POLL: Will you get the Nexus 7 $0/$199/$249 version

[ss284]

Does anyone know if pre-ordering the nexus 7 now gets you the 25 google play credit instantly? I'm hoping to use that credit to order a galaxy nexus phone.

 

[WelshBloke]

Voted no but I'm wavering now. I've just tried out the OTG option with my SGS2 and it works really well.

While it may be ugly to have the dongle attached it only needs to be there while watching movies and the like. I think I might get a 16GB one, the 8GB one is still way too small for me though.

 

[zerocool84]

Usable space on the 8 GB Nexus 7 is 5.9 GB.

https://twitter.com/nerdtalker/status/218239535803412481/photo/1

To be expected since some set aside for OS, apps, system data which is why I'll get the 16GB version.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

whats everyone need so much space for anyway? Im fine with the 8gb version

 

[Red Storm]

whats everyone need so much space for anyway? Im fine with the 8gb version

BluRay rips and discographies.

 

[zerocool84]

whats everyone need so much space for anyway? Im fine with the 8gb version

Any decent game is going to be at least half a GB now a days. Throw on a movie or two, your music, you'll eat that up in no time. Seeing as it's only 6GB usable, that's not that much space at all unless you use it mainly for streaming and the fact of the matter is that Wifi still isn't super widespread everywhere.

 

[Red Storm]

I know several people who have tablets, and none of them have ever put their music on it. I also don't see people walking around with tablets in their hands. As far as I can see they are almost always used at a location that more than likely has wifi (and if you have Android phone, you can just tether if need be).

 

[WelshBloke]

Any decent game is going to be at least half a GB now a days. Throw on a movie or two, your music, you'll eat that up in no time. Seeing as it's only 6GB usable, that's not that much space at all unless you use it mainly for streaming and the fact of the matter is that Wifi still isn't super widespread everywhere.

Plus make a few nandroid or titanium backups and that storage is going to vanish really quickly.

 

[bassoprofundo]

The average consumer is going to browse the web, check their email, read a book, and sometimes watch video on a tablet. For that target audience, either small storage size is perfectly acceptable.

Having said that, I've found 16gb tablets to be very limiting. Both my 16gb Touchpad and Playbook require constant shuffling of content if I want to use them regularly. I want all of my games available when I want to use them, and I want to be able to keep a batch of movies and a season or two of whatever show i'm watching available at all times without sucking down my cell data. For that reason, I've found it to be worth it to splurge for the extra memory so as not to have to worry about it. Again, though, I doubt I would be considered the average use case.

Part of me feels like keeping away the SD support on the Nexus was a way of throwing a bone to the other OEMs supporting Android. Put out a device like this with SD, and why on earth would anyone even look at another vendor's device? (assuming, of course, you want a 7" device)

 

[jpeyton]

Engadget review: The best $200 tablet you can buy.

 

[Eug]

Part of me feels like keeping away the SD support on the Nexus was a way of throwing a bone to the other OEMs supporting Android. Put out a device like this with SD, and why on earth would anyone even look at another vendor's device? (assuming, of course, you want a 7" device)

I agree. Google's entry into the 7" tablet market is in large part because the OEMs were screwing up the Android tablet experience. The only successful one was the Kindle Fire, much to Google's dismay. Google has set the bar now, hoping the OEMs will get with the program.

Like I said before I'd pay $249-299 for what I want, and not $199-249 for what I don't want (Nexus 7). This leaves room for the OEMs to compete.

The other benefit here is that Google will update its tablet hardware's OS faster than the OEMs have traditionally. A Google tablet device will be a further stimulus to the OEMs to update their OSes quicker. They need to be able to compete.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Plus make a few nandroid or titanium backups and that storage is going to vanish really quickly.

That was the exact problem I ran into. I wanted to install a new CM9 rom on my Kindle Fire recently and the only way to make room for a nandroid backup was to delete all my Titanium backups. Which seems a bit ridiculous, but a nandroid is safer if you're wiping out your /system and need a way to restore in case something goes wrong.

Luckily everything went fine and TWRP was able to restore just the data from my nandroid, so I didn't end up needing the Titanium backups. But if you flash roms more than once, 8 GB is extremely limiting.

Also good point Eug. The Nexus 7 will put pressure on Amazon to improve the Kindle Fire (since the Nexus is strictly superior to the Fire at the same price) but Samsung, Asus, and others still have tons of room to compete with $250+ devices. I could even see a few releasing $200 tablets that go with a lower spec processor in exchange for upgradable storage - I bet a lot of people would gladly give up some power in exchange for more space.

 

[vshah]

Yes. At Google I/O last year they even demonstrated this USB Host functionality when they plugged in a USB gamepad into an Android tablet. There should be no need to root (though someone should confirm this).

i believe fat32 is supported natively. NTFS requires root & apps.

 

[bucwylde23]

Does anyone know if pre-ordering the nexus 7 now gets you the 25 google play credit instantly? I'm hoping to use that credit to order a galaxy nexus phone.

