Google Nexus 7

Google Nexus 7 Tablet Review: Solid, but Not Revolutionary

 The Google Nexus 7 tablet resets expectations of what an inexpensive tablet can and should be. Starting at $199, the Nexus 7 clearly guns for Amazon's same-priced but lesser quality Kindle Fire, which runs Amazon's limited flavor of Android. Make no mistake: Of today's 7-inch Android tablets, the Nexus 7 is the one to beat, and it is handily one of the best-executed Android tablets of any size you can buy. In some ways, that's not saying much; for as much as it does well—it has a tremendous 10-plus hour battery life, and it produces reasonably clear text and accurate colors—the Nexus 7 stumbles by leaving out an expansion slot. You need to step up to the 16GB $249 version for the Nexus 7 to make a sensible purchase, and even then you'll be settling short of the ideal tablet you really want.
The lack of a memory card slot hobbles Google's shiny new tablet before you can even get moved in and set up. Android has always held a big advantage over Apple's iOS in its ability to expand on-board storage via a memory card; in fact, this is something that every tablet competitor to the Nexus 7 but the Amazon Kindle Fire (and Apple's iPad, natch) has. The Kindle Fire has taken lots of flack for providing a baseline model with only 8GB of storage and no room to grow.