" screen. I can type at ~65 WPM on it. That's about 10 WPM slower than on a desktop keyboard. As far as I am concerned, that is perfectly usable. Having said that, at least one Android maker has built one with a 13" screen.
    - phaus 14y ago
      I've tried out the TF101 and the newer Prime at Best Buy, I also owned one of the earlier Asus Netbooks the EEE PC 901. I've also used a couple of iPad keyboard cases. My hands are too wide to set all of my fingers on the home row in a natural typing position, so I was forced to look at the keyboard and to use a hybrid-touch / hunt and peck method on all of these devices. For this reason, I personally don't find them usable. I don't think my hands are freakishly large, so I think that many other people would have this same issue. I looked around for the 13" tablet. I had never heard of it before but apparently it's a Toshiba. http://www.slashgear.com/toshiba-excited-13-inch-android-tablet-hands-on-08226953/ http://www.slashgear.com/toshiba-excited-13-inch-android-tab...
  - protomyth 14y ago
    There are some applications that a much bigger form factor would be appropriate. Even a 15" or 17" would be good, with the understanding it is not a walk-and-use device. My dream Apple tablet would use the iSlate trademark for 20" tablet (3x4) with optional tools that communicate with the iSlate. Something like a fake airbrush that acts like a real airbrush in paint programs. Not going to happen, but it would be an amazing canvas.
- vibrunazo 14y ago
  I'm writing this with my 10.1 Android tablet and a bluetooth keyboard. As I do with most of my HN posts. I would code with these if there were a good IDE for Android. That's one of my dreams. I'm not sure what you mean with "prop up the screen"? You just pair the keyboard via bluetooth once, then it automatically works if you turn it on. You just touch on a text input and start typing. I have a Motorola laptop sized android specific keyboard that has android specific keys (home, search, back etc). But any PC bluetooth keyboard works. There's literally thousands of them, any regular desktop keyboard works. Most of the limitation comes from apps, there aren't enough productivity apps for most people's need. (I guess a blogger wouldn't mind, but as a developer, I need more than just android. But the keyboard is great vs having just the touch screen. I can't seriously write a whole paragraph with just touch. A keyboard is a must have for anyone with a tablet imho. But maybe it's just me, I can't take touch keyboards seriously. How the hell do you guys live without arrow keys?
  - monkeyfacebag 14y ago
    Thanks for the reply. By "prop up the screen" I actually meant angling the device itself like a laptop. I understand the iPad's case allows this and the upcoming Surface provides a kickstand. With regard to IDEs, I'm not really familiar with Android and I naively assumed that one would readily be able to install native Linux apps like vim, but Googling around I discovered this is not trivial. That's a shame.
    - CrazedGeek 14y ago
      Terminal IDE (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spartacusrex.spartacuside&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spartacusr...) goes a long way towards making Android a good dev environment, although I personally prefer using Complete Linux Installer to automate a chrooted Ubuntu install (needs root though, obviously) (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zpwebsites.linuxonandroid https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zpwebsites...).
    - vibrunazo 14y ago
      I just use a case I bought from amazon to angle my tablet for typing. It works pretty good. The big problem of using Android for serious work is mostly software, not hardware. You can use pretty much any great keyboard you'd want. But the software is still lacking some features you'd expect from a linux desktop. For example, you can't just ctrl-z at every app. It's kind of inconsistent, some apps don't support keyboards at all. I stopped using Firefox on android because it sucks with a keyboard. If you really, really want to do serious work on a tablet, I'd dual boot linux like others recommended. So in the hardware side, tablets are already pretty good for working. But android still lacks a bit. But if you already own an Android tablet, then buying a keyboard is a must-have imo. It will enable to do thinks you only dreamed of before.
- eli 14y ago
  There are some pretty nice case/keyboard combos for iPad. I see no reason why they can't also be made for the Nexus 7.
  - seqastian 14y ago
    I'm sure wireless keyboard makers cant wait to make it into the 'people who buy hardware sold without profit' market. ;) There are pleny of decent bluethooth keyboards that should work with any tablets out there. http://www.rapoo.com/showdetails.aspx?P_No=E6300 http://www.rapoo.com/showdetails.aspx?P_No=E6300 for example
- AngryParsley 14y ago
  >I'm just waiting to see who delivers the first tablet geared towards getting things done. This sounds like the domain of ultrabooks. With a tablet, you can't use the huge ecosystem of PC software. You can't run VMs. Peripherals aren't as well-supported. The main advantage of a tablet over an ultrabook is that you can use it standing up. But if you're getting things done, it's probably going to be sitting down. Disclaimer: I am a huge fan of tiny laptops. I got the 11" Air when it first came out and never looked back.
