# I jumped the Kindle Fire ship to the new Google Nexus 7 -- I Pre-ordered one.



## Zell

Fortunately I had my KF for less than a month and Amazon accepted my return for a full refund -- as well as the KF accessories I purchased.

Since I'm a long-time user (fan) of Google products, when I heard about the new Google Nexus 7 tablet (running on the new Android OS) I had to find out more about it -- and the more I read the more I liked it.  It has a lot more features and options than the KF that I won't go into (fast Chrome web browser, impressive display, well-made, faster processor, thinner, lighter, sexier).  But needless to say -- for me -- the Nexus 7 makes-up for many of the KF's short comings that bugged me, while at the same time it has all of the KF features that I like.  Even Google Play looks promising to purchase apps, books, movies, etc.

Maybe I'll regret the switch but so far from what I've read about the tablet and seen, I doubt I will.

I still have my Kindle Keyboard (K3), and have no intention of getting rid of it.  It's a great device to read on.

I hear there will most likely be a KF2 coming out toward the end of the year, so it will be interesting to see how it stacks-up against the Nexus 7.  I also hear that Apple will most likely roll-out a iPad "Mini" (tablet) also by the year's end.  I suspect it will be a great device like the iPad (I love mine) but I'm hearing it will be about $100 more than the other tablets (not so good).  

So, we'll see how it goes with the Nexus 7.  Maybe I'll regret not holding out for the KF2.


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## Zell

Mistake.  Delete.


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## HappyGuy

Why don't these manufacturers listen to users? Where is the HDMI connection? Where is the external card slot?  Where is the USB port? Arrrrrrrgh!!!!!!!!!


EDIT:  Oops, pardon me! It DOES have a micro USB port.


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## CraigInOregon

I am coming to a decision-making point soon in this area.

I will wait, probably, to see what the Fire 2 is like, but the Nexus 7 has me intrigued.

Why?

Mostly due to how I expect I'll use it.

I have had nightmares with iTunes working on my Win7 PC and am ready to jump ship on my iPod nano 16GB, which I've had for years.

I'm hesitant to buy another Apple music player because of my iTunes issues.

And with Google Play Music and Music Manager, I can salvage all my current iTunes music and put it in the Google Play cloud for no charge, therefore being able to access it on my Android phone as well as the tablet.

Plus, I can actually BUY stuff from Google Play... something I can't do with iTunes due to longstanding connection issues that no one at Apple is willing to solve.

So mostly I'm seeing the tablet as a media player... I'll still be using my K3 Keyboard for most of my eBook reading. Though I can access the Kindle for Android app on a Nexus 7 and still read all my Amazon books like that.

But at $199/8GB and $249/16GB, Google Nexus 7 is very tempting... the Kindle Fire 2 will have to really wow me to win my tablet purchase, I think.

Today, we upgraded my wife's phone from an old Samsung feature-phone to the brand new Galaxy S3.

I have to wait till November for my phone upgrade. By then, I'll be selecting between a Galaxy S3 and a Galaxy Note II (maybe... according to rumors).

I'd like to stay loyal to Amazon, and will for eReader/book solutions... but in the tablet market, I just may be swayed over to Google Nexus 7 unless Kindle Fire 2 wows me.


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## melodyyyyy

I ordered my Nexus yesterday. I am excited to try something new. I enjoyed my fire but the low volume made me decide to try the nexus. I should have it next week.


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## CraigInOregon

melodyyyyy said:


> I ordered my Nexus yesterday. I am excited to try something new. I enjoyed my fire but the low volume made me decide to try the nexus. I should have it next week.


Let me know what you think.

The thing that excites me most (weirdly) is that Google promises to keep it on the cutting edge of all Android updates. Wow.

Usually on Android cell phones, you get one, maybe two, OTA updates to Android, often extremely delayed.

Having a tablet that will stay on the cutting edge until the hardware is too outdated to run it (right around/after Marshmallow, maybe?) is kind of exciting, even if I am going to use it as a media player, buy an audio/radio dock for it, etc.

Also, I'm excited to experience Google Now, which apparently is even sharper than Apple's Siri feature.

So yeah, I haven't ordered yet, but if you get yours before I decide to buy or not, please post your impressions!


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## melodyyyyy

I was going to wait but I wanted to sell my kindle fire first and I knew if I waited I would not get as good a price. I sold my fire for 150 plus they are offering a 25.00 credit on the 7 and some other freebies.  I ordered mine from staples to save on shipping.


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## CraigInOregon

From Staples?

I thought one could only order the Nexus 7 from Google Play store....


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## melodyyyyy

Staples and GameStop have the 16 gig.


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## CraigInOregon

melodyyyyy said:


> Staples and GameStop have the 16 gig.


