Google Nexus 7

The Nexus 7 has a relatively low price, an incredible battery life for prolonged use, a sharp screen with an excellent display, and topped off with a complete and open Android 4.2 software, and overall, the Nexus 7 is probably the best tablet you can get, even for its low price.

     

Even after so many months ever since its release, the Nexus 7 is still one of the top-selling tablets. The 8GB version is no longer available, and it starts at $199 for a 16GB version, and $249 gets you the 32GB version of the Nexus 7, add $50 to that and you get a 32GB Nexus 7 with HSPA+.

Design

Other than the SIM card slot and a heavier weight, the HSPA+ version of the Nexus 7 is pretty much identical to its Wi-Fi-only version. The Nexus 7 has a nice and grippy back texture for it, and though it might not seem like much, it will probably be one of the most comfortable tablets to hold in your hand. Along the borders of the Nexus 7 is a thin bezel, but thicker on the top and bottom of the Nexus 7.

The Nexus 7 is also significantly lighter than the Kindle Fire HD and some other tablets. It  has approximately the same thickness as the Kindle Fire and just a tad bit thinner than the Nook. The 1.2 megapixel camera of the Nexus 7 sits on the front of the Nexus, on the right edge near the top is the power/lock button, and close to that is the volume button. And on the bottom of the Nexus 7, is a headphone jack and and of course, a micro-USB port in the middle. Above that on the back of the device is the speaker strip, and the HSPA+ version has a micro SIM card slot near the middle left of the device.

Unfortunately, there is no way of memory expansion, and no back camera. The exclusion of these features is probably a money-saving measure, which is also why the Nexus 7 is a lot more inexpensive than most other tablets who have those features.

Hardware 

The Nexus 7 has a 1.3 GHz Tegra 3 processor, and of course, 1GB of RAM. It also includes b/g/n Wi-Fi support, Bluetooth, accelerometer, gyroscope, GPS, and support for Android Beam.



Performance

The Nexus 7 boasts a crispy-clear 1280x800-pixel resolution IPS display, but the Kindle Fire HD still has a sharper, more vibrant screen with dramatic colors. The Nook also has a higher resolution, but that doesn't make the Nexus 7's screen seem terrible. The Nexus 7's screen is also very responsive to touch and swipe around on, but sometimes the swipes are shorter. Unfortunately, the Tegra 3 processor is beginning to fall behind. On some graphic-intense games, the frame rates were usually from fair to poor.