This being a Nexus device Google probably left the microSD slot out, not due to cost restrains, but because they want to force themselves (and you) to live from the cloud.
Local storage should be nothing more than cache. Enough to get you through an around the world flight, but nothing more. No SD slot forces the Google developers to make cloud access more seamless and user friendly.
And yet there is no cellular option... I think this is one of those situations where you've said something that sounds reasonable, but is, in fact, not the case. My guess would be that it is, almost entirely, down to cost (and perhaps a way to encourage more people to spend $50 on 8GB of extra flash).
Google did not consume information to survive. Google offered options for syncing Nexus' data to local PCs. Google supported Samsung's Kies software. Google did not require a gmail account for the majority of its services. It wasn't blatantly obvious Google wants you in their cloud.
err, but is that not the "forcing" part? I think it has to be true, they wouldn't hurt themselves on purpose with no MicroSD slot. It being wifi only isn't a big deal either. There is a market that wants cellular, and people who don't, so they have to have that option, makes sense that the wifi only option is cheaper. In regards to the cloud, well then you have to think about the times you don't have internet access. Are people going to use their tablet then? I'd say not likely. Which is more the root of the issue I'd say. It's a device, people will buy it for what it can do now, they won't think, oh how much junk can I load onto it? This at least, for the common person out there that isn't very tech savvy. Yet again it seems like the power users here on anandtech aren't the ones driving design/tech, it's the average consumer they're all trying to cater to. For us power users, maybe they think that the specs alone would make it worthy enough for us to buy, because those specs don't mean all that much to the average consumer.
If you guys have been following ANdroid team since the pre G1 days, you will find that they HATE external storage and wanted flash and no SD for the G1 and all Android devices. The problem was Apple's contract manufacturing buyers secured the majority of flash memory allocations for a few years. This meant it was not practical for a few years to put anything beyong 4gb and alot were half of that.
Google was forced to embrace sd cards as a reult, and still were a year late getting an official apps2sd or sd cards. They hate coding for external storage and the security concerns. The goal all along was a Google market portal and cloud storage. Android team has stated this a few times, so not conjecture.
Your comments on sd card nand did not make sense and did not pan out in the market as 16gb micro SD are now dirt cheap. Besides let the users put their media on the SD card. not all people have cloud access nor want it as yet. if google wants to move in a direction their users do not want to go then eventually will lose these users. Why pay for what you do not want ?
Actually his comments did make sense. nand (internal flash memory) /= sd card (external, much slower flash memory) so please take note of that.
Nand at the time the G1 came about was ridiculously expensive - whether due to Apple or not, I have no clue. All I do know is that in device teardowns, the storage was often the most expensive besides the screen and albeit for very little of it. For this reason, many initial Android devices had tiny internal storage...a ridiculous amount even, allowing the bare essentials to be installed which consists of the OS and a few apps.
It has been established, if you listened to Google devs since day 1, that they reluctantly used SD/external storage. It was a necessity in order to facilitate storing media and gaming apps early on. They didn't even like the idea of non-gaming apps on them at all, but as time went by the need arose to allow it (since people would run out of storage space on their devices). Trade offs were made and it became an Android feature to easily move some apps to SD with the caveat that its widget could no longer be used on the ui.
If you've owned different brands of devices you'll see that each of them has their own implementation of how the system sees/names the external storage. Not only does this create a disparity for software devs but it decreases system security. External memory can also be an issue and liability to the system since they can be too slow or of bad quality and fail (a likely reason Apple didn't include the sd card slot in any mobile device).
Eventually we will see more and more devices ship without it. Even without consideration given to the cloud, it is just much better for a device to depend on internal storage. It basically removes all the wild cards that the microSD can cause from the equation.
I personally, having used the GNex for over 7 months have found adaptation to non SD card availability, not such a bitter pill to swallow, only requirement is sufficient internal storage initially (unfortunately 16GB is not quite enough, I manage, but would prefer 32Gb min)
You don't know very much. Internal Storage AND SD Cards use NAND. Samsung and Apple in my opinion are the only good companys in terms of storage. The iPhone has 64GB storage and the Galaxy S3 has 64GB plus micro sd slot so that you can have 128GB. And all the others? Only laughable 16(!)gb (16 and 128GB, thats a HUGE difference) or 32gb with no sd slot.
Microsoft is doing it much better. Just like on Windows, you can just connect the Windows phone 8 in a Micro sd that will be threatened like for example an external HDD or a USB Drive Stick on a Windows PC. On Android, you can even use USB Sticks as external Storage. But why not Micro SDs? where is the point that they allow you to connect USB-Drives and external Harddrives via USB adapter to an android device, but not an SD-Card? HDD, USB, SD, the're basically all the same: External Storage.
Very nice to be limited on storage just because google has this idealism of only one internal storage and no option to use something else. I hate it, in 2009 I knew that there will be 128GB sds in the next years and now we are close to that. But NO, google just now removes the ability to use the sds we waited so long for. So we are as limited on storage as we where a few years ago.
The question in my mind is "Does Google give me the freedom to do what I want with what I own??"
The obvious answer (from not only Google but others as well) is No.
Microsoft makes and owns Windows but can you imagine what would happen if they forced everyone's information into their cloud? I can't even conceive of the Corporate, Private, and Governmental backlash to something like that. Contrast that with how Google approaches your (yes your) information and device rights.
Cellular isn't as big of a deal, IMO. How many people who have this will have a smartphone with them that can hotspot if you need that kind of connectivity?
How about percentage of people that can hotspot at no additional charge AND have unlimited data? T-mobile throttles very quickly and a throttled T-mobile or ANY Sprint is just going to be too slow to stream video.
Google's plans revolve around the Cloud and heavy bandwidth consumption at the same time that wireless companies are erecting bandwidth meters. I'm sure that the wealthy iOS users won't mind paying $80-150/mo for a lot of GB on LTE through a hotspot, but Android users have historically been quite a bit more thrifty.
How does the price of bandwidth change if you need to buy a seperate subscription for your tablet? I don't know about in the states, but over here in the Netherlands that's more expensive so I'd rather just pay for a bigger data bundle on my phone and share that with my tablet.
I don't use gmail, hotmail, or yahoo, I use a paid for service hosted by a small company in Norway.
But in my opinion, there's a difference between using email online (this is integral to the service, inseparable) and having to upload my music and videos over a crappy DSL line only to have to download them again over a crappy 3G connection instead of, you know, using an SD card which would be instant. The idea that the cloud is good for everything is flawed.
It's really a case-by-case scenario. For example, I use Google Music, but I can save music for offline listening. For those with say, 100GB of music, this can be problematic. For me, I have roughly 6GB of music, half of which I don't even listen to anymore.
Furthermore, services like html5 grooveshark, pandora, spotify, etc. is much more interesting. And besides, if you are a real stickler for quality, you can just plug it in to your computer and transfer a couple GBs.
I agree that not having microSD can be annoying (especially for those that would like to put custom ROMs) but at least it isn't a meager amount.
I plan on rooting my Nexus 7 ASAP and attaching various thumbdrives to it by way of the microUSB port. Unfortunately that will also prevent me from renting movies from Google Play. Too bad. I guess they should have thought of that before gimping their own device. They should have put a microSD slot on the $250 version. It would at least have added something more than 8GB (actual cost increase = 80 cents) to the $50 price increase.
Tell me where you can find 8GB of a flash memory for 50 cents, I'd love some. Last I checked it wasn't that cheap.. obviously it isn't $50 expensive, but at least they aren't charging in $100 steps like Apple.
You can buy flash in various forms for as little as $0.50/GB at retail. That includes SD/thumbdrive it is inside of, the retail packaging, shipping, and several profit margins. The difference in price from buying an 8GB NAND chip to solder onto the board and a 16GB chip is probably less than a dollar.
Not sure about you US guys but can get 8gb micro card for less than £3.60, £16 for under 6.50 Cl 4, and even the latest 64B sandisk ultra micro sdxc for about 45 through play.com. I think mcnabney must have meant 80 cents per GB? Any way at least for apple products you are'nt charged £100 on each memory ugrade which is $155!! Hence why I don't own any apple products yet.
If there is a microUSB port available, couldn't one just attach a USB microSD card reader via that, would have been nice if it was already built-in.
Maybe, the Nexus 8 will have the extras that everybody is so upset over.
Given the price point, I think the Nexus 7 is just right for people like me. People that have taken the plunge into the tablet market. I don't have a tablet in the house as yet, but given this price, I'd consider getting it. If you really need/desire/want the other options and want to pay for it, just purchase one of the other devices that have all the bells and whistles that you want.
I ordered that exact item from Amazon last night (and an extra small 32GB "thumb"drive for $19. However, it ships direct from Hong Kong and will arrive in mid-July (which is good because that is about when my Nexus 7 will arrive).
Ok, sorry, but this is the link that gives you the Host/Card/Snyc Mini USB link. So you now have Full USB, Full SD, Micro SD and Power Port. Plus as the article stated, you can use a USB to Ethernet to hard wire to a cable source. I can't believe you guys who are snivelling about no SD Card didn't read the 2nd paragraph from the bottom in the article, or you just don't know what it means? http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-...
I agree, I have held off from the tablet market for such a device as this at an acceptable price point but with a thoroughly decent screen and CPU/GPU combination. At this price 16gb is enough for me.
Why should you have to hack a device to use it as you see fit?
If this is required on a Google device, that's an inexcusable blow to the entire Android platform. What a fraud! They don't even have the excuse of pandering to a telco.
Well, there are 128GB Micro SDs comming this or next year so even 100GB wont be a problem. Oh wait, on android it will be a problem because they don't allow you to have an SD Card!
The idea that the cloud is bad for everything is flawed.
Google is providing space in the cloud for your stuff, even hosting a large quantify of YOUR music for you. If that isn't enough, use USB OTG to a portable drive/sd adapter, or purchase a different Android tablet.
I am bummed that it doesn't have a MicroSD slot, but it's just not that big of a deal. Heck, I can just store stuff on my Galaxy S3's MicroSD card and transfer using NFC and WifiDirect if I need to refresh content.
Definitely agree that the cloud is very flawed! I hate non micro SD card devices, I mean what use is wifi when travelling on a train or in a hotel charged at £5.00 per hour, or on a plane wher there is non!,Or heaven forbid actually be somewhere that doesn't have wifi for a few days (countryside in youth hostels, camping, even in the car). 8 or 16GB isn't going to give you much videotime if you use all that HD resolution! I'd think Just Great I'm going away for 2 weeks in a non wifi zone and I'm stuck with 4 movies if I'm lucky! Really wanted to get a tablet and for this reason alone I won't even look at this one.
Seriously I just don't get what the problem is with versatility and user friendliness, I detest Apple and their devices for the same reason!
The cloud doesn't work so well when you're in the clouds... aka, on an airplane trying to entertain a child with a movie on a tablet. Sure would be nice to have some extra space then. The cloud should be an option, not a requriement. Compare this tablet to my Nook tablet. This nexus blows it away, but if you want offline access to large files then it's worthless.
Yep. This device isn't going to be able to hold enough HD movie content to make it across the Pacific, much less all of the other things you will want to store on it (music, books, pictures, a few games).
Why should I want to squash down my DVDs? I just go, buy a Galaxy Tab with a Micro SD slot and have enough storage not to have to convert my files into a bad quality. And because of that, I critizize the Google Nexus 7. It doesnt have enough storage, so they lose me as a buyer and its their own fault. By now, its not a Problem to have 100GB on a Tablet, this is the modern technology we have by now. Its the fault of the manufacturers to not use the modern technology and losing consumers who know what they can get today, what todays state of the art storagespace is. 128GB is state of the art and not 8GB or 16GB. This was way back in 2008.
You are all in luck. In fact Amazon sells a little adapter only 1 inch high that inserts into the mini USB power port. It then on the bottom gives you 4 ports. 1 power port 1 Full SD 1 Full USB 1 Micro SD. Cost 20 bucks on Amazon.
Try looking there for some cheap gadgets like microSD readers and other nifty gadgets. That's why my previous comment about using the MicroUSB with a MicroSD reader, why the big deal?
Deal Extreme is a HK company but ships for free, though takes a bit longer, from about 2-3 weeks so you have to be patient and I've ordered from them many times just for cables, adapters, card readers and other small gadgets that aren't very expensive, though sometimes quality of items can be iffy.
"Local storage should be nothing more than cache."
