Google's Own Nexus Tablet Leaks Into the Wild 224
lukehopewell1 writes "Days out from Google's I/O conference, training documents have been issued to resellers all over the world detailing Google's new Nexus tablet. It's a 7-inch device with an optimized Tegra 3 chip inside and it's going to be the first device to run Jelly Bean, the new version of Android, that, among other notable features, will see Google manage device updates. The device will be priced at $US199 and is aimed as a direct competitor to Amazon's Kindle Fire."
Going 7" is a smart choice (Score:5, Interesting)
By going with a 7" device that has a relatively low price point Google is offering up a device that that people will buy IN ADDITION to owning an iPad, not INSTEAD of an iPad. Why compete directly against the iPad with your first iteration of a tablet?
16:9 screens on a tablet (Score:5, Interesting)
I have an Android tablet, and I don't use Apple products, but I have come to believe that the 16:9 format is not that good for a tablet. For one, it is too short vertically in landscape format to accommodate an on screen keyboard and have a generous amount of viewing space available. If one wants to type with one hand while holding the tablet in the other, the keys on the sides also seem a bit too far away (my experience is with a 10" screen). In portrait mode, the keyboard gets a bit too narrow. The screen also seems to be a bit too narrow when reading books in portrait.
On the other hand, I now find the 7" screen size to be much more handy, and probably the keys would not be too far away. Has anybody any idea about how easy or difficult it is to read books on such a screen?
Another thing that has me wondering is the price tag: how can Google afford to sell the tablet for $199 / $249 with a Tegra 3 board, while Samsung charges around $800 (in India, where I live) for the Galaxy S III?
Re:Sad... (Score:5, Interesting)
The 7" form factor works great for me. The 16:9 aspect ratio also has benefits, I can fit the tablet into a pocket and it's nice for watching movies. I used to have an ipad, which I found too heavy and big to carry around.
Re:Motorola? (Score:3, Interesting)
My Nexus One was orphaned at Gingerbeard. I mean, I understand the technical reasons why they couldn't fit Ice Cream Sammich on there (flash partitioning issue), but it's still irritating.
The device is more than two years old now, though, so I guess it getting left behind isn't that unexpected.
I'd prefer that than what I've seen from a serveral iPhone 3G owners now, an upgrade into uselessness. Their phones are so slow with the new OS that they are virtually unusable.
Re:Sad... (Score:2, Interesting)
A better analogy would be; "When I buy a spoon, I don't complain that it isn't a fork." The iPad was never designed to completely replace the PC for all use cases. This is why tablets have failed in the past, and why the Surface will suffer the same fate.
Re:16:9 screens on a tablet (Score:5, Interesting)
I own a Nook Color (7" screen) and have spent a lot of time with other people's iPads. I find the 7" to be more comfortable for reading in portrait mode. The 10" device the lines just feel a little on the long side. However, if you prefer larger text or reading in landscape (where it typically shows as two pages) then the larger form factor is more comfortable.
Re:Sad... (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem is that there is no innovation going on here on the Android side. The Android devices all are trying to be "Well it's no an iWhatever, but it's good enough and it's a bit cheaper".
To which I say to you Asus Transformer [asus.com]. It's quite a bit better than an iPad on quite a lot of measures - faster, longer battery life, better build quality - and, with the addition of the clip-on keyboard, a useful replacement for a laptop for light office tasks and internet surfing. OK, it's more expensive than an iPad, but you're getting what you pay for.
What do you need the source code for? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm being serious. What benefit will you get from having source code for a graphics CPU on an Android tablet?
The only reason you need the drivers at all is to build a custom rom for the system, which I doubt Google is particularly eager to support. Not saying they want to stop you, I'm sure the system won't have a locked bootloader or anything stupid like that, but they don't have to waste time/money helping you either. Besides, you don't need the source for that, you just need a binary driver. Granted, last I checked nVidia hadn't released those for ICS, either...
Anyway, the type of "developer" you're thinking of is not the one Google is worried about. They want people making apps for the Play Store, not custom rom images.
Finally... Maybe, just maybe, they went with the nVidia chip because of the price/performance ratio?