- lmm 14y ago
  I write on my ASUS transformer. It's not quite as nice as a real computer - I'd never choose to write on it at home - but it's good enough; I did a full nanowrimo on it.
- rsaarelm 14y ago
  Plugged in a physical keyboard in mine, then unplugged it when I realized there was no way to make the tablet use the Colemak keyboard layout for it.
  - thomc 14y ago
    I use the compact TypeMatrix USB keyboard which can switch to hardware Colemak using a hot key. When I plug it into my Android tablet I can type Colemak with no issues. The keyboard was an ideal size for taking on the plane yet full featured enough that it is my main desktop keyboard.
krsunny 14y ago
"Selling hardware cheap—in hopes that more money can be made elsewhere—is not a new game." This has been my thought all along regarding this tablet. I wonder if it actually cost Google more than $200 to build.
- binarycrusader 14y ago
  If you read the article, they point out that Google has stated they're basically selling the unit at their cost. (That is, likely how much Asus charges them.)
  - Zaim3 14y ago
    Technically Nexus devices have always been "at cost" to Google, since it's the OEM who gets the profit off the hardware sales in exchange for Google controlling the experience. So Rubin's statement about "selling through" the Nexus 7 actually says very little since that's always been the case. The real issue (and what the media is mostly missing) is whether ASUS is selling it at a loss or not, and considering the Memo the Nexus 7 was refactored from was originally going to be sold at $250, it seems unlikely.
    - abraham 14y ago
      ASUS has not incentive to sell at or below cost as they don't get a cut of the Play sales.
      - krsunny 14y ago
        I was wondering about that too, you sure?
        fpgeek 14y ago
        I think they might. Carriers get part of the 30% share of Play sales if you have a cell phone, but I don't know who gets that for WiFi tablets. OEMs getting it is certainly one possibility (Google keeping it is another, of course). There's similar revenue sharing for some of the search traffic as well, IIRC.
phaus 14y ago
Google seems to be getting all of the credit, yet the device's manufacturer, Asus, has consistently made the best Android tablets all along. The Transformer tablets have all enjoyed an excellent build quality, great design aesthetics, and cutting edge hardware. They aren't perfect, but what tablet is?
- binarycrusader 14y ago
  As Doug Fisher said at JavaOne, "hardware without software just generates heat". Asus can make great hardware all day; but without the right marketing and the right software, it will never be successful. Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) is the first arrival of a real competitor to iOS in my opinion. Google floundered about quite a bit trying to get the UI right (honestly, it seemed like they were ignoring it completely for a while); and 4.0 and 4.1 are the first versions I've used that feel "right". I'm actually pretty torn between iOS and Android at this point from a user / developer standpoint. Although Apple still has the better developer tools for now.
  - cageface 14y ago
    Although Apple still has the better developer tools for now. I agree that the supporting tools like Instruments are much better and Android doesn't have anything to compare to Interface Builder but the better Java IDEs like IntelliJ are so far ahead of XCode that it's not even funny. Things are going to get interesting if Apple really does release a 7" tablet. I don't think they're going to get away with just scaling down iPad apps. Maybe that's why they were emphasizing the new dynamic layout stuff at WWDC this year? Manually positioning three completely different UI layouts for each app isn't going to be much fun.
    - taligent 14y ago
      There is an IntelliJ based IDE for iOS development: http://www.jetbrains.com/objc/ http://www.jetbrains.com/objc/ I think the dynamic UI layout is more for the iPhone 5 which based on rumours will be longer than the current iPhone e.g. 320x600. The iPad Mini is expected to be 1024x768 so all iPad apps will work without any changes needed.
tomhschmidt 14y ago
Why are they running benchmarks on a tablet?
- CrazedGeek 14y ago
  Why not? It's a decent way to ascertain how powerful a device is. (Although maybe not Linpack -- it doesn't really correlate to real world performance, in my experience. Vellamo or Quadrant would be better, but they don't have iOS equivalents, IIRC.)
- exDM69 14y ago
  In case you have been living inside a barrel for the last few years, there's an all-out performance war in the mobile system-on-chip space going on at the moment. Phone and tablet manufacturers pretty much expect everyone to be pushing out a new chip every 6 months and there's a huge fight over who gets the most design wins the next generation. The fight is not only about !/$, it's more and more about !/W these days. Benchmarks are also relevant to customers who like games or other heavier stuff on their tablets. Then there's a bunch of low-end Android tablets that are simply too slow to be used for anything. So the high-perf tablets and phones want to distinguish themselves from that.
crag 14y ago
