I Got It! - Nexus 7 New Owners/Unboxing/First Impressions Thread

[Babyfacemagee]

Now that many in the forum are starting to receive their Nexus 7s we want to encourage people to share their experience of first opening their tablets with the community.  We also want to transition people away from posting these experiences in the 'shipping' and related threads so we'll start to lock some of those as more and more tablets arrive and we can get down to the fun business of playing with and exploring our tablets!  Please use this thread for all 'first impressions' and 'unboxing'  kinds of comments with your new Nexus 7.    If you need help with something please post on the 'Help' board.  Thanks!

[Puce Moose]

I'm typing this message from my 8gb Nexus 7! It's my first tablet, and I'm quite impressed with the screen quality. It's lighter than I expected and feels expensive and well made. As a tip, make sure you turn off the orientation Lock (swipe down on the icon to the left of the wireless signal; looks sort of like a space invader on its side) to be able to used chrome in landscape mode.

[Undo]

This thing is light! Great screen! Very speedy!

Kinda wish there was a bezel around the screen made of the same rubber material as the back, instead of an all glass front. It might be easier to hold and I'm not a fan of all-glass fronts on tablets or laptops.

These are just my first thoughts though.

[bradyfix]

just got mine today, yes this thing is super lite, I'm actually typing this using the microphone, works great and um yeah the brightness of the screen could  be a lot better, need a better keyboard app.
over all, I'm happy.

[radiocycle]

I'm typing this message from my 8gb Nexus 7! It's my first tablet, and I'm quite impressed with the screen quality. It's lighter than I expected and feels expensive and well made. As a tip, make sure you turn off the orientation Lock (swipe down on the icon to the left of the wireless signal; looks sort of like a space invader on its side) to be able to used chrome in landscape mode.

Hmmm, I don't see that 'orientation lock' symbol next to the wifi.  I searched and couldn't find anything bout orientation lock.  How do you get to that??
 
r

[kegomatix]

I've been playing around on it for the last hour or so, so far I love it. Screen is responsive everything is smooth and fast. Awesome that it was already set up to my account as well so setup was a breeze. I just sold my dell streak 7 for 150 so I didn't need a whole lot more to fill the gap and get this one. Wow what an improvement. I've been so used to a glitchy weird unresponsive awkward to hold tablet stuck on android 2.2 for so long I didn't know it could be this good!

[Puce Moose]

Radiocycle:
Try swiping down from the very top bar (where the clock is) and the orientation icon should be next to the date.

[radiocycle]

Ah, I got it PM tnx! Much better now!

[bigboss]

I got it too! It's even awesomer than I'd imagined. 

So far:
- played the spiderman game and few minutes of temple run
- copied an HD movie and played back
- installed a few favorite apps
- configured 'currents' and synced google music.
- tried out a microusb OTG cable that I had kept handy. The mouse and keyboard work fine. Installed stickmount and connected a pen drive. Stickmount detected the drive and tried to mount it ; but failed as I'm not rooted - YET 

[radiocycle]

Buffering....

I checked out a couple of games in G Play and when watching the trailers it has to stop and buffer a few times during the trailer.  Is this because my dsl is too slow I wonder?  Also, I see Final Fantasy for 16 bucks.  Anyone used that on a tablet?  It seems to get really good reviews...   

ps. hope this isn't in the wrong forum catagory

radio

[Zell]

Wahoo!

It's 5:15 and the UPS website says my N7 was just delivered to my house (I'm at work, about a mile away from my home).  Guess I'll be leaving my office today a little earlier than usual.  I'll give you my first impressions when I have them -- which will happen in about 5 minutes from now.

I'm an adult but feel like a little kid full of anticipation on Christmas morning as I head down from my bedroom to where the Christmas tree is.

Maybe I'll grow-up tomorrow and act more my age than my shoe-size.  It's good to be a big kid, at times.  Makes life more interesting and fun.

[wyzard]

Went on the Staples website and checked stores near me.  Two said low stock.  Called one... no luck.  Called the other, said they had a couple.  I jumped in my car, ran over and just walked in the door with my new 16gig N7.  It's charging right now.  I have a feeling I won't be getting much sleep tonight... LOL

So pumped.