Great idea, as long as you trust Google with your data (I don't).
I don't understand why anyone would be willing to store anything of importance on a cloud service. The few advantages are outweighed by some pretty major disadvantages.
If we do that, we should just remove Storage from all Desktop and Notebook PCs. But this will not happen. Why? Because the cloud is inferior and slow compared to local storage. And I hate it to download everything again, again, again and again just because some people think its "cool" to do that and force everyone to use the cloud by removing local storage. The cloud is just a made up hype. It is good for emails and textfiles, but not for 1080p Videos and Music. Its a pain in the ass to have to download everything again JUST because there is not enough storage to save your files on your device.
I understand the disappointment, but I think a lot of people don't realize USB OTG is a decent compromise. If you really want extra storage for music/movies just take a thumb drive and a 2" USB OTG cable with you when traveling... It'll mount just like a PC, you can even get cables with a right angled microUSB male connector so that the short cable is parallel/flush with the tablet and exerts less torque on the port (less danger of yanking on it while holding it).
I don't agree here. I have USB OTG on my Galaxy S2 and thought about using it a lor for storage but it is just not practical enough.
With the tablet I would probably be interested in the possibility of watching some HD movies/shows while travelling. That often means 4GB+ files and its not possible to just plug in an external hard drive with NTFS.
I was rather interested in this unit but when I realized it has no microSD slot, then it is a no-go for me. I like the price and specs, but I also want the ability to eventually add a bit more space to it in the future if I need it.
SORRY my tablet types what it wants if I don't watch it. That's use DvdFab to convert BD movies down to 1.5GB. I use the Juicer which plugs into mini USB and still gives you A power port and Full USB, Full SD and Micro SD in a 1 inch by 1.75 inch device.
Look above in my post. Host/card/snyc Juiced for Gslaxy s 2 on amazon gives micro sd.full sd.full usb and power port 20 bucks. Works on all 6 pin mini usb.
Thanks for providing something useful rather than just complaining. I will have to look into this. I am assuming this is an active cable that takes over hosting duties?
It would be great to have the Micro SD built in but one can use a micro usb to micro SD adapter if you really in need of a bit of extra local memory. Tablets by design have very limited storage even if you have the SD slot your still likely to be limited to lets say 32GB avg.
Its best to access your media via your own hosted webserver or the Google Cloud as they would prefer. I believe its about the money, as you will have to pay Google once you reach your storage quotas. Smart way to reel eveyone in, regardless the product is an outstanding value and you can use it how you like.
I have my own media server which allows me to access TV recordings, family footage, music, etc.. There are alot of great ways to setup your own media server and than you can host TB's of storage if you want for much less than a hosted service charges. Catch being you had better have backups since you dont have a 3rd party server to rely on.. Anyways Im tempted to pickup a Nexus 7 if they fair well in the reviews after the release.
Videos, Photos, Music all take tons of storage space, so it makes sense to encourage everyone to store in the cloud.
No, 128GB SD Cards are avaiable since spring 2011. Why should I use the cloud on my tablet or smartphone? On my PC and notebook, It only makes sense BECAUSE google limits the local space and this is whats annoying. If they would let us use SDs, we wouldnt have to use the cloud because we already got enough space in our hands.
I'm seriously depressed at the lack of a microSD slot. I never thought that Google would screw over consumers to promote their cloud services like Apple and Amazon. The worst part now is that I can't even get the ASUS Eee Pad MeMo 370T that I originally wanted.
There will be similar tablets just as cheap that will include microSD and HDMI.
I'm buying this, and 8 GB at that. I don't care about storage at all, as I won't be watching movies on the go. At home I can stream from other devices if I really want to watch a movie, but I doubt I will since holding the screen while I watch a movie is kinda stupid.
Exactly. Charging more for storage and leaving out the microSD is crap that Apple pull with their iPhone models. Wi-Fi doesn't work on road-trips, and i'm sure the ISP's don't appreciate this cloud trend of upload and stream to access your own stuff.
why cant you use a thumb drive with a micro usb to usb cable? Its not as portable but it does give you access to dozens if not hundreds of hours of media on the road. You just will probably want to copy it over first. It is a minor inconveniece. But then again a card slot is only what $3?
It's as simple as that. Unless I can drop some video files onto an SD card, slam it in my tablet, and take it with me, I'm not interested in buying. My dirt cheap chinese tablet with a dodgy screen can take in microSD and play any video, hardware accelerated. This is the absolute bare minimum of functionality I would require to consider a purchase.
im upset that there is no sd card slot of any sort but i still plan on buying it. 16gb's for videos and some music is decent and perfect for me
yes it would be nice to buy the 8gb version and be able to buy a 32gb microsd card cheap on newegg but it doesn't . the kindle fire doesn't either. i think its companies way to keep cost low and not totally kill other tablets.
if this thing had a sd card slot. why would any one go for a larger screen tablet other than the big screen? at the moment, if you want a tablet with expandable storage, you'll have to pay high dolor. it sucks but thats how it is at the time.
plus everyone is pushing this cloud stuff and imo taking it to far. yes having files in the cloud is nice but i still need my local storage.
I think an extra 8gb of flash is likely in the $8-14 range if you look at isuppli breakdowns of other tablets (like the kindle fire). I couldn't find the exact price.
SD currently costs between $0.50-60/GB after being packaged for retail. And that is inside of the thumbdrive/card. For retail you should also add in the packaging/shipping costs plus the profit margin for selling NAND as an accessory. You can buy 8GB thumb drives for $5 SHIPPED now. So the manufactures cost for just the NAND silicon inside is a small portion of that. I think a dime per GB might even be too high.
I have to agree. Playing music off of Play Music is simple enough. Would an SD card slot be nice? Absolutely. But I'm getting the 16GB version so I can throw a couple 720p movies on there, and a few shows. Music won't be taking up any space, as I'll just stream that as I already do with my Galaxy Nexus. If this was a $350 tablet, i'd be up in arms about it not having an SD slot. But for $250 this is an outstanding replacement for my Kindle Fire.
Did you perhaps notice that this is wifi only? Since 1% of the country is covered by wifi, that makes this device pretty worthless when you are in the other 99%. They are even marketing this device for travel purposes, which shows you what morons they are.
Incidentally I'm not sure there is an Android tablet that offers a month-to-month celluar plan, so this is actually a win for iPad over Android tablets.
All those people who traveled around the country in the pre-2000's were morons weren't they. You mean going places without my latest 4G LTE tablets?!? Moronic idea.
Do you even listen to yourself? Wifi is great, and 16GB of storage is enough for most personal effects that you'll need in the near future. You can rotate the cache if you want different content.
But is is not, since about 3gb is taken up by format parameters, OS allocation, stock apps and the OS operational floor (needs 500gb free, or can not update a lot of apps or install new apps.)
Not to mention any app you install displaces the 13ish GB you will have.
Elsewhere in the world children starve, die of malaria, sold into slavery and have to walk miles to get drinking water. I know this is trivial compared to not being able to put all your Twilight movie torrents onto one device but I do sympathise poor baby.
Its says compass, magnetometer, accelerator. NO GPS chip in there!. So it uses Wifi triangulation which can be fairly accurate in some place with plenty of APs running. Only issue is out in the wild-blue younder where wifi has no reach. Then it depends on your phone tether to handle the triangulation I suppose. They are cutting corner on exactly where they wanted. So people will compromise based on the price.
With limited storage space, one can only get so much map cached or apps storage in this device. I think it is designed that way. Then for version 2 or version 3, the price can hike as the wanted features get added. But one thing is for sure later with version 4.x later releases of the OS, apps no longer will be allowed on SD card. This means native Nand needs to be way larger than it is.
I am sure there would be vendors looking at HC tablets of 7 inch or 8 inches that will allow multiple SD cards on the device. It becomes handy for users to store music, videos, photos and Full size SDcard from a Digicam to plug right in for previewing. With batteries lasting 8-9 hours, it is an excellent preview device for any camera man doing digital work.
I think so far it's just you because, you know, the Macbook is a laptop, and the Nexus 7 is a tablet. Sometimes it's best not to one up those dastardly 'fanboys.'
To be fair, what count is the number of pixels, not the density. The MBP display is the best for a laptop (might even be overkill). But for the same reason, 720p displays of Android phones are better than the 960x640 one of the iPhone.
Some Android phones have higher PPI than the iPhone (every 720p 4.3" device)
But that doesn't matter. Higher PPI is meaningless. Would you prefer your iPhone if it had a 2" display? The PPI would be much higher. Of course not. You prefer a lower PPI, 3.5" iPhone. Some people would even prefer an even lower PPI, 4" iPhone. Phone size is a matter of personal preference. Small devices are harder to read and type on. Lager phones are more pocket-busting. But everyone want as much pixels as possible since it allows you to display more content.
"I should note on the browser synthetics that we're also talking about Chrome here, not "Browser" as the Nexus 7 is the first Android device to ship with Chrome as the default browser. In this case, that means there's no "browser" to be found anywhere on the device. You can still install Flash from the Play Store, it just doesn't do anything anymore."
Flash actually does work in Jelly Bean, just not with Chrome. According to the Nexus product pages, "Browser" is still available in Google Play. Firefox, once the tablet version is released, should also support Flash.
It would be perfect if it had 3g option. This way I would have to use my phone to tether. SD card would make things a lot easier but I can live without it. One questions that just popped into my head.
If I have android phone and android tablet and I use the same e-mail account, are the apps automatically there in google store, waiting for me to install them? For example, I dont want the same apps on both devices.
They show up as your apps in the store, but you choose what to install on which device. E.g., I have some apps on my tablet that aren't on my phone and vice versa... but all are listed in my account when I go to the Play Store.
Not me, I'm glad it doesn't have 3g/4g, having it will increase the price by $100(look at iPad), 3g/4g comes with monthly(annual) contract yet with another data plan.
Tether to your phone, 1 data plan to rule them out.
Thanks, Brian, for a tidy and succinct review. It felt like you gave fair evaluation to the platform based on what little time you spent with it and that's much appreciated.
Thank, Brian, best mini review I've seen. Did you have to open one up?
For the full review: does it really have microusb OTG? Not confirmed in the review. If yes, what size USB drive will it take? FAT32? Does it output HDMI via MHL standard? Also, is GPS/A-GPS on board? What kind of Li-ion battery? 1000-cycle, or 300? The difference between 3yr or 1yr life-span for this device.
No Fat 32, NTFS is the required format in Android for extended, I believe. GPS on board with no need for WiFi. No MHL support but DLNA might be added but didn't see it included in the 90 page Google Nexus 7 user manual aka GuideBook. Download it for free and I think you will find it clears up most questions. Even though people keep saving no native support in JB for external storage, I see No mention in the Guide. It did say it will support multiple USB devices including game controllers, if they don't need drivers or software but with micro to SD or USB adapter. It even said if you run more then one USB device at a time, to prevent device battery drain, to use a powered USB hub. Interesting, since in x86, 127 devices can possibly run from one USB port. For your battery question, ifixit did a tear down and listed it. They also found the same DDR3 RAM type used in the Mac Pros. 1GB of course. So you will want to check their site for the huge info they shared.
Did i read correctly ... "no rear facing camera"? Umm...why would they not put that in there? If they have front-facing, why wouldn't they add rear-facing as well?
Honestly, who takes pictures of stuff with their tablet? You don't need 3 devices for taking mediocre pictures, which is what any tablet/phone camera is going to do. Front facing at least makes sense for video chatting.
Confusing statement. Possibly the best tablet is the one on the new Asus TF700T, it has an extra lens and other camera improvements. If I understood you correctly, it sounded like your theory was 7" would take better pics then a larger tablet. I think the science is in the camera features and so on, not the size.
Front facing is for video chat, a nice feature on tablets. With something this cost constrained though a rear facing camera would have dubious value, think about who the customers are, they probably have smartphones and dedicated cameras already, few serious shots would be taken with a tablet rear camera.
Especially for video chat a rear camera can be very useful (to show things to someone while still being able to see what you're aiming at). Same for taking shots of documents, or scanning QR tags...
On the other hand -- OEMs now can offer tablets with a SD slot, a rear camera and a kickstand and still sell them for $300.
Or at least probably so. I would get a tablet like this (no cellular) to play media portably. SD is the cleanest way I've found to supply that. A micro-SD slot is so small and cheap technically that it should have been there. I'm very sorry it isn't.
