Best value in a computing device – Nexus 7
Quad Core Tegra 3 CPU
12 Core GPU
$199
It started with the first Android phones. They were obviously hunting down talent for the Android phone UX. I was briefly interested in mobile phones as far as finding out how to make the battery last longer in my Windows Mobile 5.1 phone and ended up upgrading my rom to Windows Mobile 6.0 and having stellar battery life that lasted for days.
During all this is when I heard phone hackers talking about the Sense theme and how it was going to be on the early Android phone. I “kinda” liked it until I realized that it was a static theme, you couldn’t change it. And it was a hacked together theme, the graphics were never quite right so I began to hate Android. The Sense theme always made me think of Android as hacked together junk. Subsequent changes to phones and UX’s quickly made it look downright ugly.
Fast forward to the Nexus 7.
This thing should have standard office apps and a keyboard.
A stable Linux. I watched the Google I/O day one keynote and couldn’t believe I was looking at a stable version of Linux. In all their demos, the thing didn’t freeze once. And as for overall system tuning of Android 4.1, I couldn’t help but think that that is exactly how I would tune an operating system.
And the hardware is simply amazing. Yes, I hate(d) Linux like you would not believe. I hate crashy software. But this thing is unbelievable.
The value is outstanding for all of the technology you are getting. Android 4.1 could be a desktop operating system. It’s running on a quad-core tegra 3 CPU. The graphics are unbelievable with a 12 core GPU at 1280 x 800 the same screen resolution as a Dell M1330 laptop .
I guess that’s the point I wanted to make, Android 4.1 Jellybean is a highly functional, highly stable version of Linux that should be on a desktop computer. Not an old clunker though, something to rival the Microsoft Surface.
It is an impressive piece of technology.
Main problem:
cards – When a “card” comes up with information on it, the entire screen should be a uniform color, not just a portion of the screen, which makes it look absolutely amateurish and ugly. This is the main visual problem with information display. Showing half an information card just doesn’t look as good as if the entire space was a uniform color. The card color should blend with the background color, probably white. Then this thing would have “the look”.
theme – Changed my mind about the theme, the one they showed at Google I/O
was ugly, but Leo Laporte’s Galaxy S3 looks great, it even has a moving background display of an aquarium and looks awesome That would have made a better demo at Google I/O.
Added Note: appreciate the funny Chromebook comments 
but I don’t want a cloud computer, I meant a real desktop computer complete with full desktop applications.
Chromebook, Chromebox, and whatever other Chrome thing you can name are not PC’s. They don’t have anything close to the productivity applications a PC has.
You’ve got the Nexus 7 tablet, and it is properly done, right down to the price tag. Can they build on it and build from it an actual PC? Sure they could, not saying they will.
Could they do a 10.6″ version with Mini Displayport Video and a physical keyboard? Sure they could. It would be half the price of the Microsoft Surface. Would that be a problem for Microsoft, for Apple even? You’re darn right it would be a problem. Imagine a Nexus 10 PC.
RE: Android – we have been talking about Android on one specific device and not talking about updates or anything else and the fact that it looks stable on the Nexus 7, and that we are looking at its potential, etc.
Here’s an article about Android to balance the whole thing out: I’m Sick To Death of Android
Here’s another article: The Android Era: From G1 to Jellybean