Google I/O may have been just last week, but you can bet that we’ve been spending some real time the Google Nexus 7, the first Nexus tablet of its kind. Decked out in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the Nexus 7 also rocks a great set of specifications and at an even better price of $200 a pop. But under all of the Nexusy Googleness of the tablet, is just another Android tablet? Well, we’ll save that for the upcoming review but we took some time to throw down our initial impressions of the tablet, so read on.
The Nexus 7 is not only a great tablet, but a statement from Google saying that it’s taking the tablet space seriously. And given the Nexus 7’s Google Play-centric nature, it’s also telling us that Google wants to make more money off of its users. But that’s another story for another day.
The face of the Nexus 7 comes clean, with only the 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera on the top of the display disrupting the front of the device. On the right you’ll find the power/lock button, with the volume rocker below it. The left side is void of buttons, but has 4 pogo pins for what we would imagine is for an unannounced dock or something of the sort. This side, along with the top right side (with the back facing to you) also have microphones for noise cancellation. The top of the device is clean, save for the aforementioned microphone, and the bottom hosts the micro-USB port for charging and the 3.5 mm headphone jack.
The rear of the device lacks a high-res camera, which is perfectly fine by me. There’s never been an instance that I – number one: have only had a tablet on me and no smartphone, and – number 2: immediately reached for a tablet over my phone to take a picture. Sure, it can be a selling point on a tablet, but if you consider the lens on your smartphone for just a second, you might begin to see just how unnecessary a 5-8 megapixel camera is on a tablet. Because of this and to keep costs down, Google left it out, leaving us with relatively clean back panel.
Google I/O attendees received a special edition Nexus 7 that features a white back side. The version that will begin shipping in the coming weeks will rock a black backing. Said backing is smooth to the touch, yet provides a sufficient grip on surfaces. With a sort of perforated look going on across the backside, there’s little else to speak of. Of course, you’ll find both a large Nexus logo sprawled across the back, and the Asus logo right above the long strip of a speaker.
The outside of the Nexus 7 is simple and to the point, but underneath the hood of the device lies much more power than you’d expect from a tablet of its size and price point.
Rocking a solid set of specification across the board, the Nexus 7 knocked out the Amazon Kindle Fire in one fell swoop. By matching the Fire’s price point and exceeding it in the specifications arena, it would be hard to suggest Amazon’s offering at this point in time.
Inside the Nexus 7 is the stupid-fast NVIDIA Tegra quad-core processor, which will handle any game or other rich media content you throw at it with ease. Tagging along is 1GB of RAM, 8 or 16GB of internal storage, WiFi, Bluetooth, gyroscope, GPS, and just about anything else you’d expect to see in a high-end smartphone or tablet today.
Check out the video below and stay tuned for the review of the Nexus 7.
