Ever wanted a device to bridge the size gap between a smartphone and a tablet? Enter Google’s Nexus 7!
Previous tablets have typically measured between 10-12 inches, but the latest offerings from Apple, Google and Samsung alike all hit around the 7 inch mark, hence the name Nexus 7. This makes the tablet experience more one-handed: the middle sibling of the smartphone and the traditional 10 inch tablet. At a lightweight 340g, the Nexus 7 is comfortable to hold and less likely to cause fatigue when used for a long period of time, say when reading or watching a film. The design is simple and sleek with a glossy black front display and a dimpled, easy to grip back. The minimalistic, stylish tablet means you won’t be embarrassed to show it off in public.
The Nexus 7 is Google's take on the 'phablet' craze of touch-screen devices. The phablet combines the technology of a smartphone and a tablet, with the Dell Streak being the first of its kind to hit the market. Like the Nexus 7, the Dell Streak runs on the Android operating system, yet its size means that it is too big to be considered a phone and too small to be considered a tablet. To tackle this, developers spent hours deciding on a name for the phone/tablet hybrid, and came up with 'phablet'. Clever them.
Say Hello to Android Jelly Bean
Little has been sacrificed in order to produce the miniature tablet - it’s just been squashed into a smaller design. The Nexus 7 debuts Google’s latest mobile operating system Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, the fastest, smoothest version of Android yet. Improving on the simplicity and performance of Android 4.1, Jelly Bean adds some impressive new features.
Face Unlock, first featured on the Android 4.0 operating system, senses when the user is looking at the device and unlocks it. Jelly Bean takes this one step further by including a ‘liveness’ option for enhanced security, requiring the user to blink in order to immediately unlock the screen. This removes the possibility of using a photo to unlock the device, ensuring that it really is in the hands of its owner and making blinking feel awesome. For the more security-conscious (read: paranoid - “What if someone uses a video of me blinking?!”), the option of a password is also available.
The Nexus 7 features a voice recognition application similar to that of Apple’s Siri (see the s-Voice vs Siri showdown here), but without all the backchat. You won’t be able to ask the Nexus 7 where to hide a body, but ask it for nearby restaurants or sports results and Google gets back to you with all the relevant search results. While the voice search feature of the Nexus 7 isn’t as clever as Siri, and you can’t have a chat with it when you’re bored of your friends, it will give you specific search results in a simpler and faster method than typing the question.
Google Takes Gaming to a New Level
Google is making a big thing about the Nexus 7’s gaming abilities – and rightly so. A quad-core processor, teamed with the vibrant 1,280 x 800 resolution HD display takes mobile gaming to a new level with quicker page loading and smoother, more responsive gameplay – 10-finger multi-touch response, to be exact. Gaming on the tablet feels more involved, and the quality of the graphics makes for an overall fantastic experience.
At £159*, the Nexus 7 is one of the more affordable tablets on the market. It’s a bargain compared to Apple’s £269* iPad Mini and does all that you’d expect a smaller version of a tablet to do. The newly released 32GB version of the Nexus 7 costs £199*, massively undercutting Apple's device, which could be crucial for potential customers deciding which brand to go for.
If you’re after a piece of the 7 inch action, why not free up some extra cash towards your tablet fund by selling your old tablet? Check out OnRecycle for the latest and best prices available anywhere on the net!
*Prices correct as of 30/10/2012.