Really? At the same price, or marked up? In stock? When?  LOL


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## melodyyyyy

Yes they both have them for the same price.  You get free shipping at both Staples and Office depot.  My Nexus is suppose to be shipped between the 12th and 17th.  Office depot does not have a ship date listed. I have not checked GameStop. I don't know when they shipp but they also are selling at the same price


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## CraigInOregon

Ahh, you know what?

I'm tired of waiting for the Fire 2 announcement.

So, I went ahead and pre-ordered one directly from Google. I don't mind the shipping costs, and Oregon has no sales tax. 

Main reason? I doubt the Fire 2 could match one of the features most important to me: the ability to be the first to get any updates to the Android OS.

I'll still be reading primarily on my Kindle 3 Keyboard, and besides that, I'd rather replace that (when it becomes necessary to do so) with another eInk device... likely whatever version of the Kindle Touch is available when I decide to buy a new Kindle eReader.

No estimated date of delivery yet, but I popped for the 16GB version.


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## melodyyyyy

I agree with you.  I love my kindle 3 and have no plans on getting rid of it. It is great for reading. I am also excited about jellybean and I will have fun learning all about it.  I read last night about another feature of the 7 that they are calling a secret feature.  The nexus has the magnetic wake up feature depending on the case you get.  Another reason I went with staples is they where the only site that gave a shipping date.  Now I just need a case and I will be set.  I did see a cheap case on amazon for 6 bucks free shipping that I may have to get until the google case ships. I am way too clumsy to read without a case.  I doubt the Fire 2 will surpass the Nexus. Let the waiting begin


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## Shastastan

I was just reading a Kim Komando newsletter and she too likes the Nexus (but nor over the ipad2).  I got a Fire when they first came out.  We took it on a cruise and another cruiser was showing me her ipad.  I was sorry that I didn't get one of those. I bought the Fire because it is smaller, but I've discovered that I really don't like to surf the web with those small screens.  The email app is slow and balky,too.  I thought I would play games, listen to music and maybe watch some videos, but I'm nor really using it for any of those things.  It just seems slow and clunky.  I still have my K2 and that's the Kindle that I use.  Even trying to navigate through a magazine on the Fire is frustrating at times.  Could be the touch screen though since it's the only tech item that I own that has one.  Since we also have a netbook, that's the computer for our trips and it only cost $275.


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## CraigInOregon

Personally, I was never a fan of netbooks. The tablet concept always appealed to me more.

My goal by the end of the year is to have both the Nexus 7 tablet, and either a Samsung Galaxy SIII or a Samsung Galaxy Note II as my new cell phone.

The preorder takes care of the Nexus 7 goal.

One down, one to go.


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## Shastastan

Good for you, Craig.  We already had our netbook before the Fire came out.  I wasn't thinking of a tablet then probably because of the cost.  True the Kindle Fire was only $200, but you get what you pay for.  I'm sure that if I had a nexus that it would get more use than the netbook.  It sure would be nice for laptops, tablets, etc.  if they could come up with a battery that lasts as well as the Kindle.  May be a bit of a wait for that though.


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## KVWitten

I'm really surprised that the Nexus 7 doesn't have a microSD slot.  I wouldn't consider a tablet without one.


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## CraigInOregon

Two words: cloud memory


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## Ann in Arlington

Yes. . .that's the same question asked about the Fire and the same answer. And it's a BIG reason a lot of nay-sayers use when arguing against the Fire.

One wonders if any of those same Fire nay-sayers _like_ the Nexus. . . . . . If so, it would go a long way to confirming my theory that a lot of Fire nay-sayers are basically just anti-Amazon.


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## CraigInOregon

Well, speaking for myself, I very nearly decided to wait for the Fire 2, to stay loyal to Amazon.

But when I thought about it, the Nexus 7 may have the same "no expandable memory" limitation, and may be similar in terms of batteries not being swappable...

But with Nexus 7, I can get content from just about anywhere (including Amazon), whereas Fire/Fire2 locks me into only Amazon's ecosystem.

Plus, Nexus 7 is a full Android experience, not a locked-in offshoot.

I bear the Fire no animosity, and when I need to update my eReader, it'll definitely be a Kindle eInk device... I just chose to go Nexus 7 because I like it. I also expect I'll like the Fire 2, but the itch is scratched for now. (Or will be, once my Nexus 7 actually arrives.)

(I will say one tiny advantage Nexus 7 has is they DON'T offer a "prime membership" in order to gain access to certain content. The annual cost of Prime has always made me hesitate... I dislike the idea of "pay to shop here" solutions. Yeah, that means I'm also not big on Sam's Club or Costco, even though my wife really really likes having that.)

Note on memory:

The Google Nexus 7 comes with a mini-USB-to-USB cable that allows PC connectivity, so ultimately I'll solve the storage issue the same way I would have on the Fire 2.... backup to hard drive!


