Ditch the iPad 3 for Nexus Tablet?

rossk26

rossk26

rossk26

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Currently have a 16GB wifi iPad 3. Mainly use it for quickly browsing websites, reading news on apps and music.

I also own a Nexus 4, which I switched to from an iPhone 4. Really happy with the Nexus 4, especially for the price. My only problem is sound quality through headphones and speakers compared with the apple products. Now I have to use the iPad in the car for any music as the Nexus is so bad.

I could probably get £200-250 for the iPad, which would get me a brand new Nexus 7 and change left over!

My questions are:

- Worth the switch from iPad 3 to Nexus 7?
- Would I miss the 3 inches? (that's what she said)
- Is the audio as good?
 
If all you do is browse and read news in apps then I cannot imagine you will be disappointed by the new Nexus 7.

Same with the size really, if you don't watch a lot of media or play a lot of games I can't imagine you would miss the few inches.

Audio I can't comment on directly but no review I have seen or read on the new nexus 7 has mentioned any problem with audio.

I assume you mean the 2013 nexus 7, if not please hold your horsies and wait for it :)
 
Thanks for those pointers.

I rarely game on my tablet, I watch the odd YouTube video and would probably watch a movie on a train/plane when I was travelling which is rare.

Yes it would be for the 2013 Nexus, which I believe you can get on pre-order from Tesco and Staples for £179.

Audio will be the winner here for me though, the iPad 3 is brilliant when plugged into any device, the sound is excellent. The Nexus 4 is terrible, to the point I no longer wish to use it for audio, as the quality from the radio is better!
 
If you're worried about sound quality then use OTG with a DAC on your N4. Although iPods aren't exactly known for sounding brilliant, even if you LOD out with an amp, especially newer stuff (5G and below used Wolfson) with Cirrus DACs.

Not sure what DAC is used on the new generation N7 (datasheets aren't readily available for the APQ8064) but the old model used Realtek and it was reasonable/acceptable through a set of Grado's.
 
visibleman said:
If you're worried about sound quality then use OTG with a DAC on your N4. Although iPods aren't exactly known for sounding brilliant, even if you LOD out with an amp, especially newer stuff (5G and below used Wolfson) with Cirrus DACs.

Not sure what DAC is used on the new generation N7 (datasheets aren't readily available for the APQ8064) but the old model used Realtek and it was reasonable/acceptable through a set of Grado's.
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Way too many synonyms!

But I don't want to have to add a box and a cable to improve the sound quality on a phone or tablet. I want the sound quality to be good from the device.
 
TommyV said:
I'd switch either the phone or the tablet, the sole reason being so that you are on the same ecosystem on both devices.
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I never really combined the iphone4 with the ipad3 when I had them together for quite a while. The only good thing was photos were shared instantly to my iPad from the iPhone. But this ended up getting annoying actually.

Ideally I'd like my phone to be the sole use for music, especially as I like to use it in the car, and rarely bring my iPad with me on short trips.

I still want the nexus 7 to be a vast improvement on the Nexus 4. As I don't think I could bare the sound quality on a tablet.
 
That's a tricky one, for web browsing the screen size and ratio is better on the Ipad as it's 10" and more importantly 4:3. Going down to the Nexus 7's 7" with 16:10 will loose you a lot of vertical space which I've never liked doing for web browsing. But the nexus will be way more portable for when you use it in the car :p just depends on your main uses really. How about you keep the ipad for browsing and get a better phone for portable music instead of carrying two devices around.
 
I've got the "old" Nexus 7 32Gb/3G and an iPad 4. Personally I think the Ipad has better audio, but both myself and my wife prefer the N7 for just about everything else as we both use Chrome on other computers it's handy to have it sync etc.

The only thing I can say I go to the iPad for is some of the kids games for my daughter as there's more Toca games on it than Android at the moment.

If I had an iPad mini instead of the iPad 4 then I'm not sure it'd be so clear cut though, but generally speaking we prefer the N7 hands down.
 
I just sold my 4g iPad 3 and replaced it with a Nook HD+ 9". Lovely 1920x1280 3:2 aspect ratio display, now running android 4.2.2 on cyanogenmod 10.1. 16GB can be had £130. I got the 32GB model for £150 and chucked in a 64GB microsd for loads of storage. Connects to my local network to stream movies which look fantastic. I'd say the display is way better than the iPad and so far it runs everything I want brilliantly. Not missing Apple/iTunes one bit
 
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Halfmad said:
I've got the "old" Nexus 7 32Gb/3G and an iPad 4. Personally I think the Ipad has better audio, but both myself and my wife prefer the N7 for just about everything else as we both use Chrome on other computers it's handy to have it sync etc.
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I've got chrome on my iPad aswell, and it syncs with my laptop and desktop...

I think the size may be the slight issue, it was raised above that you obviously lose some vertical parts of the web page, and I hate having to scroll a lot!

I might wait for the 10" Nexus to come out, but can't see it being worth the price difference tbh
 
I'd say you may not like the smaller screen size and different ratio. I see the Nexus 7 as more of a traveling tablet.

The new Nexus 10 is apparently due for release before Christmas, but as with the current Nexus 10, I don't expect it will be cheap.

As fornowagain said, the nook HD+ might be an option, the GPU is a little weak though.
 
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rossk26 said:
Way too many synonyms!

But I don't want to have to add a box and a cable to improve the sound quality on a phone or tablet. I want the sound quality to be good from the device.
Click to expand...

This is the only review I've seen to mention sound quality:

The Google Nexus 7 (2013) delivers perfectly clean audio output when connected to an active external amplifier. Its volume levels are lower than we would have expected from a tablet, but it's not too bad either.


With headphones plugged in, the output quality takes a slight knock - the stereo crosstalk goes up notably and some intermodulation distortion creeps in. Volume levels drop significantly, too, so overall the performance is somewhat unspectacular for the tablet league. It's not too bad, mind you, and had it been a smartphone we would have been perfectly happy with it - it's just that most tablets tend to do even better here.
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http://www.gsmarena.com/asus_google_nexus_7_2_2013-review-964p6.php
 
Thanks for the info.

I rarely take the iPad out and about, it's used for sofa surfing mainly. I only use it on a long journey in the car because the Nexus 4 sucks so bad.

I think I still need the iPad screen size for best web browsing, but fancied the specs of the Nexus 7 for the price!!

Thanks again for the info an input. My next purchase will probably be a better android phone with better audio...
 
2StepSteve said:
As fornowagain said, the nook HD+ might be an option, the GPU is a little weak though.
Click to expand...
I'm not a tablet gamer, but everything I've played works ok. No major slowdowns. I'm mainly after a great display with reasonable sound. For the price I can't see much that gets close, it really is a nice package once it's running CM android with beats audio. I think it's due to B&N moving out of the market. So priced to sell, I actually rate it over my iPad now I've had it a while, especially when I think how much I paid for both. It's worth mentioning that it's now on the CM nightly build list, so loads of updates and 4.3/10.2 is in beta and due soon.
 
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