I’ll give that one a shot next time out. Thanks for the tip.

One thing I am trying to do, however, since I am a cross-platform user rather than someone who really wants to switch, is find software that works equally well on BOTH iOS and Android. Unfortunately, that has been harder to find.

I have heard others express similar opinions, and I think it makes a lot of sense. Android is very well suited to the smartphone, and I believe that iOS works much better on the larger screen of the iPad. The gesture navigation support adds a lot to the experience. The wealth of great tablet apps helps a lot, as well.

I see what you’re saying about the Surface Pro. The form factor is just a little too locked down for me. I’m currently looking at the Lenovo Yoga 13.3 and some other Win 8 touchscreen ultra books for my next work machine.

Personally i’ll probably stick with Android for my smart phone, and iOS for my tablets… though Windows Surface Pro may lure me away from the iPad since it does a lot more.

Yeah, all us raging iOS fanboys drop hundreds of $$ on Android, webOS, Windows Phone, and Windows 8 devices, just to write bad reviews of them. Nailed it.

Your posts are that of a raging fan boy. Stop reviewing android devices and stick with iOS. I’d rather read a good iOS article from you than a shitty biased as hell android one.

– Not only does the iPad cost more, but if I want to HDMI-out to watch a movie (or whatever) on the iPad, I need a $40 adapter. Why? The Nexus 10 does it with a $4 cable from Monoprice. This is one place where I feel your review is lacking; this REALLY ought to be mentioned, esp when you’re bitching about the lack of accessories on the Nex.

– Sharing among iOS apps is kind of iffy, unless it’s Facebook or Twitter. I noticed this esp when I wanted to add browser links to Pocket. On Android, it’s a long-press. On iOS, you need some janky bookmarklet.

– In general, the walled garden of the iPad doesn’t bother me, but the fact that they don’t allow emulators in the app store does. On Android, I can download all the emus I want, and pair a PS3 controller with it and I’m good to go.

– I can block ads at the OS level. Sure, you have to root to do that, but this is fairly trivial on a Nexus device, and I can keep it after updating. Plus, I don’t need a crappy 3rd party app repository like jailbroken iPads.

– The iPad (ios5) wouldn’t let me disable the lock screen. This drove me absolutely apeshit. I am at home… why do I need the lock screen?

– Many apps on the iPad such as Facebook (as of ios5) don’t let you change the default notification tone, so when an iPad beeps from across the room, you have no idea which app is trying to get your attention.

– No native Google Voice app for tablets. (Not sure if Google has made one recently.)

Personally, I LOVE the customization of Android on phones, and the quick toggle widgets. On tablets, I don’t need that as much. Even still, I found the iPad to be like a prison… even very simple things I wanted to tweak were not available to me without a jailbreak. Of course, my dealbreakers are not your dealbreakers, and this review reminded me that each of us desires different things from our devices.

Since Android gives me 5 home screen pages, I use the side pages for most other frequently used apps, but I use widgets instead of icons only when there is a good reason to do so. The widgets for Box and Evernote are little more than toolbars. Those for, say, Tune-in Radio and Neutron Music Player, really do provide useful real time information, instead of just launching the app.

None of this is possible in iOS, so I wouldn’t expect you to look for such capabilities. I understand that not everyone wants or needs the flexibility that Android provides, but I can’t imagine living with the limitations of the iPad and iPhone, no matter how polished the hardware. The Nexus 7 and 10 are not the first tablets I have owned, but they are the first where I don’t feel I am making a compromise.

Aside from that, I have experienced none of the problems mentioned in some of the other comments. I personally prefer the Nexus 10, which is a good thing, since my wife has pretty much appropriated my Nexus 7.

Interesting. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard that, either. It was either one of the guys on The Verge, or on a TWIT show, but they were saying the exact same thing. I’m kind of used to glass backs, after the iPhone 4 and 4S, but since it was a flat back, it never slid off anything.

If I get one, I will definitely put a Best Skins Ever skin on it. I put them on pretty much everything I own. Good, cheap protection.

Thanks for the tip!

The Nexus 4 is good, but just watch out for the glass back if you like to go ‘bareback’ on phones, since it slides right off of most smooth surfaces. I have found my Nexus 4 on the floor more times than I can remember. At the very least, you might need a skin on the back, esp if you get the wireless charging orb.

Astounding originality from the Google Goat. Can’t help butting heads with anything that moves.

Fair, I guess. however, like I said in the review, when you are looking at a device that has no other hooks than the screen and the stock OS, the OS is a big factor. There’s no S-Pen or first-party software additions to fill this out.

Third party apps are, ultimately, the responsibility of the developers. However, if Google wants the situation to improve for their larger screen devices, they need to get engaged and give devs a good kick in the backside. Lead. Show the way. Like Apple, it isn’t like they’re short of the cash to do it. Blow it out, and give users something to drool over with that screen. If they don’t, then what’s the point? And for the record, while Apple did a great job of this initially, they have been slacking pretty hard themselves over the last year and a half.

Google Now was a meh for me because of the massive hype train that surrounds it. As for Siri, I didn’t turn around and extol how much better it is. It isn’t, for most people. It still needs a lot of TLC from Apple. It works well for me, personally, but that’s because I drive all the time for work, and it’s pretty good at delivering me the info I want hands free.

