10 years ago, Google launched the 2nd-gen Nexus 7, and no tablet has captured its magic since

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.

GreatAlbatross,
@GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk avatar

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.

inspector,

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.

magic_lobster_party,

I still have my Nexus 5 somewhere in a drawer, and it’s still my favorite phone ever. Time from time I pick it up, and I get reminded of how good it felt to hold it in the hand. It’s so light. The buttons are at the right place.

I wish they made phones with the same form factor again.

Kerrigor,
Kerrigor avatar

Damn that phone felt good to hold.

IONLYpost,
IONLYpost avatar

The first phone with Material Design UI, surely felt diffrerent. Although every "premium tier" phone back then would be cheap and plastic by today's standard.

Kerrigor,
Kerrigor avatar

Oh I meant literally the physical shell of the phone. I actually prefer the slightly grippy, rubbery plastic feel of the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7.

IONLYpost, (edited )
IONLYpost avatar

Did the shell become sticky over time?

AnonymousLlama,
AnonymousLlama avatar

Was great value too, back in the days when you could spend a few hundreds dollars and get a top quality phone.

RootBeerGuy,
@RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

This was my first Android device. Still got it, not using it much, but its still working.

inspector,

Man, I always wanted a Nexus 7, but it was never easy to get one in my country back then. And then Google officially partnered with Amazon and Flipkart to launch the tablet…right after I’d gotten a new iPad.

AnonymousLlama,
AnonymousLlama avatar

I remember when it came out, it only launched in a few countries and I was super surprised to see it on the play store in Australia (when historically we usually get fuck all)

I paid 299 AUD for it. An unthinkable price nowadays

Frederic,

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!

hiire,

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

EddieTee77,

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

bergie,
@bergie@lemmy.world avatar

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).

dutchkimble,

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.

sexy_peach,

Aaah tablets, the grown ups toy.

mikestevens,

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!

Elcapitan786,

Completely different aspect ratios, the tablet had a much larger screen than the s23u

moist_towelettes,

I won mine off a KitKat bar. Still have it, a little sluggish but it works.

jcarax,

I had a gen 1, I bought my mom a gen 2. Mine is long since unusable, maybe if I rolled back to an earlier release it would have been better. My mom is just starting to think about replacing hers, though her usage is light. So is mine, for that matter, I actually replaced mine with e-ink Kindles.

monotremata,

NVidia Shield K1 was pretty great too. It was also $200, about the same size (8"), 1920x1200 screen, fairly stock android, and had a pretty speedy chipset. It even had decent speakers. Came out 2014. I really liked that thing. I got it to replace my first Nexus 7 (2012), whose storage had decayed really fast, to the point it wasn't really usable anymore.

candyman337,
@candyman337@lemmy.world avatar

Ugh yes, I have been talking about it ever since, I got an 8inch cheap Chinese tablet to use as an e reader and it’s ALMOST the same size (and almost the same specs lmao) the only reason I’m not used my nexus 7 is usb c on this on and I soft bricked it trying to put a lightweight OS on it 😢

Swarfega,

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.

jcarax,

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.

Skimmer, (edited )

So far I’ve been pretty happy with the new Pixel Tablet, hope we see more like it and better in the future.

Anti_Weeb_Penguin,
@Anti_Weeb_Penguin@lemmy.world avatar

The nexus 7 2013 supports LineageOS 20 which is android 13

yaaaaayPancakes,

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.

MaoWasRight,

It is slow. But it is OK as a spotify hub for house parties

Saneless,

Mine still works

When digging through some stuff from a move in 2018 I noticed a tablet. WTF is this?

Charged it. Booted it up. Nexus 7 v2

Little fucker still was going

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