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Google's first tablet is an Asus-built, quad-core 7-incher with the new Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS. With media rather than computery leanings, it's built to rule the midi-tablet roost - but given its price, is the iPad safe?

It doesn't have the eye-caressing crispness of Retina, but the Nexus' 7in/17.7cm IPS, 1280x800 screen is more detailed than that of the Kindle Fire, has great viewing angles and is good for hours of strain-free reading or HD movie-watching. Stills and menus are peculiarly washed-out, though.

Google has overhauled many of its default apps for Jelly Bean, and they're great. Chrome is a pleasingly desktop-like browsing experience, syncing tabs and history across your devices, and the new YouTube app looks stunning. We're expecting good things when third-party app devs make full use of the OS and hardware.

It might only be a 0.1 increment over Android 4.0, but the Jelly Bean OS is significantly smoother than Ice Cream Sandwich. The interface is largely the same, but there are fewer bugs, general navigation feels much slicker than before, and there are a host of neat new features.

The Nexus 7 is incredibly snappy in use, with the quad-core processor and Project Butter combining to eradicate lag. You won't have any problem watching HD video, either, with the 12 GPU cores nailing any slow-down, even when beamed to a TV through Google's Nexus Q.

With a choice of 8 or 16GB the Nexus 7 isn't blessed with vast storage, but Google's Play and Drive cloud services provide decent conciliation. The 8-9 hour battery life should be enough for a medium-haul flight... but there's no 3G, so be sure to download afore ye go.

The 7in/17.7cm form makes Google's tablet jacket-pocketable, and build quality is superb, especially given the price. The rubberised back ensures secure one-handed use and there are few cluttery buttons. Even the speaker placement is smart, giving the Nexus 7 a loud, clear sound.

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NOW ADD THESE

Trinty Case	Flipboard	SoundMagic
Supporting a built-in tri-fold stand the Trinty case not only protects your Nexus from the harsh realities of friction and gravity, but also provides a customisable stand for the ultimate viewing and screen smudging angles. The inside front cover is also soft and squishy to keep your screen extra safe.	This superb do-it all social media app looks great on the bigger screen, and makes reading anything from Facbook to The New York Times a more magazine-y experience. Neatly handles your incessant Twitter influx too. And it's free! Win.	The Nexus 7's speakers are good by tablet standards, but they can't compare to a pair of earphones. These SoundMagics are the perfect option - affordable, great with music and movies, and isolating enough for peaceful journeys.

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JELLY BEAN'S SWEET HITS

	> Smooth as Butter Project Butter is Google's attempt to make Android smoother and more responsive on any hardware - and it's worked. There are even new gestures, including the ability to 'flick' items off screen to delete them. The on-screen widgets have also been greatly improved for the bigger tablet display.
	> Stalker in your pocket Android finally has a 'wow' feature that iOS can't (yet) compete with: Google Now. The app uses your location, calender, and everything else Google knows about you to, for example, tell you exactly when you need to leave for a meeting, taking things like traffic into account. Frighteningly clever.
	> Playing hardball Google Play is taking a long time to catch up with iTunes, but the version in Jelly Bean is almost there. The design is lean and well thought out, plus the recent addition of magazines (US-only, for now) means Google now caters for most media. Apple still has the best apps and titles, though.
	> Typing fine Google has gone to great lengths to improve the keyboard in Jelly Bean - prediction is now a lot more accurate and there's an accurate speech-to-text option. We still prefer third-party 'board Swift-key with its creepy phrase-learning skills, but Google is definitely

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[Vs] Amazon Kindle Fire

Although still not out in SA, this is clearly the Nexus's key rival - though the Fire is far more limited because of its relative lack of power and its unbreakable bond to the Amazon ecosystem. Fine if you're a keen Amazoner, but the Nexus 7 is more advanced, flexible and future-proof

Blogging Hub Says

Too small to slay the iPad, but every other 7inch tablet might as well give up - the Nexus is king

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