I've never looked at these type of tablets. To me they appear to be a large smartphone without the phone. Am I missing something? I rooted my Fire HD with CyanogenMod (Android). Getting rid of the Amazon bloatware makes the Fire much faster and responsive. I'll have to check out the new Nexus 7.
Just as a point of interest, my 1st gen Nexus 7 was updated to 4.3 OTA a few days ago, seems like google are "supporting" the older model - something that a majority of other suppliers appear to fail to do beyond the first update after purchase.
That is a big part of the appeal of the Nexus-branded devices.....they'll keep getting OS updates as long as the hardware can support them, and said updates will come as soon as available, unlike other Android devices tied into cell carriers. Carrier supplied devices not only can take a long time before the updates are delivered, but they, along with even wifi-only non_Nexus branded Androids, are often loaded up with bloatware. Examples: Samsung's Touchwiz, HTC's Sense.
Nexus devices are pure Android.....say no to bloatware!
My Nexus7 (old version) just got updated too. I let it sit idle for about an hour to give Trim a chance to cleanup the mess on the storage and now it seems to be a lot swifter. Good deal.
I had no doubt at all that the previous Nexus 7 wouldn't be updated to 4.3. I'd have been surprised if it wasn't. And I've had full use of one at work for software development, so had plenty of use of it.
My biggest problem with is though that the Tegra 3 chip in it isn't a suitable smartphone/tablet chip at all. I despise it. As nice as the Nexus 7 is to use and I think it's a great tablet (it's definitely the best tablet bar none in terms of bang for buck), I've just always felt it's been kept back from its full potential. Get a custom kernel on there that really opens up Tegra 3 and it'll most likely feel like a new tablet. And as the new one has jumped ship to Snapdragon, I'm looking forward to trying it.
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