Google's biggest fail point is support. What happens if the device needs service? Google did a terrible job at servicing (customer service) their phone. Trust me, an email address isn't enough. People want to call someone. And people want to take it someplace to get it fix or swapped out. The same day. A tablet/phone isn't the same as a PC. No one wants to overnight their phone for a replacement next week. ;)
- jonknee 14y ago
  It's an ASUS branded device, so I assume you would call ASUS...
  - qwert321 14y ago
    In the past, Nexus devices have been supported by Google, not the manufacturer. Fortunately, Google has gotten better at customer support recently. They finally figured out that customers want phone support, not email.
    - jrockway 14y ago
      It's funny because I absolutely hate phone support. I can't think of anything I'd rather not do than call someone on the phone. Email is comparatively excellent.
  - Someone 14y ago
    I would hope not. Before you know it all they would say is "It's Google's software, so call them". Also, consumerlaws in the EU make it clear that the company you buy from is responsible for quality, guarantees and support.
    - jonknee 14y ago
      That's silly. If you buy a phone from Media Markt you aren't going to Media Markt for support, you're going to HTC, Apple, Samsung or whoever made the phone.
thechut 14y ago
Can anybody comment on when us regular folk will be getting our hands on the Nexus 7 if we pre-ordered it? (Other than 2-3 weeks) Bloggers get to have all the fun...
- davidw 14y ago
  I'm curious when us regular folk in Italy will be able to get our hands on them. I'm debating having it shipped to the US and then bounced over here...
espeed 14y ago
Unless Google has a magic PDF reader, reading PDFs on it is going to suck. Other than that, I think the 7 pads work.
- mitjak 14y ago
  What's wrong with ezPDF? IMO the best pdf reader out there on mobile, beating the now overbloated GoodReader on ios
  - gareim 14y ago
    I think OP is trying to say that 7 inch tablets are less than optimal for reading PDFs, not that the software isn't there. I think I'd have to agree with OP on that one because for a month, I had to read a 2 column PDF on a 10 inch tablet and that strained my eyes to do. Would a one-column PDF have worked? Yeah, it would have, but I think just barely. I can't imagine reading a one-column PDF on a 7 inch tablet (I hate scrolling unless it's to change pages), much less a two-column one.
    - fpgeek 14y ago
      Have you tried RepliGo Reader? I bought it back in the day for my G1 and have been using it ever since. It's magic enough to be able to get CS papers to be mostly-readable on my phone (with their special "Reading View"), so I'd expect it to do well on a 7-inch tablet.
      - gareim 14y ago
        I've actually never heard of that! I'll look into it right now, thanks! I was looking for PDF solutions months ago, but if this works well, it could come in handy in the future.
- mvgoogler 14y ago
  I read PDFs on my Xoom tablet all the time with QuickOffice Lite. It works fine.
mitjak 14y ago
Just wanted to say, in case the author hangs out here, that I very much enjoyed her writing style. Very funny and informative.
- javajosh 14y ago
  I thought she was really cute, too.
mtgx 14y ago
The author says that Chrome won't come pre-installed to JB devices if the manufacturers don't want. If that's so, that's pretty dumb. Google should force manufacturers to get Chrome together with the Play Store and Gmail. This will actually improve the situation of the web browsers on Android because Google plans on updating Chrome every 6 weeks on Android as well. On the other hand, the developers at Google I/O said it will come pre-installed on JB, so I'm confused: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGJbPPjANKA#start=0:00;end=62:01;autoreplay=false;showoptions=false http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGJbPPjANKA#start=0:00;end=62...
- josteink 14y ago
  I didn't know clicking the Google Play icon and typing "Chrome" and clicking "Install" was that hard to do on a tablet. Also, stock browser on Jelly Bean is stupidly fast. In fact so fast that I have ditched Chrome for it. Only thing I miss is the Chrome-sync against my desktop, but I can live without that.
  - andybak 14y ago
    From a web dev's point of view, what matters is the defaults as that's what most people will be running. It would be great if we could target a large audience using the most capable rendering engine. Also - any numbers on stock vs Chrome on Jelly Bean? A score from here would be cool too: http://html5test.com/ http://html5test.com/
    - josteink 14y ago
      Stock JB: 281+3. Chrome: 369+11. Chrome has too high startup time for me to use as a default browser though.
earl 14y ago
The nexus 7 will be sabotaged by google's crappy customer service. I bought one at 10:37 am the morning they were available. It's 11 days later and there's no communication and no status on when it will ship. For status you are instructed to click through to google wallet. That site also has no status, no expected ship date, nothing. So that's strike one. Second, I moved this weekend and need to update the billing address for the credit card. The google "contact support" page displays their usual FOAD customer service. You have to click through to yet another page to contact customer support. Of course, they're too incompetent to forward your 37 character order number. So after you compose a message, you realize you have to hit backspace to get the order number. And of course, they clear the message you carefully composed. These people supposedly understand web applications. How the hell does the link from inside google wallet to google customer support not know who I am and my fucking order number? I still haven't gotten through to customer support and I anticipate spending at least 30 minutes on the phone tomorrow. I'll update, but I imagine that there's another ipad in my future.
