Tablets Had a mini, thinking about Nexus 7, anyone who owns a 7?

[bigboar]

I am looking for some opinions from you nexus 7 owners. I havent been able to find one locally and am thinking about buying online without actually getting to see one. I had a mini and my opinion is pretty much spot on with this comparison review of it and the 7...
http://www.macworld.com/article/2018711/ipad-mini-vs-nexus-7-the-debate.html
I have an ipad 4 now which I love for home use but I keep thinking about getting a smaller device to run around with.
I saw a nook hd at best buy last night and the screen on it is beautiful unfortunately from the short time i got to play with it, it looks to be locked down to barnes and noble kinda like the kindle is locked to amazon. I guess my big question is, how does text look on your nexus 7? I think it is going to have to be the route I go. The review above states it looks great, but I am not so sure about reviews anymore since some of them I have read state the mini text looks great which simply is not the case in my opinion....I know the whole deal with already using the apple ecosystem but to me it just isnt worth it for such a poor viewing experience. I really would like to know about the viewing experience on the nexus 7 compared to the mini from anyone who has/had both devices...

 

[ixodes]

I have both a mini & nexus 7, it's a great tablet. With a higher resolution the display is beautiful.

 

[mantan]

I am looking for some opinions from you nexus 7 owners. I havent been able to find one locally and am thinking about buying online without actually getting to see one. I had a mini and my opinion is pretty much spot on with this comparison review of it and the 7...
http://www.macworld.com/article/2018711/ipad-mini-vs-nexus-7-the-debate.html
I have an ipad 4 now which I love for home use but I keep thinking about getting a smaller device to run around with.
I saw a nook hd at best buy last night and the screen on it is beautiful unfortunately from the short time i got to play with it, it looks to be locked down to barnes and noble kinda like the kindle is locked to amazon. I guess my big question is, how does text look on your nexus 7? I think it is going to have to be the route I go. The review above states it looks great, but I am not so sure about reviews anymore since some of them I have read state the mini text looks great which simply is not the case in my opinion....I know the whole deal with already using the apple ecosystem but to me it just isnt worth it for such a poor viewing experience. I really would like to know about the viewing experience on the nexus 7 compared to the mini from anyone who has/had both devices...

We have multiple Apple devices in our house. I just bought an iPad Mini for my teenage daughter for Christmas.

I ended up buying myself a Nexus 7. It's a nice little device. The screen, IMO, is better - but wasn't my primary reason for purchasing it over the mini.

I found all the standard Android boogeyman arguments (cheap build, buggy, laggy, crashes, etc) to be untrue. It runs very well.

I found the ecosystem part to be overrated. I have over a hundred apps on my phone. I probably use about 25 of them on a regular basis. Almost every one of them were available for the Nexus. Most of them (social media, news, Team, IMDB, Netflix, YouTube were free..I think I spent about $10. I imported my music from iTunes over with no problem at all.

The one downside about Android is just that it's a bit different. It takes a bit to get used to the different menus/functionality.

The one area I feel it falls short is the accuracy of the touchscreen. I feel like I miss a lot more links/buttons on the Nexus than I did on iOS.

Ultimately it's about what works best for each person's need. For me a tablet is primary a travel item to help me kill time in airports, planes and hotels. The Nexus is great for reading, watching videos and surfing the net. The form factor is perfect - I can drop it in my coat or pants pocket. I actually like the rubber back - it durable enough to throw in a bag without worrying about it scratching or breaking.

 

[christophermdia]

I have both a mini and a Nexus 7, the Nexus is a great little device and gave me some great memories but now I am exclusive to the Mini. This is for a few reasons. I am deeply involved in the apple ecosystem, I have a house full of apple stuff so just to have this integrate as it does makes things much easier. I think the apps are far and wide better on ios vs android too. Not to mention my favorite things about the mini, iMessage and Facetime. I know some people dont care much about these things, but my wife and I travel a lot, and we have 2 young children, just last night I airplayed with my ipad to the Apple TV a facetime session, put the ipad on the mantle and the kids got to see momma in 50" glory, almost as if she was actually there. These things make a huge difference in my opinion.

