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Nexus 7 review: The best $200 tablet you can buy

engadget.com

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Re: Nexus 7 review: The best $200 tablet you can buy

#111

Post by bitwize »

majorlazer wrote: post #79

In 2008, when the Eee PC was revolutionizing the computing world and driving every manufacturer to make cheaper and smaller laptops, Sony washed its hands of the whole thing. The "race to the bottom," the company said, would profoundly impact the industry, killing profit margins and flooding the market with cheap, terrible machines. Sony was wrong, its stance lasting about a year before joining the competition with i…

no manufacturer even offered a laptop with decent build quality, except for Apple of course.

Maybe in some alternate universe where Lenovo didn't exist...

Re: Nexus 7 review: The best $200 tablet you can buy

#112

Post by LeonidasXIV »

iMark wrote: post #18
sliverstorm wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd think they could just add the darn slot and migrate you gradually. The sockets are not pennies, but they really don't cost much.

It's not just a matter of cost, it's a matter of space. Every millimeter counts on a mobile device.

Still, even phones have them. My Nexus One has a microSD card slot (currently populated with 32GB for quite cheap) and is a good deal smaller than the Galaxy Nexus what does not have one.

Re: Nexus 7 review: The best $200 tablet you can buy

#113

Post by zizee »

jrockway wrote: post #72
zizee wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are we Australians getting ripped off again. 200USD It's not because of shipping because that is added separately. Even if it was $50 is way too much.

Actually, 250AUD is pretty much exactly 250USD. But remember, FX rates are spot rates, they don't take into account the FX risk incurred by holding money over time in the foreign currency. So it makes sense to for a US company to charge a premium to customers using a different currency. (Note the forward prices vs. spot for AUDUSD here: http://fx.sauder.ubc.ca/closing.html ) Besides, by the time you pay for shipping…

I just bought one and in total it cost $268.99AUD which includes $24.45 tax and $19.99 shipping.

Anyway, I think the kids will be pretty happy.

Re: Nexus 7 review: The best $200 tablet you can buy

#114

Post by kleiba »

nl wrote: post #104
kleiba wrote: post #93

Four years on we're buying better laptops than ever before and, with the netbook class now more or less dead I still cannot get over the second part of that sentence. It's true though, but I could cry bitter tears over it: when netbooks first arrived on the scene I felt happy like a little elf: small, light, cheap computers made to run Linux? That was exactly what I had been waiting for all these years. And a netbook…

You do realize that you can still get Netbooks, right? They are actually better than they used to be, and if you look you can find the ones sold to schools to run Linux (ie, with great Linux support)

Yes, I do realize that, that's why I wrote the netbook "is being replaced" and not "has been replaced."

Re: Nexus 7 review: The best $200 tablet you can buy

#115

Post by kleiba »

gurkendoktor wrote: post #108
kleiba wrote: post #93

Four years on we're buying better laptops than ever before and, with the netbook class now more or less dead I still cannot get over the second part of that sentence. It's true though, but I could cry bitter tears over it: when netbooks first arrived on the scene I felt happy like a little elf: small, light, cheap computers made to run Linux? That was exactly what I had been waiting for all these years. And a netbook…

I don't see the 11" MacBook Air leaving the stage anytime soon. If anything, the average laptop is converging towards what you want. I am not sure about Linux drivers, but the main difference to a "netbook" seems to be the price point. For a few years' worth of computing, does it matter?

I think the price difference is not a small point. The Apple store has the 11" MacBook Air starting at $999. My netbook was around $280 and is a device that does exactly what I need.

Re: Nexus 7 review: The best $200 tablet you can buy

#116

Post by ek »

shalmanese wrote: post #48
mgkimsal wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which... I don't get. Just because my PC came with a modem 15 years ago didn't mean I was tied to AOL, Compuserve or the local ISP. I gasp bought my service from whoever I wanted. Yes, a cell modem would add more to the cost, but a contract free 7" google-updated android tablet with 3g that I could use on multiple carriers, unlocked... what's not to like about that?

The problem is, apart from T-mobile, other mobile carriers don't incentivize you to BYO phone. It's buy a $600 phone for $99 and be locked into a 2 year, $70 a month contract or BYO phone and be on a $70 month to month contract. With BYO, you're effectively giving the carrier an extra $20 a month due to lack of subsidy. Other countries have much saner systems where BYO plans are $20 a month cheaper.

