The Nexus 7 – a quick review
A quick review / first impressions of Google / Asus’s new 7 inch tablet, the Nexus 7
Despite being a PC gaming website – we like our gadgets at Sudogamer, and having just taken delivery of one – I thought I’d do a quick review of the Google Nexus 7 in the form of a things I like / things I don’t like bullet list!
Things I was disappointed with / disliked:
- The stock launcher only operates in portrait mode – (but I’m guessing this can be easily fixed with another launcher)
- There’s only 1 speaker on it (so watching films is in mono, and only out of the right side of the device) – the Blackberry Playbook was stereo and much better quality.
- Screen brightness, at 100% it’s about half as bright as the playbook.
- The position of the power button (ie the button you use to wake the device while using it ) -it’ just plain awkward.
- Volume rocker isn’t very responsive (half second lag before it reacts)
- I miss hardware buttons (for back & home)
- No (adobe) flash, out of the box – but hoping for a fix from Modaco / XDA forums sometime soon.
Things I liked:
- The screen is nice (despite not being the brightest) Not *very* sharp (due to resolution vs size) but consistent contrast across the whole panel and good viewing angles (things which are symptoms of budget screens). It just has a nice ‘quality’ to it (possibly down to the IPS panel?)
- The Gmail app on the Nexus 7 is good, nicely laid out. Would benefit from a landscape view though. . (again, probably fixable by with a different launcher)
- Google Maps on the Nexus 7 is fast and a pleasure to use on the large screen, GPS lock was instant.
- Chrome is now a decent mobile browser, fast to load pages, re-renders text quickly upon zoom etc. Shame it defaults to ‘mobile’ site every time (you can press ‘request desktop site’ in the options, but a pain to have to do every time).
- New pull-down status bars are an improvement
- The keyboard is good, and easy to type on.
It’s worth noting that the above is all straight out of the box, with no additional applications installed, unrooted, no custom roms etc – so i’m aware there’s plenty of potential to put these things right.
Now, to find a case for it. . . .
Edit, here’s some FAQ’s for you!
Q. Does the Nexus 7 have a ‘smear’ or ‘image retention’ effect on the screen
A. No, the screen is great displays no defects.
Q. Does the Nexus 7 have 1 or 2 speakers (mono / stereo)?
A. It would appear there are indeed 2 speakers, so you get both L & R channels, but clumped together – which isn’t ideal.
Q. What is Skype call quality like?
A. Awful – I recommend trying Google Hangout until Skype are able to release an optimised app.
Q. How do I root / install Clockwork Mod?
A. It’s very simple to root & install CWM, see this link http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1742919
Q. Can I view Adobe flash player content in the browser on my Nexus 7
A. Yes, the way I did it was to took a Titanium Backup of Flash from my phone (Galaxy S2), then install Dolphin Browser HD. Flash displays on this brower. This is only browser it works on, I tested Opera, Chrome, Firefox (nightly).
However, full screen mode crashes the browser. Still, better than nothing.
To enable the traditional landscape launcher style, simply root and change DPI. Quick search on XDA will bring up the thread.