- joshma 14y ago
  This seems like a lot of fuss over 1) an unannounced ship date and 2) a web page that deleted your carefully composed message. Personal anecdote: I wanted to change the credit card on the order. So I went to the Nexus page[1], clicked "Customer support" in the sidebar, clicked "Managing your order", and called the number they show, 1-855-83-NEXUS. Someone picked up in maybe 30 seconds (and I expected really bad wait times for Google customer support...). I explained I wanted to change the credit card, and he asked me for my email address + a piece of personal information. He told me he couldn't change the credit card, but could instead issue an order cancellation and I could rebuy the Nexus 7. Not ideal, but I said it was okay (after confirming that they weren't out of stock or anything). He saw that I only had one order on my account, cancelled it for me, and we ended the call. No order number needed; took all of 4 minutes. Granted, I'm a pretty big fan of Google so I'm definitely biased. And I do agree that Google's customer support sucks. But it's a bit disheartening to see the top comment be such a petty complaint. [1] https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_7_8gb&feature=banner https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_7_8gb...
lloeki 14y ago
> At 216 pixels per inch, it's no The New iPad™, but the density is close to the recently-released retina MacBook Pro. Okay Ars author, while the Nexus 7 screen looks fantastic, I don't know what you were thinking as this sentence above doesn't make any sense. There's no point in comparing a tablet's DPI to a laptop's DPI†, especially in that way. It makes it sound like one is really wanting the thing to be Retina when it is not, and that actually detracts from the fact that it looks like a great screen nonetheless. †The closer I use my laptop is (give or take a few inches) the farther I use my tablet.
- spuz 14y ago
  To me, your sentences make no sense. What do you mean by "The closer I use my laptop is (give or take a few inches) the farther I use my tablet"? Why shouldn't we compare the DPI of a laptop to a tablet?
  - lloeki 14y ago
    The distance I use my tablet is not the same I use my laptop, and the first one is always shorter than the second one: tablet is used at most at arms length, while laptop is at least at arms length. You can't compare DPI as is, because viewing distance has to be taken into account before one can make sense of that value A proper, directly comparable unit would be the size of a pixel in arcseconds (which would carry the device's own typical viewing distance). Here's Phil Plait (of Hubble fame) explaining the stuff [0]. [0] http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/06/10/resolving-the-iphone-resolution/ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/06/10/re...
    - untog 14y ago
      I'm trying to imagine how you go about using a laptop from more than an arm's length away, but all the mental images just make me giggle. I agree that there is a minor difference in viewing distance between a laptop and a tablet, but I think they're still comparable, in contrast to, say, a TV.
      - 14y ago
Steko 14y ago
Interesting to compare AnandTech's benchmarks: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6054/google-nexus-7-mini-review http://www.anandtech.com/show/6054/google-nexus-7-mini-revie...
nollidge 14y ago
> The keyboard is not quite as snappy as the rest of the Nexus 7 experience. It seems to occasionally miss letters, or have to catch up after a series of letters are typed, especially right after waking. Sorry, that's unacceptable. Small UI hiccups are death by a thousand pinpricks, in my view. On a related note, I think people vastly underestimate how much UI responsiveness is responsible for Apple's continued success.
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  I get how important this is, but in my (admittedly limited) experience with an iPad, it had its fair share of UI hiccups too. I used one at an airport lounge to browse the internet for 20-30 minutes, and the Mobile Safari browser had basic scrolling issues that I haven't experienced on my Transformer Prime.
ableal 14y ago
Discretely tucked away near the end of page 4 (emphasis mine): "Unlike iOS and previous versions of Android, Jelly Bean’s speech recognition system doesn’t have to relay snapshots of the user’s recorded speech input to a remote server for processing. Speech recognition can now be done entirely on the device."
WayneDB 14y ago
Worst purchase experience ever. First, they declined my card which I've been using with Google Wallet forever. Then, they didn't tell me WHY they declined it. So, I go and update the info (which didn't need updating) and place another order. Declined again. Now I have 2 pending transactions showing in Google Wallet and there's NO WAY of cancelling the order from Wallet or Play. So, I have to call their stupid call center and get them to cancel both orders. I'm not even sure that I want one of these things now.

