ASUS Google Nexus 7 Tablet 32GB - Brown

Pros: - Huge 32 GB Internal Storage - Up-gradable to KitKat Android 4.2 - Tegra 3 Quad-Core Processor is still very fast in the market of processors. - No third party bloatware - Perfect size for my 5 year old's hands.

Cons: None

Overall Review: I bought this for my 5 year old's 5th birthday as his Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 was really starting to show it's age with the games he wanted to play (he did want to give his old tablet to his 2 year old brother, though). He loves this tablet and says it's the fastest he's every had. I like the fact that is it running pure Android and there isn't such a heavy UI running on top (*cough, Samsung). He has been able to play any game he has attempted to install with no hiccups or crashes. I thought the price was terrific for a 32 GB internal storage tablet. Overall this was a great purchase and my son is truly happy!

Pros: - Just awesome... powerful, easy to use... all of the above!

Cons: - The storage is not expandable... this was expected going into this purchase, so that's why I chose to get the 32GB version rather than the 16GB version.

Overall Review: This is truly what android tablets should be measured by... I don't have a bad thing to say about it and I just keep discovering new things the more I use it. The one NEUTRAL thing I could say, which isn't necessarily about this tablet, but the Android Market in general, is that a few apps I was used to using ARE NOT available for the version of android the Nexus 7 runs. Not a HUGE deal... as more android tablets come into market, the more tablet apps will be developed and become available... so it can only get better. If you are in love with a specific app / apps or perhaps can't live without a specific app / apps... it might be worth looking to see if it's available for the Nexus 7. As of lately, the Tivo tablet app was FINALLY released... but something like Square is still NOT available yet... bummer.

Pros: *The screen is amazing - very crisp, with deep blacks, great viewing angles, and accurate color representation. Coming from a Super AMOLED screen on my phone, I was a bit worried, since this is a basic ISP panel, but it's awesome. Touch response is quick and accurate as well. *Super-quick quad-core CPU - this had taken almost everything I've thrown at it with little slowdown. Oddly, Facebook sometimes gives it pause, but most people I know have some problems with the Facebook mobile app. Installs apps super-quick after downloading, and loads them up quickly as well. *Smooth, fast graphics - I can't believe how good the graphics are getting on tablets these days. No complaints - 3d games play smoothly, with very little lag or stuttering. *Super-quick Wifi - I have a 25Mbps Fios connection, and this tablet maxes it out, even over wifi-G. Downloaded a 1.3 GB game in a few minutes. *Jelly Bean 4.2 interface - Smooth animations, and I love the widgets available. *Swype-like keyboard in 4.2 (you might have to upgrade out of the box) - I got hooked on Swype on my Samsung GS II phone, but was worried about how it would work on a tablet with the larger screen. While the keyboard isn't actually Swype, but rather an Android-stock knock-off, it works very well. Only complaint is that the function to add words to the dictionary after manually spelling them out is not always available. *Media - video playback is superb, due to the great screen, and the sound is decent-ish without headphones. Plug headphones in, and the sound is great - not distorted, with decent dynamic range. Netflix works great, as does Youtube, Vimeo, and other streaming apps. *Form factor/feel - despite minor issues with build quality I touch on below, this is pleasant to hold. Enough heft you know it's not a cheaply made device, but not too heavy, with a nicely textured rubber back. The closest thing I can compare it to is the Nook Color - the rubberized back makes both devices easy to hold, although this has a glass bezel, so it gets thumbprints easily. No worries - the glass cleans nicely with a cloth, or in a pinch, the tail of a t-shirt. *Battery life - lasts from morning to night, while checking email, web, Facebook, etc., watching Youtube videos, and playing lots of games (usually Angry Birds or Minecraft). Easily lasts 12 hours of light-to-medium intermittent use throughout the day. *Standard Micro-USB port - THANK YOU! So many tablets these days use proprietary charging/data ports, so this was very refreshing, and since I have several high-current USB chargers, I'm not lacking for places to plug this thing in, when the battery finally does die.