Everyone is complaining over the lack of expandable storage, but it's still 200-250 bucks for a tablet with a really fast SoC, at the forefront of OS updates, nice screen, etc. It's more powerful than the Kindle Fire and less locked down. I like it, after some reviews and my own hands on I'll seriously consider getting one. Most content I see is on the web anyways, and 16GB is enough to hold over on a long flight, I can forgive the lack of an SD card for everything else.
Your'e absolutely right, it's still probably the best tablet for it's price.
But with an sd slot it would have been untouchable. And that's why everbody is complaining. Cheaper tablets with sd slots have crappy hardware and no play access. Or you pay more for a tablet that otherwise isn't as nice to get an sd slot, or you pay way more to get one with everything. (like the samsung galaxy 7 plus). 8-16 gb doesn't hold alot of video.
The MicroSD issue is a non-issue if you consider that you can use a MicroUSB -> MicroSD card reader like other people have mentioned or even use USB thumbdrives attached via MicroUSB -> USB, and consider attaching external USB HDs.
I'm just wondering if I can use a USB modem to connect it to our Road Runner network for downloading content when not on the home wifi.
USB modems are higher-powered devices, so you would have to include a powered hub between the microUSB port and the USB modem/aircard. You would also need to find drivers/access software for the older models. The newest wireless aircards are driverless, so that might work without software - just the powered hub.
We are assuming this, since Brain has not tested to confirm (not posted yet, anyway).
Input device support and storage management and powering are not the same thing. Plenty of device have USB input device support, but not storage support.
Also, plnety of people assume they are one and the same. JB 4.1 having the support and the firmware and hardware supporting it are not the same thing.
I didn't understand why google opted for a smartphone like interface, apparently we can't hold it horizontally like a normal tablet, really disappointing
Just the launcher (and maybe not even that, haven't seen the settings). When you are in an app you can just rotate to horizontal. Just like any android phone.
At CES Asus previewed the Memo 370T which had all of the specs of the new Nexus tablet along with a micro SD slot, and a micro HDMI port at an announced price of $250 or exactly what Google is charging for the 16gig version of the Nexus 7.. Maybe the construction on the 7 is superior which could explain having to drop a lot of features to keep the price the same. I guess we'll be able to use the micro USB as a mass storage port.
So straight from the horse's mouth: previous Android version the UI drags. And I keep hearing Android users swear their UI is smooth as "butter". Google now admits their users were just imagining things. Funny.
Android gets better with each revision. Going from 2.x -> 4.x was quite a nice jump in UI and overall performance so nobody was imagining things. Sounds like the JB update just makes things better yet.
Sometimes people like to go overboard with superlatives when describing things. Thus, unending comments of the fastest, smoothest, greatest, blahest, blah of blah.
I've never heard an Android user say ICS or prior was smooth as butter, while ICS was a great improvement most users would admit it's not always perfectly fluid.
But you have to wonder what the real goal of it is. This is a dagger in the back of all the OEM's that helped build the Android franchise. $199 is pretty much cost to build this. Sucking all the life out of the 7" market. Between buying Motorola, and now this it appears anyway, that since the Android name has been built they are trying to push the OEM's out.
If you're an OEM you have to be thinking of moving away from Android, as you are at the mercy of Google and their whims. Plus Googles goals aren't the same, or in line with their OEM's. Thinking about moving to Windows 8 seems likely. Or putting together a group of OEM's to develop WebOS, which is already very good and finishing it. At least that way they can actually do some future planning.
Are you an OEM? I am pretty sure that OEMs are happy today. This tablet will help popularize Android on tablets. Android is doing fine on phones, but still lags behind iOS on tablets (in terms of market share). If OEMs want to sell tablets in the future, they want the market share of Android to be as high as possible.
Amazon already had a $200 tablet anyways, and Asus planed a $250 one. This isn't anymore a dagger in the back of the OEMs than any Nexus phone. Also, google always partner with the bests. Asus makes the best tablets and Samsung the best phones. If you are an OEM and want to make the next Nexus, just make something good. We call this competition. It gives incentives to OEMs to make the best devices.
The problem with this is why care about making something if there is no profit in it. Selling these things at cost kills that particular market segment.
You, as a consumer can say buy this one for $199. Or buy one made by a company that has to actually sell them for more than cost. Say the exact same thing for $275. Who gets your money? Or, the for profit one say has a SD card slot. But it's $300. Would you pay $100 for that? Probably not.
You could race to the bottom I suppose, but you'd have to really make some cheap crap and sell it for almost nothing to get out of competition in this particular size and form.
I can see making a reference model. All the goodies, memory, SD slot, 3G/4G and sell it for a premium. That gives OEM's a target to shoot for, and still make some money. But taking the profit potential off the table is just plain stupid, unless you want to pith the OEM's out the window while still keeping your agreements you made for the Motorola merger.
I agree. If the manufacturers don't get half of the 30% market profits, they have no motivation to give stuff away.
I'm not sure what Asus gets for this.
Maybe it's to try to make sure microsoft doesn't get a foot hold in the tablet market.
Maybe it's because they've seen after trying to fight apple at similiar price points or even a fair bit cheaper, they just aren't succeeding. So... they are going to try this. And seeing as how apple is slowly giving google the boot whereever they can, google needs to get market share fast.
It's certainly not doing any favors to it's partners, but then microsoft's surface announcement didn't do their partners any favors either.
Starting to look like a bad time to be a hardware manufacturer relying on somebody's else software.
Since Google is the one that will be selling it at cost, I'm sure that ASUS is making some money off of this.
If an OEM..ahem..ASUS was just to add a few things that were missing that everybody is clamoring for, then they could easily come out with another version with the bells and whistles and sell it at a good price and still make a profit.
I think Google setting the bar with the Nexus 7 is a good shot across the bow of all the OEMs that were just dumping a lot of crappy hardware on the market, that making a good tablet doesn't have have to be expensive.
Google is not selling it at 'cost'. They just aren't adding any markup on their end. Asus has plenty of profit margin.
Except that in this case, ASUS is a contractor, with a known volume to sell. Not to mention not having to market, distribute, advertise, buy shelf space etc.
Also, there's no way that Asus would agree to build this, if they weren't making any money. Again, take the whole product down and the bill of materials is undoubtedly below $200. $199 is likely what Google is paying per device. But Asus isn't breaking even on this. They're making a profit because the total cost of components is less than this, possibly much much less. And OEMs can do the same. And better than that, they can start stratifying based on honest to goodness features. Want a better display? Charge more. Want it bigger? Charge more. Want more memory? Charge more. Want more processor? Charge more. We know from the PC space that the BOM for a low specced device is not that far off from a higher specced device. But when you order a Dell with lots more memory, the fee is ever larger, and far outpaces the cost of the actual RAM. This establishes how that same model can be applied to tablets.
You want to see profit margins, Apple is the richest tech company on the planet because their loyal customer either don't know or don't care how much profit they are paying Apple
Don't think of this as an effort to harm OEMs, nor even to move units. Popularity would help move the conversation along, but what this does is establish a standard that all OEMs should work with.
Want to sell a $200 tablet, it should be this good. Want to go downmarket, make sure you're experience isn't so crappy that people regret it and wish they'd bought this. Want to go upmarket, make sure you offer enough features and performance boost to make it a compelling offer.
Without establishing this sort of base-line, you had mainstream tablets priced from $200 to $600, and though feature sets were all over the place, performance wasn't nearly so varied. NVIDIA knows how to stratify products, so they've done a great thing by providing the same part at different bins. But the SoC isn't close to the most expensive portion of the bill of materials for any tablet. That goes to the display, and depending on the capacity and density the NAND.
If you're an OEM, you're thinking, ok, I can make money on this by just adding a camera, or using the same other components but using the top binned Tegra 3, which would incrementally raise the BOM, but I could then charge $100 more.
The Nexus 7 establishes the roadmap by which OEMs can charge reasonable prices and still make money, and it sounds like Jelly Bean is what makes all of that possible.
Brian, i appreciate your and Anand reviews as the best on the net but i notice one deficiency again and again. Please check your eyes and in future for all reviews wear at least +1 or +1.5 reading glasses. Check them for astigmatism too. The 200ppi is NOT acceptable for anything besides laptops and large monitors. Plus you must always keep your cell phones and small screen size tablets at the ***average best viewing distance*** for normal 20/20 vision which always for centuries was 25 cm or 10" not 12" as Steve Jobs "reinvented" it for marketing reasons or also had vision problems. Larger tablets keep at 12" and superlarge at 15". The laptops and monitors you may keep at SMPTE (30 degrees horiz angle) or better at THX recommended viewing distance (36 degrees) or even closer if monitor has better ppi.
I own 7" Hyundai A7HD tablet with mini sd, and mini HDMI. It is not as powerful as Google's Nexus but connected with wireless keyboard and mouse and my 26" Benq monitor, I could use it daily as full blown PC.
It is pity with Google Nexus 7 even with powerful quad core cpu I could not connect with my monitor .
Thank you for contacting Google. It was my pleasure assisting you today.
Though the Nexus 7 doesn’t include an SD card slot, we offer a 16 GB version if you’re looking for additional storage. Yes you can use an external storage through the microUSB.
Can Nexus 7 turn to landscape mode? Especially in Chrome can we view the web page in full screen + landscape mode? It seems to me all photos are taken in portrait mode...
So how long will it be before someone sells a case for the Nexus 7 that plugs into the microUSB port and provides a SD/microSD card slot and a keyboard similar to the new MS Surface keyboard?
Sure is taking Brian a long time to validate if storage works or not..... ;)
I appreciate there was a Google response, but those tend to be outsourced, so the person that responded may be assuming USB input support also means storage support. It could be yes it does, but you need a seperate power source for the storage (especially if 3.3V).
My suspicion is that they simply took out landscape because switching between portrait and landscape in ICS was a total mess-the way android handled switching orientations meant that your icons were in hideous looking alignment (they would be off to one side or another) and if you had icons that were at the very edge of the screen in landscape mode they'd go flying off the screen in portrait mode such that they ended up on another page entirely. Frankly the way icons were handled were a horrible joke compared to...well, anything else-far as I can tell no other mobile OS had this issue since both WebOS and iOS seem perfectly capable of handling portrait to landscape and vice versa transitions.
I can only laugh at everyone who is so overly negative. I especially love everyone who complains about the cloud and data security, you guys crack me up. Sorry to say fellas but the idea of the cloud is here to stay and in fact we have been using it for about.... well as long as the internet has existed, its just now marketed as some magical "cloud" but whatever. Oh and complaining about trusting Google with your data? LOL! You're on the internet, your "data" is gone and has been for quite some time.
We will all see how well the nexus tablet work when they start shipping. Till then? Flame on nerds!
The day when the government and private companies stay the heck out of cloud services on data privacy is the day when people will accept the cloud model. Meaning client based very strong encryption needed for serious data privacy. ie local hardware and software based heavy encryption used. the way that business is pushing governments now shows very little privacy unless privately used strong encryption is used by people wanting to secure their data privacy. There is little protection for the average person if corrupted judges uses stupid laws to procsecute people. The fact the people can built Android from source means that it is possible to make a personal secure version with strong encryption if the quadcore Tegra3/4 has the grunt to do it. t is way better than stupid virus protection on silly windows machines!.
40% of Americans don't have access to Broadband by cable. I, for one, pay 10GB for LTE because our land and home can never get cable. So at 10GB a month by not using clouds and watching You Tubes, sadly is a way of live. With taxes our monthly bill to run 2 desktops, 2 laptops and 3 tablets is over $100 a month. We are retired and travel out of the country nearly 6 months a year. SD is the only practical way to met our needs on 3 week vacations and in daily life.
equals no purchase. Companies making these things need a clue about why people pick one device from another. Users need ability to replace things that frequently go bad[like batteries] and the ability to expand storage. Without these key device aspects, things like this are little more than a toy... Sad really.
It would seem that, considering the sales of the most popular tablet (which incidentally costs 2X as much), these things aren't nearly as important as you're stating.
How is the Galaxy Tab 2 7" not one of the comparison models for benchmarks? At the same size and at a close price-point, it seems a much better candidate than the original Galaxy Tab or the Xoom if you want to make comparisons. And HP Touchpad? Really? FFS....