If you’ve ever used Windows Phone, you’d see that their Live Tiles are not the same thing as widgets. They are, however, a nice middle ground between Apple’s stodgy Springboard, and Android’s widgets. The whole point of that was to show that I don’t think Apple’s solution is cutting it anymore, either. It isn’t enough to make me leave the things I like about the platform, but it desperately needs a refresh. I just hope that refresh goes in a different direction than Android.

I understand your complaint. However, remember that this review was done from an iOS user’s perspective, and was aimed at a user like me, who is looking for something on the other side to take for a spin. That also puts the OS in play. That’s a valid concern for a non-Android user. If you read the end, that’s why I recommended the 7 if such a user wants something right now, and waiting for the “next thing” if they can. That’s hardware that does a better job of showcasing Android.

I like how Google Now is just ‘meh’ but clearly Apple hit a homer with Siri…kind of like how much Android’s widget’s “fall flat’ yet you want Apple to implement something that amounts to basically the same thing. If you can’t stay focused on the Nexus 10, don’t do a review of the Nexus 10.

You might want to check that grammar, as well.

I completely disagree. Loading the Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive apps takes almost no time at all. Connecting DocsToGo, Readle, Blogsy or another doc editor or viewer to these services is as easy as either entering your user and pass, or sometimes just tapping a button and giving the editor permission. To me, access to the file system is completely inconsequential because I never need it. Working with documents just requires that you choose the proper tool for your needs, and thankfully, the App Store has no shortage of them.

For the record, his argument was about not wanting to spend time in one area, when I am doing so in another because of the lack of a file system. However, I have found that this requires no patience, and very little time on my end. Arranging home screens that I am happy with takes far longer. Again, from my perspective, this argument is inconsequential.

Thanks, Patricio. We all have our biases and preferences, but I try to avoid being a raging fanboy. The world has enough of those, on all platforms.

I appreciate your take. iOS isn’t for everyone, and I know it can be a pain sometimes. I think some on the Android side have trouble understanding that a lot of iOS users, like myself, are fans of the build quality of the hardware and love the app and accessory ecosystems, which are still richer than what you get with Android. It’s a trade-off, but one I am willing to make to make because I find those things to be very important. But, it isn’t for everyone.

I agree that the Nexus 7 is vastly superior to the 10. The only reason I’m not buying another one is so I can wait to see what’s coming next. I will probably be getting a new Retina iPad if it is updated next month, and then maybe the next Nexus 7 this summer. However, I have found myself interested in the Nexus 4. I know it has a lot better build quality than the 10, so I will probably be a lot more satisfied with it. That, and there is no shortage of good smartphone software for Android.

But he has put your very own argument flat on its back y using your ow principles against you, bad grammar and all, you claim to lack the patience to properly organize widgets, but you have the patience to work around a huge productivity feature,or lack thereof, this was one of the main reasons that our team moved away from the iPad as an office tool

Okay, it’s an article on what you “rather” no problem, but you have to take the valid critiques that come along with that

excellent review, if you can make one for the nexus 4, i have one, i love it, and i agree with how you did your review, yet i disagree on the customization part but thats nothing new.

its a really profesional review, really techie, non fanboyed, and IMO, samsung deserves to be kicked and hard on how the do their business with android, the nexus 10 was a mayor flop compared to the nexus 4(talking about manufacturing defects), and the nexus 7 made by Asus is a killer, if they make the v2 of the nexus 7 i will get that one.

i have used ios, and honestly… i feel it… lacking, cant do much with it without jailbreaking, and do some things on it, feels like a chore (i dont remember well i dont have an iphone anymore, and my ipod is … somewhere on my closet ).

Please take the time to use proper grammar when trolling.

I think that Apple takes Sandboxing a bit too far, myself, but some users see it as a solid security feature. Considering that malware is basically non-existent in the iOS world, their measures certainly are effective. There is a trade-off for everything. Anyway, like I said in my previous comment, I would rather have more productivity app choices, which I do with iOS, than direct file system access. I don’t care if I can access my Office docs directly if I only have one app that is even passable to edit them with?

You can try to defend that plastic back, but it is a piece of crap, pure and simple. It is easily bested by the less expensive Nexus 7. Hell, the Playbook/OG Kindle Fire makes it look bad.

give me a break…. you like don’t like how you have to customize stuff on Android but think its fine that iOS is missinga huge productivity feature but can get around “around it” with a little work. At the end of the day Android is a full fledge OS not some toy, and the plastic back is meant to be held, not cold metal that looks pretty but is useless

This is a fair point. However, it isn’t particularly difficult to get around. All of the document and photo apps that I use have access to the same cloud services. I have different files and things stashed in Google Docs, Box, and Dropbox. All of the apps that I use save to and extract from there, so there isn’t a big need for me to fool with the local file system.

This would be more of a problem if I used Apple’s iWork apps and iCloud, but I don’t. I am a Windows user, so those apps don’t particularly fit what I need. Anyway, if you went all iCloud for doc storage, this would be more of a problem because they wouldn’t be accessible from any other apps.

Also, for me personally, I would rather have a more powerful document editing app that is compatible with Office (which I need for work), than direct access to the file system. I only found one worthwhile app in Google Play (QuickOffice), while there are several available for iOS.

I have a feeling that this will eventually go away. Because of the iPad’s popularity as an enterprise device, Apple will have to do something about it. I would expect a centralized File Store, similar to how they currently handle the Camera Roll. All apps can get access to it, as long as the user approves when prompted. That would do for most users, including myself.