back to article Google Nexus 7 Android tablet

Amazon may have done more that most to get Android onto tablets, but Google's Nexus 7 tablet, built by Asus, isn't so much a shot across the bows as a full torpedo attack on Jeff Bezos' ambitions in the fondleslab market. Google Nexus 7 Android tablet Amazon attack: Google's Nexus 7, built by Asus At £159 ($199) for the …

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  1. Alex Walsh

    Waiting to see the pricing on the Kindle Fire 2 and more importantly whether that device has a micro SD slot.

    What's the point of all that horse power when you can barely fit a HD movie on the internal storage?

    1. joeW

      SD slot

      I thought this would be a deal-breaker for me too, but it seems you can use a €2 USB->microUSB cable to plug a USB stick or SD card into the charge socket, and install an app called StickMount to read from that. Effective yes, elegant perhaps not.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: SD slot

        Only if the USB port is capable of being a USB host, and supplying current, which many tablets are not. Why tablet makers don't make their devices use micro-AB connectors and support USB-on-the-Go I don't know, as the support is built into the chips, but... they don't.

        If the port cannot supply current but can act as a master, you'd have to have a powered hub or a powered storage device.

        1. thesykes

          Re: SD slot

          According to the comments over on MoDaCo, the Nexus 7 with StickMount does allow reading of usb devices, despite what Google say.

          I could be tempted....

        2. zedthegreat
          Unhappy

          Re: SD slot

          It's not the lack of SD that concerns me on this product, it is the general move away from local storage on both Nexus devices and high end options such as HTC One X. Maybe this makes "Sense" (sorry) in the States where Google music is free, large data allowances come with contracts and 4G is rolling out, but where I am in Scotland with patchy 3g at best and a move to smaller / more expensive data then it does not do. Not for me anyway.

          People always suggest that no-one forces you to buy a product and to vote with you wallet. That is why I will not buy this device. Even though I want it so bad.

    2. Neil 7

      Not bothered about SD myself

      Personally I just want something on which to surf the web while sat on the couch - I have absolutely no need or desire to watch films or listen to music on a tablet. My fire-sale Touchpad (which I'll be glad to get rid of for a Nexus 7) has 32GB of storage and all of it remains empty to this day.

      Obviously there are people that will see the lack of SD as a deal breaker, but I also think there are a lot more people with a use case closer to my own who will think the 8GB of the base model is perfectly adequate and more than enough storage.

      1. Toxteth O'Gravy

        Re: Not bothered about SD myself

        Agreed. 8GB - especially at £150, and even allowing for how much the OS gobbles up - is plenty for me to shove a stack of e-books and comics on to read on the train. Have one of these Nexus boys on pre-order.

    3. Voland's right hand Silver badge
      Devil

      Who cares about the SD slot, can I have a car craddle please

      7 inch is exactly 2DIN on a car.

      If someone starts printing out simple "amplifier only" units that take this as a screen + controls were are going to see some very interesting jitters in the last place where the AV industry continues to charge insane amounts of money for an abysmal 10+ year old near-obsolete set of features.

      1. JeffyPooh
        Pint

        Re: Who cares about the SD slot, can I have a car craddle please

        No need for an amplifier, this puppy has a "25w" strip speaker (according to this article). LOL.

        1. thomaskwscott
          Thumb Up

          Re: Who cares about the SD slot, can I have a car craddle please

          My brother actually did this about 6 months ago with the orginal galaxy tab. Just blanked the panel on the car off completely and only had a headphone cable coming out of the dash and a bog standard universal tablet mount. The cable then went directly to a 6x9 and sub amp in the boot. Worked like a charm with spotify and was loud!

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Who cares about the SD slot, can I have a car craddle please

        here here. I recently spent one and half thousand quid on a 'top-of-the-range' Kenwood for my car.

        When compared to a modern touch-screen tablet at a fraction of the price it's abysmal. Rubbish touch-screen, clunky interface and a GUI that was obviously implemented by a CLI loving geek.

        If they choose to, I'm sure Samsung, Apple, HTC or whoever could revolutionise in-car AV overnight - I'd love if someone could explain why they don't

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Looking forward to mine arriving next week I hope!

    One big point is that it'll have the latest build of android on it instead of languishing on some ancient version that's never upgraded.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Stability?

    Quote: "...with a couple of reboots when the player borked"

    You mean you had to reboot twice just by watching 7 hrs of movie playback? Is this meant to be the final version, or is this a prerelease/beta model?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Stability?

      It's obviously preproduction. It's even a different colour to the final version.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Stability?

        @AC: "It's obviously preproduction"

        That's really poor - with the product due to ship in 1-2 weeks, you'd think they would have a fully tested and functional item for the press to review.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Stability?