OK T30 Tegra 3 clocked 1.1 with 4 cores and 1.3 with the 5th coaster core for sipping juice and doing light duty CPU work which is more than you might think is in the Nexus 7. vs. Galaxy Tab 2 7 running a 4430 dual core out of the left over parts bin from Kindle Fire. 2) DDR3 RAM the exact used in the new Mac Pros only it's1GB,vs, DDR2 but at least it is 1GB. Display IPS 216 ppi pixel density screen with 178 degree viewing range and rich powerful color spectrum, vs a washed out 169ppi with grays instead of blacks and no color pop at all. I owned one, I returned for two reasons, unacceptable display and 80 seconds to load 6 pages of PDF files. Did you not read this article and do you understand the benchmarks? The Tab 2 did not make the cut and even get on the benchmark charts, let alone rank high on the benchmarks like the Nexus 7. The old Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a real tablet. The Tab 2 7 a little thing Samsung throw together in pretty case to hit a price point, but where's the beef? There is none. It is just a cute little starter unit with Kindle parts with an extra 512MB of old DDR2 ram which is cheap now. The Tab 2 can't hold a candle to the old Galaxy Tab 10.1 for display or power. The Nexus 7 stomps all 7" tabs even ones costing 3 times as it does. Samsung usually defies the math with their displays, however they didn't bother with the Tab 2 7. That's why it is NOT on the Benchmarks, it isn't good enough. Sorry to be so blunt. Now if you bought one, and it is your first tablet, just use it and have fun with it. Next time when you upgrade step up for a power/strong display unit. It's all good, right.
"I found out that mounting USB storage will not be supported natively."
Why is this not a function of Android itself? If it has a file system and USB drivers, then it shouldn't even be an option; it should be available and taken for granted.
By pulling shit like this, Google is killing Android's advantage over iOS: connectivity and proper I/O. They named their whole conference "I/O", at which they launched this hypocrisy?
Apple's devices are relegated to toys and gimmicks because Apple prevents developers from doing the most basic data sharing and communication with external devices. Want to control a camera or other USB device through the dock port? NOPE. Want to share data between your iOS app and a counterpart app on the computer? NOPE. Those expected functions, which should have been ironed out with the first release of the SDK, are still not available years later. Because Apple is ruled by fear.
That's where Android can provide far more real-world applications, for both productivity and fun. And a small tablet like this would be a great place to start developing. So now Google decides to cripple it? Yet another failure. It's like they can't learn.
Don't even start with the "cloud" scam. In an era when local storage is dirt cheap and spacious, it's exactly the wrong time to offload all of your media to some third-party server and then PAY to get it back, and PAY for data overages, and not even be able to access it in other countries, the subway, a plane, a road trip through the mountains...
To get one large, contiguous piece of storage, Google literally can't have an SD card slot -- the moment it does, you end up with the usual splintered Android storage pool. 3GB here, 8GB there, but you can't pool it all or in some cases write to all of it. This is one of the core reasons why Apple doesn't use SD cards: it's hard to pitch an iPhone as the natural companion for iTunes if you can't actually fit 64GB of content (minus the OS, anyways) into 64GB of space.
As for the "toys and gimmicks" myth, ask corporations whether they're seeing more uptake of iOS devices or Android gear. More cross-pollination between parts of the OS would be great... but do you know what's also great? Having a higher-quality app ecosystem and device security. While you're bemoaning theoreticals, iOS users are actually getting things done. Getting real, large-scale corporate deployments while the Galaxy Tabs and Xyboards collect dust at Best Buy.
Android is potentially more powerful, but the decidedly worse-off development tools, a lax Google attitude towards taking down malware/knock-off/scam apps and Google's open hostility towards tablet-only apps (Andy Rubin has stated he doesn't want there to be such a thing) leave a lot of that potential wasted. Flipboard has said there are no plans, ever, for optimizing its app for Android tablets, as an example. Twitter's official app has no Android tablet optimization. You can't say you're getting more done on an Android tablet if developers are actively avoiding contact.
I FOUND THIS, "that the "external" in "external storage" is there for historical reasons, but refer to the shared storage of the device, internal or external, and not only to sd cards.
From the dev site: «Every Android-compatible device supports a shared "external storage" that you can be used to save files. This can be a removable storage media (such as an SD card) or an internal (non-removable) storage.»"
Now this is from an attendee of the Google I/O. "READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission. This is a new permission that will be required in a future release for apps that want to read the contents of the SD card. Up to now, anybody could read the SD card. It's not enforced in JellyBean unless you turn on a special developer option. Google strongly encourages all developers that read from the SD card to include this permission now" which sounds to a lay person like me, that Devs. can write in permission for an app to be allowed to be transferred to an app like "Apps2SD? I have not found many apps since Gingerbread and Honeycomb on to ICS that allow app storage to SD. I used it all the time in Elcair and Froyo.
Mr M S P, please understand, I am not trying to pass myself off as a coder or even a good Typist. But do these top paragraphs suggest that there can, with hitting the high notes, and crossing the T~s and dotting the I~s and using a micro USB to SD adapter, suggest to you that external is possible in JB?
Bad slow wifi is a buck a minute (approx). And plugging crap into a micro usb is asking for trouble. My Nook Color has a wonderful IPS tablet, boots off the sd, and works great. I would have gotten the Nexus 7 but it is locked into the cloud.
So I guess we should assume that the power usage steaming media from the cloud through a radio is exactly the same as off its local storage. Wifi is bad enough but when it gets to 3g or even 4g the cloud becomes just a joke for content. Add in limited availability problems and google just totally misses the point of their own devices.
I do not care if they sold it for $99 people would still complain and of it had the SD expansion then something else and on and on. Really just consider the device to cost $250.0 and stop complaining. Sure I want more storage and I want better speakers and I want but if you are really honest and have used it Google has done an amazing job.
I can't believe how good this little tab is. Love the quad core and screen and for me those two make up for any minor problems. Plus giving you $25 worth of content they are practically selling these at cost.
Finally an alternative to the Ipad!!! Might I say it in some ways is better and costs a fraction of the iPad. For most people this device will do 80-90% of your computing needs. Also regardless of comparisons it is a really good device all on its own. It feels good, looks good, performs snappy and is a pleasure to use. I like the Google play interface and choicenof amazon market as well instead of just Apple store.
So if lack of expansion memory, a back camera, flash, and stereo speakers and lack of ports is going to stop you but you would still buy and Ipswich with the same restrictions at a higher price and not complain? Flash is over on mobile not because of apple or Android but because of Adobe. So it is on the way out. Storage issues can be worked around, lack of HDMI and no expansion slot is all I hear about but what device selling at $200 has those things? For what you get for the price is really a good deal and if google wants to promote thier services I see no problems as I am left to decide for myself.
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Alroys - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
If only it had a micro-sd slot.janderk - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
This being a Nexus device Google probably left the microSD slot out, not due to cost restrains, but because they want to force themselves (and you) to live from the cloud.Local storage should be nothing more than cache. Enough to get you through an around the world flight, but nothing more. No SD slot forces the Google developers to make cloud access more seamless and user friendly.
Sufo - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
And yet there is no cellular option... I think this is one of those situations where you've said something that sounds reasonable, but is, in fact, not the case. My guess would be that it is, almost entirely, down to cost (and perhaps a way to encourage more people to spend $50 on 8GB of extra flash).Spunjji - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Agreed.prophet001 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
I would agree if....Google did not consume information to survive.
Google offered options for syncing Nexus' data to local PCs.
Google supported Samsung's Kies software.
Google did not require a gmail account for the majority of its services.
It wasn't blatantly obvious Google wants you in their cloud.
EnzoFX - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
err, but is that not the "forcing" part? I think it has to be true, they wouldn't hurt themselves on purpose with no MicroSD slot. It being wifi only isn't a big deal either. There is a market that wants cellular, and people who don't, so they have to have that option, makes sense that the wifi only option is cheaper. In regards to the cloud, well then you have to think about the times you don't have internet access. Are people going to use their tablet then? I'd say not likely. Which is more the root of the issue I'd say. It's a device, people will buy it for what it can do now, they won't think, oh how much junk can I load onto it? This at least, for the common person out there that isn't very tech savvy. Yet again it seems like the power users here on anandtech aren't the ones driving design/tech, it's the average consumer they're all trying to cater to. For us power users, maybe they think that the specs alone would make it worthy enough for us to buy, because those specs don't mean all that much to the average consumer.rushmore - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
If you guys have been following ANdroid team since the pre G1 days, you will find that they HATE external storage and wanted flash and no SD for the G1 and all Android devices. The problem was Apple's contract manufacturing buyers secured the majority of flash memory allocations for a few years. This meant it was not practical for a few years to put anything beyong 4gb and alot were half of that.Google was forced to embrace sd cards as a reult, and still were a year late getting an official apps2sd or sd cards. They hate coding for external storage and the security concerns. The goal all along was a Google market portal and cloud storage. Android team has stated this a few times, so not conjecture.
rushmore - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
My spelling is on drugs.fteoath64 - Saturday, June 30, 2012 - link
Your comments on sd card nand did not make sense and did not pan out in the market as 16gb micro SD are now dirt cheap.Besides let the users put their media on the SD card. not all people have cloud access nor want it as yet. if google wants to move in a direction their users do not want to go then eventually will lose these users. Why pay for what you do not want ?
Neoprimal - Monday, July 2, 2012 - link
Actually his comments did make sense. nand (internal flash memory) /= sd card (external, much slower flash memory) so please take note of that.Nand at the time the G1 came about was ridiculously expensive - whether due to Apple or not, I have no clue. All I do know is that in device teardowns, the storage was often the most expensive besides the screen and albeit for very little of it. For this reason, many initial Android devices had tiny internal storage...a ridiculous amount even, allowing the bare essentials to be installed which consists of the OS and a few apps.
It has been established, if you listened to Google devs since day 1, that they reluctantly used SD/external storage. It was a necessity in order to facilitate storing media and gaming apps early on.
They didn't even like the idea of non-gaming apps on them at all, but as time went by the need arose to allow it (since people would run out of storage space on their devices). Trade offs were made and it became an Android feature to easily move some apps to SD with the caveat that its widget could no longer be used on the ui.
If you've owned different brands of devices you'll see that each of them has their own implementation of how the system sees/names the external storage. Not only does this create a disparity for software devs but it decreases system security. External memory can also be an issue and liability to the system since they can be too slow or of bad quality and fail (a likely reason Apple didn't include the sd card slot in any mobile device).
Eventually we will see more and more devices ship without it. Even without consideration given to the cloud, it is just much better for a device to depend on internal storage. It basically removes all the wild cards that the microSD can cause from the equation.
masterpfa - Thursday, July 5, 2012 - link
I personally, having used the GNex for over 7 months have found adaptation to non SD card availability, not such a bitter pill to swallow, only requirement is sufficient internal storage initially (unfortunately 16GB is not quite enough, I manage, but would prefer 32Gb min)Saroku - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
You don't know very much. Internal Storage AND SD Cards use NAND. Samsung and Apple in my opinion are the only good companys in terms of storage. The iPhone has 64GB storage and the Galaxy S3 has 64GB plus micro sd slot so that you can have 128GB. And all the others? Only laughable 16(!)gb (16 and 128GB, thats a HUGE difference) or 32gb with no sd slot.Saroku - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
Microsoft is doing it much better. Just like on Windows, you can just connect the Windows phone 8 in a Micro sd that will be threatened like for example an external HDD or a USB Drive Stick on a Windows PC. On Android, you can even use USB Sticks as external Storage. But why not Micro SDs? where is the point that they allow you to connect USB-Drives and external Harddrives via USB adapter to an android device, but not an SD-Card? HDD, USB, SD, the're basically all the same: External Storage.Saroku - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
Very nice to be limited on storage just because google has this idealism of only one internal storage and no option to use something else. I hate it, in 2009 I knew that there will be 128GB sds in the next years and now we are close to that. But NO, google just now removes the ability to use the sds we waited so long for. So we are as limited on storage as we where a few years ago.coder543 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
if Google didn't make and own Android, you mean?prophet001 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
To some degree.The question in my mind is "Does Google give me the freedom to do what I want with what I own??"
The obvious answer (from not only Google but others as well) is No.
