All New ASUS Nexus 7 Review

Is this the best value tablet on the market today?

For:

• Glorious 1080p screen
• Affordable
• Light and thin
• Durable build quality

Against:

• Android OS takes up 6GB
• Would you like some screen with that bezel?
• Is Android's tablet ecosystem ready for the big time?

 

 While everyone waited on an iPad mini 2 with retina, Google and Asus went ahead and did one better. Presenting the new Nexus 7, an affordable 7-inch tablet with beefy specs and more pixels per inch than you can shake a 1080p jpeg at.

Whether you call it the Nexus 7 2 or just the Nexus 7, it hurdles right over the iPad mini in both parts and price. For just a little more money, it offers a lot more functionality than a Kindle Fire HD. It so surpasses the original Nexus 7 that Google has swept last year's tablet under the rug; it seems to be retired from the Play Store altogether.

Internally, the new Nexus 7 packs a 1.5Ghz quad core processor, 2GB of RAM and comes with either 16GB or 32GB of storage. Those models go for $229/£200 and $269/£240, and there's also an LTE version selling for $300, but its fate in European markets seems unclear, and we've yet to get word on Australian pricing.

While microSD slots now feel like a relic of a bygone era, since neither Nexus nor Apple devices offer them, we have to bemoan storage space a bit here. The Android 4.3: Jelly Bean OS found on the Nexus 7 takes up a whopping 6GB. Our 32GB tablet came out of the box with 26GB available. Those planning to go for the 16GB model need to brace for having only 10GB to play with.