It’s that time again. Time to put two great tablets up against each other. Today we have two ASUS-made tablets going at it. One with Stock Android, and one with a 1080p display. It’s the Nexus 7 vs the Transformer Pad Infinity, both on Jelly Bean but different versions of Jelly Bean. Both have quad-core Tegra 3 processor, so who’s going to come out on top? Let’s find out.
Specifications
Google Nexus 7
The Nexus 7. Google’s first Nexus tablet. Announced at Google I/O in June 2012, and made available in July. The Nexus 7 launched on Android 4.1, and has since been upgraded to Android 4.2. Google shocked the world with the Nexus 7. Offering a kind of high-end tablet for just $199/249 for the 8 and 16GB respectively. Although know it’s the 16GB for $199 and 32GB for $249.
The Nexus 7 is a beautiful device, on the back all it has is a speaker and a nice looking ‘Nexus’ logo. Then coming around to the front you’ll see the 7″ display with the front-facing camera at the top. Pretty simple design, with some rather large bezels at the top and bottom of the screen. Which makes it easier to play games like Grand Theft Auto, Asphalt and Riptide. As you have a place to rest your hands without covering up the speaker.
Pros:
- Pricing: a quad-core tablet with the latest version of Android for only $199? Kinda hard to beat that
- Tegra 3; it’s a great processor, with 5 cores. The fifth core is a bit slower than the other 4, but fast enough to handle most tasks
- Great for gaming, the 7-inch form factor is great for gaming. It’s not to big and not to small either.
Cons:
- 1280×800 resolution, while it’s a good resolution for the price, when you look at the Nexus 10’s resolution of 2560×1600 in comparison it looks like crap
- Only 1GB RAM, while the rest of the Nexus family has 2GB. Well the newer members anyways.
ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700
The Transformer Pad Infinity was announced shortly after the Transformer Prime was released. It made quite a few Transformer Prime buyers very upset. Mostly because of all the upgrades the Infinity got. It came with a 1080p display, larger battery, and a better front-facing camera, among a few other things. It was first announced at CES in January of 2012.
On the back of the device you’ve got the 8MP camera, then on the sides you’ve got the volume rocker, power button, micro SD card slot and SIM card slot for the 3G and LTE models. On the front you have the beautiful 1080p IPS+ display along with a 2MP camera at the top. The Transformer Pad Infinity also has a keyboard dock that is sold seperately which gives you an extra 6 hours of battery (about half the size of the one in the actual tablet) and a USB port.
Pros:
- Keyboard dock; it’s a great accessory, it’s too bad that it doesn’t come with the device.
- The display; 1080p displays are just gorgeous. And IPS+ means you can use it outside in the sun
- Fast updates; it’s not a Nexus, but ASUS has been very quick at bringing updates to their devices lately
Cons:
- Price; it’s pretty pricey for some people. Selling at $499.99 for the 32GB and $599.99 for the 64GB
- Still sitting on Android 4.1
Winner…
This is a hard decision. A lot of the internals are the same and both devices are made by ASUS. But the Transformer Pad Infinity is the winner based on how good the productivity is on it. Mostly due to the keyboard dock. So if you can afford the Transformer Pad Infinity TF700, I’d say go for it. If you want something a bit cheaper, go for the Nexus 7. They are both great ASUS tablets.