199 points by Yoms 14y ago

"Paired with a keyboard, the Nexus 7 could easily serve as a mobile work solution just as the iPad can." I'd really like to believe this (and thus justify getting one), but I can't picture it. How would one prop up the screen? What keyboards are available and are they any good? I feel like Apple has reached a local maximum with the iPad as a consumption-oriented device and I'm just waiting to see who delivers the first tablet geared towards getting things done. MS appears to be promising this with Surface, but it remains to be seen how successful they are. To anyone on HN who has used an Android tablet for productivity purposes (writing, coding, etc), how has it gone?

phaus 14y ago
If a company really wants to get serious about a tablet designed for productivity, they will make one with an 11.6" or a 12.1" screen. 11.6" seems to be the smallest device size that you can attach a usable keyboard to. I understand that no one wants to risk making larger tablet, out of a fear that it will be too heavy, but each generation has brought us thinner, lighter devices. I'd gladly take an 11.6" screen over the current standard of 9-10 even if it added an extra couple of ounces.
- jsight 14y ago
  I have an Asus Transformer TF101, with a 10" screen. I can type at ~65 WPM on it. That's about 10 WPM slower than on a desktop keyboard. As far as I am concerned, that is perfectly usable. Having said that, at least one Android maker has built one with a 13" screen.
  - phaus 14y ago
    I've tried out the TF101 and the newer Prime at Best Buy, I also owned one of the earlier Asus Netbooks the EEE PC 901. I've also used a couple of iPad keyboard cases. My hands are too wide to set all of my fingers on the home row in a natural typing position, so I was forced to look at the keyboard and to use a hybrid-touch / hunt and peck method on all of these devices. For this reason, I personally don't find them usable. I don't think my hands are freakishly large, so I think that many other people would have this same issue. I looked around for the 13" tablet. I had never heard of it before but apparently it's a Toshiba. http://www.slashgear.com/toshiba-excited-13-inch-android-tablet-hands-on-08226953/ http://www.slashgear.com/toshiba-excited-13-inch-android-tab...
- protomyth 14y ago
  There are some applications that a much bigger form factor would be appropriate. Even a 15" or 17" would be good, with the understanding it is not a walk-and-use device. My dream Apple tablet would use the iSlate trademark for 20" tablet (3x4) with optional tools that communicate with the iSlate. Something like a fake airbrush that acts like a real airbrush in paint programs. Not going to happen, but it would be an amazing canvas.
vibrunazo 14y ago
I'm writing this with my 10.1 Android tablet and a bluetooth keyboard. As I do with most of my HN posts. I would code with these if there were a good IDE for Android. That's one of my dreams. I'm not sure what you mean with "prop up the screen"? You just pair the keyboard via bluetooth once, then it automatically works if you turn it on. You just touch on a text input and start typing. I have a Motorola laptop sized android specific keyboard that has android specific keys (home, search, back etc). But any PC bluetooth keyboard works. There's literally thousands of them, any regular desktop keyboard works. Most of the limitation comes from apps, there aren't enough productivity apps for most people's need. (I guess a blogger wouldn't mind, but as a developer, I need more than just android. But the keyboard is great vs having just the touch screen. I can't seriously write a whole paragraph with just touch. A keyboard is a must have for anyone with a tablet imho. But maybe it's just me, I can't take touch keyboards seriously. How the hell do you guys live without arrow keys?
- monkeyfacebag 14y ago
  Thanks for the reply. By "prop up the screen" I actually meant angling the device itself like a laptop. I understand the iPad's case allows this and the upcoming Surface provides a kickstand. With regard to IDEs, I'm not really familiar with Android and I naively assumed that one would readily be able to install native Linux apps like vim, but Googling around I discovered this is not trivial. That's a shame.
  - CrazedGeek 14y ago
    Terminal IDE (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spartacusrex.spartacuside&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spartacusr...) goes a long way towards making Android a good dev environment, although I personally prefer using Complete Linux Installer to automate a chrooted Ubuntu install (needs root though, obviously) (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zpwebsites.linuxonandroid https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zpwebsites...).
  - vibrunazo 14y ago
    I just use a case I bought from amazon to angle my tablet for typing. It works pretty good. The big problem of using Android for serious work is mostly software, not hardware. You can use pretty much any great keyboard you'd want. But the software is still lacking some features you'd expect from a linux desktop. For example, you can't just ctrl-z at every app. It's kind of inconsistent, some apps don't support keyboards at all. I stopped using Firefox on android because it sucks with a keyboard. If you really, really want to do serious work on a tablet, I'd dual boot linux like others recommended. So in the hardware side, tablets are already pretty good for working. But android still lacks a bit. But if you already own an Android tablet, then buying a keyboard is a must-have imo. It will enable to do thinks you only dreamed of before.
eli 14y ago
There are some pretty nice case/keyboard combos for iPad. I see no reason why they can't also be made for the Nexus 7.
- seqastian 14y ago
  I'm sure wireless keyboard makers cant wait to make it into the 'people who buy hardware sold without profit' market. ;) There are pleny of decent bluethooth keyboards that should work with any tablets out there. http://www.rapoo.com/showdetails.aspx?P_No=E6300 http://www.rapoo.com/showdetails.aspx?P_No=E6300 for example
AngryParsley 14y ago
>I'm just waiting to see who delivers the first tablet geared towards getting things done. This sounds like the domain of ultrabooks. With a tablet, you can't use the huge ecosystem of PC software. You can't run VMs. Peripherals aren't as well-supported. The main advantage of a tablet over an ultrabook is that you can use it standing up. But if you're getting things done, it's probably going to be sitting down. Disclaimer: I am a huge fan of tiny laptops. I got the 11" Air when it first came out and never looked back.
lmm 14y ago
I write on my ASUS transformer. It's not quite as nice as a real computer - I'd never choose to write on it at home - but it's good enough; I did a full nanowrimo on it.
rsaarelm 14y ago
Plugged in a physical keyboard in mine, then unplugged it when I realized there was no way to make the tablet use the Colemak keyboard layout for it.
- thomc 14y ago
  I use the compact TypeMatrix USB keyboard which can switch to hardware Colemak using a hot key. When I plug it into my Android tablet I can type Colemak with no issues. The keyboard was an ideal size for taking on the plane yet full featured enough that it is my main desktop keyboard.

