Ten years ago today, Google released the 2nd-generation Nexus 7, just days after a surprise announcement. Back then, Android tablets still felt fresh and exciting. It seemed like anything was possible, and things could only improve from there. Well, we know what happened next. But the depressing state of the tablet market to come was in no way the fault of the Nexus 7. In fact, this is still one of the best Android tablets ever made, and it’s worth looking back and showing it the honor and respect it deserves.

  • Cloudless ☼@feddit.uk
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    11 months ago

    The Nexus 7’s data storage became extremely slow after a while. The device became completely unusable.

    A short while after the Nexus 7, many mobile phones screen got bigger, so the 7-inch screen size became sort of obsolete.

    • dcellini@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      That was my experience with the 2012 model. Once it received the 5.0 Lollipop update, it couldn’t handle basic tasks without significant slowdowns. CyanogenMod improved things a bit, but it was never the same after about 3 years of use.

    • iod@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      I still have it and still use it occasionally. But yes, performance is often bad. Always suspected it was the storage but couldn’t understand why or how it could become slower over time. Because I don’t remember it being this slow when it was new. I also thought it was the new android updates that came out over time.

    • dantheclamman@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I had the same issue. The Nexus program was cool for making subsidized, hackable devices available to the masses running pure Android. But the manufacturers seem to have taken a lot of shortcuts with components. Both my Nexus 7 and Nexus 6P (two of them!) eventually failed, and I got a pretty big class action payout for the 6P failing

      • Toribor@corndog.social
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        11 months ago

        How much did you get for the class action lawsuit? I took the free upgrade to a Pixel XL like a chump.

        • dantheclamman@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I don’t actually remember, it might have been $300-400 for mine since I filed a claim years after the first one overheated and failed, and after already receiving a warranty replacement (which later also failed). Getting a Pixel XL sounds like a good deal!

          • Toribor@corndog.social
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            11 months ago

            Okay yeah that seems like a fair trade then. I loved the 6P until it started having hardware problems. A semi scraped up the whole drivers side of my car by merging into my lane without paying attention and I had to pull over to call the police. This was mid-january which was quite cold so my 6P kept dying on me due to undervolting even though the battery was full. It made it impossible to get the police out to me which in turn made it impossible for me to get the drivers insurance to cover the damage to my vehicle.

            So technically the 6P probably cost me a couple thousand dollars in insurance payout… but two years later someone hit my car and totaled it so I got paid out for the whole thing anyway. Lucky me I guess.

            • dantheclamman@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Oh man that’s terrible. Mine failed when I was abroad and caused me a decent amount of inconvenience (not nearly as much as yours), as I had been planning on using Google Fi for international service. Had to get a cheap loaner phone and sim which took a while and I was stuck with the rest of the summer abroad.

      • Cloudless ☼@feddit.uk
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        11 months ago

        As a naive Google fan at that time, I bought the 2012 model when it came out. Google should have recalled the model and provide full refund/exchange.