[Nexus 7 General] angermeans:
I own the new iPad and pre orderd the 8GB Nexus 7 (it shipped and hopefully I get it by Tuesday or Wednesday by the latest). I have no plans of getting rid of the iPad as the screen is the best I have ever seen on any device, and the eco system and overall smoothness of iOS makes it a killer device. The reason for my reply is that if you are going the iPad 2 and Nexus 7 I would honestly say it comes down to preference. I mean you get the better eco system with the iPad and the size. The camera to me is a complete non factor. I've used the camera on my retina display iPad maybe once or twice. It is something I don't need and the camera on the iPad 2 is horrible. I will tell you what I have told most in my family. In the past year I've owned the Xoom, Transformer Prime, iPad 2 and now new iPad. I sold my Prime and Xoom as Android was a horrible OS on tablets and very very buggy and laggy (especially on the Xoom. The prime not as bad, but still laggy and many problems).

If your going to buy an iPad for the difference in price between the 16GB iPad 2 and 16GB retina then the display alone is well worth the $100. It is an excellent display and makes everything you do that much better. The display in my humble opinion is the best thing you can update on a mobile device. Not only that, but the $100 also gets you the much better A5X processor, much better camera (if you need that sort of thing), and the bigger battery. It is by far the better value.

I can't say much about the Nexus 7, but from what I have read it is the best non iPad tablet you can get. I purchased the 8GB model as I primarily want it for an eReader and to root and mess around with. It is the only Android tablet I would reccomend to anyone right now and I havent used it yet. Why? Well, I use Jelly Bean on my Galaxy Nexus and Project Butter is the single best improvement that Android has ever gotten since its beginning. All other Android tablets are skinned and run horribly even the Prime. The Nexus 7 has all the specs to compete as a top of the line Android tablet and has a great res IPS display to boot.

I think it comes down to one thing and one thing only. The screen size. I primarily got the new iPad and sold my Android tablets as I was sick of how Android ran and I wnated a much better display. What I found surprised the hell out of me. I haven't used iOS since I dumped my iPhone 3GS for the Nexus One and I haven't looked back. I was surprised to see how much better of an eco system it has over Android. I was the one that felt and stood up for Android for years that Android apps have caught up to iOS apps and boy was I wrong. Also, Android tablets are primarily media consumption devices. The iPad is as well, but it also has a lot more to offer. I got to use it the last half of my last college semester and paired with apps like Notability and a stylus I found a device that is perfect for notes and school. I have all my college text books on it, use it for all my notes, and have a file system thanks to Dropbox. It is amazing what you can do with an iPad.

The reason I bring this up is that I downloaded hundreds of Android apps on my Xoom and Prime looking for this experience and never found it to the point I gave up and ended up carrying my Macbook Pro and book bag full of books to class everyday. If you are looking for a tablet for things like this then iPad 2 or retina iPad is the only way to go. I think it should get better now that the N7 is here, but it is still a long way off. It will attract attention from great devs to the platform, but Android as tablets is far off and there is a reason that Google took the route of introducing a low cost 7" tablet instead of going toe to toe with the iPad.

If however you dont need any of this then it shouldn't matter. Since owning the iPad I really wanted to have a great tablet for reading eBooks and I didnt enjoy it on the Xoom or Prime and I really dont like it much on the new iPad due to the overall size and how heavy it is. I use my wife's Tab 7 for reading and it is perfect the N7 has to be even better.

Anyways, sorry so long I just wanted to give you my opinion. Please take it for that and nothing else as we all need different things is what we buy. I am in no way preaching for one platform over the other as I am not a fanboy and feel that the people that are miss out on some great innovation and technology. I will buy what works for me and I own the Galaxy Nexus, iPhone 4S, new iPad, soon to be N7, Macbook Pro, soon to be Macbook Pro retina etc etc. I just wanted to give you my experience as I have spent a lot of time and money to get to where I am in the tech I own. You cannot go wrong with either of these tablets as they are in my opinion (and it looks like many others as well reading the reviews) the best tablets you can get right now and will be for some time to come.