• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Reassure me, really disappointed with N7!

cgfw201

Well-Known Member
Jul 25, 2012
166
10
Hi
I got an S3 back in July, love it and completely see what the Android thing is all about. It beat my iPhone in just about every department.

My iPad had a fault last week, and was replaced as new under warranty. A good time to sell it and move into the Android tablet world, I thought.

Sold my iPad 2 for
 
Google Play Magazines possibly? - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.magazines

I only occasionally read papers on my N7 and the ones I read are available through the Google Currents app that is built into Jelly Bean.

The problems with iPlayer etc are because Flash Player isn't supported on Jelly Bean. Flash doesn't work on iPads either, but the BBC web site detects when you're using an iPad and supplies a different form of video. However it doesn't do this for Android. There is an updated BBC iPlayer app that does work on the N7. I don't know about Sky and 4OD but I'd check to see if they have updated apps.
 
Upvote 0
Google Play Magazines possibly? - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.magazines

I only occasionally read papers on my N7 and the ones I read are available through the Google Currents app that is built into Jelly Bean.

The problems with iPlayer etc are because Flash Player isn't supported on Jelly Bean. Flash doesn't work on iPads either, but the BBC web site detects when you're using an iPad and supplies a different form of video. However it doesn't do this for Android. There is an updated BBC iPlayer app that does work on the N7. I don't know about Sky and 4OD but I'd check to see if they have updated apps.

So frustrating. Nothing coming to the UK by the looks of it magazine & TV wise
The UK's Getting Screwed Out of Google's Nexus 7 Magazines, Music and TV Shows | Gizmodo UK
 
Upvote 0
I ditched my N7 already. It was cool and all, but only offered me a larger bug watered version of what I had in my pocket with my GNex. I enjoyed JB and thought the tablet performed well, but felt very limited.

WiFi only, endless issues with the numerous ROMs and kernels I tried, connectivity and signal issues, incredibly limited storage options (Stick Mount and OTG cables don't count). It was all too much. I enjoyed the 25$ in the PlayStore but I've now sold off both of my GNexs and my Thunderbolt as well and have no use for any of the apps I purchased.

I plan to pick up one if the x86 Surface tablets once they start shipping. Yes, it is expensive, but it is a real full OS in your hands. I really enjoyed the Nexus 7 in theory, but my disappointment with it has driven me completely away from Android.
 
Upvote 0
I ditched my N7 already. It was cool and all, but only offered me a larger bug watered version of what I had in my pocket with my GNex. I enjoyed JB and thought the tablet performed well, but felt very limited.

WiFi only, endless issues with the numerous ROMs and kernels I tried, connectivity and signal issues, incredibly limited storage options (Stick Mount and OTG cables don't count). It was all too much. I enjoyed the 25$ in the PlayStore but I've now sold off both of my GNexs and my Thunderbolt as well and have no use for any of the apps I purchased.

I plan to pick up one if the x86 Surface tablets once they start shipping. Yes, it is expensive, but it is a real full OS in your hands. I really enjoyed the Nexus 7 in theory, but my disappointment with it has driven me completely away from Android.

Think I'm going to have to do the same, but reluctantly get an iPad mini rather than a Surface. Just can't see any use for the N7 at all. Bit gutted as really enjoy the OS just can't do anything with it!!
 
Upvote 0
I think your rushing it a bit. JB 4.2 is new App Makers are updating their apps right now as they always have too after an operating system up date. I have only had mine since Saturday and I updated to JB 4.2 straight away. Yes some of the Apps I like and have on my HOX don't work yet but they will. As you say JB 4.2 is great I think the wait will be beneficial
 
Upvote 0
I think your rushing it a bit. JB 4.2 is new App Makers are updating their apps right now as they always have too after an operating system up date. I have only had mine since Saturday and I updated to JB 4.2 straight away. Yes some of the Apps I like and have on my HOX don't work yet but they will. As you say JB 4.2 is great I think the wait will be beneficial

Possibly, but reality is that it will be several months before an Android tablet can compete with iPad for the things I really need it for, that being newspapers, TV and magazines. I'll leave it to the end of the week and then decide.
 