krsunny 14y ago

"Selling hardware cheap—in hopes that more money can be made elsewhere—is not a new game." This has been my thought all along regarding this tablet. I wonder if it actually cost Google more than $200 to build.

binarycrusader 14y ago
If you read the article, they point out that Google has stated they're basically selling the unit at their cost. (That is, likely how much Asus charges them.)
- Zaim3 14y ago
  Technically Nexus devices have always been "at cost" to Google, since it's the OEM who gets the profit off the hardware sales in exchange for Google controlling the experience. So Rubin's statement about "selling through" the Nexus 7 actually says very little since that's always been the case. The real issue (and what the media is mostly missing) is whether ASUS is selling it at a loss or not, and considering the Memo the Nexus 7 was refactored from was originally going to be sold at $250, it seems unlikely.
  - abraham 14y ago
    ASUS has not incentive to sell at or below cost as they don't get a cut of the Play sales.
    - krsunny 14y ago
      I was wondering about that too, you sure?
      - fpgeek 14y ago
        I think they might. Carriers get part of the 30% share of Play sales if you have a cell phone, but I don't know who gets that for WiFi tablets. OEMs getting it is certainly one possibility (Google keeping it is another, of course). There's similar revenue sharing for some of the search traffic as well, IIRC.

phaus 14y ago

Google seems to be getting all of the credit, yet the device's manufacturer, Asus, has consistently made the best Android tablets all along. The Transformer tablets have all enjoyed an excellent build quality, great design aesthetics, and cutting edge hardware. They aren't perfect, but what tablet is?

binarycrusader 14y ago
As Doug Fisher said at JavaOne, "hardware without software just generates heat". Asus can make great hardware all day; but without the right marketing and the right software, it will never be successful. Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) is the first arrival of a real competitor to iOS in my opinion. Google floundered about quite a bit trying to get the UI right (honestly, it seemed like they were ignoring it completely for a while); and 4.0 and 4.1 are the first versions I've used that feel "right". I'm actually pretty torn between iOS and Android at this point from a user / developer standpoint. Although Apple still has the better developer tools for now.
- cageface 14y ago
  Although Apple still has the better developer tools for now. I agree that the supporting tools like Instruments are much better and Android doesn't have anything to compare to Interface Builder but the better Java IDEs like IntelliJ are so far ahead of XCode that it's not even funny. Things are going to get interesting if Apple really does release a 7" tablet. I don't think they're going to get away with just scaling down iPad apps. Maybe that's why they were emphasizing the new dynamic layout stuff at WWDC this year? Manually positioning three completely different UI layouts for each app isn't going to be much fun.
  - taligent 14y ago
    There is an IntelliJ based IDE for iOS development: http://www.jetbrains.com/objc/ http://www.jetbrains.com/objc/ I think the dynamic UI layout is more for the iPhone 5 which based on rumours will be longer than the current iPhone e.g. 320x600. The iPad Mini is expected to be 1024x768 so all iPad apps will work without any changes needed.

tomhschmidt 14y ago

Why are they running benchmarks on a tablet?

