A new gadget.

Long time no post. My bad - a new job I started in September is keeping me very busy. In addition to that I'm not even using the laptop all that much anymore in my spare time. Instead I'm using a new gadget as CSD¹- an Asus Nexus 7.

The tablet was an impulse buy to be honest. I've wanted one for a while. But which? Apple iPad? Boring and more expensive than what I'm willing to pay. Microsoft Surface? Not released yet. If anything I want a Surface Pro as replacement for my aging ThinkPad. In the end I went with the Nexus 7 for two reasons:

1. It's running a vanilla version of Android and receives OS updates almost immediately.
2. An excellent price/performance ratio. The 16 GB version I have cost me €249; compare that to €399 for the cheapest iPad model.

As an aside: The Nexus 7 isn't my first foray into the Android world. Early this year I owned a Samsung Galaxy W for a while. The issues I've had with it - TouchWiz being a bag of hurt, no upgrade path to Android 4.x and more - did their share to turn me away from Android.

Ironically my experience with the Nexus 7 is good enough to make me consider an Android device as my next smartphone. But I digress.

The hardware doesn't look or feel like cheap at all. The device has a solid, weighty feel to it. The screen works pretty good under all kinds of lighting conditions. It may not be a 'retina display'; in my not so humble opinion it looks and works well enough though.

Setting up the Nexus 7 is a breeze: Select your language, connect it to your wireless network, set up your Google Account and you're good to go. The tablet comes pre-loaded with the usual set of Google apps as well as with a few ebooks and one film from the Play Store. I have yet to watch the latter - 'Transformers 3' in a dubbed version is not my cup of tea.

After some customisation my home screen looks as follows:

The home screen

Yes, this is a large version of the Android phone user interface rather than the tablet user interface seen on other Android tablets. Does it bother me? Not at all. I'm using most apps in portrait mode anyway.

Some of you will have noticed the Google Chrome icon in the lower left. Google opted for it as default browser on the Nexus 7. From my experience it works as fast and smooth as the desktop version. You're always free to install other browsers like Firefox for Android from the Play Store of course. Screenshot of Chrome in action:

Reading my friend Amanda's latest blog post.

As for the available apps for the Nexus 7 - the Play Store offers a similar selection to, say, the iTunes Store, both in number of apps and quality. Sure, some apps could use an overhaul to make them look better on a tablet(are you listening, Facebook?); still, there is also a good selection of apps which follow the design guidelines Google laid out for Android 4.x. I'd go as far as to say these look better than their iOS counterparts. Your mileage may vary.

Just because I could I performed a factory reset a few days ago. Reason why? I wanted to see which settings are restored. As expected the Google apps all maintained their settings. 3rd party apps had to be re-installed. User interface customisations were lost; to my surprise the WPA2 keys of the various wireless networks were restored as well though. Whether this is a blessing or a curse is debatable. Personally I like the ease of use this offers.

Am I happy with my purchase? Definitely. It's a versatile, very portable multi-purpose device sold at a very reasonable price. Much cheaper as competing fruity devices and running an operating system which isn't stuck in 2007.

On a final note, I will try to resume posting more often. I have yet to finish the series of Windows 8 posts - eventually.

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¹CSD = Couch Surfing Device