Divine intervention: Google's Nexus 7 is a fantastic $200 tablet

Google seems to be getting all of the credit, yet the device's manufacturer, Asus, has consistently made the best Android tablets all along.<p>The Transformer tablets have all enjoyed an excellent build quality, great design aesthetics, and cutting edge hardware. They aren't perfect, but what tablet is?

Google's biggest fail point is support. What happens if the device needs service?<p>Google did a terrible job at servicing (customer service) their phone. Trust me, an email address isn't enough. People want to call someone. And people want to take it someplace to get it fix or swapped out. The same day. A tablet/phone isn't the same as a PC. No one wants to overnight their phone for a replacement next week. ;)

"Paired with a keyboard, the Nexus 7 could easily serve as a mobile work solution just as the iPad can."<p>I'd really like to believe this (and thus justify getting one), but I can't picture it. How would one prop up the screen? What keyboards are available and are they any good?<p>I feel like Apple has reached a local maximum with the iPad as a consumption-oriented device and I'm just waiting to see who delivers the first tablet geared towards getting things done. MS appears to be promising this with Surface, but it remains to be seen how successful they are.<p>To anyone on HN who has used an Android tablet for productivity purposes (writing, coding, etc), how has it gone?

Can anybody comment on when us regular folk will be getting our hands on the Nexus 7 if we pre-ordered it? (Other than 2-3 weeks)<p>Bloggers get to have all the fun...

Just wanted to say, in case the author hangs out here, that I very much enjoyed her writing style. Very funny and informative.

The author says that Chrome won't come pre-installed to JB devices if the manufacturers don't want. If that's so, that's pretty dumb. Google should force manufacturers to get Chrome together with the Play Store and Gmail. This will actually improve the situation of the web browsers on Android because Google plans on updating Chrome every 6 weeks on Android as well.<p>On the other hand, the developers at Google I/O said it will come pre-installed on JB, so I'm confused:<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGJbPPjANKA#start=0:00;end=62:01;autoreplay=false;showoptions=false" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGJbPPjANKA#start=0:00;end=62...</a>

&#62; The keyboard is not quite as snappy as the rest of the Nexus 7 experience. It seems to occasionally miss letters, or have to catch up after a series of letters are typed, especially right after waking.<p>Sorry, that's unacceptable. Small UI hiccups are death by a thousand pinpricks, in my view.<p>On a related note, I think people vastly underestimate how much UI responsiveness is responsible for Apple's continued success.

&#62; At 216 pixels per inch, it's no The New iPad™, but the density is close to the recently-released retina MacBook Pro.<p>Okay Ars author, while the Nexus 7 screen looks fantastic, I don't know what you were thinking as this sentence above doesn't make <i>any</i> sense. There's no point in comparing a tablet's DPI to a laptop's DPI†, especially in that way. It makes it sound like one is really wanting the thing to be Retina when it is not, and that actually detracts from the fact that it looks like a great screen nonetheless.<p>†The closer I use my laptop is (give or take a few inches) the farther I use my tablet.

"Selling hardware cheap—in hopes that more money can be made elsewhere—is not a new game." This has been my thought all along regarding this tablet. I wonder if it actually cost Google more than $200 to build.

Interesting to compare AnandTech's benchmarks:<p><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/6054/google-nexus-7-mini-review" rel="nofollow">http://www.anandtech.com/show/6054/google-nexus-7-mini-revie...</a>

Unless Google has a magic PDF reader, reading PDFs on it is going to suck. Other than that, I think the 7 pads work.

Discretely tucked away near the end of page 4 (emphasis mine):<p>"Unlike iOS and previous versions of Android, Jelly Bean’s speech recognition system doesn’t have to relay snapshots of the user’s recorded speech input to a remote server for processing. <i>Speech recognition can now be done entirely on the device.</i>"

Why are they running benchmarks on a tablet?

The nexus 7 will be sabotaged by google's crappy customer service.<p>I bought one at 10:37 am the morning they were available. It's 11 days later and there's no communication and no status on when it will ship. For status you are instructed to click through to google wallet. That site also has no status, no expected ship date, nothing. So that's strike one.<p>Second, I moved this weekend and need to update the billing address for the credit card. The google "contact support" page displays their usual FOAD customer service. You have to click through to yet another page to contact customer support. Of course, they're too incompetent to forward your 37 character order number. So after you compose a message, you realize you have to hit backspace to get the order number. And of course, they clear the message you carefully composed. These people supposedly understand web applications. How the hell does the link from inside google wallet to google customer support not know who I am and my fucking order number?<p>I still haven't gotten through to customer support and I anticipate spending at least 30 minutes on the phone tomorrow. I'll update, but I imagine that there's another ipad in my future.

Worst purchase experience ever.<p>First, they declined my card which I've been using with Google Wallet forever. Then, they didn't tell me WHY they declined it. So, I go and update the info (which didn't need updating) and place another order. Declined again.<p>Now I have 2 pending transactions showing in Google Wallet and there's NO WAY of cancelling the order from Wallet or Play. So, I have to call their stupid call center and get them to cancel both orders.<p>I'm not even sure that I want one of these things now.