Nexus 7 or Surface RT

[NULLandKale]

Tomorrow I will be buying a tablet. I have been debating between a Surface RT or a nexus 7. If I can find a nexus 10 in store in the US I'd consider that an option. What do you guys think?

I forgot to mention that right now I run windows 8 on all my PC's and have a nexus 4 for my phone

[codytappen]

I'd go with the Nexus 10 if at all possible; the battery life is out of this world and I love everything about it. If not that the Nexus 7. That is my choice because RT as a platform is still *verbal sigh* well let's face it, in infancy; Android on the other side is well developed, widely supported, and *hesitates to say* the most popular. I can also attest to having a good Android experience overall whereas when I've tried RT I haven't liked it much (keep in mind I haven't used it as a daily driver or anything). If you are going with a Microsoft tablet the Surface Pro is the only real option in my opinion.

[MdX MaxX]

I agree. Nexus all the way.

I honestly don't see how buying Surface RT, or Windows RT devices in general, makes any sense. Unless you MUST have Microsoft Office running on ARM for some reason...

[forrester1010]

The only downside to the nexus 7 is the build quality is really poor. A month after I got mine I started to develop an irritating creak along one side. Also one side of the screen is raised above the bezel and even though it doesn't affect the device and others don't notice it niggles at me because I know its it's there.

That all said and done the performance of the nexus is amazing for such a low cost device.

[ERSCreeper]

I have a Nexus 7 and I have to disagree with forrester, I haven't had any problems with the build quality. Really good battery life, keeps cool on the back except for games like Real Racing 3 etc but still doesn't get to hot. I have the 32Gb Wifi 3G model and for the price I'm amazed by the looks, performance and battery life :)

[ERSCreeper]

I'd go with the Nexus 10 if at all possible; the battery life is out of this world and I love everything about it. If not that the Nexus 7. That is my choice because RT as a platform is still *verbal sigh* well let's face it, in infancy; Android on the other side is well developed, widely supported, and *hesitates to say* the most popular. I can also attest to having a good Android experience overall whereas when I've tried RT I haven't liked it much (keep in mind I haven't used it as a daily driver or anything). If you are going with a Microsoft tablet the Surface Pro is the only real option in my opinion.

And if you get the Surface Pro you need to get the 120/128Gb model. Lack of storage otherwise :/

[s0nrise]

Nexus 7 all the way

[GoodBytes]

Here are my thoughts. Maybe it might help. Now polease note, that I don't have a tablet. I have experience iPad, Android and Surface, from friends. But that is it.

So I could be wrong on things, don't kill me for this, but I am sure I'll be corrected if anything is indeed wrong.

-> Android Nexxus 10 you have apps. Lots of apps. Apps for everything. The OS is FINALLY fluid, and has a common interface. The device is lower build quality, by several folds than the Surface RT, and is just a tablet.

-> Surface RT, has very limited apps, comparing to the other, and many apps quality in most cases isn't really there (yuo can check them out if your have Windows 8 on teh desktop). You do have the few really amazing apps, and XBox Live games on it, but they are very few.. like just a hand full. But you have Office 2013 with rumor of Outlook 2013 coming to it in the future (just rumors). The tablet also allows connecting a mouse, and you have the optional keyboard with it, so you can use it kinda like a laptop. You can also connect the tablet to a 1080p display, for extended desktop usage, like you can with a desktop computer or laptop computer as it's Windows. Also, people already jailbreak the Surface RT to allow to ARM recompiled desktop application. While Microsoft congratulated the people who did this, they said that they can't assure that it will continue to work on later update (naturally, as it's not by design). So you have a chance that it stops working. Apps is also very limited in that environment, only a hand full. But don't ask me how it works, I don't have any tablet. I don't know if it's easy or not to do. I also saw, that someone was working on a x86 emulator for it. Although, you definitely want to run only really really old games (DOS/Win9x days), and there is a A LOT of work that needs to be done at the moment, and finally, you want to be plugged in, as the ARM process is no match for such demanding emulation task.

Having a look at the Surface RT and Pro, I have to say both, the build quality is by far superior than the Nexus, and feels arguable on par or higher even than the iPad.

You also have XBox Music with the XBox Music Pass, which is awesome. It's free, where you have unlimited music streaming with a few ads (for teh first 6 month, than its 10h of listening per month.. which is actually a lot if you think about it... or I guess you can make another hotmail, or wtv account and get another 6 month unlimited:) ). OR, pay 10$ per month, or 100$ per year (so 2 month free every year of savings), you get unlimited streaming, no ads, and unlimited downloads (only playable on Microsoft devices). The music library is the biggest of any subscription service: 30 million songs and growing weekly.

