For the past few weeks, Gadget.com co-founder Ryan Block has had a chance to play with Google's new tablet -- the Nexus 7. So we asked him to sum it up in a sentence.
"It is the best $200 tablet that you can buy right now," said Block.
Remember, just a year ago, there was no such thing as a $200 tablet, then came Amazon's Kindle Fire. Many called it underwhelming, but it was cheap. As for the Nexus 7, it has compromises too such as no rear camera, no cellular, and not much memory.
"They had to make a lot of cuts. Fortunately, they didn't cut things like the screen quality. It's actually a really great quality screen, and it is very fast, and it has great hardware," said Block.
Block says the Nexus is fast, smoother, and snappier than other android tablets at any price. And price, if you talk to shoppers -- may be its most important feature.
"Because I don't make a whole lot. I guess because I already have a laptop computer and I already have a smartphone so I feel like it'd be excessive to spend $400-$600 on a tablet," said shopper Christian Black. "At $200 bucks, it'd probably be an easy sale."
That is, if he could even get his hands on one. Even though the Nexus 7 has only been out a few days, one GameStop we went to is already sold out of them. Now they're taking pre-orders for the next round.
Other, pricier Android tablets are languishing on the shelves, but you'll notice there's one thing this store doesn't sell -- iPads. In fact, you'll be hard pressed to find the Nexus 7 anywhere iPads are sold.
"It shows that they want to be taken out of the same space and not have to compete directly with the iPad. They want to be taken in a slightly different context, which is smart because if you're going to hold this thing up next to an iPad, you might very well find yourself get upsold to an iPad," said Block.
If you do hold it up next to an iPad, you'll see the Nexus 7 is about half the size, meaning it could be a better fit for your hand, your coat pocket, and your budget.
"I think Apple's eventually going to have to come down market to meet this challenge," said Block.
