[EugeneKrabs]

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- presented straw man arguments ("people buy iPads for the cachet")

Uhh, that is not a straw man.

[chriswilson]

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I don't understand even having a discussion about all this. I'm sure the Android devices act no different from my PC's....they bogg down, they give perpetual Error messages and suffer from too many virus infestations and threats. After I bought my iMac and Macbook almost 3 years ago I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Now I have an iPad 2, which contains my whole life, and a new iPad Mini, because I've been wanting a small iPad for a very long time. I'd pay three times what Apple asks to get any Apple product. They just WORK! And they work smoothly and look beautiful. To save $100 to get an inferior device that you have to live with just makes no sense to me at all. As far as I'm concerned, nothing exists but Apple. And I am forever grateful.

I used to think like that; until I realised iOS was so closed off and hard to customise. I'm not condoning Google's popup interface suggestions though as they're a pain. No tablet on the market is really anywhere near perfect. I'm typing this reply on a MacBook and own an iMac as well as an iPhone - but you should really open your eyes up to what else is available. The majority of my work is done from a powerful windows based desktop - if I could run OSX on it maybe I would, but windows has come along recently and is improving. In terms of tablets the iPad mini isn't great. I owned one and sent it back - I didn't feel as though I was getting value for money. 'It just works' is one of the lamest terms coined from users of apple products. A lot of things just work as long as you're not retarded.

[chriswilson]

I was genuinely looking at buying a Nexus 7 until reading this 'review'. Supposedly Apple users are the ones concerned about sticking only to Apple products but Chris seems quite open and unbiased in recognizing the pros and cons of both products. Melissa on the other hand, just comes across as a complete a-hole. Get someone who's head isn't deep in their rectum and so anti-apple to do this review. I use both Windows and Mac based technology every day and just want a fair comparison.

[MrObjective]

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I was genuinely looking at buying a Nexus 7 until reading this 'review'. Supposedly Apple users are the ones concerned about sticking only to Apple products but Chris seems quite open and unbiased in recognizing the pros and cons of both products. Melissa on the other hand, just comes across as a complete a-hole. Get someone who's head isn't deep in their rectum and so anti-apple to do this review. I use both Windows and Mac based technology every day and just want a fair comparison.

Forgive the length but some of these comments have me seething... All of the people insulting Melissa and calling her names simply because she voiced her honest opinion are very immature and that behavior screams "fanboy". A lot of people commenting here need to get over themselves and their obvious Apple bias. In our family we own an iMac, a Retina Macbook, and several iPads, iPhones, and iPods. So I think it's fair to say I'm far from being an Apple hater. However, as someone in the market for a 7" tablet after finding myself frequently reaching for my wife's Galaxy Tab Plus 7.0 instead of my new iPad, I too compared the Mini and the Nexus. The funny thing is, I find Melissa's argument to be spot on. To the biased, she may seem like an Apple hater or basher but the points she made are valid. In fact, Chris comes off as the obviously more biased reviewer. He has nothing but criticism and wildly overblown exagerations about the Nexus, especially that nonsense about the Nexus being so hard to navigate and not knowing which side is up. He spends so much time harping on the deficiencies of the Nexus, he never addressed the good points about the Nexus as Melissa at least did with the Mini. For instance, he went on and on about the missing rear camera, LTE and other "shortcomings" of the Nexus, yet never once mentioned the missing GPS on the wifi-only Minis, or the missing two extra cores, NFC, and extra 512MB of RAM on every Mini. After deciding on the Nexus based on many of the exact same gripes as Melissa, I have absolutely no problem navigating with the back button or knowing which side of the tablet is up. By the way, the Nexus DOES have a home button that will take you to your home screen just like the iPad in case the back button is just too complicated for some people. Like Melissa, I too feel a shrunken down iPad 2 with two-year old technolgy for $125 more than the competition is a terrible value in my opinion. That's not slamming the Mini, it's just MY opinion. Then again, I already own an iPad. That's why Melissa made that closing point about certain people for whom the Mini might be the best bet. Those are the hard-core Apple devotees who will buy nothing else and have no need reading a head-to-head comparison anyway if their mind is already made up, and the new iPad users who want the cheapest no frills entry to the platform. I fit neither category and thuis bought a Nexus. Despite the Nexus sacrifices, I still love it. Besides, some of the so-called "shortcomings" are way overblown. Take the the cameras for instance. Quite honestly, we have two iPad 4's, an iPad 3 and an iPad 2 in our family and none of us use the rear cameras, especially for snapshots. Who wants to look goofy using a tablet as a camera? That's what our iPhones are for and that's why the iPhone has a better camera.