CrazedGeek 14y ago
Why not? It's a decent way to ascertain how powerful a device is. (Although maybe not Linpack -- it doesn't really correlate to real world performance, in my experience. Vellamo or Quadrant would be better, but they don't have iOS equivalents, IIRC.)
exDM69 14y ago
In case you have been living inside a barrel for the last few years, there's an all-out performance war in the mobile system-on-chip space going on at the moment. Phone and tablet manufacturers pretty much expect everyone to be pushing out a new chip every 6 months and there's a huge fight over who gets the most design wins the next generation. The fight is not only about !/$, it's more and more about !/W these days. Benchmarks are also relevant to customers who like games or other heavier stuff on their tablets. Then there's a bunch of low-end Android tablets that are simply too slow to be used for anything. So the high-perf tablets and phones want to distinguish themselves from that.

crag 14y ago

Google's biggest fail point is support. What happens if the device needs service? Google did a terrible job at servicing (customer service) their phone. Trust me, an email address isn't enough. People want to call someone. And people want to take it someplace to get it fix or swapped out. The same day. A tablet/phone isn't the same as a PC. No one wants to overnight their phone for a replacement next week. ;)

jonknee 14y ago
It's an ASUS branded device, so I assume you would call ASUS...
- qwert321 14y ago
  In the past, Nexus devices have been supported by Google, not the manufacturer. Fortunately, Google has gotten better at customer support recently. They finally figured out that customers want phone support, not email.
  - jrockway 14y ago
    It's funny because I absolutely hate phone support. I can't think of anything I'd rather not do than call someone on the phone. Email is comparatively excellent.
- Someone 14y ago
  I would hope not. Before you know it all they would say is "It's Google's software, so call them". Also, consumerlaws in the EU make it clear that the company you buy from is responsible for quality, guarantees and support.
  - jonknee 14y ago
    That's silly. If you buy a phone from Media Markt you aren't going to Media Markt for support, you're going to HTC, Apple, Samsung or whoever made the phone.

thechut 14y ago

Can anybody comment on when us regular folk will be getting our hands on the Nexus 7 if we pre-ordered it? (Other than 2-3 weeks) Bloggers get to have all the fun...

davidw 14y ago
I'm curious when us regular folk in Italy will be able to get our hands on them. I'm debating having it shipped to the US and then bounced over here...

espeed 14y ago

Unless Google has a magic PDF reader, reading PDFs on it is going to suck. Other than that, I think the 7 pads work.

mitjak 14y ago
What's wrong with ezPDF? IMO the best pdf reader out there on mobile, beating the now overbloated GoodReader on ios
- gareim 14y ago
  I think OP is trying to say that 7 inch tablets are less than optimal for reading PDFs, not that the software isn't there. I think I'd have to agree with OP on that one because for a month, I had to read a 2 column PDF on a 10 inch tablet and that strained my eyes to do. Would a one-column PDF have worked? Yeah, it would have, but I think just barely. I can't imagine reading a one-column PDF on a 7 inch tablet (I hate scrolling unless it's to change pages), much less a two-column one.
  - fpgeek 14y ago
    Have you tried RepliGo Reader? I bought it back in the day for my G1 and have been using it ever since. It's magic enough to be able to get CS papers to be mostly-readable on my phone (with their special "Reading View"), so I'd expect it to do well on a 7-inch tablet.
    - gareim 14y ago
      I've actually never heard of that! I'll look into it right now, thanks! I was looking for PDF solutions months ago, but if this works well, it could come in handy in the future.
mvgoogler 14y ago
I read PDFs on my Xoom tablet all the time with QuickOffice Lite. It works fine.

mitjak 14y ago

Just wanted to say, in case the author hangs out here, that I very much enjoyed her writing style. Very funny and informative.

javajosh 14y ago
I thought she was really cute, too.

mtgx 14y ago

The author says that Chrome won't come pre-installed to JB devices if the manufacturers don't want. If that's so, that's pretty dumb. Google should force manufacturers to get Chrome together with the Play Store and Gmail. This will actually improve the situation of the web browsers on Android because Google plans on updating Chrome every 6 weeks on Android as well. On the other hand, the developers at Google I/O said it will come pre-installed on JB, so I'm confused: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGJbPPjANKA#start=0:00;end=62:01;autoreplay=false;showoptions=false http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGJbPPjANKA#start=0:00;end=62...

josteink 14y ago
I didn't know clicking the Google Play icon and typing "Chrome" and clicking "Install" was that hard to do on a tablet. Also, stock browser on Jelly Bean is stupidly fast. In fact so fast that I have ditched Chrome for it. Only thing I miss is the Chrome-sync against my desktop, but I can live without that.
- andybak 14y ago
  From a web dev's point of view, what matters is the defaults as that's what most people will be running. It would be great if we could target a large audience using the most capable rendering engine. Also - any numbers on stock vs Chrome on Jelly Bean? A score from here would be cool too: http://html5test.com/ http://html5test.com/
  - josteink 14y ago
    Stock JB: 281+3. Chrome: 369+11. Chrome has too high startup time for me to use as a default browser though.

