Where to buy Google Nexus 7 tablet

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The Nexus 7 is an Android tablet computer co-developed by Google and Asus, the first tablet entry in the Nexus series. The Nexus 7 is a 7-inch tablet, primarily competing with similar devices such as the Nook Tablet, Kindle Fire and the Blackberry Playbook.

Buy Nexus 7.

Buy Nexus 7 online. The Nexus 7 will be shipped with the latest version of Android, 4.1, codenamed Jelly Bean. Additionally, it will ship with Chrome as its web browser.

Buy Nexus 7. The 10.45-mm thick tablet, weighs only .74 pounds and is very easy to hold up in one hand. You'll want to check out our guide to tablet sizes -- but the 7-inch size is really best for one-handed use and reading while lying down.And despite its small size, the tablet still lasts long on a charge; the tablet lasts two days of on and off use before needing a charge.

The built-in Google Maps app seems like the obvious navigation choice thanks to its newfound ability to cache map data for offline use. However, it does have its drawbacks. For starters, you can only plan a trip while connected to the Internet. Once you're under way, Google Maps can continue routing and even handle simple rerouting of missed turns, but you'll need to be in range of a Wi-Fi hot spot at the beginning of every trip, somewhat limiting the usefulness of this app.

NavFree USA is a free navigation app that lets you download offline maps, search for destinations, and navigate without an Internet connection. Its available list of points of interest isn't as complete as you would get from a connected Google search, but it's good enough to get the job done.

A premium navigation app like CoPilot GPS is probably your best bet for the Wi-Fi-only Nexus 7. This fully-featured GPS software features onboard route calculations and the ability to download local maps for your part of the world. You'll need 1.3GB of space to download the full North American maps data, but I was able to specify the Southwest U.S., which includes my current home state of California and requires only 172.6MB of my Nexus 7's 16GB of storage space.

The stock Google Play Music app will let you download your music library for local playback once you leave the warm glow of Wi-Fi connectivity and will probably be your first stop on the road to driving tunes.

Internet radio apps such as Spotify and Mog will also let you save music and playlists for offline use.

Ice Cream Sandwich was a massive upgrade to the Android platform. Jelly Bean is far more incremental. It's really more akin to the Froyo to Gingerbread (2.2 to 2.3) upgrade than the Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich (2.3 to 4.0) bump.

That said, Android 4.1 is certainly not insignificant. It has some powerful performance enhancements and some sweet new features, too.

Some areas where you can see the difference are in rotating your phone, launching the "recent apps" list, and transitioning between the home screen and app drawer. I followed Google's suggestion and compared these processes on a 4.0-level Galaxy Nexus and a 4.1-level version of the same phone, and you can definitely see a noticeable improvement in the 4.1 device.

The Nexus 7 ships with the Chrome browser as the default browser, and it may be the best mobile browser on any platform. It works smoothly on the Nexus 7, and the ability to have all bookmarks at hand is priceless. I also find it useful to see the last web sites visited on every device on which I use Chrome.

The smaller tablet is not as good at content creation as its larger siblings, but for those curious about external keyboards I found one that works with the Nexus 7. The Logitech Keyboard Case for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 pairs and works with the Nexus 7, even the special tablet control keys. The Nexus 7 doesn't fit in the stand, though, so it's an iffy pair at best.

It's fast. Whether due to Android 4.1's "butter" project to make Jelly Bean more responsive or the quad-core Tegra 3 processor and1G RAM, the Nexus 7 is surprisingly speedy for a budget device. Pages and screens usually swipe and display smoothly and quickly, and loading a demanding app such as my Dish Network remote viewer often takes less time than I expect. And I'm not the most patient of users.

Jelly Bean is a nice OS. I like resizable widgets, being able to rearrange icons within folders, redesigned notification "shade" and other enhancements, including Google Now.

Google Now is useful, but it's not a personal assistant. Google Now isn't Siri, if by Siri you think of an assistant that understands a range of natural language commands beyond informational . Google Now can fetch a lot of general info -- sports results, weather forecasts, movie times, movie times; but can't seem to check what's on my calendar this week or adding an appointment. So, Google Now does well with "Is it going to rain today?" but just sends me to a useless Web search when asked "Do I have any meetings today?" or "What's on my calendar?"

Other Nexus 7 features:

Search. Building on its strengths in search, Google includes a potentially helpful location-based feature called Google Now, which tells you the weather or nearby bus and train schedules without you having to request it. There's also a voice search feature, similar to Apple's Siri. Sometimes Google responds to a voice query with its own clear female voice, such as when I asked it to tell me how old Barack Obama is or how the Yankees did. Other times, if answers are more ambiguous, you get standard Google search results without the voice — and they are not always on the mark. When I asked for "some nearby interesting places" from my location in New Jersey, results were given for LA and Toronto.

Screen size. On the hardware side, the Nexus 7 is no match for the iPad, but then it's $300 cheaper than the least expensive of the latest Apple tablets. The 7-inch screen on the Nexus 7, however impressive, is far smaller than the near 10-inch display on the iPad and not as sharp as its super-crisp "Retina display." I found reading magazines a bit of a challenge.