Microsoft makes and owns Windows but can you imagine what would happen if they forced everyone's information into their cloud? I can't even conceive of the Corporate, Private, and Governmental backlash to something like that. Contrast that with how Google approaches your (yes your) information and device rights.
monkeypenguin - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
Remember Microsoft Kin?Arguably the first cloud based Phone OS.
fitten - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Cellular isn't as big of a deal, IMO. How many people who have this will have a smartphone with them that can hotspot if you need that kind of connectivity?kkwst2 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Percentage of people posting here? Probably 75%. Percentage of potential market for this device? I'd guess more like 10-15%.mcnabney - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
How about percentage of people that can hotspot at no additional charge AND have unlimited data? T-mobile throttles very quickly and a throttled T-mobile or ANY Sprint is just going to be too slow to stream video.Google's plans revolve around the Cloud and heavy bandwidth consumption at the same time that wireless companies are erecting bandwidth meters. I'm sure that the wealthy iOS users won't mind paying $80-150/mo for a lot of GB on LTE through a hotspot, but Android users have historically been quite a bit more thrifty.
Finraziel - Saturday, June 30, 2012 - link
How does the price of bandwidth change if you need to buy a seperate subscription for your tablet? I don't know about in the states, but over here in the Netherlands that's more expensive so I'd rather just pay for a bigger data bundle on my phone and share that with my tablet.MobiusStrip - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
You shouldn't be streaming video over the cellular network in the first place.rarson - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
I'd imagine that the majority of people who buy this probably won't be using it outside their home.I've never really seen a reason to have cellular in a tablet. It's not worth the cost.
piroroadkill - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
How's the kool-aid? Seriously, screw this 'cloud' nonsense, I hate hearing about it. I don't want my files 'in the cloud' and I don't care about it.killerclick - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
If you use Gmail or Yahoo Mail or Hotmail, your files are already "in the cloud".piroroadkill - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
I don't use gmail, hotmail, or yahoo, I use a paid for service hosted by a small company in Norway.But in my opinion, there's a difference between using email online (this is integral to the service, inseparable) and having to upload my music and videos over a crappy DSL line only to have to download them again over a crappy 3G connection instead of, you know, using an SD card which would be instant. The idea that the cloud is good for everything is flawed.
quiksilvr - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
It's really a case-by-case scenario. For example, I use Google Music, but I can save music for offline listening. For those with say, 100GB of music, this can be problematic. For me, I have roughly 6GB of music, half of which I don't even listen to anymore.Furthermore, services like html5 grooveshark, pandora, spotify, etc. is much more interesting. And besides, if you are a real stickler for quality, you can just plug it in to your computer and transfer a couple GBs.
I agree that not having microSD can be annoying (especially for those that would like to put custom ROMs) but at least it isn't a meager amount.
mcnabney - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
I plan on rooting my Nexus 7 ASAP and attaching various thumbdrives to it by way of the microUSB port. Unfortunately that will also prevent me from renting movies from Google Play. Too bad. I guess they should have thought of that before gimping their own device.They should have put a microSD slot on the $250 version. It would at least have added something more than 8GB (actual cost increase = 80 cents) to the $50 price increase.
c4v3man - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Who says you need to root to be able to use USB OTG?coder543 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Tell me where you can find 8GB of a flash memory for 50 cents, I'd love some. Last I checked it wasn't that cheap.. obviously it isn't $50 expensive, but at least they aren't charging in $100 steps like Apple.secretmanofagent - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
http://www.buy.com/prod/kingston-8gb-microsdhc-fla...8GB microSD card, five bucks with free shipping.
mcnabney - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
You can buy flash in various forms for as little as $0.50/GB at retail. That includes SD/thumbdrive it is inside of, the retail packaging, shipping, and several profit margins. The difference in price from buying an 8GB NAND chip to solder onto the board and a 16GB chip is probably less than a dollar.stephenrup - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
Not sure about you US guys but can get 8gb micro card for less than £3.60, £16 for under 6.50 Cl 4, and even the latest 64B sandisk ultra micro sdxc for about 45 through play.com. I think mcnabney must have meant 80 cents per GB?Any way at least for apple products you are'nt charged £100 on each memory ugrade which is $155!!
Hence why I don't own any apple products yet.
ven1ger - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
If there is a microUSB port available, couldn't one just attach a USB microSD card reader via that, would have been nice if it was already built-in.Maybe, the Nexus 8 will have the extras that everybody is so upset over.
Given the price point, I think the Nexus 7 is just right for people like me. People that have taken the plunge into the tablet market. I don't have a tablet in the house as yet, but given this price, I'd consider getting it. If you really need/desire/want the other options and want to pay for it, just purchase one of the other devices that have all the bells and whistles that you want.
Impulses - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
http://www.amazon.com/SANOXY-Micro-USB-OTG-Adapter...mcnabney - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
I ordered that exact item from Amazon last night (and an extra small 32GB "thumb"drive for $19.However, it ships direct from Hong Kong and will arrive in mid-July (which is good because that is about when my Nexus 7 will arrive).
gatorproof - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
Ok, sorry, but this is the link that gives you the Host/Card/Snyc Mini USB link. So you now have Full USB, Full SD, Micro SD and Power Port. Plus as the article stated, you can use a USB to Ethernet to hard wire to a cable source.I can't believe you guys who are snivelling about no SD Card didn't read the 2nd paragraph from the bottom in the article, or you just don't know what it means?
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-...
masterpfa - Thursday, July 5, 2012 - link
I agree, I have held off from the tablet market for such a device as this at an acceptable price point but with a thoroughly decent screen and CPU/GPU combination. At this price 16gb is enough for me.MobiusStrip - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
Why should you have to hack a device to use it as you see fit?If this is required on a Google device, that's an inexcusable blow to the entire Android platform. What a fraud! They don't even have the excuse of pandering to a telco.
Saroku - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
Well, there are 128GB Micro SDs comming this or next year so even 100GB wont be a problem. Oh wait, on android it will be a problem because they don't allow you to have an SD Card!c4v3man - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
The idea that the cloud is bad for everything is flawed.Google is providing space in the cloud for your stuff, even hosting a large quantify of YOUR music for you. If that isn't enough, use USB OTG to a portable drive/sd adapter, or purchase a different Android tablet.
I am bummed that it doesn't have a MicroSD slot, but it's just not that big of a deal. Heck, I can just store stuff on my Galaxy S3's MicroSD card and transfer using NFC and WifiDirect if I need to refresh content.
gatorproof - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
What part of mini usb port don't you get? That is the power port. againhttp://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-...
stephenrup - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
Definitely agree that the cloud is very flawed!I hate non micro SD card devices, I mean what use is wifi when travelling on a train or in a hotel charged at £5.00 per hour, or on a plane wher there is non!,Or heaven forbid actually be somewhere that doesn't have wifi for a few days (countryside in youth hostels, camping, even in the car).
8 or 16GB isn't going to give you much videotime if you use all that HD resolution! I'd think Just Great I'm going away for 2 weeks in a non wifi zone and I'm stuck with 4 movies if I'm lucky!
Really wanted to get a tablet and for this reason alone I won't even look at this one.
Seriously I just don't get what the problem is with versatility and user friendliness, I detest Apple and their devices for the same reason!
MobiusStrip - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
"If you use Gmail or Yahoo Mail or Hotmail, your files are already "in the cloud"E-mail ≠ files
And you can use those services in a traditional IMAP way, can't you?
prophet001 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Agreeprophet001 - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
"RE: Re: MicroSD by piroroadkill on Thursday, June 28, 2012How's the kool-aid? Seriously, screw this 'cloud' nonsense, I hate hearing about it. I don't want my files 'in the cloud' and I don't care about it."
Best comment ever
prophet001 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Not a conspiracy theorist. However, I would not be surprised it this was the case based on who Google is.MilwaukeeMike - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
The cloud doesn't work so well when you're in the clouds... aka, on an airplane trying to entertain a child with a movie on a tablet. Sure would be nice to have some extra space then. The cloud should be an option, not a requriement. Compare this tablet to my Nook tablet. This nexus blows it away, but if you want offline access to large files then it's worthless.mcnabney - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Yep. This device isn't going to be able to hold enough HD movie content to make it across the Pacific, much less all of the other things you will want to store on it (music, books, pictures, a few games).jabber - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
For crying out loud does it have to be HD?You just need some entertainment on a flight. A flight is not the place for a full on immersive movie experience. It's just for distraction.
You can watch plenty of DVDs squashed down to 500Mb to pass the time. I would have thought 5-6 movies would be enough distraction for most flights.
If thats not good enough well...maybe you should just stay at home.
Saroku - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
Why should I want to squash down my DVDs? I just go, buy a Galaxy Tab with a Micro SD slot and have enough storage not to have to convert my files into a bad quality. And because of that, I critizize the Google Nexus 7. It doesnt have enough storage, so they lose me as a buyer and its their own fault.By now, its not a Problem to have 100GB on a Tablet, this is the modern technology we have by now. Its the fault of the manufacturers to not use the modern technology and losing consumers who know what they can get today, what todays state of the art storagespace is. 128GB is state of the art and not 8GB or 16GB. This was way back in 2008.
gatorproof - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
You are all in luck. In fact Amazon sells a little adapter only 1 inch high that inserts into the mini USB power port. It then on the bottom gives you 4 ports. 1 power port 1 Full SD 1 Full USB 1 Micro SD. Cost 20 bucks on Amazon.coder543 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Link?ven1ger - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
http://www.dealextreme.com/Try looking there for some cheap gadgets like microSD readers and other nifty gadgets. That's why my previous comment about using the MicroUSB with a MicroSD reader, why the big deal?
Deal Extreme is a HK company but ships for free, though takes a bit longer, from about 2-3 weeks so you have to be patient and I've ordered from them many times just for cables, adapters, card readers and other small gadgets that aren't very expensive, though sometimes quality of items can be iffy.
Impulses - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Simpler:http://www.amazon.com/SANOXY-Micro-USB-OTG-Adapter...
mcnabney - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
I ordered that last night. It also comes from Hong Kong and takes 2-3 weeks.rarson - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
"Local storage should be nothing more than cache."Great idea, as long as you trust Google with your data (I don't).
I don't understand why anyone would be willing to store anything of importance on a cloud service. The few advantages are outweighed by some pretty major disadvantages.
prophet001 - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
yepSaroku - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
If we do that, we should just remove Storage from all Desktop and Notebook PCs. But this will not happen. Why? Because the cloud is inferior and slow compared to local storage. And I hate it to download everything again, again, again and again just because some people think its "cool" to do that and force everyone to use the cloud by removing local storage.The cloud is just a made up hype. It is good for emails and textfiles, but not for 1080p Videos and Music. Its a pain in the ass to have to download everything again JUST because there is not enough storage to save your files on your device.
Impulses - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
I understand the disappointment, but I think a lot of people don't realize USB OTG is a decent compromise. If you really want extra storage for music/movies just take a thumb drive and a 2" USB OTG cable with you when traveling... It'll mount just like a PC, you can even get cables with a right angled microUSB male connector so that the short cable is parallel/flush with the tablet and exerts less torque on the port (less danger of yanking on it while holding it).beowulfpt - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
I don't agree here. I have USB OTG on my Galaxy S2 and thought about using it a lor for storage but it is just not practical enough.With the tablet I would probably be interested in the possibility of watching some HD movies/shows while travelling. That often means 4GB+ files and its not possible to just plug in an external hard drive with NTFS.
I was rather interested in this unit but when I realized it has no microSD slot, then it is a no-go for me. I like the price and specs, but I also want the ability to eventually add a bit more space to it in the future if I need it.
gatorproof - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Hey, just use EVER and rip and convert Bluesy movies to H.264 or Mpegs and that 25GB BD movie is now 1.5GB. meaning 3 movies in 4GB. Your Welcome.gatorproof - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
SORRY my tablet types what it wants if I don't watch it. That's use DvdFab to convert BD movies down to 1.5GB. I use the Juicer which plugs into mini USB and still gives you A power port and Full USB, Full SD and Micro SD in a 1 inch by 1.75 inch device.chrnochime - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Got a link for that juicer? Google search turns up chargers for ipad and tablets.gatorproof - Saturday, June 30, 2012 - link
Look above in my post. Host/card/snyc Juiced for Gslaxy s 2 on amazon gives micro sd.full sd.full usb and power port 20 bucks. Works on all 6 pin mini usb.neostar63 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Thanks for providing something useful rather than just complaining. I will have to look into this. I am assuming this is an active cable that takes over hosting duties?Impulses - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Tablet handles everything if its a low power USB device, just need a cable like this:http://www.amazon.com/SANOXY-Micro-USB-OTG-Adapter...