There are a lot of excellent MVNOs worth considering, that don't try to screw over customers and still allow you the benefits of access to a large cell network. Red Pocket, for example, is an AT&T MVNO oriented towards Asian-American customers, and they have a bunch of plans that are very inexpensive while still providing reasonable amounts of service.

If I had not received a Galaxy Nexus for free at Google I/O, I would have likely purchased a device for $350 from Google and then activated it on Red Pocket or some other GSM MVNO.

It's important to realize that often, prices like $600 for a smartphone are deliberately inflated for the sake of encouraging people to sign their money away on cell phone contracts. This is illustrated by the fact that the Galaxy Nexus, a relatively high-end device, is available absolutely unsubsidized, for $350.

Re: Nexus 7 review: The best $200 tablet you can buy

#117

Post by roc »

notatoad wrote: post #32
roc wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not trying to say it's the wrong size or anything. I have a friend who lives in a warm climate, wears cargo shorts year-round and couldn't care less about anything other than long-form reading on the thing. And he won't shut up about how awesome his Nook Color fits his life. I get it , for him. Or for a hypothetical mad-reader who has a purse or pouch they carry everywhere. I just hear a lot of chatter about how…

If the only real good use case for the 7" tablet is long-form reading, why not get an e-ink device? better to read on, weighs less, thinner, cheaper, better battery. My kindle 3 perfectly complements my smartphone and 10" tablet.

Short version? Instapaper, PDF and CBR/CBZ. There tend to be workarounds for some of these depending on the eInk tablet, but none do all three well.

(Frankly, none that I've seen do any of them well. It's more a question of whether they do them acceptably-enough to bother.)

Re: Nexus 7 review: The best $200 tablet you can buy

#118

Post by cfn »

officemonkey wrote: post #23
cfn wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say that if you are young and/or have very good eyesight then you will be fine. Most people over 40, for example, will have a hard time reading without zooming well in.

I'm over 40 and wear reading glasses. I love the Kindle 3's form factor. It fits in my bag it's far more pleasant to read on a 7" tablet than a smartphone.

Same here, age and eyesight wise, but I find that text on screens below a certain size is either too small to read confortably or too large breaking the reading flow. I guess this is a personal thing more than a scientific fact.

Re: Nexus 7 review: The best $200 tablet you can buy

#119

Post by Samuel_Michon »

CrazedGeek wrote: post #109
Samuel_Michon wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, like most new Android tablets? ;)

Well, not really. ICS will be supported for years to come by apps. I can easily see iOS5 being dropped in a year or so for some developers. And the Android tablets are still cheaper. :P

Anyone can still develop for iOS 3, which was released several years a go.

Also, 10" tablets with comparable features as Apple's iPad are priced the same or higher than the iPad.

7" tablets like the Google/Asus tablet and the Kindle Fire are devices for media consumption, 10" tablets like the iPad are suitable for media creation.

Re: Nexus 7 review: The best $200 tablet you can buy

#120

Post by ajross »

berntb wrote: post #105
ajross wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right: taste dependent. I see what you're saying on some of that, but others just sound ridiculous (e.g. Watching a movie on 10" is bad enough, but sharing the screen? Not in my lifestyle, sorry.) And some of your points (non-mobile web, remote desktop) mostly just amount to "10 inches is closer to a laptop", which prompts the question of why bother with the tablet when you already have a laptop? And the rest just so…

The GP argued functuonality, not taste. My use case: A4 documents. I've read arguments claiming fullsize pages can be read from 7" (or that the reflow of pdfs works well). I've never seen anyone do that regularly in real life and don't really expect to. But sure, if you're rich, retired and only read literature -- not documentation, documents, code, etc... :-)

I routinely read full-size PDFs in duplex on my laptop screen, which is barely larger in physical size than a 7" tablet and actually lower resolution. That's a clear functional use case, right? So by your logic that makes you objectively wrong, not simply subject to different taste than me?

Stop it, this kind of flaming is beyond dumb. To claim that you prefer a 10" screen is fine. To claim that you can't read a PDF on a 7" screen is absurd.

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