[Chazz9]

I was surprised that such a review contained very little 'objective' info, particularly things like comparative speed of bootup and shutdown, and page loading speeds. I recently tried a friend's iPad 2 and was rather impressed with these factors compared to my HP netbook and Coby 7024 tablet. The latter two devices take ages to bootup and shutdown and load pages compared to the iPad. However the Coby has both USB and HDMI ports and I can use it to stream video to a TV set and thus don't need to carry my ROKU when I travel.

[Rmskoosa]

I agree .. I have an ipad ii which my kids always take, and i just wanted a cheaper device for them so I bought a cheap android tablet, I just got troubles with the apps and games on the tablet. For example, a dress up princess app, which my 3yo daughter loves, is free on apple store and the google play store. However, one princess is available on Google and the other three are locked and you need to pay to get them unlocked, which made my daughter cry. Not only that, every free app would display an ad. to buy other apps and my daughter kept pressing on them and then she goes to the play store and starts to scream again, "where is my game gone?" OMG it was a lot of headache and i cant just purchase tens of apps everyday just to get rid of these ad.s, which sometimes are 18+ (for solitaire ). Honestly, the only pro i found in Android is the keyboard and i wouldnt buy it for one more key in the keyboard. Overall, avoid android devices, Im planning to return that useless tablet and get a new mini iPad.
P.s my review was a comparison bt the Apple ipad ii and an Android tablet. If google nexus doesnt have these problem just excuse me i wanted to add some info about downloading apps on both Apple and Android.

[mookiemu]

Not sure why the reviewers were happy to tout no back facing camera as a deficit but never mentioned that the Nexus has 2 extra cores, double the ram, Near Field Communication, and swype style text input that allows you to input text as fast as you would with an external keyboard.
At least they mentioned the resolution. If you hold them side by side, you are blown away by how much better the screen is on the Nexus.
I'm an ipad user, so I eagerly bought an ipad mini to carry around with me when they became available. When I compared it to a friend's Nexus 7, I gave my mini to my daughter and bought a Nexus 7. In fact, i like it so much that when my iphone needed replacing, I got the Nexus 4 instead and I haven't looked back.

[Shadeslayor]

I do find it odd that neither side talked about reliability, they lightly mentioned ease of use. I would consider an ipad mini, because its easier to integrate into the apple ecosystem that I have. I can't speak to the durability of the nexus tablet, my last android tablet lasted about 6 months before it had clear signs of wear and battery issues started to arise, something that I believe apple replaces for free (battery issues that is). The last time I used the android system was with the original moto droid, and honeycomb on an acer tablet. Crashing and restarts was something I remember running into a lot (granted those were earlier stages, but I still hear about those types of issues) I have no doubt that durability would be in favor of the ipad mini, iOS rarely if ever gives me problems.. And they didn't stress enough the quality of apps you find on the apple app store. Again I can't speak to the latest versions of android, but in the past google allowed you to install apps that may not be intended for your device, because the os is open source, anyone can make a device that supports it, customize there dimensions and then create and app that truely only works well for that product. With apple there is more of a wall, they don't go as far as to not allow you to install apps made for the iPhone, but they make it harder to find them.

I guess to sum it all up: If you have other apple products that you want to share content with, elected to use itunes to purchase and manage your music ( and intend to put said music on your tablet ), Are expecting an easy, streamlined and efficient experience when it comes to the app store, movies and any other content, and are expecting to find support, and durability (durability as in 5 years from now the tablet still looks new ) then the ipad mini is the clear choice, Yes the resolution has been the talk of the town, but its still an apple screen ( or maybe i should say samsung ).

