[Nexus 7 General] danakers:
I guess you could call my post on the "Are you still happy with your Nexus 7?" thread an 'alternative' to Jayman's review, this time from an Android convert who has previously owned a plethora of Apple products (Apple TV, Mac Mini, iPad 1 and iPad 2 and still use a Mac Pro and MacBook Pro at work), so I guess I was, at one point, an Apple 'fanboy' myself... here is that 'review'...

My first computer, back in 1982, was a Dragon 32. I can remember modding the hardware to give me green-on-black text by soldering a couple of wires to the motherboard; I spent hours punching in raw machine code from Computer & Video Games magazine. The next upgrade was the massive leap to an Amiga A500. Hours on end tinkering with the audio and graphical prowess of this wonder machine. Then came my first PC, an old 386 running Windows 3.1, which spurred me on to building my own system. I was probably one of Britain's first 'laptop DJs' over a decade ago, and today I'm running the Windows 8 preview on my 4-year old quad-core Dell XPS 420.

I also use a Mac Pro and a Macbook Pro at work, and remember being blown away by the first iPad, so much so that I bought an iPad 2 when it came out. I sold it when I won one, then pretty quickly tired of it and sold it too.

Last year, I became such an Apple fanboy, I bought myself a Mac Mini and an Apple TV. The Mac Mini was sold on eBay just 3 months later, and the Apple TV sits, gathering dust, in a cupboard.

Don't get me wrong - Apple products are well-designed, look great and work well (in the main). The thing is, I've always been a meddler. I like systems that do what I want them to do, so for a long-term tinkerer, Android has to be my mobile OS of choice. I've only ever owned Symbian and Android smartphones and, despite the initial excitement of the iPad, I have never wanted to own an iPhone, not least because I don't think I know ANYBODY who hasn't suffered a broken screen!

The simple fact is that Android does everything the iPad does. The iPad is brilliant for those who just want to pick it up and do as they're told, but Android is so much better if you want an OS that can be customised the way YOU like it, and for when you want extra functionality. Apple fans will tell you the App Store is so much better, but I disagree, as almost all the popular apps available on iOS are now on Android too, with better versions popping up every now and again for the Tegra 3 processor. In addition, many of these apps are free, whereas nothing is free in the App Store.

Android may not have always appeared as polished as iOS, but with the advent of ICS and now Jelly Bean, today it's just as good for beginners as for seasoned fiddlers, and this was always a key selling point for Apple ("it just works").

For me, Asus' Google Nexus 7 is the perfect tablet. The form factor makes handling the device as easy as holding a book. The functionality is improving all the time. Running the Paranoid Android ROM in full-fat tablet mode with the Nova launcher makes an already perfect device even more so. The truth is though, the Nexus 7 is great out-of-the-box, so the majority of users (who don't root their devices) already have a device that stands head and shoulders above most, if not all, others.

Today, I've read the Sunday Times, surfed the internet, IMDB'd actors in a film I watched earlier, sent and received work and personal emails, checked tomorrow's weather, played a few MP3s, checked in on Facebook, read a couple of issues of Engadget's Distro magazine, played a couple of games, checked the XDA forums, sent a whole load of text messages from the Tablet Talk app, connecting via Bluetooth to my HTC One X, and checked out what's on TV tonight.

Right now, I'm writing this (admittedly on my PC) whilst listening to the radio which is being streamed from the TuneIn Radio app via Bluetooth to my Jawbone Jambox. This evening, I'll be using the Plex app to watch a movie via my PC on my TV, and when I'm ready for bed, I'll put my Nexus 7 in its' sat nav holder, which is attached to my bedroom wall, where I'll continue watching a movie, streamed from my PC to my tablet.

My Nexus 7 is my newspaper, magazine, book, internet browser, emailer, music player, radio, social networking tool, games console, SMS device, movie player, even my portable TV.

There's one down-side to owning a Nexus 7. It's damned hard to watch a full-length movie or TV show as, minutes into it, you just want to play with it again... and again... and again.

Tomorrow, I can go into work with my leather-bound Nexus 7 "book" in my hand. My old iPad meant having to carry a bag around with me all the time (a) because it was too big to carry around by hand and (b) in doing so, I'd have probably been mugged!

I accept that Apple reinvented the tablet computer. I believe, with this level of functionality thanks to the hardware and Android Jelly Bean OS, the form factor and incredible price, Google, along with Asus, may well have reinvented it again.

So, am I still happy with my Nexus 7?

Absolutely.​