Here is the much anticipated part two of my journey with the Nexus 7 tablet test drive.

Day 3

Not using it today as fixed to my desk, however went down to switch it on and take a photo and it would not switch on. Did some Googling and found that this happens and holding the power button is the only way to get it to come on. So held the power button in for 30 to 40 secs and she came to life. Put her on charge just in case.
Will check later today. That’s not a good feature though, is there a problem here with the Nexus 7, the only one I have found so far, but could be major.
Have been using the Nexus since around 5pm and no problems to report. 10pm at night and battery is still 73%. This is exceptional. Read a few chapters of a book today using it at lunchtime and it was very easy to read and battery not really affected.
Overall day 3 and still very impressed. More positives than negatives. Exceptional for the money they are asking for this unit, £159 for 16Gb at time of going to print. And fast and very responsive. I think one of the main things that impresses me is the responsiveness of the screen to touch. The latest jelly bean keyboard using a form of swipe is amazing. Using it to type this. Well see you again on day 4.

Day 4

Sorry guys it’s been a quieter day today. All has gone well. I am to be honest finding it difficult to find negatives with this unit. One maybe the lack of camera on the rear of the unit. It might be handy having one. However, it is not something I am missing, so this might be a personal choice.
Other than that I can’t find any other negatives. Battery has been Perfect all day and I have used it a lot this evening to check Facebook and the Internet about various topics. At end of day Battery was still showing 28%. I am putting it on charge anyway as I intend to use it a lot tomorrow. I can’t seem to phase this unit. It handles all my important apps, such as email, two separate email clients and 3 accounts. Internet browsing using Chrome. Social media packages such as Facebook, Hootsuite and LinkedIn.

No, there has so far only been the one occasion when it did not start and had to have the power button held in. Other than that it has been exceptional. The weight is right, the size is right and the speed and responsiveness is perfect. Most of all the battery life is the best I have experienced on a tablet computer.

Well, I will see you on Day 5 and 6, we will see how things go.

You can also get a 32Gb version of the unit for £199 at time of going to press.

See you again soon.

Yes I know I am late in this as everyone and their mother seems to have done a review already on the nexus 7. But there is nothing like actually test driving something for yourself to be able to give a honest review and tell your followers all the good things and bad things.

So here I go, I have been given a Nexus 7 to test drive for a few weeks and see if I can adapt from using a 10 inch screen down to a 7 inch. To be honest I thought this would be a major problem and one of my first points to raise in a review, however here is what I am finding so far. You decide: –

Day 1

1. Smaller size. (Positive) (198.5 x 120 x 10.45 mm)
2. Good resolution (Positive) (7” 1280×800 (216ppi))
3. Fast (Positive) (NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 quad-core processor)
4. Stable (Positive) (Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean))
5. Easy to use (Positive)
6. Easy to handle (Positive)
7. Lighter to carry around (Positive)  (340g (WiFi Only))
8. Need a case that stands by itself as opposed to flexible case. (Negative)
9. Smaller screen size not an issue as I thought it would be (Positive)
10. Battery life so far very good, day one (Positive) (4,325 mAh battery)
11. Connection very fast to networks and internet. (Positive) (Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n)

Day 2

Used it on and off today. Battery still 75% at 8pm at night.
Connected to a number of different networks and all went well. Still no problems with anything. Read material on it today and screen was OK with reading in a number of different lighting conditions. The real benefit was it fitted into my inside pocket of my jacket, my 10 inch can’t do this I am afraid.
Negatives today, none to report so far.
Did not charge overnight will see tomorrow how battery is and how long it lasts.
56% when I shut it down at 11.45pm

Will report as the test drive progresses and see what else I find, so far no real negatives to report, but I am sure there must be some. I suppose it would be good to try a Wi-Fi and data package Nexus, maybe next time.

Watch this space and see how this develops.

Which tablet device do you have and why have you chosen it? What rings your bells when you think of such a device?

Ian Thomson

Founder/Senior Trainer/Consultant

IT Turning Point