Upvote 0
I think, if those are apps you used on a daily basis, you may be best swapping it for another iPad, or iPad Mini. I sold my iPad 3 and was going to get an iPad 4 64GB again but, my partner was like, what do you really use it for (I had an S3 and an iPad, now have a Nexus 7 and a Lumia 800) and all I personally used it for, was for note taking, sometimes the newstand if print subscriptions came with a digital edition. Instead of getting another iPad, we got two Galaxy Note 10.1's instead. I do miss the iPad, would like one again in the future but, for what I personally used it for, the Nexus isn't as good, the Galaxy Note 10.1 suffices. But at the end of the day, it does come down to what you use it for. I couldn't be without Android as there are some apps which are only available on Android and alternatives aren't as good and for you, it seems like the same is true with regards to iOS.
 
Upvote 0
Decent newspapers here. Or Pulse. I personally just like Google Currents.

The nice thing about Android is you can "create" any look you want. I use ssLauncher and here's an old shot of my screens (lots of changes since).

I have over 100 apps on my N7, have only paid for 2 (GrooveIP and ssLauncher). Now that Amazon Appstore is fixed, no issues at all with 4.2.

Currents is ok but has only a fraction of the content that you can access via the iPad apps or actual newspaper. Both those other apps are ok for bits and pieces, but are nothing compared to the competition sadly
 
Upvote 0
I think you should take it back. Might as well go back to your iPad, maybe get the mini.

You should also probably trade/sell/upgrade your Android phone for an iPhone next chance you get.

If a couple of days is all you can give it before you're "disappointed", then the platform is probably not for you.

You want a big red "Easy" button. Something that's a mirror of what you had before. Android is not a copy of Apple (thank God!).
 
Upvote 0
  • Like
Reactions: Mr. Fusion
Upvote 0
I think you should take it back. Might as well go back to your iPad, maybe get the mini.

You should also probably trade/sell/upgrade your Android phone for an iPhone next chance you get.

If a couple of days is all you can give it before you're "disappointed", then the platform is probably not for you.

You want a big red "Easy" button. Something that's a mirror of what you had before. Android is not a copy of Apple (thank God!).

S3 isn't going anywhere, as I say, miles better than iphone.

Going to take the N7 back for a refund tomorrow and wait til next year, I'll happily buy a N7 again if they have produced some apps for it by then, otherwise I'll have to get a surface or ipad mini.

Massively overestimated what can be done on a N7 at the moment. No TV, no newspapers and no magazines make it basically redundant, especially given the S3 can do far more than it due to better app selection.

As I say, if the likes of the telegraph and sky produce quality apps over next couple of months ill repurchase.
 
Upvote 0
I'm glad the OP is speaking out. A distressing tendency has developed among fandroids that is just like the ugly disease that afflicts Apple fanbois - if something is broken, one must not mention it or be demonized by the community, because we are SURE - ipso facto - that it cannot be that the device or software is ill-executed!! Friends, this pathology is not a good thing for Google or the internet-using world. What is good for them [I speak as a longtime high tech product manager] is to burn them thoroughly when they throw a clunker over the wall. That is what will make them better. the ills that were inflicted, for instance, in rushing 4.2 to the N7 is really inexcusable: it got that way due to poor process and practices in the development team and their interface with the marketeers [the PM should referee between the twain - and has to have backbone]. Fragmentation, app fallout, poor utilization of the hardware, wifi issues, batt issues, security leaks galore - it really reminds me of the early days of MS Windows. its fun for those who want to innovate [the custom ROM crowd is doing great things for humanity] but an irritant otherwise.

Everything 'good' about the OP's experience could have been experienced on a $90 tablet from one of the better makers, running 4.0.n on a cortex A9 dual, mali-400, with HDMI, real USB, and a micro-SD aux storage port. and running the latest FLASH player to boot. Instead he gets stuck with a class-leading display covering up a bunch of issues. and screen lift to give him something else to do. [see the threads on how to tape together your N7 to cure screen lift].