For a 2.5" drive or something like that you might need a powered USB hub.
JNo - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
And mini HDMI out - as Tegra 3 can decode 1080p at 40mbit/s...Death666Angel - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
I miss the (micro-)SD slot as well as the HDMI out. My Chinese tablet costs about as much and offers these things. Pity.cyborg1280 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
It would be great to have the Micro SD built in but one can use a micro usb to micro SD adapter if you really in need of a bit of extra local memory. Tablets by design have very limited storage even if you have the SD slot your still likely to be limited to lets say 32GB avg.Its best to access your media via your own hosted webserver or the Google Cloud as they would prefer. I believe its about the money, as you will have to pay Google once you reach your storage quotas. Smart way to reel eveyone in, regardless the product is an outstanding value and you can use it how you like.
I have my own media server which allows me to access TV recordings, family footage, music, etc.. There are alot of great ways to setup your own media server and than you can host TB's of storage if you want for much less than a hosted service charges. Catch being you had better have backups since you dont have a 3rd party server to rely on.. Anyways Im tempted to pickup a Nexus 7 if they fair well in the reviews after the release.
Videos, Photos, Music all take tons of storage space, so it makes sense to encourage everyone to store in the cloud.
Saroku - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
No, 128GB SD Cards are avaiable since spring 2011.Why should I use the cloud on my tablet or smartphone? On my PC and notebook, It only makes sense BECAUSE google limits the local space and this is whats annoying. If they would let us use SDs, we wouldnt have to use the cloud because we already got enough space in our hands.
maeshughes - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
I'm seriously depressed at the lack of a microSD slot. I never thought that Google would screw over consumers to promote their cloud services like Apple and Amazon. The worst part now is that I can't even get the ASUS Eee Pad MeMo 370T that I originally wanted.killerclick - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
There will be similar tablets just as cheap that will include microSD and HDMI.I'm buying this, and 8 GB at that. I don't care about storage at all, as I won't be watching movies on the go. At home I can stream from other devices if I really want to watch a movie, but I doubt I will since holding the screen while I watch a movie is kinda stupid.
MilwaukeeMike - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Exactly. Charging more for storage and leaving out the microSD is crap that Apple pull with their iPhone models. Wi-Fi doesn't work on road-trips, and i'm sure the ISP's don't appreciate this cloud trend of upload and stream to access your own stuff.Shadowmaster625 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
why cant you use a thumb drive with a micro usb to usb cable? Its not as portable but it does give you access to dozens if not hundreds of hours of media on the road. You just will probably want to copy it over first. It is a minor inconveniece. But then again a card slot is only what $3?piroroadkill - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
It's as simple as that. Unless I can drop some video files onto an SD card, slam it in my tablet, and take it with me, I'm not interested in buying.My dirt cheap chinese tablet with a dodgy screen can take in microSD and play any video, hardware accelerated. This is the absolute bare minimum of functionality I would require to consider a purchase.
valkyrie743 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
im upset that there is no sd card slot of any sort but i still plan on buying it. 16gb's for videos and some music is decent and perfect for meyes it would be nice to buy the 8gb version and be able to buy a 32gb microsd card cheap on newegg but it doesn't . the kindle fire doesn't either. i think its companies way to keep cost low and not totally kill other tablets.
if this thing had a sd card slot. why would any one go for a larger screen tablet other than the big screen? at the moment, if you want a tablet with expandable storage, you'll have to pay high dolor. it sucks but thats how it is at the time.
plus everyone is pushing this cloud stuff and imo taking it to far. yes having files in the cloud is nice but i still need my local storage.
piroroadkill - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Then don't buy this cynical pile of junk, and show them that you don't want to pay $50 for 8GB of flash.mcnabney - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
$50 for 8GB of Flash (actual cost, about 80 cents more).Who does Google think they are, Apple?
Phynaz - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
They want to be Apple.Every tech company does.
andrewaggb - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
I think an extra 8gb of flash is likely in the $8-14 range if you look at isuppli breakdowns of other tablets (like the kindle fire). I couldn't find the exact price.mcnabney - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
SD currently costs between $0.50-60/GB after being packaged for retail. And that is inside of the thumbdrive/card. For retail you should also add in the packaging/shipping costs plus the profit margin for selling NAND as an accessory. You can buy 8GB thumb drives for $5 SHIPPED now. So the manufactures cost for just the NAND silicon inside is a small portion of that. I think a dime per GB might even be too high.coder543 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Where is this 80 cent figure coming from? Does the screen cost $1.20 as well and Amazon's just being a baby about it?mcnabney - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
The screen probably cost $15-20, since it is IPS.reuthermonkey1 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
I have to agree. Playing music off of Play Music is simple enough. Would an SD card slot be nice? Absolutely. But I'm getting the 16GB version so I can throw a couple 720p movies on there, and a few shows. Music won't be taking up any space, as I'll just stream that as I already do with my Galaxy Nexus. If this was a $350 tablet, i'd be up in arms about it not having an SD slot. But for $250 this is an outstanding replacement for my Kindle Fire.mcnabney - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Did you perhaps notice that this is wifi only? Since 1% of the country is covered by wifi, that makes this device pretty worthless when you are in the other 99%. They are even marketing this device for travel purposes, which shows you what morons they are.amdwilliam1985 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
I'm glad it's wifi only.No way I'm going to pay another data plan for 3g/4g, not in a million year.
Luckily this wifi tablet can get to internet through my "free" tether from my phone's paid data plan, so it works :)
I have a co-worker who paid $699+ for an ipad and a 2 year plan, lol, lol, lol.
Google Nexus 7 FTW.
steven75 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
iPad cellular plans aren't 2 year contracts. They are month-to-month. This is true worldwide, as far as I know.steven75 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Incidentally I'm not sure there is an Android tablet that offers a month-to-month celluar plan, so this is actually a win for iPad over Android tablets.mcnabney - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
I'm not sure about the other carriers, but data service on a Verizon tablet does not require a contract. It is month to month by default.coder543 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
All those people who traveled around the country in the pre-2000's were morons weren't they. You mean going places without my latest 4G LTE tablets?!? Moronic idea.Do you even listen to yourself? Wifi is great, and 16GB of storage is enough for most personal effects that you'll need in the near future. You can rotate the cache if you want different content.
rushmore - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
But is is not, since about 3gb is taken up by format parameters, OS allocation, stock apps and the OS operational floor (needs 500gb free, or can not update a lot of apps or install new apps.)Not to mention any app you install displaces the 13ish GB you will have.
jabber - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
Elsewhere in the world children starve, die of malaria, sold into slavery and have to walk miles to get drinking water. I know this is trivial compared to not being able to put all your Twilight movie torrents onto one device but I do sympathise poor baby.Georges003 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
I am puzzled about the GPS spec. Does the device have a GPS receiver or does it rely on Wi-Fi data only (meaning no WiFi signal - no position data)???fteoath64 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Its says compass, magnetometer, accelerator. NO GPS chip in there!. So it uses Wifi triangulation which can be fairly accurate in some place with plenty of APs running. Only issue is out in the wild-blue younder where wifi has no reach. Then it depends on your phone tether to handle the triangulation I suppose. They are cutting corner on exactly where they wanted. So people will compromise based on the price.With limited storage space, one can only get so much map cached or apps storage in this device. I think it is designed that way. Then for version 2 or version 3, the price can hike as the wanted features get added. But one thing is for sure later with version 4.x later releases of the OS, apps no longer will be allowed on SD card. This means native Nand needs to be way larger than it is.
I am sure there would be vendors looking at HC tablets of 7 inch or 8 inches that will allow multiple SD cards on the device. It becomes handy for users to store music, videos, photos and Full size SDcard from a Digicam to plug right in for previewing. With batteries lasting 8-9 hours, it is an excellent preview device for any camera man doing digital work.
Orktane - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Strange, the specs page clearly states it has GPS:http://www.google.com/nexus/#/7/specs
mcnabney - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
And there is no longer SD-based storage.DigitalFreak - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Waaaaaaaaaahhhhhh! STFU. If you don't like it, don't buy it. Simple as that.coder543 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
no longer. Was there ever? and why are you so upset. you don't have to buy this.IlllI - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
b/c these $199 tablets hold no interest for me. not since i got a $99 touchpadgorash - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
It has nearly the same PPI as the MBP Retina, yet the fanboys will say that it's "low res" and gushes over the MBP Retina screen.Super56K - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
I think so far it's just you because, you know, the Macbook is a laptop, and the Nexus 7 is a tablet. Sometimes it's best not to one up those dastardly 'fanboys.'zorxd - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
To be fair, what count is the number of pixels, not the density.The MBP display is the best for a laptop (might even be overkill). But for the same reason, 720p displays of Android phones are better than the 960x640 one of the iPhone.
steven75 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Actually no, the iPhone is still higher PPI than Android phones--Android phones just tend to be pocket-bustingly large.coder543 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
He said number of pixels is better than density. Did you read? and I rather find that my 4.65 inch Galaxy Nexus fits in all of my pockets comfortably.zorxd - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Some Android phones have higher PPI than the iPhone (every 720p 4.3" device)But that doesn't matter. Higher PPI is meaningless. Would you prefer your iPhone if it had a 2" display? The PPI would be much higher. Of course not. You prefer a lower PPI, 3.5" iPhone. Some people would even prefer an even lower PPI, 4" iPhone. Phone size is a matter of personal preference. Small devices are harder to read and type on. Lager phones are more pocket-busting. But everyone want as much pixels as possible since it allows you to display more content.
radbmw - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Typo on the first sentence of the second page: desert instead of dessert.sakanagai - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
"I should note on the browser synthetics that we're also talking about Chrome here, not "Browser" as the Nexus 7 is the first Android device to ship with Chrome as the default browser. In this case, that means there's no "browser" to be found anywhere on the device. You can still install Flash from the Play Store, it just doesn't do anything anymore."Flash actually does work in Jelly Bean, just not with Chrome. According to the Nexus product pages, "Browser" is still available in Google Play. Firefox, once the tablet version is released, should also support Flash.
LaMpiR - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
It would be perfect if it had 3g option. This way I would have to use my phone to tether. SD card would make things a lot easier but I can live without it.One questions that just popped into my head.
If I have android phone and android tablet and I use the same e-mail account, are the apps automatically there in google store, waiting for me to install them? For example, I dont want the same apps on both devices.
jwcalla - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
They show up as your apps in the store, but you choose what to install on which device. E.g., I have some apps on my tablet that aren't on my phone and vice versa... but all are listed in my account when I go to the Play Store.amdwilliam1985 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Not me, I'm glad it doesn't have 3g/4g, having it will increase the price by $100(look at iPad), 3g/4g comes with monthly(annual) contract yet with another data plan.Tether to your phone, 1 data plan to rule them out.
steven75 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
iPad doesn't have annual contracts. It's the only tablet that offers month-to-month.mcnabney - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
All tablets on Verizon are month to month. I think the same is true of all carriers. Tablet contracts only existed for a brief period of time.Spunjji - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Thanks, Brian, for a tidy and succinct review. It felt like you gave fair evaluation to the platform based on what little time you spent with it and that's much appreciated.fmcjw - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Thank, Brian, best mini review I've seen. Did you have to open one up?For the full review: does it really have microusb OTG? Not confirmed in the review. If yes, what size USB drive will it take? FAT32? Does it output HDMI via MHL standard? Also, is GPS/A-GPS on board?
What kind of Li-ion battery? 1000-cycle, or 300? The difference between 3yr or 1yr life-span for this device.
Thanks again!
rushmore - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
Brian sure took a long time to get home to test. I hope he is alright!Still no info.
gatorproof - Thursday, July 5, 2012 - link
No Fat 32, NTFS is the required format in Android for extended, I believe. GPS on board with no need for WiFi. No MHL support but DLNA might be added but didn't see it included in the 90 page Google Nexus 7 user manual aka GuideBook. Download it for free and I think you will find it clears up most questions. Even though people keep saving no native support in JB for external storage, I see No mention in the Guide. It did say it will support multiple USB devices including game controllers, if they don't need drivers or software but with micro to SD or USB adapter. It even said if you run more then one USB device at a time, to prevent device battery drain, to use a powered USB hub. Interesting, since in x86, 127 devices can possibly run from one USB port. For your battery question, ifixit did a tear down and listed it. They also found the same DDR3 RAM type used in the Mac Pros. 1GB of course. So you will want to check their site for the huge info they shared.murphyeast - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
ANyone know if the Nexus will have the ebook reader apps? And will they allow in-app purchases?coder543 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Yes and yes.guestUser987 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Did i read correctly ... "no rear facing camera"? Umm...why would they not put that in there? If they have front-facing, why wouldn't they add rear-facing as well?zelachang - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Honestly, who takes pictures of stuff with their tablet? You don't need 3 devices for taking mediocre pictures, which is what any tablet/phone camera is going to do. Front facing at least makes sense for video chatting.steven75 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Rear facing is also helpful for showing people things in video chat.JasonInofuentes - Sunday, July 1, 2012 - link
Yes, but that's a bit of an edge case. And since video chat isn't even the most common thing in the world, it's edge case on top of fringe case.JasonInofuentes - Sunday, July 1, 2012 - link
+1trip1ex - Monday, July 2, 2012 - link
Well taking pictures is one thing a 7" tablet could be better at than the iPad.gatorproof - Thursday, July 5, 2012 - link
Confusing statement. Possibly the best tablet is the one on the new Asus TF700T, it has an extra lens and other camera improvements. If I understood you correctly, it sounded like your theory was 7" would take better pics then a larger tablet. I think the science is in the camera features and so on, not the size.tipoo - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Front facing is for video chat, a nice feature on tablets. With something this cost constrained though a rear facing camera would have dubious value, think about who the customers are, they probably have smartphones and dedicated cameras already, few serious shots would be taken with a tablet rear camera.uhuznaa - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
Especially for video chat a rear camera can be very useful (to show things to someone while still being able to see what you're aiming at). Same for taking shots of documents, or scanning QR tags...On the other hand -- OEMs now can offer tablets with a SD slot, a rear camera and a kickstand and still sell them for $300.
Arbie - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Or at least probably so. I would get a tablet like this (no cellular) to play media portably. SD is the cleanest way I've found to supply that. A micro-SD slot is so small and cheap technically that it should have been there. I'm very sorry it isn't.
tipoo - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Everyone is complaining over the lack of expandable storage, but it's still 200-250 bucks for a tablet with a really fast SoC, at the forefront of OS updates, nice screen, etc. It's more powerful than the Kindle Fire and less locked down. I like it, after some reviews and my own hands on I'll seriously consider getting one. Most content I see is on the web anyways, and 16GB is enough to hold over on a long flight, I can forgive the lack of an SD card for everything else.andrewaggb - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Your'e absolutely right, it's still probably the best tablet for it's price.But with an sd slot it would have been untouchable. And that's why everbody is complaining. Cheaper tablets with sd slots have crappy hardware and no play access. Or you pay more for a tablet that otherwise isn't as nice to get an sd slot, or you pay way more to get one with everything. (like the samsung galaxy 7 plus). 8-16 gb doesn't hold alot of video.
ven1ger - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
The MicroSD issue is a non-issue if you consider that you can use a MicroUSB -> MicroSD card reader like other people have mentioned or even use USB thumbdrives attached via MicroUSB -> USB, and consider attaching external USB HDs.I'm just wondering if I can use a USB modem to connect it to our Road Runner network for downloading content when not on the home wifi.
mcnabney - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
USB modems are higher-powered devices, so you would have to include a powered hub between the microUSB port and the USB modem/aircard. You would also need to find drivers/access software for the older models. The newest wireless aircards are driverless, so that might work without software - just the powered hub.rushmore - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
We are assuming this, since Brain has not tested to confirm (not posted yet, anyway).Input device support and storage management and powering are not the same thing. Plenty of device have USB input device support, but not storage support.
Also, plnety of people assume they are one and the same. JB 4.1 having the support and the firmware and hardware supporting it are not the same thing.
rushmore - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
Kind of like a Porche with a three gallon gas tank ;)JasonInofuentes - Sunday, July 1, 2012 - link
Eh. More like a Porsche with out a trunk. . . . wait. Oh, right.natsume - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
I didn't understand why google opted for a smartphone like interface, apparently we can't hold it horizontally like a normal tablet, really disappointingtipoo - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Just the launcher (and maybe not even that, haven't seen the settings). When you are in an app you can just rotate to horizontal. Just like any android phone.Impulses - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
You can hold it either way and the UI rotates/scales, better than IOS too, you've clearly never used an android tablet.JohnnyL1953 - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
At CES Asus previewed the Memo 370T which had all of the specs of the new Nexus tablet along with a micro SD slot, and a micro HDMI port at an announced price of $250 or exactly what Google is charging for the 16gig version of the Nexus 7.. Maybe the construction on the 7 is superior which could explain having to drop a lot of features to keep the price the same. I guess we'll be able to use the micro USB as a mass storage port.pxavierperez - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
So straight from the horse's mouth: previous Android version the UI drags. And I keep hearing Android users swear their UI is smooth as "butter". Google now admits their users were just imagining things. Funny.Super56K - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Android gets better with each revision. Going from 2.x -> 4.x was quite a nice jump in UI and overall performance so nobody was imagining things. Sounds like the JB update just makes things better yet.Sometimes people like to go overboard with superlatives when describing things. Thus, unending comments of the fastest, smoothest, greatest, blahest, blah of blah.
tipoo - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
I've never heard an Android user say ICS or prior was smooth as butter, while ICS was a great improvement most users would admit it's not always perfectly fluid.Scannall - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
It seems nice enough and all, at the price.But you have to wonder what the real goal of it is. This is a dagger in the back of all the OEM's that helped build the Android franchise. $199 is pretty much cost to build this. Sucking all the life out of the 7" market. Between buying Motorola, and now this it appears anyway, that since the Android name has been built they are trying to push the OEM's out.
If you're an OEM you have to be thinking of moving away from Android, as you are at the mercy of Google and their whims. Plus Googles goals aren't the same, or in line with their OEM's. Thinking about moving to Windows 8 seems likely. Or putting together a group of OEM's to develop WebOS, which is already very good and finishing it. At least that way they can actually do some future planning.
zorxd - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Are you an OEM?I am pretty sure that OEMs are happy today. This tablet will help popularize Android on tablets. Android is doing fine on phones, but still lags behind iOS on tablets (in terms of market share). If OEMs want to sell tablets in the future, they want the market share of Android to be as high as possible.
Amazon already had a $200 tablet anyways, and Asus planed a $250 one. This isn't anymore a dagger in the back of the OEMs than any Nexus phone. Also, google always partner with the bests. Asus makes the best tablets and Samsung the best phones. If you are an OEM and want to make the next Nexus, just make something good. We call this competition. It gives incentives to OEMs to make the best devices.
Scannall - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
The problem with this is why care about making something if there is no profit in it. Selling these things at cost kills that particular market segment.You, as a consumer can say buy this one for $199. Or buy one made by a company that has to actually sell them for more than cost. Say the exact same thing for $275. Who gets your money? Or, the for profit one say has a SD card slot. But it's $300. Would you pay $100 for that? Probably not.
You could race to the bottom I suppose, but you'd have to really make some cheap crap and sell it for almost nothing to get out of competition in this particular size and form.
I can see making a reference model. All the goodies, memory, SD slot, 3G/4G and sell it for a premium. That gives OEM's a target to shoot for, and still make some money. But taking the profit potential off the table is just plain stupid, unless you want to pith the OEM's out the window while still keeping your agreements you made for the Motorola merger.
andrewaggb - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
I agree. If the manufacturers don't get half of the 30% market profits, they have no motivation to give stuff away.I'm not sure what Asus gets for this.
Maybe it's to try to make sure microsoft doesn't get a foot hold in the tablet market.
Maybe it's because they've seen after trying to fight apple at similiar price points or even a fair bit cheaper, they just aren't succeeding. So... they are going to try this. And seeing as how apple is slowly giving google the boot whereever they can, google needs to get market share fast.
It's certainly not doing any favors to it's partners, but then microsoft's surface announcement didn't do their partners any favors either.
Starting to look like a bad time to be a hardware manufacturer relying on somebody's else software.
ven1ger - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Since Google is the one that will be selling it at cost, I'm sure that ASUS is making some money off of this.If an OEM..ahem..ASUS was just to add a few things that were missing that everybody is clamoring for, then they could easily come out with another version with the bells and whistles and sell it at a good price and still make a profit.
I think Google setting the bar with the Nexus 7 is a good shot across the bow of all the OEMs that were just dumping a lot of crappy hardware on the market, that making a good tablet doesn't have have to be expensive.
mcnabney - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Google is not selling it at 'cost'. They just aren't adding any markup on their end. Asus has plenty of profit margin.Scannall - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Except that in this case, ASUS is a contractor, with a known volume to sell. Not to mention not having to market, distribute, advertise, buy shelf space etc.
Much cheaper.
JasonInofuentes - Sunday, July 1, 2012 - link
+1JasonInofuentes - Sunday, July 1, 2012 - link
Also, there's no way that Asus would agree to build this, if they weren't making any money. Again, take the whole product down and the bill of materials is undoubtedly below $200. $199 is likely what Google is paying per device. But Asus isn't breaking even on this. They're making a profit because the total cost of components is less than this, possibly much much less. And OEMs can do the same. And better than that, they can start stratifying based on honest to goodness features. Want a better display? Charge more. Want it bigger? Charge more. Want more memory? Charge more. Want more processor? Charge more. We know from the PC space that the BOM for a low specced device is not that far off from a higher specced device. But when you order a Dell with lots more memory, the fee is ever larger, and far outpaces the cost of the actual RAM. This establishes how that same model can be applied to tablets.gatorproof - Thursday, July 5, 2012 - link
You want to see profit margins, Apple is the richest tech company on the planet because their loyal customer either don't know or don't care how much profit they are paying Applewww.pcworld.com/article/188196/apples_ipad_profit_breaking_it_down.html
www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/03/16/high_cost_of_new_ipad_components_drive_down_profit_margins.html
JasonInofuentes - Sunday, July 1, 2012 - link
Don't think of this as an effort to harm OEMs, nor even to move units. Popularity would help move the conversation along, but what this does is establish a standard that all OEMs should work with.Want to sell a $200 tablet, it should be this good. Want to go downmarket, make sure you're experience isn't so crappy that people regret it and wish they'd bought this. Want to go upmarket, make sure you offer enough features and performance boost to make it a compelling offer.
Without establishing this sort of base-line, you had mainstream tablets priced from $200 to $600, and though feature sets were all over the place, performance wasn't nearly so varied. NVIDIA knows how to stratify products, so they've done a great thing by providing the same part at different bins. But the SoC isn't close to the most expensive portion of the bill of materials for any tablet. That goes to the display, and depending on the capacity and density the NAND.
If you're an OEM, you're thinking, ok, I can make money on this by just adding a camera, or using the same other components but using the top binned Tegra 3, which would incrementally raise the BOM, but I could then charge $100 more.
The Nexus 7 establishes the roadmap by which OEMs can charge reasonable prices and still make money, and it sounds like Jelly Bean is what makes all of that possible.
SanX - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Brian, i appreciate your and Anand reviews as the best on the net but i notice one deficiency again and again. Please check your eyes and in future for all reviews wear at least +1 or +1.5 reading glasses. Check them for astigmatism too. The 200ppi is NOT acceptable for anything besides laptops and large monitors. Plus you must always keep your cell phones and small screen size tablets at the ***average best viewing distance*** for normal 20/20 vision which always for centuries was 25 cm or 10" not 12" as Steve Jobs "reinvented" it for marketing reasons or also had vision problems. Larger tablets keep at 12" and superlarge at 15". The laptops and monitors you may keep at SMPTE (30 degrees horiz angle) or better at THX recommended viewing distance (36 degrees) or even closer if monitor has better ppi.jwcalla - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
It's a tablet review.This isn't Moses scribing the Ten Commandments here.
A weensy bit of imperfection isn't of consequence.
wangwang - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
It is pity it does not has mini HDMI interface.I own 7" Hyundai A7HD tablet with mini sd, and mini HDMI. It is not as powerful as Google's Nexus but connected with wireless keyboard and mouse and my 26" Benq monitor, I could use it daily as full blown PC.
It is pity with Google Nexus 7 even with powerful quad core cpu I could not connect with my monitor .
mcnabney - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
This is their reply:Thank you for contacting Google. It was my pleasure assisting you today.