If you are looking to save money, plan on customizing the software, developing apps for yourself or your friends, (i'm not sure about how it links with other android devices, its been awhile ) then the nexus 7 is a good choice.

it's just in my experience when it comes to quality, or customer support when the quality is subpar, apple is the way to go. But again, I havent used the nexus 7, nor the ipad mini. Just apple products and android products respectively.

[Sl8rok]

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You can do one of two things: Buy the nexus 7 for $249 be frustrated give it away then buy the iPad mini for $329 Or Save $249 by just buying the iPad mini for $329 I have not met one person who has been frustrated with the Nexus 7. It is a phenomenal device, just because it does not have an apple logo no it does not make it a "frustrating" device to use. It is so smooth and crisp, and at $199.00, it is the deal of the year. Whenever someone has to use the "camera" excuse to make a point, you things are bad. People who shoot photos on their tabs look retarded, just use your superior phone camera. Bad argument, Nexus is the better tab hands down.

Go on Craigslist there are plenty of them.

[pmperry]

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I was genuinely looking at buying a Nexus 7 until reading this 'review'. Supposedly Apple users are the ones concerned about sticking only to Apple products but Chris seems quite open and unbiased in recognizing the pros and cons of both products. Melissa on the other hand, just comes across as a complete a-hole. Get someone who's head isn't deep in their rectum and so anti-apple to do this review. I use both Windows and Mac based technology every day and just want a fair comparison.

Having owned both, she wasn't an A Hole at all, she was right. I too found the font and reading to be a major issue and the strengths of the Nexus 7 at the lower price does indeed make it the superior option.

[pmperry]

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I think a lot of the decision as to which of these tablets to purchase will revolve around the ecosystem a buyer carries beforehand. Having said that, Apple carries the advantage here. In terms of storage space and file systems, I cannot understand where/how people come up with the "lack of file system" as a reason to not go with Apple's iPad/iPad mini. Simply try a cloud-based service. On an iPad, whether you use Ubuntu One, iCloud, Google Docs, or Microsoft SkyDrive - or other services like LogMeIn, your file system is in the cloud or back on your Mac or PC 5ft or thousands of miles away. Now, I understand the argument where movie streaming is concerned; but even then, that's where a host of other options are available, and you just have to be savvy enough. It also helps to understand WebDAV....

Well, when we try to find our books and pull them off the iPad, it quickly become evident that the Android system has much better file system access. This has nothing to do with cloud support, it has everything to do with how locked down iOS is.

[pmperry]

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Why? Let's assume one wants it for the "cachet", or "cool" as most droidites would say. So? When did adults suddenly become concerned about what other people want and, more importantly, why they want it?

Sadly, a lot of people still live that way. They're trying to relive their earlier days of cool cliques and thus, they're easy targets because, they have no idea why they buy anything other than somebody told them it was cool.

Me, if I want more control I buy Android! If I want a Simple approach to computing, I buy Apple.

[allnewcom]

Kids got a Nexus 7 for Xmas. A few weeks later the screen was broken...go figure. Anyways, we were able to contact a service department with Asus. We were given an address and shipped off the device. its now mid March and suppossedly they are going to be shipping it back soon, repaired, fees waived for the repairs as a one time courtesy due to the delay in processing. Now I know If it was an Apple product, I would have had the opportunity to walk into a local Apple store and have a repair completed while I waited. Although I would have spent $99 replacing the screen, I think I would have been willing to pay to have had the device this entire time. Better service or local service would make ANY DEVICE more appealing IMO!

[petero303]

I think the deciding issue will be the apps. Apple has such better apps available than android. If you are just using it as a reader or simple things then the nexus 7 is probably a better choice given the price and its decent specs. However, if your are fond of apple apps then you will be disappointed with Android. Apple seems to have a much more professional developer base. I wish they would license their OS to other device makers. The world would be a better place.