outdated man yells at pill —
Opinion: 2013 Nexus 7 was the proper pill on the proper value on the proper time.
Andrew Cunningham
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Well, right here we’re once more—Google is attempting to make an Android pill occur.
The firm has launched a brand-new Pixel Tablet to showcase a few of the tablet-centric optimizations that it has added to current variations of Android whereas additionally maybe-possibly coaxing app builders within the route of truly utilizing these tablet-centric options within the first place. If it feels such as you’ve been right here earlier than, it’s as a result of we have been right here a bunch of instances because the iPad got here out in 2010.
Maybe the brand new Pixel Tablet is the one which’s going to put Google’s first-party pill efforts on the map. I do not know! I can only take a look at high-profile failures just like the Pixel C and Pixel Slate and guess. But the Pixel Tablet’s launch did get me pondering of the one Google pill I really retain some affection for and the final great pill that the corporate helped to make: the second-generation Nexus 7 from 2013.
Back when Android tablets appeared like they could occur
A decade in the past, Google’s pill efforts had been at their excessive level. The Motorola Xoom got here out in 2011, and the primary Nexus 7 and the Nexus 10 adopted in 2012, and they had been launched alongside new Android variations that had been designed with bigger screens in thoughts. Though all three tablets had been flawed in their very own methods, the fast iteration signaled a spotlight and dedication that petered out with latter-day, lackadaisical efforts just like the Nexus 9 and Pixel C. Most of Google’s apps, at the very least, had been being designed with tablets in thoughts, and the turn-of-the-decade Nexus telephones and tablets had been low-cost sufficient and adequate to pique the curiosity of would-be pill app builders who did not need to miss out on (what appeared like it may very well be, on the time) an thrilling development market.
Apple’s iPad lineup additionally had holes in it again then. The first iPad mini wasn’t launched till very late in 2012, and it was basically an 18-month-old iPad 2 in a smaller package deal (it was additionally comparatively costly at $329 in contrast to the unique Nexus 7’s $200). There had been a number of limitations on the sorts of apps that would run in iOS and what these apps might do. Windows 8 and RT had been flailing as pill working techniques and tended to run totally on dearer {hardware}. Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets had been cheap however used restricted app shops and low-rent {hardware} (all three issues are nonetheless true of Amazon’s tablets). It felt like there was a number of room for one thing cheap however able to succeeding.
That’s what the 2013 Nexus 7 was launched into. Like the primary Nexus 7, the 2013 mannequin was a collaboration between Google and Asus, and it got here with dramatically improved efficiency, a brighter and sharper and extra colourful display screen, and a streamlined design. Full entry to the Google Play Store made it remarkably versatile and succesful, and the display screen was giant sufficient to be a significant improve over modern 4- to 5-inch telephone screens however not so giant that phone-first Android apps regarded fully ridiculous. And you bought all of that for only $30 greater than the first-generation Nexus 7.
The Nexus 7 wasn’t the quickest Android {hardware}, however it did use comparatively current flagship silicon from Qualcomm. The display screen was great. The design and building had been each completely fantastic for the worth. It was a perfect e-reader, it was great for cellular video games, and it was an excellent and light-weight video-streaming display screen. And as a Nexus system, it acquired immediate Android updates for just a few years (plus many extra years of unofficial assist for individuals who cared to work out LineageOS or another third-party software program picture).
The Nexus 7 was as shut as Google (or, arguably, anybody) ever received to the platonic very best of a small pill. It was cheap however not low-cost; it wasn’t underpowered; you did not have to put up with a mediocre low-resolution display screen. It’s a stability Google hardly ever manages to get precisely proper.
Google never appeared keen on re-creating this mixture of virtues in its subsequent Android tablets. The Nexus 9 was a lot bigger and dearer and had all types of bizarre issues; the Pixel C was additionally large and costly, and it felt off as a result of it may not have been designed as an Android pill within the first place. The Pixel Slate was a ChromeOS pill attempting to be a Microsoft Surface clone. And on the danger of pre-judging {hardware} I have never seen or used, the tasteless $500 Pixel Tablet has far more in frequent with Google’s pill failures than its pill successes.
A Nexus 7 substitute arguably is not needed at this time. Most telephone screens are actually nicely over six inches, making small tablets really feel much less needed than ever (although with extra fashionable screens and bezels you would simply take the precise design of the Nexus 7 and stretch the display screen to someplace within the low-to-mid 8-inch vary). Samsung makes a number of A-series funds tablets that, whereas not unbelievable, at the very least have first rate software program replace insurance policies and usable efficiency in the event you’re searching for a fundamental content-consumption pill that is not attempting to LARP as some type of laptop computer.
But I’m not simply annoyed by the dearth of a transparent Nexus 7 successor. I’m annoyed by Google’s stop-and-start strategy to tablets (and a number of its different software program and providers, truthfully). I miss that transient period in Google’s historical past after they’d promote you cheap, promptly up to date Android {hardware} that did not make you are feeling such as you had been settling for one thing. I miss the times when it felt like Google was attempting to supply one thing distinctive fairly than Google-branded variations of issues I might simply as simply get from Samsung or Apple.
That second-gen Nexus 7 was the proper product on the proper value on the proper time. Apologies to the Pixel Tablet, however none of Google’s pill efforts since then have come anyplace shut.
…. to be continued
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