Cons: *Build quality - as I mentioned above, there are a couple minor issues. For one, there's a plastic trim ring running around the device, that has a bit of flex in it. And due to this, it appears the glass on the left side (viewing it in portrait mode) is pushed up a bit. This is only an illusion - the plastic trim ring has warped a bit, so that the edge of the glass is exposed by a hair's breadth, where on the other sides of the device, the plastic trim is raised above the glass ever-so-slightly. If I'd spent $500 on this, I might have returned it, but it's acceptable given the price. Although I do hope Google/ASUS do change this bit of the design on future revisions, as I've read about it in other reviews. This is what I docked the star off for. *No SD card - worth noting, but since I knew this going in, I didn't dock a star. I know Google/ASUS wanted to charge a premium for extra storage, but come on - microSD ports wouldn't have added a lot of cost, and wouldn't have required much space. This was a very Apple thing to do. That said, 32GB is a lot of storage, and with so many cloud services supported, I mainly only need the local storage for games and to sync Google data.

Overall Review: For background - I have had a budget Android tablet and several Android phones for personal use, and I have an iPad and an iPhone for work, and my wife has a Nook Color, so I am well-versed in mobile technology and capability. I've had this tablet for around a month, and overall, I quite like it. I got it primarily for web-browsing, ebooks (via the Nook app), and games, with some light productivity, mostly around the house. I had expected to continue to use my mobile to listen to music at home, and to check Facebook and email, since it's "pocketable" and I have it on my most of the time. As it turns out, the Nexus, while not something I'd take out with me running errands, fits nicely in a front pants pocket, and I find myself using it almost exclusively as my mobile device while I'm at home, for everything but phone calls. Some apps I'd recommend: Spotify - the best streaming music service I've tried, the app works great on this tablet Grand Theft Auto Vice City - if you liked the original, it will be a blast form the past Minecraft PE - Minecraft, on a tablet Angry Birds Star Wars - best Angry Birds game so far, IMO Google Drive - If it's not already installed (can't remember) get it - this is a great little content creation tablet Nook for Android - great reading app, and it works with ePub format, unlike the *other* ebook vendor's reading app (cough, cough) Marvel Comic reader - I'm not a huge comic fan, but after reading a couple free issues, this is the way comics should be read Unified Remote - great remote app to control your PC, with mouse and keyboard capability, it's an awesome app for anyone with a home theater PC who doesn't want to drag out a full-size keyboard. Get the free version for basic mouse/keyboard/media capability, get the full version for several dozen apps, including every flavor of media player/center, file broswers, power, etc. My favorite Android app hands down. Advanced Task Killer - lets you easily and quickly shut down background apps, either from a menu, or with a one-touch widget ES File Explorer - easily navigate local storage, and also browse UPnP networked storage. I use this to pull down movies off my server.

Pros: Stock Android 4.1.2 (I believe). Android 4.2.1 was pushed just recently and makes it that much better. The "gesture tracking keyboard" in 4.2.1 is on par with Swype, but doesn't require any additional bloat. Multi-user support is ok at the moment, but it can slow down the N7 a bit: think of it as a beta feature. Light in weight. Lighter than many tablets/readers in the same category (7 inch tablets/readers). Beautiful screen. 1280x800 makes this resolution perfect for books (I know some people will complain that "4:3 is the 'perfect' ratio for reading", let them have their big boxy tablets then...), digital comics, and general web browsing. For the price, you're not going to find another tablet that is built this well, using the quality materials you find in the Nexus 7. 32GB is a sweet spot for digital storage. I currently have about 900 e-books, about 200 digital comics, a couple of 720p movies, and about 30 games and apps and have yet to peak over 60% of the storage capacity. Available storage out of the box was around 27GB. Performance is also to notch in this category thanks to the Tegra 3 under the hood, along with 1GB of RAM. Gaming is good (for the few games I play on it) and intensive apps are no sweat. So far, the only issue I've had has been linked to multi-user support in 4.2.1, and just switching it off helps out tremendously. The color isn't actually brown, it's more of a dark grey.

Cons: Non-expandable storage. Digital pack-rats will detest this device for having "only" 32GB of onboard storage, no microSD support, and having to use an OTG cable with some sort of USB storage medium to expand storage. If you need more than a few hundred books, a handful of movies, a few games, and a couple hundred songs; think about how long you will actually use this device before you need to recharge it. You're looking at anywhere between 6 to 8 hours of use on a full charge, meaning you'll never get through that entire media collection in one sitting. Doesn't come in white (the dev giveaway did). Black/dark grey is the only color it comes in. Big freaking deal, it's in a cover anyways. The hybrid UI in Android 4.1+ doesn't allow some applications to utilize the extra screen space like "traditional" tablets do. Prime example: the YouTube app. If you've used YouTube on say just about any Android 4.x tablet currently out (8.9 inches or above), you'd see that the YouTube interface is set up to utilize all of that screen space/resolution (even though the N7 is the same resolution of many bigger tabs out there) and looks more polished. The N7 YouTube app looks exactly the same as the YouTube app on the Galaxy Nexus/Nexus 4, which is fine for phones with smaller screens, but should be worked on by Google for better immersion on the N7's larger screen size.