Though the Nexus 7 doesn’t include an SD card slot, we offer a 16 GB version if you’re looking for additional storage. Yes you can use an external storage through the microUSB.
If there is anything further we can assist you with, please feel free to reply directly to this email or visit our help center at http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/request.p...
Regards,
Jon
The Google Play Team
rushmore - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
Is this person assuming that because their manual shows USB support for input devices it is also for storage?Perhaps Brian's apparent delay in response is good news and he is preparing a post with different devices he tested..... Once can hope.
Kolmogorov - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
Can Nexus 7 turn to landscape mode? Especially in Chrome can we view the web page in full screen + landscape mode? It seems to me all photos are taken in portrait mode...tipoo - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
Yes. Just like any Android device.darkcrayon - Sunday, July 1, 2012 - link
Yes, I just wish all *apps* supported landscape mode (reasonable exceptions aside). I think that's part of the problem of non tablet optimized apps.BoloMKXXVIII - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
So how long will it be before someone sells a case for the Nexus 7 that plugs into the microUSB port and provides a SD/microSD card slot and a keyboard similar to the new MS Surface keyboard?rushmore - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
Sure is taking Brian a long time to validate if storage works or not..... ;)I appreciate there was a Google response, but those tend to be outsourced, so the person that responded may be assuming USB input support also means storage support. It could be yes it does, but you need a seperate power source for the storage (especially if 3.3V).
buspirate - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
Amazing that no one anywhere has posted anything about OTG mass storage support. What are all these attendees doing?Was hoping for a teardown by now too.
kenyee - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
Gizmodo said you can't get video out of the microUSB port?Can you confirm this? Seems like a big oversight :-P
TekDemon - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
My suspicion is that they simply took out landscape because switching between portrait and landscape in ICS was a total mess-the way android handled switching orientations meant that your icons were in hideous looking alignment (they would be off to one side or another) and if you had icons that were at the very edge of the screen in landscape mode they'd go flying off the screen in portrait mode such that they ended up on another page entirely. Frankly the way icons were handled were a horrible joke compared to...well, anything else-far as I can tell no other mobile OS had this issue since both WebOS and iOS seem perfectly capable of handling portrait to landscape and vice versa transitions.totalz - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
Everything sounds good, except, NO microSD support!Oh well, more choice will be coming sooner or later at $199!
Brizzelsprout - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
I can only laugh at everyone who is so overly negative. I especially love everyone who complains about the cloud and data security, you guys crack me up. Sorry to say fellas but the idea of the cloud is here to stay and in fact we have been using it for about.... well as long as the internet has existed, its just now marketed as some magical "cloud" but whatever. Oh and complaining about trusting Google with your data? LOL! You're on the internet, your "data" is gone and has been for quite some time.We will all see how well the nexus tablet work when they start shipping. Till then? Flame on nerds!
fteoath64 - Saturday, June 30, 2012 - link
The day when the government and private companies stay the heck out of cloud services on data privacy is the day when people will accept the cloud model. Meaning client based very strong encryption needed for serious data privacy. ie local hardware and software based heavy encryption used. the way that business is pushing governments now shows very little privacy unless privately used strong encryption is used by people wanting to secure their data privacy. There is little protection for the average person if corrupted judges uses stupid laws to procsecute people.The fact the people can built Android from source means that it is possible to make a personal secure version with strong encryption if the quadcore Tegra3/4 has the grunt to do it. t is way better than stupid virus protection on silly windows machines!.
gatorproof - Thursday, July 5, 2012 - link
40% of Americans don't have access to Broadband by cable. I, for one, pay 10GB for LTE because our land and home can never get cable. So at 10GB a month by not using clouds and watching You Tubes, sadly is a way of live. With taxes our monthly bill to run 2 desktops, 2 laptops and 3 tablets is over $100 a month. We are retired and travel out of the country nearly 6 months a year. SD is the only practical way to met our needs on 3 week vacations and in daily life.lexluthermiester - Sunday, July 1, 2012 - link
equals no purchase. Companies making these things need a clue about why people pick one device from another. Users need ability to replace things that frequently go bad[like batteries] and the ability to expand storage. Without these key device aspects, things like this are little more than a toy... Sad really.darkcrayon - Tuesday, July 3, 2012 - link
It would seem that, considering the sales of the most popular tablet (which incidentally costs 2X as much), these things aren't nearly as important as you're stating.lexluthermiester - Saturday, July 7, 2012 - link
And most buyers are near mindless sheep. Power users enjoy expansion options and customizations...trip1ex - Monday, July 2, 2012 - link
Just what I wanted. Half an Ipad for half price. Not.BrownPaw - Monday, July 2, 2012 - link
This would be the PERFECT 7" tablet if it only had MicroSD. God dammit, Google!uninspired - Monday, July 2, 2012 - link
How is the Galaxy Tab 2 7" not one of the comparison models for benchmarks? At the same size and at a close price-point, it seems a much better candidate than the original Galaxy Tab or the Xoom if you want to make comparisons. And HP Touchpad? Really? FFS....gatorproof - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
OK T30 Tegra 3 clocked 1.1 with 4 cores and 1.3 with the 5th coaster core for sipping juice and doing light duty CPU work which is more than you might think is in the Nexus 7. vs. Galaxy Tab 2 7 running a 4430 dual core out of the left over parts bin from Kindle Fire. 2) DDR3 RAM the exact used in the new Mac Pros only it's1GB,vs, DDR2 but at least it is 1GB. Display IPS 216 ppi pixel density screen with 178 degree viewing range and rich powerful color spectrum, vs a washed out 169ppi with grays instead of blacks and no color pop at all. I owned one, I returned for two reasons, unacceptable display and 80 seconds to load 6 pages of PDF files. Did you not read this article and do you understand the benchmarks? The Tab 2 did not make the cut and even get on the benchmark charts, let alone rank high on the benchmarks like the Nexus 7. The old Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a real tablet. The Tab 2 7 a little thing Samsung throw together in pretty case to hit a price point, but where's the beef? There is none. It is just a cute little starter unit with Kindle parts with an extra 512MB of old DDR2 ram which is cheap now. The Tab 2 can't hold a candle to the old Galaxy Tab 10.1 for display or power. The Nexus 7 stomps all 7" tabs even ones costing 3 times as it does. Samsung usually defies the math with their displays, however they didn't bother with the Tab 2 7. That's why it is NOT on the Benchmarks, it isn't good enough. Sorry to be so blunt. Now if you bought one, and it is your first tablet, just use it and have fun with it. Next time when you upgrade step up for a power/strong display unit. It's all good, right.MobiusStrip - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
"I found out that mounting USB storage will not be supported natively."Why is this not a function of Android itself? If it has a file system and USB drivers, then it shouldn't even be an option; it should be available and taken for granted.
By pulling shit like this, Google is killing Android's advantage over iOS: connectivity and proper I/O. They named their whole conference "I/O", at which they launched this hypocrisy?
Apple's devices are relegated to toys and gimmicks because Apple prevents developers from doing the most basic data sharing and communication with external devices. Want to control a camera or other USB device through the dock port? NOPE. Want to share data between your iOS app and a counterpart app on the computer? NOPE. Those expected functions, which should have been ironed out with the first release of the SDK, are still not available years later. Because Apple is ruled by fear.
That's where Android can provide far more real-world applications, for both productivity and fun. And a small tablet like this would be a great place to start developing. So now Google decides to cripple it? Yet another failure. It's like they can't learn.
MobiusStrip - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
Don't even start with the "cloud" scam. In an era when local storage is dirt cheap and spacious, it's exactly the wrong time to offload all of your media to some third-party server and then PAY to get it back, and PAY for data overages, and not even be able to access it in other countries, the subway, a plane, a road trip through the mountains...Commodus - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
It's the nature of the file system.To get one large, contiguous piece of storage, Google literally can't have an SD card slot -- the moment it does, you end up with the usual splintered Android storage pool. 3GB here, 8GB there, but you can't pool it all or in some cases write to all of it. This is one of the core reasons why Apple doesn't use SD cards: it's hard to pitch an iPhone as the natural companion for iTunes if you can't actually fit 64GB of content (minus the OS, anyways) into 64GB of space.
As for the "toys and gimmicks" myth, ask corporations whether they're seeing more uptake of iOS devices or Android gear. More cross-pollination between parts of the OS would be great... but do you know what's also great? Having a higher-quality app ecosystem and device security. While you're bemoaning theoreticals, iOS users are actually getting things done. Getting real, large-scale corporate deployments while the Galaxy Tabs and Xyboards collect dust at Best Buy.
Android is potentially more powerful, but the decidedly worse-off development tools, a lax Google attitude towards taking down malware/knock-off/scam apps and Google's open hostility towards tablet-only apps (Andy Rubin has stated he doesn't want there to be such a thing) leave a lot of that potential wasted. Flipboard has said there are no plans, ever, for optimizing its app for Android tablets, as an example. Twitter's official app has no Android tablet optimization. You can't say you're getting more done on an Android tablet if developers are actively avoiding contact.
gatorproof - Thursday, July 5, 2012 - link
I FOUND THIS, "that the "external" in "external storage" is there for historical reasons, but refer to the shared storage of the device, internal or external, and not only to sd cards.From the dev site: «Every Android-compatible device supports a shared "external storage" that you can be used to save files. This can be a removable storage media (such as an SD card) or an internal (non-removable) storage.»"
Now this is from an attendee of the Google I/O. "READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission. This is a new permission that will be required in a future release for apps that want to read the contents of the SD card. Up to now, anybody could read the SD card. It's not enforced in JellyBean unless you turn on a special developer option. Google strongly encourages all developers that read from the SD card to include this permission now" which sounds to a lay person like me, that Devs. can write in permission for an app to be allowed to be transferred to an app like "Apps2SD? I have not found many apps since Gingerbread and Honeycomb on to ICS that allow app storage to SD. I used it all the time in Elcair and Froyo.
Mr M S P, please understand, I am not trying to pass myself off as a coder or even a good Typist. But do these top paragraphs suggest that there can, with hitting the high notes, and crossing the T~s and dotting the I~s and using a micro USB to SD adapter, suggest to you that external is possible in JB?
ol1bit - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
Looks like a killer $199 tablet. All the cheap crap was just put on notice.Heck, I I didn't have the Transformer Prime already, i'd be getting it!
Lucian Armasu - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
Is there a full review coming? I would've expected you put out one by now.IBM650 - Sunday, July 15, 2012 - link
Bad slow wifi is a buck a minute (approx). And plugging crap into a micro usb is asking for trouble. My Nook Color has a wonderful IPS tablet, boots off the sd, and works great. I would have gotten the Nexus 7 but it is locked into the cloud.nomadh - Monday, July 23, 2012 - link
So I guess we should assume that the power usage steaming media from the cloud through a radio is exactly the same as off its local storage. Wifi is bad enough but when it gets to 3g or even 4g the cloud becomes just a joke for content. Add in limited availability problems and google just totally misses the point of their own devices.robbbzilla - Thursday, August 16, 2012 - link
I do not care if they sold it for $99 people would still complain and of it had the SD expansion then something else and on and on. Really just consider the device to cost $250.0 and stop complaining. Sure I want more storage and I want better speakers and I want but if you are really honest and have used it Google has done an amazing job.I can't believe how good this little tab is. Love the quad core and screen and for me those two make up for any minor problems. Plus giving you $25 worth of content they are practically selling these at cost.
Finally an alternative to the Ipad!!! Might I say it in some ways is better and costs a fraction of the iPad. For most people this device will do 80-90% of your computing needs. Also regardless of comparisons it is a really good device all on its own. It feels good, looks good, performs snappy and is a pleasure to use. I like the Google play interface and choicenof amazon market as well instead of just Apple store.
So if lack of expansion memory, a back camera, flash, and stereo speakers and lack of ports is going to stop you but you would still buy and Ipswich with the same restrictions at a higher price and not complain? Flash is over on mobile not because of apple or Android but because of Adobe. So it is on the way out. Storage issues can be worked around, lack of HDMI and no expansion slot is all I hear about but what device selling at $200 has those things? For what you get for the price is really a good deal and if google wants to promote thier services I see no problems as I am left to decide for myself.
Please go and try a nexus 7 before you complain.
sumwand - Saturday, August 18, 2012 - link
could we plug USB Modem (either GSM or CDMA) for wireless connectivity via GSM or CDMA on this Galaxy Nexus 7?