I have the XBox Music Pass, I downlaod about 10-12 albums per month. Making it an extremely good deal compared to iTunes. I listen to music when I work, when I am home, so it is worth it. As I have the music pass, I also use the Zune desktop software, so it's cool for when I am on my desktop. I also have a Zune MP3 player.. so I do need the Zune software to sync my downloaded music to it. The only sucky thing is that downlaoded music from teh Zune app is not playable on the Music app. their DRM while exactly the same, their signature is different (that's Microsoft for you), so if download music from the Zune app, and you want to put in a USB key or microSD card and put it on your Surafce tablet, you'll need, sadly to re-download them.

Oh another thing that the Surface RT has, is the awesome OneNote

If I had to pick a tablet, the one that interests me the most is the Surface series, but I would wait for the Surface 2. Nothing is wrong with the Surface as is, but I would like to see a more powerful processor as while the Tegra 3 is an awesome chip, the Surface took so much time to come out, the processor is fairly weak compared to the competition.And simply.. giving more time for Windows 8/RT to have more apps.

So if you want one NOW, this is what I recommend:

-> Android, if you are doing general things with it, you want more of an entertainment device, but still be able to do some level of basic work with Google docs and such. You have a great library of games, and apps to do just this.

-> Surface RT, if its for school. If you want something for school, this is a good device choice. You can read/edit PDF files (read with Reader app built-in, read/edit with Office 2013, and you have Adobe Reader for it as well), you have Office. You can take your class notes with OneNote, you have a keyboard (if you get it), you have sufficient battery life for school purposes, and you have IE10, which will allow to have any website work.

-> Surface Pro, if its for work or school, and you are a power user. If you are in Computer Science or Engineering this is the tablet to get, mostly because of the digitize pen, meaning you can write your notes on it directly with precision, making great for math, physics, and any course that requires a lot of special symbols, diagrams and graphs. Although Office and OneNote is not included in the Pro. You can also fire up any desktop programs you need, including Visual Studio or what ever program as if you had a laptop.

Also, the Surface Pro BIOS is not locked. You can go into it and siable "Secure boot", and you can install Linux on it if you want (although don't ask me about drivers. I never tried).

I am most exited with the Surface Pro 2 as it will have the Intel Haskell processor, which should aliviate the battery life issue. But again if you need it now, the Surface Pro will have, apparently, based on hints from Microsoft, and the misterious holes next to teh keyboard dick that looks speciously like ASUS transfer Prime series tablet for its keyboard/battery dock, are working on such add-on.

[loganryan99]

The Nexus 7 and Surface RT aren't very comparable. They're completely different prices aimed at completely different demographics - if you wan't a high-end tablet get an ASUS Transformer Prime and you won't be disappointed. If you don't mind loosing out on a bit of performance, then same some money and go with the Nexus 7.

[snowfoot101]

All you need to know is that my brother has a Nexus 7........FREAKIN AMAZING-for the price its at......

[Scirca]

Surface Pro>Nexus 10>Nexus 7>iPad (newest one)>iPad Mini>Surface RT

I personally own a nexus 7 and owned an iPad for about a week before I got tired of it and gave it to my niece as a present.

The nexus 7 is a great tablet, it's really portable, I can't complain about the battery life, and it really fulfills all of my needs except one: screen real estate. While I love the size of the Nexus 7, I hate the fact that the screen is so small, and I wish I could go back to August and not purchase a Nexus 7 and wait for a Nexus 10. Also, If you're already inside the Android ecosystem with a Nexus 4, having a Nexus tablet or any android tablet will fit better.

The Surface RT is an overpriced windows phone with a large screen, or an underpowered tablet. On the other hand, the Surface Pro is tits, but it's wayyyyyy too overpriced.

[DLM_012]

If you're one this forum, chances are you'll like Android a lot better than Win RT. That's as concise as I can get. The more extended version is below.

 

What's most important is that you try your best to get hands on time with the devices and run it through your tests and criteria. It is absolutely crucial when shopping for anything that you have criteria or standards imo. Without it, you're lost as to what to buy.

 

For an example:

• screen size
• color reproduction
• battery life
• software features
• resale value 
• price

I typically look at all of those things and more when considering a new device. You might also want to prioritize which is most important for you. The fact of the matter is that not every device will have every feature and you will have to make compromises.

[_Rogue]

Many More apps on Android than Windows, Nexus 7 or 10 are great but id say wait till I/O next month and get the new nexus 7 when they release it. I have the current one but when the new one hist my sister is getting it and im getting the new one.