Gadget review: Nexus 7 tablet - Premium quality at an affordable price

By Rik Sharma

Published: 19:53 EST, 23 December 2013 | Updated: 19:53 EST, 23 December 2013

Rating: 5 Star Rating

Price: £199.99


The Nexus 7 is a premium tablet which comes at a mid-range price.

That's the main selling point, although it doesn't do justice to its sleek, chic style and detailed, bright screen.

Crisp, clear colours and pictures are a delight on the inbuilt Google Chrome browser - and videos come out beautifully. 

The 16GB version comes at £199 which is an increase on the cost of the original Nexus 7, but it's worth it.

You should note that this devices use Wi-Fi and doesn't use mobile data.

The tablet is slim and light, with a glossy surface. The only mark on the front of it is a front-facing camera - otherwise it's a shiny black slab.

Slick and smooth: The Google Nexus 7 operates impressively but is relatively cheap to buy

Slick and smooth: The Google Nexus 7 operates impressively but is relatively cheap to buy

The tablet can be held with one hand, but we found it more comfortable to use both and operate it with your thumbs.

As mentioned earlier, the Nexus's screen is excellent. It's incredibly sharp and viewing angles are strong.

Battery life is superb; unlike mobile phones you won't have to charge the Nexus every night, unless you're using it non stop from morning until night.

The Nexus runs on Android, so users of Samsung and HTC phones will immediately be at home.

The performance is strong; using the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset, 2GB of RAM and the 1.5GHz quad-core Krait CPU, you'll have no trouble running several apps.

During testing, we had no problems whatsoever with the tablet being unable to handle multiple demands.

There are some downsides: It's almost impossible to keep completely clean of fingerprint marks (which shows you how smooth the tablet is in the first place).

The greatest flaw though is the storage space - 16GB is barely enough to store more than a few movies - so don't think about loading your tablet up for a holiday with lots of films.

That won't bother a lot of people and if you're one of them, this could well be the tablet for you.

But with apps and games also taking up plenty of space, you might find yourself wishing there was a larger option than the 32GB nexus.

For what it is, though, and especially at the price, the Nexus 7 is currently king.

 

Follow Rik on Twitter here: @riksharma_


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