          Depends when the review was written. Doesn't it?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Stability?

        Why bother sending it out then? A car company wouldn't release a car for a test drive if it was prone to fall apart and kill the driver. Well, except that F1-like car they had on top gear once.

    2. Paul Docherty
      WTF?

      Re: Stability?

      Something smells a little inconsistent here:

      http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/07/divine-intervention-googles-nexus-7-is-a-fantastic-200-tablet/4/

      When reviewing the same device, same settings and even the same file, they got over nine hours battery life. 25% variance is pretty high...

      Also, Ars didn't mention any stability issues, and managed to get a impressive array of benchmarking done.

  4. auburnman

    I'm sorely tempted, but I want a slot for a storage card and I'm not sure if I'd like it being smaller than the 'normal' tablet size. I do notice that the US price for the high end version ($249) currently converts to £160 (UK price for the cheap version) on fx.com. Might be worth trying to import depending on the hassle involved.

    I think I will continue to umm and aah until it's actually out.

    1. Big_Ted

      Not a real alternative

      What with taxes and customs duty it would work out dearer.

      Only cheaper if you have someone going to the US who can get one tax free there and bring it back for you.

      As almost all states have sales tax then that might not be cheap anyway

      1. Aaron Em

        Re: Not a real alternative

        Sales tax usually works out to less than ten percent (6% where I live, but they've been holding it down for awhile; most other states which have one have a higher rate); I gather VAT is over twice that, which means you may still do better to have a US-bound friend pick one up for you.

        (Oregon, apparently, does not charge a sales tax; if your US-bound friend is going to be in the Pacific Northwest, maybe he'd do well to stop off in Portland to buy one -- that said, if he's going to be in the neighborhood, warn him off Powell's unless he wants a real good example of why brick-and-mortar bookstores aren't going to be missed.)

        1. Maxson
          Thumb Up

          Re: Not a real alternative

          Thanks for the Tip, I'll be changing my Address on Amazon US to one in Oregon.

    2. Maxson

      Please remember to add 20% VAT to the price after conversion from dollars to pounds. You'll likely be charged a 20% VAT cost on import which will bring it up to £180, add shipping cost and you're likely paying over £200.

      Personally, I'm waiting till it's actually released, I'd like to see some end user reviews. There's things a normal person will point out that even the most scathing journos will let slide. Plus I'd like a definitive answer on whether the USB port can host an SD card like some people are saying.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Find out what warranty Google offers

      If you do buy a US Nexus, check what warranty comes with it - it might be as little as 90 days (1 year standard in the UK) and it might be limited to the US only. A very few companies - mostly camera companies - offer worldwide warranties on their products, but most do not. If you're out of the warranty zone and if your product fails within the warranty period you will have to pay the full cost of a replacement or repair through the company's local tentacle.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    3G

    absolutely agree about Google needing a 3G version.

    A 3g 8Gb version for somewhere around £175 or free on a say £20pm contract would really start to give apple something to be worried about.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 3G

      Why would anybody want an additional 3G card to pay for when they can tether it through their mobile and use it's data allowance? (Unless it's because they have to pay £20/month for that anyway as an iPhone owner.)

      1. Steve Evans

        Re: 3G

        Totally agree... If you have a reasonable smart-phone in your pocket it will already be able to act as a wifi access point, so you just use that...

        Those that don't have a reasonable smart-phone will have already bought an ipad anyway.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: 3G

        Users may well have a mobile in their pocket, but its quite likely its a works mobile - and businesses still like to give out absolute basic non-smartphones to most employees to stop them running up ridiculous data charges.

        So if they wanted one of these devices, they'd have to carry their work mobile, a personal smartphone just for tethering, and this tablet around - seems a bit ridiculous to me.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: 3G

        because some people don't like the idea of f... bout with a tablet and a phone. It's about neatness, I suppose.

      4. M Gale

        Re: 3G

        Has anybody here complaining about 3G tablets ever actually tethered through their phone?

        If they had, they'd know that the wifi hotspot feature might as well be called "the energy vampire". It eats batteries for breakfast. Alright if, like me, you have £80 worth of Energizer XPAL in your pocket, but that's just more dicking about on top of the dicking about with a phone when what you really want to use is a tablet.

        Plus I've seen people with dual-SIM contract deals anyway. One for the phone, one for a dongle... or tablet, if you like. Ask your provider.

        1. APA

          Re: 3G

          That's why you're supposed to tether using bluetooth! It consumes much less power and while admittedly it's not the fastest, it is certainly adequate when the limiting factor isn't actually the connection between phone and tablet but rather the abysmal 3G reception (or more likely, plain old 2G)

      5. BlackBolt
        Facepalm

        Re: 3G

        Also its surprising how many network operators are blocking tethering these days.