I preordered and did not get a $25 credit yet = unless I'm missing something, so the answer is probably no.

 

[jpeyton]

I preordered and did not get a $25 credit yet = unless I'm missing something, so the answer is probably no.

The Play Store credit is added to the Google account you login with after first powering up the tablet.

 

[sygyzy]

Had the 8GB in my cart but by the time I ordered, I changed to 16GB. I can't wait.

 

[Ravynmagi]

http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/27/3122180/google-io-attendees-white-nexus-7-tablet

Aw man, they have a white version of this, but only for Google IO attendees. Kinda a shame they aren't selling the white version.

 

[Eug]

Engadget article updated:

"We received some bogus information on the MHL. We've now confirmed that the Nexus 7 does not support MHL, meaning there's no way to connect this over HDMI to get video output."

 

[ponyo]

Engadget article updated:

"We received some bogus information on the MHL. We've now confirmed that the Nexus 7 does not support MHL, meaning there's no way to connect this over HDMI to get video output."

What? That's retarded if true.

 

[Eug]

What? That's retarded if true.

The last bit of info we need now is whether or not it supports USB OTG.

EDIT:

It does. In fact it was in Brian Klug's (p)review:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6054/google-nexus-7-mini-review

" I've had many emails and questions about whether USB-OTG (On The Go) is supported on the Nexus 7, and didn't touch on it when I originally hit publish becuause I wasn't entirely sure. I've now confirmed that USB-OTG is supported on the Nexus 7, and works on the current Android 4.1 non-final build that has been sampled. That's encouraging, and I'll test it myself when I get home and to my miniUSB OTG adapter."

 

[Eug]

The last bit of info we need now is whether or not it supports USB OTG.

EDIT:

It does. In fact it was in Brian Klug's (p)review:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6054/google-nexus-7-mini-review

" I've had many emails and questions about whether USB-OTG (On The Go) is supported on the Nexus 7, and didn't touch on it when I originally hit publish becuause I wasn't entirely sure. I've now confirmed that USB-OTG is supported on the Nexus 7, and works on the current Android 4.1 non-final build that has been sampled. That's encouraging, and I'll test it myself when I get home and to my miniUSB OTG adapter."

And from the comments section of the preview:

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

 

[kaerflog]

Its a close race.
The "not buying one" briefly took the lead but the "buying one" is leading 51-48.
In other news.
These guys are saying Google makes $0 on each Nexus sold.
http://www.bgr.com/2012/06/28/nexus-7-sales-profit-cost-google-android/
I had figure that on the 8gb version.
Google should be making a little bit on the 16gb version since adding 8gb do not cost $50.

 

[jpeyton]

Its a close race.
The "not buying one" briefly took the lead but the "buying one" is leading 51-48.
In other news.
These guys are saying Google makes $0 on each Nexus sold.
http://www.bgr.com/2012/06/28/nexus-7-sales-profit-cost-google-android/
I had figure that on the 8gb version.
Google should be making a little bit on the 16gb version since adding 8gb do not cost $50.

Getting a 50% buy rate in our informal poll is a huge accomplishment. Google/Asus really made it hard to consider any other 7" tablet, since this has the best hardware/software for the money by a good margin. The Nexus 7 screen has roughly the same PPI as the new Retina MacBook Pro.

Google/Asus are making zero money on the $199 version (especially considering the Google Play $25 credit). The $199 version is a land grab in the tablet space by Google, pure and simple. The Kindle Fire made waves because of its price, but it bypassed the Google Play Store; the Nexus 7 fixes that.

I think the lack of a microSD slot and the $249 16GB version were probably concessions to Asus for making the zero-margin 8GB version. But the lack of expandable storage also plays heavily into Google's idea that you should depend on their cloud for everything. Google Drive (store 5GB free), Google Music (store 20,000 songs free), Google Docs, GMail, etc.

 

[dagamer34]

Getting a 50% buy rate in our informal poll is a huge accomplishment. Google/Asus really made it hard to consider any other 7" tablet, since this has the best hardware/software for the money by a good margin. The Nexus 7 screen has roughly the same PPI as the new Retina MacBook Pro.

Google/Asus are making zero money on the $199 version (especially considering the Google Play $25 credit). The $199 version is a land grab in the tablet space by Google, pure and simple. The Kindle Fire made waves because of its price, but it bypassed the Google Play Store; the Nexus 7 fixes that.

I think the lack of a microSD slot and the $249 16GB version were probably concessions to Asus for making the zero-margin 8GB version. But the lack of expandable storage also plays heavily into Google's idea that you should depend on their cloud for everything. Google Drive (store 5GB free), Google Music (store 20,000 songs free), Google Docs, GMail, etc.

The cloud will not help me when I'm in a plane!

 

[zerocool84]

What? That's retarded if true.

It does suck but cutbacks definitely had to be made for the price.