Ten years ago today, Google released the 2nd-generation Nexus 7, just days after a surprise announcement. Back then, Android tablets still felt fresh and exciting. It seemed like anything was possible, and things could only improve from there. Well, we know what happened next. But the depressing state of the tablet market to come was in no way the fault of the Nexus 7. In fact, this is still one of the best Android tablets ever made, and it’s worth looking back and showing it the honor and respect it deserves.
The Nexus 7’s data storage became extremely slow after a while. The device became completely unusable.
A short while after the Nexus 7, many mobile phones screen got bigger, so the 7-inch screen size became sort of obsolete.
I still have it and still use it occasionally. But yes, performance is often bad. Always suspected it was the storage but couldn’t understand why or how it could become slower over time. Because I don’t remember it being this slow when it was new. I also thought it was the new android updates that came out over time.
Aspect ratio is different, so the tablets screen was still noticeably bigger.
I had the same issue. The Nexus program was cool for making subsidized, hackable devices available to the masses running pure Android. But the manufacturers seem to have taken a lot of shortcuts with components. Both my Nexus 7 and Nexus 6P (two of them!) eventually failed, and I got a pretty big class action payout for the 6P failing
How much did you get for the class action lawsuit? I took the free upgrade to a Pixel XL like a chump.
I loved my Nexus 7. The rubbery silicone back of the tablet made it the most comfortable device I have ever held. Meanwhile my laptop and phone made of glass and metal making them cold and slippery
Nexus One was the highest build quality Android I ever owned. I miss HTC.
The touch screen got wonky from time to time and the power button ribbon tended to wear out.
N5 was the sweet spot for me.
True, I forgot about the power button dying and needing to hack in trackball wake.
Never had screen issues.
This was my first Android device. Still got it, not using it much, but its still working.
I loved mine, but sitting a year or two the flash memory had degraded to the point it was completely unusable, even just as a digital photo frame.
The small tablet market is still underserved today, I’m running an iPad mini, which is great, but it’s definitely a second-class citizen compared to the bigger iPads.
My Nexus 7 still lives and it’s running Android 12. I use it for mostly YouTube these days.
The nexus 7 was siesmic in the android tablet market at the time.
Previously, your choices were iPad, equally expensive (but often lacking) android tablets (galaxy tab, moto xoom), or really rather crap cheap offerings (I had a 7" resistive archos that cost me £70…I wish I hadn’t spent the money).
When Google released the N7, it was a big change. It was a small tablet, with enough grunt, a good IPS screen, cohesive software, and was £150.
The fire-sale of the HP touchpad, imho, kicked google off on this. It made google realise that there was a market for a decent android tablet at a lower price point.
iPad Mini is about the same dimensions, though slightly wider.
All other Android tablets that exist in that space have horrible CPUs.
Or just some terrible flaw that’s obnoxious
I have some 8" Lenovo tablet I got years and years ago. It’s fine for videos and such and that’s where I use it most. It also has 2 forward facing speakers. Very decent, balanced sound. Low on space because android sucks under 64GB but it’s manageable
Any “upgrades” to it over the years have had single speakers or some other annoying flaw so I haven’t upgraded
I’ve tried Samsung ones but even their newer ones are slower than my 5 year old one. It’s so annoying
The Lenovo M8 4th Gen is slower than the 3rd Gen. We’re going backwards.
The Nokia T10 is only decent one. The Samsung A7 Lite has bad performance and traditionally poor Samsung OS. Amazon Fire is another option, but I won’t do FireOS.
Ok, that makes it even more sad what they’re doing. Feature wise it was already worse in my experience, but actually worse for performance? Geez
Guess I’ll just have to keep my Tab4 8 alive even longer
Hi friend. Just wanted to alert you the Lenovo Legion Y700 2023 version checks all my boxes, assuming there’s a Global/US version launching…
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Thanks, I keep checking their stuff but haven’t seen anything. I’ll take a look
Hmm. I have a Tab S4, a Tab S6 Lite and a Tab S8, and the S8 is markedly quicker.
All Samsung? And maybe that’s the case, relatively, but going from Lenovo with pretty much stock android to a newer Samsung was a very noticeable downgrade
Sorry yes, those are all Samsung model names that I was listing.
Well, I can’t speak for the Lenovo experience as I’ve never used one, and I’ll happily admit that any Samsung device needs a little tweaking to begin with, but I use my Tab S8 regularly for editing 60mb RAW photos off my full-frame camera and I can confidently say it performs very well.
My daughter uses my Tab S6 Lite and it’s more than up to meeting her demands — which includes a lot of educational games and so on.
My son uses my Tab S4 and he’s had no complaints either.
I mean, there’s not much else a tablet is meant for, really!