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## Ann in Arlington

CraigInTwinCities said:


> (I will say one tiny advantage Nexus 7 has is they DON'T offer a "prime membership" in order to gain access to certain content. The annual cost of Prime has always made me hesitate... I dislike the idea of "pay to shop here" solutions. Yeah, that means I'm also not big on Sam's Club or Costco, even though my wife really really likes having that.)


As to that, I guess it's all in how you look at it. I've been an Amazon customer for years and have had Prime nearly since they started the program. Mainly for the quicker shipping option. Just made sense to me. Yes, I could always find a book or something to make up the $25 value to qualify for free 'super saver' shipping, but I decided that Prime was worth it to have free 2 day shipping more or less automatic. The once a month free books and the movie/tv show content that has come along since the kindle's development, is icing on the cake. And, honestly, I don't much bother with the movies. (You do definitely have to factor membership in to costs at the club stores. . . .depending on how and what you buy, though, it can actually be a savings. It can also be an extra expense that ends up just encouraging you to buy stuff you don't really need because you don't want to 'waste' the membership. )

Regardless, I'm satisfied with my Fire. . . . and, frankly, unlikely to upgrade as I don't much use it for the higher end stuff. . . . .I read books, play a few android games, and that's about it. Screen's too small for movies for me. I also have a full sized tablet and I'm not interested in movies there either. . . I use it for email etc. when traveling and I don't want to drag my laptop. If I'm going to watch video, I like our fairly large screen TV.


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## Shastastan

I agree with just about everything that Ann said.  I've only used the free library book feature once and it was okay.  I mainly joined Prime for the free 2 day shipping.  We just got a new dog and had to buy all kinds of supplies. Instead of driving 8 miles to Petsmart, I ordered on Amazon and had them at my house 2-3 days later.  Need a usb cable, order via Prime for $2 total cost and get at home with free delivery.  There are a lot of old tv series shows, such as 24, that we watch with no commercials.  Let's see.....Netflix streaming is $8/mo.  x 12 months = $96...and no free shipping.  Prime is $79 with free shipping and a book a month library.  It's a no brainer for me.  If our netbook stops working, I'll get tablet.  We use our netbook for backup music on gigs and the Fire's screen is too small to see the playlists while standing with a trumpet in your hand .


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## melodyyyyy

My nexus came today.  So far I like it a lot. Will post again in a few days.


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## CraigInOregon

I received a NICE little email from Google today, regarding my Nexus 7 preorder.

Among the items covered, it said that anyone who placed a preorder on the 16GB Nexus 7 (the one I preordered) through July 11 would definitely have their unit shipped out no later than Thursday, July 19... AND that they had upgraded all such orders from two-day shipping to overnight shipping, so it'll definitely arrive on Friday. (And they upgraded the shipping like that at no additional cost.)

Note: Anyone ordering the 16GB version after July 11 will get theirs shipped next week... also with overnight shipping at no additional cost.

So, to me, that's Amazon-level customer service. I remember being VERY pleased with Amazon when I pre-ordered my first Kindle 3 Keyboard WiFi Only unit, and it's nice to see Google's getting off to a good first step with their new Nexus 7 owners.

DreamWeaver, I knew about the Amazon Instant Videos thing when I preordered. It's not that big an issue for me as I don't use that service now.

I totally expect to be able to read books on a Nexus 7 via the Kindle app for Android. (Although I expect to only do that in an emergency, because I prefer Kindle eInk for intensive reading sessions.)

Viewing Amazon Instant Videos on a Google-branded device was not a major expectation of mine. 

I heard about Google's decision to step away from the Flash standard going forward from Jelly Bean on. Given that decision, I sort of expect they have something better in the offing.  Or at least equivalent.


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## mom2karen

I look forward to hearing your opinion when you get it.  Does anyone know if it will work with a portable wifi (I think they are called mifi)?


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## CraigInOregon

The Nexus 7 has a pixel density of 219. That puts it right in the middle... far better than the screens of the current Fire and the Nook Tablet, but not as good as the Retina Display on the iPad 3.

Which I'm fine with. I'm not uninformed about Apple products. I just don't want to pay $399 for an iPad mini (7-inch) when for half that price, I can have a Nexus 7.

Especially since iTunes compatibility with 64-bit Windows 7 has been such an ongoing issue for me. I'm sick of wanting to buy the latest Brandi Carlile (Bear Creek) and my iTunes software blocking my ability to do so.

So now, Google Play and Amazon MP3 can reap the benefits of my music purchases.


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## melodyyyyy

After playing with my Nexus for a couple days all I can say is I LOVE IT !  This thing is great.  It is fast and smooth. It has a Suri like feature that is awesome and the screen is very nice. Hope Craig post after he gets his nexus today.  Amazon and Apple will have to work very hard to top the Nexus.


