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.
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
fuck glass, also nexus 5 back is the best
Oh I loved that one
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.
I remember listening the launch of this one in the local radio, the hosts sounded excited, I was excited, everything was great. Never got one though, it was my dream device at the time
Same! Never had one but definitely wanted one. I also wanted that Nexus 4 with the sparkle back to compliment it but I ended up with the Note 2 for that massive screen.
Back then people made jokes that I carried an iPad as a phone lol how times have changed
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.
There have been very few good affordable Android tablets: both the variants of the Nexus 7, and then the only other one I can recollect is the Amazon Fire Tablet 7, which launched probably sometime in 2015 or 16.
This was my primary device for a couple of years. I didn’t have a phone at all. I could do everything I needed to do. Camera quality was of course terrible, but I had one of those Sony “lens cameras” paired with it, and that worked great.
I even sailed across the Atlantic with the Nexus 7 as my only media device (I packed a Kindle but it died a week in).
That is why I’m considering a foldable now. If only they weren’t so fragile…
They’re not fragile anymore i guess. I use my fold 4 without a cover and unfortunately dropped it a few times recently on hard floor and on rocks once. Nothing happened, no screen scratches also, except for a tiny part on the side of the phone the body got a bump.
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.
Aspect ratio is different, so the tablets screen was still noticeably bigger.
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.
That was my experience with the 2012 model. Once it received the 5.0 Lollipop update, it couldn’t handle basic tasks without significant slowdowns. CyanogenMod improved things a bit, but it was never the same after about 3 years of use.
I thought that was only the 2012 model, and it was rectified on the 2013 refresh.
As a naive Google fan at that time, I bought the 2012 model when it came out. Google should have recalled the model and provide full refund/exchange.
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 don’t actually remember, it might have been $300-400 for mine since I filed a claim years after the first one overheated and failed, and after already receiving a warranty replacement (which later also failed). Getting a Pixel XL sounds like a good deal!
Okay yeah that seems like a fair trade then. I loved the 6P until it started having hardware problems. A semi scraped up the whole drivers side of my car by merging into my lane without paying attention and I had to pull over to call the police. This was mid-january which was quite cold so my 6P kept dying on me due to undervolting even though the battery was full. It made it impossible to get the police out to me which in turn made it impossible for me to get the drivers insurance to cover the damage to my vehicle.
So technically the 6P probably cost me a couple thousand dollars in insurance payout… but two years later someone hit my car and totaled it so I got paid out for the whole thing anyway. Lucky me I guess.
Oh man that’s terrible. Mine failed when I was abroad and caused me a decent amount of inconvenience (not nearly as much as yours), as I had been planning on using Google Fi for international service. Had to get a cheap loaner phone and sim which took a while and I was stuck with the rest of the summer abroad.
I had the first gen, and it wasn’t great in terms of performance, but damn I Ioved it. Very fond memories.
Also, I do have to chuckle at the progress since then. My S23 Ultra’s screen is almost as large at 6.8 inches, yet the overall device is much smaller and obviously much, much, much more powerful. Progress!
Completely different aspect ratios, the tablet had a much larger screen than the s23u
My Nexus 7 still lives and it’s running Android 12. I use it for mostly YouTube these days.
What rom?
Lineage OS
Have you had to do anything to the hardware to get it to keep up? I was using mine as my bedside device up until about a year ago when it got too slow
Nope, just installed Lineage OS. To be clear its the 2nd gen, my 1st gen is worthless, Asus cheeped out on the flash and it degraded rapidly.
Lineage is not perfect, there are little bugs and I have to reboot youtube every now and then, but for just watching video’s its good enough.
I still have mine, changed screen 2 times, battery is weak, but it is still used daily to watch videos. I installed Lineage on it. I have it for 10 years, it is still pretty snappy!
The 2nd gen Nexus 7 was the reason I left Apple hardware and to never return. I loved the iPhone but I got bored of them very quickly. I tried two Android phones and each time absolutely hated the experience and returned to the iPhone. I eventually picked up a Nexus 7 and wow it changed my perception. No bloat. Simple and fast. It felt like an iPhone where the software complimented the hardware. I switched to a Nexus 5 phone and have been with Google phones ever since.
Man, Google really had a great run for a bit there. The Nexus S, Nexus 4, and Nexus 5 were all great phones in my eyes. Both Nexus 7’s were nice tablets, but taking care of the performance issues in the 2nd gen made it great. I know a lot of people also loved the Nexus 6, though way too big for my tastes, and the Galaxy Nexus would have been much better if not for the Texas Instruments CPU hamstringing it. Then they went on to develop the Moto X 2013 and 2014, though I feel they were starting to slip with the 2014.
I won mine off a KitKat bar. Still have it, a little sluggish but it works.
The nexus 7 2013 supports LineageOS 20 which is android 13
Part of me is intrigued to dig out my N7 and install LoS 20 on it. But I have to imagine that it is slooooooooooooow.
It is slow. But it is OK as a spotify hub for house parties
This was my first Android device. Still got it, not using it much, but its still working.
My Lenovo Duet 3 (8gb) is the only tablet to feel as nice as the Nexus line to me.
Magnetic keyboard, pen, full Chrome via ChromeOS, Android apps, Linux support. And with Code-server its basically a desktop for me when needed, all for $300 at time of purchase.
Agree but the battery is too light for my usage
Really? I use mine like crazy with no issues. I use mostly Android and Chrome apps, and rarely start the Linux container.
If you use the camera it drain the battery really fast. That’s what I noticed. For everything else is ok.
I’m still enjoying the Pixel C, still a great tablet I think
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.
That was the first version, the article is about the 2nd gen device where the flash memory problem got fixed.
I had a second gen one, and it suffered less than the first, but definitely did suffer as it aged.