 

[AppleRobert]

I am looking for some opinions from you nexus 7 owners. I havent been able to find one locally and am thinking about buying online without actually getting to see one. I had a mini and my opinion is pretty much spot on with this comparison review of it and the 7...
http://www.macworld.com/article/2018711/ipad-mini-vs-nexus-7-the-debate.html
I have an ipad 4 now which I love for home use but I keep thinking about getting a smaller device to run around with.
I saw a nook hd at best buy last night and the screen on it is beautiful unfortunately from the short time i got to play with it, it looks to be locked down to barnes and noble kinda like the kindle is locked to amazon. I guess my big question is, how does text look on your nexus 7? I think it is going to have to be the route I go. The review above states it looks great, but I am not so sure about reviews anymore since some of them I have read state the mini text looks great which simply is not the case in my opinion....I know the whole deal with already using the apple ecosystem but to me it just isnt worth it for such a poor viewing experience. I really would like to know about the viewing experience on the nexus 7 compared to the mini from anyone who has/had both devices...

The screen on the 4 is great, obviously not as good on the Nexus 7 and the latter offers some improvement for text over the mini but nothing substantial. The extra real estate helps with the mini.

Are you familiar with google's ecosystem? If not I guess you could buy the 7 from a place you can return it, I bought mine from Walmart.

 

[Dlanod]

The Mini screen is not as good but in my case the performance of the Mini is significantly better. No lag and much more responsive generally in my experience. Sent N7 3G back and keeping Mini.

 

[bigboar]

I understand the whole ecosystem thing as i own an iphone 5,MBP, ipad 4 and appleTV. I even went so far as buying another mini this week hoping there was something wrong with my first one. I looked at the display model at best buy and though it looked quite a bit better than my first so I took another home hoping it would be better. unfortunately, once i opened it I had the same problems with the text. I dont understand it because the one in the store was so much better, it has to be the lighting or something at my best buy... I keep thinking of trying the nexus 7 but am afraid I will just end up returning it too just because everything else i have is iOS. I do like being able to use airplay. I guess it might be better to just keep using my iphone on the go(even though it is so small)because i can actually read the text on it easier than the mini... Thanks for the replies everybody, I appreciate it!!!!

 

[ReanimationN]

I am looking for some opinions from you nexus 7 owners. I havent been able to find one locally and am thinking about buying online without actually getting to see one. I had a mini and my opinion is pretty much spot on with this comparison review of it and the 7...
http://www.macworld.com/article/2018711/ipad-mini-vs-nexus-7-the-debate.html
I have an ipad 4 now which I love for home use but I keep thinking about getting a smaller device to run around with.
I saw a nook hd at best buy last night and the screen on it is beautiful unfortunately from the short time i got to play with it, it looks to be locked down to barnes and noble kinda like the kindle is locked to amazon. I guess my big question is, how does text look on your nexus 7? I think it is going to have to be the route I go. The review above states it looks great, but I am not so sure about reviews anymore since some of them I have read state the mini text looks great which simply is not the case in my opinion....I know the whole deal with already using the apple ecosystem but to me it just isnt worth it for such a poor viewing experience. I really would like to know about the viewing experience on the nexus 7 compared to the mini from anyone who has/had both devices...

How text looks depends on the app, it's generally pretty good. Better than what I've seen of the iPad Mini in a lot of cases. A friend of mine who bought a Mini now uses Mercury Browser to get bigger default text, as the text in Safari looks really bad on the Mini (but for some reason doesn't look too bad in other apps? Apple needs to do more in the way of optimising for the smaller, lower-res screen, just shrinking down an iPad 2 isn't enough).

I'll reiterate what others have said though- the N7 is laggy, scrolling is juddery and the device in general isn't as smooth and responsive as what you're used to with iOS devices. If you value smooth performance, stick to iOS.

 

[entatlrg]

I returned my Nexus 7 within 14 days yet I love my iPad mini. I like the bigger screen, I find the keyboard is better. After my mini arrived I didn't use the Nexus at all.

I miss Google maps though, for that reason I wouldn't mind having a Nexus 7 3G but for everything else the mini all the way.

 

[GoCubsGo]

I think if you have other apple devices you should get a mini. And a turkey sandwich.