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## Hoosiermama

I pre-ordered the 16 gig version. Haven't received it yet. I'll be keeping my Fire, mainly because of magazines, music and video. DH enjoys reading his Runner's World on it. I still find myself reading much, much more on my Touch, but we won't have to "fight" over who has the Fire now.


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## CraigInOregon

Okay, this is all very preliminary, please realize, but...

I received my Nexus 7 at around 4 PM PDT today. Unboxed it and plugged it in until it was fully charged... which was very hard to do in terms of self-discipline.

Around 8:30 PM is when I checked on it and it indicated a full battery. Yay!

So, setting it up was a breeze. (Except for the part where I'd forgotten half my passwords... like to Amazon... ugh.)

Right away, there was an update to Jelly Bean... v4.1.1! Enhancements already! (Mostly for speed and stability, they said.)

I took some time to start setting things up, like Google Wallet. So I got my $25.00 Google Play credit and my $10.00 Wallet credit.

(Note: I spent all of yesterday uploading ALL my iTunes and scanned-in MP3s off my CDs... those I've scanned so far... into Google Play Music, in preparation for the big arrival. I was shocked to see that the content that had pretty much packed out my 16GB iPod nano took up only about 2,832 songs on Google Play Music's cloud memory... meaning I used maybe 14 percent of my 20,000 song allotment so far. So I have a lot of room to grow. And the service works great! Makes me eager to scan in the rest of my old CD library.)

I spent $9.99 of my $25 credit buying Brandi Carlile's BEAR CREEK album... which is what started all this. I wanted to buy that disc for about two months now and iTunes wouldn't let me.

Now, not only do I have it, but I paid for it out of my $25.00 Google Play credit!

I'll download it so I can back up my music at some point, but I'm enjoying the cloud right now, and the whole Google experience.

Some of my older apps, and one of my favorite games, don't work on the Nexus 7 yet. It's too new, I guess, but the device warns you before you do anything crazy, like download it.

I spent a lot of time admiring the screen. It's glare-y, like all back-lit screens, but very crisp and easy to read. I'll keep most of my reading on the Kindle, but the Nexus 7 will serve as a nice back-up device.

Call me crazy, but I doubt I personally would notice much difference between this and an iPad's Retina display. Or at least the difference wouldn't be enough for me to CARE about.

I didn't really think about all the time I spent looking at that screen until I set the device aside to look at my phone.

Wow... to go directly from looking at a beautiful 7-inch screen to a tiny Tmo G2 3.5-inch screen.... it made my SMARTphone seem like a toy.

I was blessed to get a unit with NO screen troubles. I guess some people weren't so lucky.

Then I noticed it was almost 1 AM and past time to walk the dog, wind down and get some sleep.

So of course, now I'm here writing about my impressions in an effort to manage my joy with my new tech-toy enough to fall asleep.

A few notes:

1) My current favorite Android game, Blood Brothers by Mobage, is one of the games that needs to be updated to support the Nexus. GET TO WORK ON IT, MOBAGE! I want to be playing that on my 7-inch screen, not my 3.5-inch screen. ARGH!

2) I love how the high-res screen real estate in managed. My smartphone only manages 4x4 on standard-size app icons. The Nexus 7 can do 6x6 on a single screen! That's 16 vs 36! And the new JellyBean-enables widgets are a lot of run, too.

3) Believe it or not, I haven't tried to watch Transformers 3 yet. Mostly because I'm not that interested in Transformers. Ahh, I just BATMAN BEGINS or THE DARK KNIGHT had been the movie-of-choice by Google.... I'll get to that tomorrow, though, if only to see how the screen looks.

4) Navigating is fast! I have 339 albums in Google Play Music, and it's fast to scroll through them manually to get to the ones I want.

More later. I've barely interacted with the tablet, mostly just spent time personalizing and setting it up.

I'm thinking of doing a video podcast review on my tech-oriented blog, VideogameVagabond.com.


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## Holly

I bought a Nexus 7 two days ago from Staples in Toronto.  I was vacationing last week but unable to get one.  Staples hadn't received any and Game Stop was waiting for their first shipment and was taking orders for their third shipment.  The main reason for this decision was that the Kindle Fire is not available here.  I have found the Aldiko reader very easy to load with ePub books.  I can see my Kindle Touch getting used less as I like seeing the covers.  I wish that the Kindle App allowed collections but maybe in the future.  The Nexus will not replace my iPad.  I will use it most as a book reader in bed especially. 

It fits the Kindle Keyboard 3 Oberon but it is a little tight so I have an excuse for ordering another cover or sleeve.  Haven't decided yet.


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