Undoubtedly tired of watching OEMs make little headway in their uphill struggle against Apple's iPad, Google executives took the stage at this year's Google I/O developer conference to announce a branded seven-inch tablet of their own, which the search giant is offering direct through its Play store.Like other Nexus-branded devices, the Nexus 7 tablet isn't actually hardware manufactured by Google. As Mountain View has done with Samsung, HTC and Motorola in the past, the company paired with Asus to design and manufacture its slender tablet.
It's a smart move: Among Android tablets, Asus makes some of the best around, but matching the rock-bottom $199 (£130) price of Amazon's Kindle Fire while exceeding its meager specs would be a challenge for any manufacturer. And make no mistake: The Nexus 7 is more of an effort to stomp out Amazon's unwelcome (and forked) version of Android more than it's attempt to dethrone Apple's reigning champ.
The good news is that very little has been sacrificed along the way, unlike with Amazon's initial offering. According to Android boss Andy Rubin, Google's profit margin bears the brunt of any sacrifices made, both from selling hardware at cost but also from tossing in generous perks such as a $25 (or £15) Google Play credit for every Nexus 7 owner.
But enough about why and how Google has released the Nexus 7: Is it worth even $199 / £159 of your hard-earned cash?
With the Nexus 7, Google and Asus have abandoned the notion of offering a rear-facing camera on an Android tablet. It's probably a smart move – after all, how many of us have actually used the generally crummy cameras on our tablets anyway?
Instead, the Nexus 7 features a more practical 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera, although Google chose to eliminate the dedicated Camera app from the device itself. It's understandable, especially with so many third-party candidates available from Google Play, but it does make the camera somewhat worthless for those just taking it out of the box. (Google Talk does come preinstalled, and a third-party Camera Launcher app is already available for restoring the Camera app).
To test drive the camera, we installed the free Skype app from Google Play. Although it complained about the app not being certified for our device at first launch, we had no problem signing in and making a few video calls, connecting with other users on a MacBook Air and an iPad 2.
Unfortunately, you're likely to have far less luck with popular photo-taking apps such as Instagram. Browsing that title on Google Play throws up an error that "your device isn't compatible with this version," although we suspect Facebook will tweak the app accordingly once it starts getting delivered to customers.
The stock Android Gallery app looks quite nice on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, with large, gapless tiles of images that can be viewed as a slideshow with just a tap. Images load quickly and the Nexus 7 displays them in all their vivid, rich color and detail.
The Gallery app also offers a wide range of editing and crop tools to enhance photos before sharing them, which includes the aforementioned Android Beam for tapping two devices together to make the transfer, no Wi-Fi or Bluetooth required.
Last but not least, Nexus 7 makes life easy on developers, tech journalists and even support folks by allowing screenshots to be taken simply by holding down the power/lock and volume down buttons at the same time. All Android OEMs should follow their lead and make it this simple.
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