 

[tiiim]

For me I own a Mac, iPhone and Apple tv yet just purchased a Nexus 7. There was a learning curve but I am very pleased with the Nexus 7. For me the price and the hardware of the N7 far too big of a gap to justifying paying for the mini. I don't mock the mini just this years mini is not for me. Having said that after spending over a week in Android I am really am enjoying the whole "do what you want" of the OS. Granted it may not be a polished as iOS but neither is the price tag

The whole Apple integration is a pain its not a deal breaker for me but doesn't have the "just talks" to one another side.

App replacement: Not as a big deal as I was expecting I found all the same or similar apps on Android. A lot of them were either free or cheaper than the iOS rivals.

I haven't left Apple or iOS but I do appreciate using a different OS and gives me a much better and clearer view on the technology around us. It also removed the common Anti-Android stance I had. I used to think "oh dear Android" but when I sat down and made it my primary tablet for a week my attitude changed.
But having said that I am not pro either company now.
This week I recommended someone a droid tablet based on their requirements while the next day recommend a iPad to someone else. Its a case by case basis now rather than "all in" on one company.

Just my 2 cents good luck finding the right device for you.

 

[AppleRobert]

Well you have the iPad 4. And iphone5. I would just stck with those.

[/COLOR]

I have both a mini & nexus 7, it's a great tablet. With a higher resolution the display is beautiful.

It is higher resolution but it isn't as beautiful as the nook hd.

 

[ixodes]

Well you have the iPad 4. And iphone5. I would just stck with those.

[/COLOR]

It is higher resolution but it isn't as beautiful as the nook hd.

I've had my Nexus 7 side by side with my wife's Nook HD. They are identical.

 

[Rodster]

I've had my Nexus 7 side by side with my wife's Nook HD. They are identical.

That poster may have been referring to the Nook HD+ which is (1920x1280).

 

[aerok]

I went with the Nexus 7 because it is just so confortable to hold vs the Mini. That's my number 1 deciding factor when buying a tablet, how is it held with one hand.

 

[ixodes]

I went with the Nexus 7 because it is just so confortable to hold vs the Mini. That's my number 1 deciding factor when buying a tablet, how is it held with one hand.

Yes I concur.

I do prefer my Nexus 7 for that reason, especially since I have slightly above average size hands, it's very easy and comfortable for me to hold the N7 one handed. Being a two handed (hold in one, type with the other) user of medium sized tablets, the N7 is ideal.

Yet that said, the mini is not much larger, it's just that the edges are a bit sharp, therefore it's just not comfortable if held for longer than a few minutes.

 

[matttye]

Text is more clear on the nexus 7 than both my iPad 2 and iPhone 5. Its really clear.

 

[Joeytpg]

I recently sold my iPad 1gen and got a Nexus 7 after seeing how disappointing the iPad Mini was specs wise.

I have to say I'm in love with it, I love Android, it's a GREAT os, I'm actually leaving the iPhone world next year to get an Android phone. Unless apple offers a new redesigned OS and a big 4.5" + screen.

The nexus looks beautiful, it's powerful, and it just works great too. Of course you gotta learn to use the OS specially after being used to iOS for a while, but I really really like it.

Sadly Apple iOS is boring and bland as of this moment imo. Works great, but I think it's time for a change.

 

[siiip5]

Stick with an iDevice if you are deeply ingrained into the Apple ecosystem and want a device that, 'while very limiting', will take care of all your settings for you. If you aren't particularly keen on learning a new OS, then I suggest sticking with iOS.

If you really want to get away from iOS, want a pure Android experience and a tablet that everyone loves (except diehard iFans) then get the Nex7. I have one and love it, especially for gameplay with built in PS3 support, as well as BT Keyboard and Mouse support for doing real work with Microsoft Office and Photoshop. Not to mention that you can use external usb drives for additional data storage via a $1 OTG dongle and a free app. Although, I have found the 32gb version of the Nex7 to be worth the extra $50 over the 16gb model. I have owned both.

And with JellyBean 4.1.1 and 4.1.2 you have a very smooth and fluid OS, unlike the Mini that has displayed forceclose issues, lagginess with iOS, issues with touch input since all Apple did was shrink the iPad 2 screen, which in turn shrunk the target touch points proportionally. The iPad Mini experience is not as good imo. The larger form factor, but crappy display just makes for a crappy experience. To top it off, Apple wants to charge more for a subpar product. Like I said, you have to be really ingrained into the Apple ecosystem to pay for something like this.