[samalex]

Yesterday (Tuesday) at 4:45pm I got a text from UPS that mine had been delivered, so I split work about 10 minutes early, picked-up the kids, then headed home to find my N7 safely on my door stoop.  I didn't have a chance to open it until after the kids went to bed around 9pm, but I got about two hours of play time and installed most of the apps I use daily on my Kindle Fire... which was nice since most had to be sideloaded on the Fire.

I didn't take any pictures, we've all seen the plethora of Unboxing pics and vids, but needless to say it was a nice experience... and yup I had a knife in hand to get through the tape.

This thing is beautiful!  I love the GMail and G+ apps, plus Flipboard is amazing (added from GPlay).  I also setup/installed Skype, Kindle app, Overdrive, Maps, Netflix, Pandora, Adobe Reader, Google Drive, EchoLink, Sky Map, TED, Weather Channel, Twitter, and a few other apps too.  Now I just have to try and remember the passwords to each service.

[birdastrompgman]

**retitled merged post originally titled: N7/Android newbie first impression: it's a kludge** -admin


Well, I've had my Nexus 7 for 2 days now.  Its my first Android device.  I have a lengthy computer background, dating back to writing BASIC programs for my TRS-80 Model I in 1978,  I ran my own BBS in the early '80s, was de facto DEC PDP 11-750 and MicroVAX-II SYSOP for my district office, and a national computer expert for a 10,000 person federal agency.

My first impression of Android is it's a designed-by-committee kludge.  I bought it to save money, but I'm learning that I'll pay for it in time.  Take a couple of simple tasks, like sending a photo to my tablet, and using that photo as my wallpaper.  Then get a screen capture of my N7 with the new wallpaper, and post it to a forum in 600 pixel maximum resolution.



I can't hook up a memory card reader to the mini-USB port of the N7.  Unlike some other Android tablets, it doesn't have a micro SD card slot, and its mini-USB port doesn't support OTG USB hosting.

So, I have to download my picture from the Internet, or send it as an attachment to my tablet, where it resides in my (invisible) download directory.  I can't make that photo my N7's wallpaper until I move it to my Gallery, and I can't do that until I install software (ES File Explorer) allowing me to do this.

I could also send files directly to my N7's wallpaper directory using another file transfer program (WiFi File Transfer) that I had to download and install.

One other way to get a photo into my N7's Gallery is to change my Google + account's profile photo from my laptop or desktop computer.  That puts the profile photo into my N7 the first time I log into Google +.

OK.  Once I get the photo into my Gallery, I touch the screen, and (in Android 4.1) a message pops up letting me choose wallpaper from three icons - Gallery, Live Wallpaper, and Wallpaper.  I choose Wallpaper, choose my photo, and get a framing box.  If my photo is too large or too small, or low resolution to fit in the framing box, I have to get a different photo into my Gallery.  Repeat as necessary.

The next step is to get a screen capture.  I look up screen capture apps, and discover most are specific to a specific family of devices, using specific Android OSes. Great if you're using a Samsung Galaxy Tablet, or a rooted tablet, but not so great if your N7 just hit the market with a new 4.1 OS.  I found an app that claimed compatibility with my N7.  When I tried to run it, it stopped with an "incompatible" pop-up window.

All was not lost.  I learned Android 4.1 has a screen capture feature that's activated by pressing the power and volume down buttons simultaneously.

I succeeded in capturing my screen with new wallpaper, and tried to post it as an attachment.  It didn't work, because Android 4.1, hereafter referred to as Jelly Bean, or JB, only lets me choose attachments from my Gallery.  I had to move my screen capture file from the download directory to my Gallery.

I decided to move the screen capture file to my laptop using WiFi File Transfer.  I posted it to the forum from my laptop.  The file size was the original 1280X800 pixel size, in png format.

I'd have to download yet another Android app to resize the screen capture photo to 600X375 pixel resolution.  I did it on my laptop.  It was easier that way.

[coolbreeze]

Bird are you using Photobucket? I found this all so easy using it. If not sign up and try it out. Easy stuff. I was using Flickr but with the N7 Photobucket works so seamlessly.

 Hang in there with it. I am loving mine!