Overall Review: Even with the cons listed above, the pros vastly outweigh them. I highly recommend this device to anyone who wants more than a "smart e-reader" sold elsewhere that locks you into "their" content stores and limits what you can do with those devices. The Nexus 7 does what they can do and so much more (like side loading apps and media) for a better price , without having to pay more to "remove special offers" or deal with smaller app markets and ridiculous software lock-ins. I may have to buy another one, seeing as how my wife is now constantly trying to take mine with her wherever she goes. The kids like it too, but a Nexus 10 may be in store for them, but that depends on how Santa SickSix thinks they've been throughout the past year ;-)

Pros: Awesome...Cheap!

Cons: None

Overall Review: Buyers Please do your research before you start buying any new products! Don't buy something then complain about it by not having the features that you want. DO YOUR RESEARCH FIRST instead of complaining about it later on. I read buyers complain about it not having micro ssd card, no front facing camera, etc. - the specs tell you all that or the internet has a wealth of information regarding the product you want to buy. Stop complaining and do your research first!

Pros: This is a great tablet. For $200-250 you get a tegra 3, 1GB RAM, 720p IPS screen. I went for the 32GB version since I'll be loading my movies on it. And there's always USB OTG that lets you connect a flash drive for even more space. Speaking of movies, the N7 is a great entertainment device. You can stream various movie services (Netflix, Hulu). For local content, Dice Player and FFMPEG plugin play my video files flawlessly. Perfect Viewer and Alkido for manga/comics and ebook; each page fits the screen and is easily readable. Uses microUSB. As mentioned before, USB OTG lets you connect flash drives, keyboards, mice, and even game controllers.

Cons: No hdmi; although it may support Miracast mirroring in 4.2 No MicroSD expansion; although it supports USB OTG for flash drives

Overall Review: This beats all of the other 7" tablets in the market. The fruit tablet is expensive and has last gen specs, the other ones don't match in specs (and aren't officially supported by Google), and the last one has a locked down version of Android. This is the tablet to buy!

Pros: Android updates are right on and you don't have to worry about the Manufacturer having to test it for several months first. Battery is great it really lasts. Processor is fast and pages load with no hesitation and wifi is equally fast. It is sleek and looks great too.

Cons: None that I can think of, except I would have loved it more if it cost less but it's cheaper than a lot of the completion and from what I have observed it preforms better.

Overall Review: This is the 4th tablet that I have owned and it is by far the best. I have had 1 bargain basement tablet that couldn't get out of it's own way. and 2 overpriced much ballyhooed tablet's that were inferior to this one. I am a very happy owner.

Pros: Did everything it promised, and more. Web browsing and email is a dream come true. Watching videos on YouTube or NetFlix; it's like having a pocket TV. Video performance is awesome, I run my own personal 1080p Quicktime movies on this tablet without so much as a hiccup. Uploading content to the tablet could not be easier. My computer sees it as a mass storage device, with folders clearly labeled "pictures", etc. So simple, no interface, no digital rights management. Played my MP3s & MP4s with no issues. Learn to use "Swype" for typing, it can be amazing sometimes. It's fast, but also fun (to "draw" your words does interesting things to your brain) Plus, there's 2 apps that allow me to connect to my HD-SLR cameras and use the Nexus as camera monitor. This is one thing that the iPad, at this writing, cannot do. This made the tablet a no-brainer purchase for me, as I'm a professional camera operator. Battery life is solid; single charge lasts me 2-3 days with normal usage. No issues with running hot. Only once in 3 months has it done anything unexpected (it rebooted by itself one day, but it was fine afterwards.. software update?)

Cons: Doesn't do HDMI out; if you wanted to port your video out to a large screen TV. That's it. I can't think of anything else.

Overall Review: I would buy this product again and again. It's not a stretch to say it's changed my digital paradigm.