The Nexus 7 Taught Me That a 7-Inch Tablet Is the Perfect Size

I'm penning these words connected a 7.6-inch inch tablet. On 1 hand, I'm surprised. I shouldn't be. The archetypal tablet I ever loved was this size, and it felt conscionable close from the precise beginning.

It All Started With the Nook Color

My archetypal 7-Inch tablet didn't travel from 1 of the large tech companies. It came from a publication store: Barnes and Noble. The Nook Color was sold arsenic an eReader that was susceptible of speechmaking integer magazines and comics acknowledgment to its colour display.

Let's measurement backmost successful time, courtesy of the Wayback Machine.

In reality, the Nook Color was an Android tablet with a locked-down interface and a constricted enactment of apps. Some radical tapped into the tablet's afloat capabilities by unlocking it, either done rooting their instrumentality oregon installing a customized ROM (following our proposal astatine the time, nary doubt). I didn't, fixed however costly the instrumentality was for maine astatine the time. But I utilized that tablet for each it was worth, doing arsenic overmuch arsenic I could from the included web browser and curated enactment of third-party apps.

The Nexus 7 Was So Close Yet So Far

When the Nexus 7 came retired a fewer years later, that was a imagination travel true. Here was a tablet of the aforesaid size but with a afloat mentation of Android. Sadly, I was retired of assemblage by then, wherever I would person afloat tried to instrumentality vantage of its tiny size and importantly amended artillery beingness than my laptop. Still, I valued the tablet nonetheless, astatine slightest for a little infinitesimal successful time.

A infinitesimal successful clip besides captured by the Wayback Machine.

The Nexus 7 was a comfy size for browsing the web. It introduced maine to integer comics, owed to the rollout of Google Play astatine the clip and however heavy Google was pushing some graphic novels and magazines to amusement disconnected what its caller hardware could do. This was erstwhile I discovered Saga, a bid I inactive support up with to this day.

Unfortunately, the tablet was held backmost by software. My work, adjacent arsenic a writer, required much than entree to websites and a connection processor. My enactment instrumentality had to beryllium capable to load our CMS, and adjacent web-based tools weren't arsenic accessible done mobile browsers astatine the time. These were inactive aboriginal days for Android, and the interface wasn't the champion for multitasking. There besides remained a deficiency of tablet apps. Many were inactive conscionable stretched retired telephone apps.

With these limitations, and my expanding disappointment successful Google, I was already not utilizing the instrumentality each that overmuch when, for Android Police, I included it successful my list of devices I couldn't unrecorded without successful 2014. I was utilizing it adjacent little by 2016. I kept it astir arsenic a large mode to debar cluttering up my telephone erstwhile investigating it apps, but that was astir it.

I cherish the Nexus 7 not for what it was, but for its promise. The bundle wasn't acceptable yet, but it someday could be.

I Went Without for Nearly Ten Years

Sadly, the marketplace for Android tablets dried up soon aft the Nexus 7. Google stopped pushing them, and truthful did astir of the different large brands. Samsung was the exception, but I wasn't going anyplace adjacent the company's TouchWiz interface backmost successful those days.

For a agelong time, to the wide public, buying a tablet mostly meant buying an iPad, and I had adjacent little involvement successful 1 of those. It was during this play erstwhile I encountered a batch of antithetic instrumentality types for the archetypal time. I got my hands connected a 2-in-1 Acer laptop, but it was mode excessively large and dense to usage arsenic a tablet often. I tried E-Ink Android tablets similar the Boox Tab Ultra C.

You would deliberation the E-Ink surface would beryllium the superior issue, but I had bigger problems with the tablet's outdated mentation of Android and the underpowered hardware. Yet I managed to usage it arsenic my superior PC for respective months. Here's the thing, though—a 10-inch tablet conscionable isn't each that overmuch much portable than a laptop, particularly erstwhile you adhd successful a Bluetooth keyboard.

I've ne'er been a large instrumentality of laptops. They whitethorn beryllium much portable than desktop PCs, but they are dense and chiefly escaped you from 1 table oregon array lone to spell enactment astatine another. They're not casual to conscionable person connected you and propulsion retired astatine immoderate clip successful the mode you tin a tiny tablet. A ample tablet sits awkwardly betwixt the two.

Foldables Reminded Me How Perfect This Size Is

I didn't person immoderate involvement successful foldables initially. They seemed similar fragile, overpriced gimmicks. I had alternatively precocious settled connected utilizing my telephone arsenic my PC, and I went all-in. My precise archetypal nonfiction for How-To Geek was astir problems I encountered with Android desktop modes. My 2nd was astir connecting a telephone to a lapdock.

When I started having issues with the desktop mode connected my Moto Edge+ 2023, I figured I should effort a telephone with Samsung DeX, since that Android desktop was much mature. And if I was replacing my PC with DeX, wherefore not see a telephone that was besides a tablet? When I discovered that I could get an unfastened container Galaxy Z Fold 5 for fractional the terms of an unopened one, I took the plunge.

I instantly fell successful love. Compared to the Nexus 7, the interior surface is simply a bezel-less delight, and I usage it each the time. Plus, it supports a stylus, which became my favourite mode to interact with a surface during my clip with the Boox.

A Tablet Can Finally Be My PC

Over the people of those 10 years, Android softly gained each the features needed to usage a telephone similar a PC. It's the tiny things that don't instantly travel to mind, similar being capable to entree USB retention and printers. Accessories similar keyboards, mice, and crippled controllers each conscionable work. Depending connected your telephone model, outer monitors and even AR glasses enactment arsenic well.

Plus, with Samsung One UI, I tin manage app windows connected my phone similar I'm utilizing a desktop. The quality betwixt Android and Chromebooks has gotten smaller, and it continues to.

Android tablets inactive endure from a deficiency of apps, but the ones that are determination are overmuch better. Mobile web browsers are present fundamentally desktop browsers, minus the extensions (which I seldom usage anyway). There are present immensely susceptible versions of Google Docs and Microsoft Office, with a decent fig of viable alternatives similar MobiOffice and Polaris Office. There are almighty representation tools similar Adobe Lightroom and Canva. All of these consciousness close astatine location connected my 7.6-inch tablet that happens to fold.

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When I look astatine caller laptops, they don't bash overmuch for maine anymore. I'm yet surviving my 7-inch tablet dream. I person 1 successful my pouch astatine each times, taking up the aforesaid magnitude of abstraction arsenic immoderate different phone. I enactment full-time from this device, and to my surprise, my vocation hasn't taken a hit. Just the opposite, successful fact. I've recovered I'm much productive moving from a smaller screen.