        Bit of a con really, after all its your data, use it how you want. Just wait for the combined multi device data packages to get launched by network operators :-)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 3G

      MiFi, or a smartphone Hotspot?

      Setting this up with the WiFi hotspot on my Nokia would be a cinch.

  6. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Mushroom

    7hrs 30mins of video playback

    That's three playbacks continuous explosions for no particular reason^W^W^W^W^W^WTransformers 3.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: 7hrs 30mins of video playback

      I didn't know Michael Bay read The Reg, I can't think of anyone else who would downvote that comment.

      By the way, the review said the test was done with the tablet at full volume. People want to know if the reviewer really sit through Transformers 3 at full volume three times in a row and if he ended up with perforated ear drums.

      1. Francis Boyle Silver badge

        Probably explains the player crashes

        I know I felt like crashing (my head into something hard) after watching Armageddon just once.

  7. chipxtreme

    I'm really on the fence as to if I even need a tablet, but if they brought out a 3g version for not much more then I'd certainly buy one, but for now i'll just wait.

    1. Hieronymus Howerd

      >> "I'm really on the fence as to if I even need a tablet"

      ^this.

      I'm looking at these things thinking, hm, good price, decent specs, would make me look less of a hipsterish numpty than an iPad, all very tempting. But then I'm racking my brains as to what I'd actually use it for.

      It's very easy to get carried away on the novelty of a google tablet, and the relatively good price, but it's still looking like £200 for yet another helping of mindless consumption that'll be gathering dust in a few weeks time.

  8. Sandy Ritchie

    meh

    Loaded with all the goodies.... but no 3G. Pointless house tethered brick. I'll stick with my Galaxy Tab, it might be a bigger brick, and a couple of years old.... but its got 3G so I CAN use it anywhere.

    1. tmTM

      Re: meh

      Tethered brick???

      You you do know you can tether the tablet to your mobile phone and use that connection - it's quite easy and just as quick.

      It also means you don't need to pay for another mobile contract, you buy one decent one and use it for both tablet and phone.

      So the non-3G tablet is not only cheaper to buy, but also obviously cheaper to run.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: meh

        Cheaper to run? really?

        Out of using only a basic works mobile and paying for a 3g tablet heavily discounted on a data only tarriff

        OR

        Using a personal mobile on a more expensive voice and data tarriff, AND buying a non-3g tablet.

        I'll let you figure out which is cheaper.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: meh

      Or alternatively get yourself a decent mobile phone that allows you to create a WiFi hotspot.

      I bet most 3G tablets sit at home almost all of the time, costing their owners a small fortune each month for data that is never used when you could just as easily use your mobile phone to act as the gateway on those rare occasions when your tablet needs mobile data.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: meh

      Apparently you've been downvoted for wanting something commonly available on other high end tablets.

      This is just weird. Maybe people just resent those of us who aren't always in arms reach of a hotspot.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "aren't always in arms reach of a hotspot."

        So you want to get a SECOND contract for the tablet?

        I assume you have a crappy mobile then!

        I have a single, unlimited data contract on my mobile, and I tether my devices to it when needed.

        I don't see why I should pay for a contract for each device!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "aren't always in arms reach of a hotspot."

          Where did anyone say you should pay for a contract for each device?

          All we're asking for is the OPTION of not having to carry a smartphone!

          1. Dave 126

            Re: "aren't always in arms reach of a hotspot."

            >All we're asking for is the OPTION of not having to carry a smartphone!

            There would be a market for a revamped Nokia 6210 that worked like the original, only had 3G and could act as WiFi Hotspot... it would work well with a 7" tablet that lived in your jacket pocket, purse, sofa or car glovebox.

        2. Fatman

          Re: I don't see why I should pay for a contract for each device!

          Because that is the way the robber barons at the telcos want it.

          One contract per device, no data sharing.

          Now else do you expect those overpaid C level types get paid their bonu$e$????

          Now, if you could get a single sharable data plan, it would decrease their revenue stream. Which is totally unacceptable from a telco POV (unless it contains new per device additional charge (I'm looking at you Verizon).

          Decrease revenues??? Can't have that!!!!!

          1. Aaron Em

            Re: I don't see why I should pay for a contract for each device!

            You don't even know the difference between revenue and profit, and you expect to be taken seriously? Wipe your chin, Red; you're dribbling all over yourself.

        3. Tom 38

          Re: "aren't always in arms reach of a hotspot."

          No 3G = no GPS. No GPS = no gorgeous mapping apps.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: "aren't always in arms reach of a hotspot."

            Erm, it has gps, digital compass, gyroscope, etc.

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