So I got mine

I debated quite heavily about it, but in the end I knew I’d get it (ssshhh, my wife doesn’t quite know yet).  There’s a whole prologue to the story about trying to get it from the store, but I won’t go into it here.  Just read my G+ posts if you like.

After purchase I had just enough time to plug it in for some charging while setting it up.  I was catching a ride for a trip with the pipe band.  The driving would be about 5 hours each time so I had to work fast and hope the internet connection was enough to download all I needed.  It never is.

While on the road I just transferred some of the files I wanted from my phone to my tablet via bluetooth (some files you can’t beam).

So, what’s to talk about it?

Here’s the technical specifications:

7” 1280×800 HD display (216 ppi)
Scratch-resistant Corning glass (not Gorilla)
1.2MP front-facing camera
4325 mAh (Up to 8 hours of active use)

(I have more data listed on our “Tablet database“)

Outside

At 340 grams it’s waay lighter than my eeePad, even as it’s a smaller screen.  They’ve used some lighter parts on this device so that with it’s size it fits in your hand with an easy grasp (even with my stubby fingers) and doesn’t feel heavy.

One of the biggest pluses for me when I picked it up was that it’s charging plug you’ll now notice is microUSB.  If that isn’t a “well d’uh” move by ANY manufacturer nowadays they should be smacked.  A universal charging port is a sheer necessity.  I can’t tell you how often going trips it’s annoying to have a phone charger AND a tablet charger.  I want just one.  Let alone how odd those chargers can be sometimes.  Just look at the one for the Toshiba Excite.  It’s a big plus being able to reduce the number of chargers I have around the house.

Speaking about external features, there’s a speaker, but it’s mono… I was surprised how much I noticed that feature.  But, smaller device, you have to cut corners.  However, it is quite loud and is now become my office ‘speaker’ for music, just about as good as that ‘boost‘.

One of the other external features they cut corners on was the camera and an SD card.  As for the camera, I’m hardly noticing it’s not there, except when you wake up the device and there’s no ‘slide to the left’ option.  And for those that know me, not having an SD card is not a huge loss.  It just seems like it’s missing something.  I guess if I ever do need more storage and I’m without my cloud, then I’ll have to get one of those adapters to plug in a USB stick (do they have those?).

Inside

So, let’s turn it on now.  After all the set up I was hoping for it to grab my info and start downloading my apps.  It didn’t for some reason.  Maybe because I hadn’t used THIS device before.  So it was kind of a pain.  #1stworldproblems

Once set up you’ll see it’s 4.1 Jelly Bean and it quickly updated to 4.1.1.  I won’t go over much of what JB is all about — I’ve done that kind of posting before, so I won’t re-iterate/bore you with going over it.  But everything works just like it does on my Galaxy Nexus.

Which is kind of off putting if you think about it.  Looking at my eeePad and my phone there’s a huge difference.  Difference of where buttons are and how to get into the settings.  It let’s you know that you’re on a different device.  From my phone to the Nexus 7 there’s little to no difference.  It feels like that whole iPad scenario… it’s just a bigger phone.  Not sure I like that… I get the whole consolidated / uniform experience and all, but there should be some differences.  (the plus to this is that apps for phones where you should get a different tablet one – say, like switfkey, work pretty well on this)

The only difference you do notice is that it does have more ‘space’ on the desktop.  Where the phone has a 4×4 icon screen, the nexus gives you 5×6.

That, and when you go to access the dropdown shade it not only doesn’t cover the proper width of the device, it doesn’t go down all the way to the bottom.  It seems like it was designed just for the phone and then added onto the tablet without proper sizing/scaling.

What’d you like about it?

Excellent size

NFC (however it was a little trick to find the right spot)

Battery Life

Performance (seriously, no lag, and apps load VERY quickly)

You get a free copy of Transformers, Bourne Legacy and $25 in the Play Store

What’d I not like?

that’s a bit of a strong wording… maybe I should use ‘what am I leery about’

Build scares me.  The screen I have is a little soft on one edge as it feels like the adhesive is loose and not set, so I can press it down.  You can see the glass is about a mm above the bezel on the side, where on the other side it isn’t.

I’ve also noticed on occasion that the screen isn’t as responsive (or it’s ultra responsive).  A light finger on the bezel registers as a touch.  Or, as we found out playing Angry Birds, sometimes you’d pull back on the sling and let go, but it’d register a second touch activating the bomb bird or whatever.  In Fruit Ninja sometimes the swipe wouldn’t register as a ‘swipe’ but a series of multi touches, and get you to miss a good combo.  Weird thing is that it’s not all the time.  Just enough to be slightly annoying.

On the road trip I put the device in the side door holder and you can see some wear and tear on the side paint already.

the “it’s just a big phone” as I stated above.

Watch time

So, that’s how I saw the device.  What’d you think?