The iPAD mini is worth its conservative price of $329 usd. It is very, very well implemented, slick, competent, and has legitimate 13 hour batt life. For people that want to get on with their lives and not learn to be amateur android phacks, its a bargain [and I never owned an iphone or any mac-thingies other than the ones I'm paid to fix.... they DO break, and the parts are mostly off-shelf ordinary stuff]

I will continue to own and use android devices because I need to: my tech support clients in these days juggle all these devices. I get a "simple" call out for what is billed as "a bit of a wifi problem and the office"... when I get there I find the snake's den of everything - 'droid phones, iphones, ipods, ipads, PC's with 3 different iterations of windows and umpteen sub-divisions of versions running on goofy hardware, and all of them have issues.

Do Google a favor and stop defending them. they need to be caned when they make dumb engineering and product moves. cane them til they get the message. leave the public-experimentation to the chinese knockoffs
 
Upvote 0
The ecosystems are different and Android is behind iOS in Table-specific apps and also some level of content. I can get the P90X App on my iPhone but not on my Nexus 7 - the folks there want the higher level of DRM in the iOS ecosystem. On the other hand, if I have some movie files on my PC, I can just copy them to the Nexus 7 and play them. With iOS, I have to convert them to MP4 and then load them into iTunes and then use iTunes to move things back and forth.

I don't think that you can really appreciate the differences unless you live with the devices for a while. Unfortunately that can be an expensive approach to finding what you want unless you have really good return policies.

I imagine Windows 8 is going to fit in here someday too. The three major operating systems are all competing for developer resources and mind-share.
 
Upvote 0
Just looks crap and is such a simple thing to fix. Spend half the time looking for the one screen that has the apps on. So easy to do on an S3 or iPad.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I think you're being nitpicky. How does a blank screen look like crap when you never need to look at it if you don't want to?

It seems to me that you made your mind up not to like the N7 and are reaching for things not to like about it. That's fine, if you prefer an iPad, go for it.
 
Upvote 0
Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I think you're being nitpicky. How does a blank screen look like crap when you never need to look at it if you don't want to?

It seems to me that you made your mind up not to like the N7 and are reaching for things not to like about it. That's fine, if you prefer an iPad, go for it.

Not true at all about looking for things not to like about it. I really want to like the N7, but it's hopeless for a lot of basic things.

S3 was my intro to Android, the great thing about it is that it nails all the basics which iPhones are good at, and then offers huge amounts more than Apple can with things like widgets, easy file transfer to PC, google now, better screen etc.

Nexus 7 looks good, JB is great, but it doesn't get the basics and it all comes down to apps. They will come I'm sure, but for me the Nexus 7 doesn't do any of things I have become accustomed to on a tablet over the last 18 months.
 
Upvote 0
To each his own. I do like my phone (Optimus-V), had all the stuff you needed (and much you didn't), but what I like about the N7 is it doesn't have a lot of crap on it. You go get all the free apps you need and create your own personal tablet. I haven't even looked at an Apple product in 10 years, they are great, they are pricey, they do work. But I can't image they can do anymore than my N7 does.

ssLauncher: lets me put widgets, shortcuts anywhere (no grid), any size or color, text or icon, just totally "personal".

Solid Explorer (or many others): I have all my Dropbox folders on the second screen. Bookmark to my work and home PC. Instant access to uplaoding or downloading files.

Gtasks: Any lists or notes, instantly on my PC, N7 and PC (home and work).

Boat Browser: Fast, Flash, Simple

Currents: Sorry, just like it. But I do go to my browser bookmarks for many sites instead.

Camera: Sucks (Apple wins)

Not true at all about looking for things not to like about it. I really want to like the N7, but it's hopeless for a lot of basic things.

S3 was my intro to Android, the great thing about it is that it nails all the basics which iPhones are good at, and then offers huge amounts more than Apple can with things like widgets, easy file transfer to PC, google now, better screen etc.

Nexus 7 looks good, JB is great, but it doesn't get the basics and it all comes down to apps. They will come I'm sure, but for me the Nexus 7 doesn't do any of things I have become accustomed to on a tablet over the last 18 months.
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones