Not quiet $200 Bruno, but yes Apple are at least making a profit on the hardware, and not just on selling content:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/18/new-ipad-cost_n_1358678.html

http://www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnat...mpact-size.html

Another positive review of the Nexus 7, from a journalist I trust to not grade on a curve.

I love Andy I, but if his review of the Amazon Fire wasn't grading on a curve then I don't know what is

Hilarious! Thanks for the link, Tom!

I've had my Galaxy Nexus with Jelly Bean on it for a few days now, and it's simply excellent. If the tablet is even half as good it's going to be a very popular device.

Cheers

I'm certainly looking forward to playing with mine when it arrives, even as a confirmed iOS fan

No sign of it yet though

I'm seriously considering selling my Galaxy Tab 10.1 to pick up a Nexus 7. I find that I don't carry the Tab around as much as I thought I would, and it sits on my night stand most of the time.

The only concern I have is that comics won't display as well on a 7" screen. It's just a little too small for the text. I could always have it fit the width in landscape and scan up and down the page, but that's a little less ergonomic. I'll have to think about it...

I think Google is in a really good place here overall. They're attacking a part of the market where there's not really any competition (the Fire is a joke compared to this thing), their price point is unbeatable for what you get, and Jelly Bean is a big improvement. It'll be interesting to see what happens here, and whether Google has a hit on their hands.

The challenge is that you can only buy this thing on Google's Play store. Amazon's front page can push millions of Kindle Fires, but I'm not so sure Google will be able to do the same...

Just following up on this now. For the time being, I decided to upgrade my Telus plan to a $45+HST "loyalty" offer with 1GB of monthly data included, and $0.05/MB for overages. I expect that to be enough for what I have in mind.

(The plan also includes zillions of voice minutes, enough long-distance credit to more than handle my call volume, unlimited texting (finally), voicemail, callerID display, etc..).

Mobilicity is also having a "sale" right now: their most expensive ($55) "unlimited everything" plan is only $30+HST monthly for the next 12 months for new sign-ups. I'd have grabbed that instead if I didn't still have 2 months to go on my existing Telus contract.

Now back to the Nexus 7 Lovefest!

Cheers

The Nexus 7 certainly seems like a very solid device. However if the smaller iPad is real and it is beginning to feel like it is and Apple can hit $249, then I can really see that killing long term mass market sales for the Nexus.

I had to go back and look at his Fire review. I think he was pretty honest about the weak points between the Fire and iPad. He did (IMHO properly) call the Fire a pure media consumption device instead of a full fledged tablet which I think is fair. Though with the rising capabilities of all these devices, the lines between categories are very blurry now.

It will be interesting to see if the Nexus 7 actually spurs more Android developers to write proper tablet apps. There are some fantastic iPad only apps that are near desktop quality in what you can get done with them.

As much as gaming has improved on Android, it has a LONG way to go. IMO, that's the single missing piece. All the other big apps are there, pretty much, but gaming is still a big issue.

Of course, I say that for the market. I still haven't seen any games of any depth, but I guess it's getting there. Are there any games out there with an actual story?

Seriously, the Nexus 7 seems a tiny bit smaller than some of the Android phones out there...

I'm not sure why you're harping on this size thing. We get it, you think it's small. What's your point?

Or am I poking fun at how large some of the newer phones are? I just thought I'd share that ludicrous image, I don't really care how big or small the tablet is.

My one concern about it is the available space being limited to 16G onboard. When I got the new iPad, I upgraded from an original with 32G to 64G because I kept running out of space. I suppose that can be overcome by swapping out flash drives, but still annoying.

Yeah, I get it, but why is it a "ludicrous" image?

Because the guy looks like he has a GIANT hand - didn't you check out that Penny Arcade comic linked?

He does ?

Looks like a normal hand to me. He does have pretty large cheeks, but I can't necessarily fault either of Apple or Google for that.

The Nexus 7 lacks a removable flash media option. And it does seem the 8GB is one way they kept the cost down to $199 to start.

Can't you use a miniUSB flash, or barring that a USB to miniUSB adapter with a regular flash drive?

I'm not sure. Maybe once the others are done trolling about hand sizes, they can chime in

This has already been covered a couple of weeks ago. I thought I'd read it in at least one other review as well.

USB flash? NO.

http://www.androidtapp.com/tag/nexus-7-usb-drive/

Plus it would be quite the ugly hack. Do any Android devices support externally-connected flash memory (SD, microSD) as a transparent extension of their on-board storage? I didn't think any did.

The 8GB model is to prevent hemorrhaging money on the entry level product instead of simply losing money.

If a USB-stick doesn't work with a OTG adapter cable, then something's wrong, because people have used that exact setup with the Galaxy Nexus phone already -- the two devices are quite similar and run very similar software (Jelly Bean).

I'm sure somebody will "fix" it shortly if Google "broke" it.

Cheers

Oh.. and there's an App for that which might help.

Got my "it's shipped" email yesterday. Hopefully it'll be waiting for me at home later.

Perhaps it's because they use a proprietary connector, but the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has adapters for USB and SD, and I've used both of them to transfer new data to my Tab while on vacation. I brought along some media on the Tab, and some media on a couple 16GB thumb drives, and I was able to transfer it over. It wasn't the greatest experience though. Very clunky and VERY slow.

The storage space will be an issue for some people, and for those the 7 might not be a good option. For me, I would mostly use the device to stream Netflix, I get my music through rdio, I can throw photos on Picasa Web Albums (which automatically syncs to the device), and that's pretty much it for stuff I'd want to store locally. I've had my Tab for a year or so now and I have at least 8GB free.

I wonder if the MHL HDMI adapter I have for my Galaxy Nexus would work on the Nexus 7...

It might be worth having just to develop my own apps without the goofiness that iOS requires, even with the silly limit on storage space. Incidentally, I only have 3GB free, and that is with swapping stuff out - at least this way I can do a couple of trips before rotating content as opposed to trying to do it after every trip.

Roger, any thoughts on the Nexus 7 by now? Reviews I've read about it are all raving, but I'd like to hear some user experience as opposed to reviewers experience.

I picked up the Nexus 7 as a netbook replacement (because my netbook is rubbish), so it's largely doing coffee table duty in the living room. For this, something larger was probably more sensible, but at £200, it's a no-brainer to grab one and play with it.

Size-wise, it's almost exactly the same size as the original Kindle, which means that it's very portable, but not as portable as my Samsung S3. This means that I don't tend to take it places with me.

Performance and battery-wise, I'm pretty happy with it. Jelly Bean is as pretty and as smooth as advertised.

The screen is superb, but (as you'd expect) it's not great in sunlight, so I tend to take my Kindle on my commute, rather than the Nexus 7. It looks awesome when playing games, so I'll be looking for more games (also for the kids).

The lack of expandable storage (I got the 16GB one) is not a big deal for me -- I've loaded a couple of movies and some TED talks onto it. For music, I'll stick with either the empeg, or my iPod Shuffle.

The lack of 3G is more of a problem than I thought it would be, but that's due to the fact that the open WiFi in the office was broken last week, and that I can't get my S3 to tether over WiFi. At home, and when the office WiFi works, I don't think it'll be a problem.

The keyboard's OK, but not great, even after installing SwiftKey 3 Tablet. I might look for a Bluetooth keyboard for it, or I might just avoid too much typing on it.

The included calendar app is rubbish. I want to pinch zoom to move between month, week and day view, and it doesn't do that, which is actually really frustrating. Though, as discussed elsewhere, all Android calendar apps seem to suck in at least one dimension.

On balance, I'm happy with it, but I'm probably not a typical tablet user, so take this all with a pinch of salt. By which I mean that it's probably better than I think it is.