earl 14y ago

The nexus 7 will be sabotaged by google's crappy customer service. I bought one at 10:37 am the morning they were available. It's 11 days later and there's no communication and no status on when it will ship. For status you are instructed to click through to google wallet. That site also has no status, no expected ship date, nothing. So that's strike one. Second, I moved this weekend and need to update the billing address for the credit card. The google "contact support" page displays their usual FOAD customer service. You have to click through to yet another page to contact customer support. Of course, they're too incompetent to forward your 37 character order number. So after you compose a message, you realize you have to hit backspace to get the order number. And of course, they clear the message you carefully composed. These people supposedly understand web applications. How the hell does the link from inside google wallet to google customer support not know who I am and my fucking order number? I still haven't gotten through to customer support and I anticipate spending at least 30 minutes on the phone tomorrow. I'll update, but I imagine that there's another ipad in my future.

joshma 14y ago
This seems like a lot of fuss over 1) an unannounced ship date and 2) a web page that deleted your carefully composed message. Personal anecdote: I wanted to change the credit card on the order. So I went to the Nexus page[1], clicked "Customer support" in the sidebar, clicked "Managing your order", and called the number they show, 1-855-83-NEXUS. Someone picked up in maybe 30 seconds (and I expected really bad wait times for Google customer support...). I explained I wanted to change the credit card, and he asked me for my email address + a piece of personal information. He told me he couldn't change the credit card, but could instead issue an order cancellation and I could rebuy the Nexus 7. Not ideal, but I said it was okay (after confirming that they weren't out of stock or anything). He saw that I only had one order on my account, cancelled it for me, and we ended the call. No order number needed; took all of 4 minutes. Granted, I'm a pretty big fan of Google so I'm definitely biased. And I do agree that Google's customer support sucks. But it's a bit disheartening to see the top comment be such a petty complaint. [1] https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_7_8gb&feature=banner https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_7_8gb...

lloeki 14y ago

> At 216 pixels per inch, it's no The New iPad™, but the density is close to the recently-released retina MacBook Pro. Okay Ars author, while the Nexus 7 screen looks fantastic, I don't know what you were thinking as this sentence above doesn't make any sense. There's no point in comparing a tablet's DPI to a laptop's DPI†, especially in that way. It makes it sound like one is really wanting the thing to be Retina when it is not, and that actually detracts from the fact that it looks like a great screen nonetheless. †The closer I use my laptop is (give or take a few inches) the farther I use my tablet.

spuz 14y ago
To me, your sentences make no sense. What do you mean by "The closer I use my laptop is (give or take a few inches) the farther I use my tablet"? Why shouldn't we compare the DPI of a laptop to a tablet?
- lloeki 14y ago
  The distance I use my tablet is not the same I use my laptop, and the first one is always shorter than the second one: tablet is used at most at arms length, while laptop is at least at arms length. You can't compare DPI as is, because viewing distance has to be taken into account before one can make sense of that value A proper, directly comparable unit would be the size of a pixel in arcseconds (which would carry the device's own typical viewing distance). Here's Phil Plait (of Hubble fame) explaining the stuff [0]. [0] http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/06/10/resolving-the-iphone-resolution/ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/06/10/re...
  - untog 14y ago
    I'm trying to imagine how you go about using a laptop from more than an arm's length away, but all the mental images just make me giggle. I agree that there is a minor difference in viewing distance between a laptop and a tablet, but I think they're still comparable, in contrast to, say, a TV.
    - 14y ago

Steko 14y ago

Interesting to compare AnandTech's benchmarks: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6054/google-nexus-7-mini-review http://www.anandtech.com/show/6054/google-nexus-7-mini-revie...

nollidge 14y ago

> The keyboard is not quite as snappy as the rest of the Nexus 7 experience. It seems to occasionally miss letters, or have to catch up after a series of letters are typed, especially right after waking. Sorry, that's unacceptable. Small UI hiccups are death by a thousand pinpricks, in my view. On a related note, I think people vastly underestimate how much UI responsiveness is responsible for Apple's continued success.

w1ntermute 14y ago
I get how important this is, but in my (admittedly limited) experience with an iPad, it had its fair share of UI hiccups too. I used one at an airport lounge to browse the internet for 20-30 minutes, and the Mobile Safari browser had basic scrolling issues that I haven't experienced on my Transformer Prime.

ableal 14y ago

Discretely tucked away near the end of page 4 (emphasis mine): "Unlike iOS and previous versions of Android, Jelly Bean’s speech recognition system doesn’t have to relay snapshots of the user’s recorded speech input to a remote server for processing. Speech recognition can now be done entirely on the device."

WayneDB 14y ago

Worst purchase experience ever. First, they declined my card which I've been using with Google Wallet forever. Then, they didn't tell me WHY they declined it. So, I go and update the info (which didn't need updating) and place another order. Declined again. Now I have 2 pending transactions showing in Google Wallet and there's NO WAY of cancelling the order from Wallet or Play. So, I have to call their stupid call center and get them to cancel both orders. I'm not even sure that I want one of these things now.