Hands On With Google's Nexus 7 Tablet

Excuse the textured white background—my hotel bed.

The left side holds a 4-pin connector and right above it, one of two mics. The other is at the top.

A matte rubber-coating makes this slip-proof.

Google I/O attendees received a special edition white-colored backing, but personally I think the original black back looks better.

The Nexus 7 comes with a 1.2-megapixel VGA camera. Oddly, the tablet doesn’t come with a native camera app, though it can take pictures with third-party apps. The front-facing camera is also good for participating in group video chats.

As part of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, you can now drop widgets onto your homescreen and have them automatically resize to fit leftover space.

This isn’t Jelly Bean-specific, but now in Google Play you can also purchase magazines, which look pretty great on a 7-inch screen.

Straight out of the box, Google Play is everywhere in your app drawer and widgets. Note the new Magazines icon (third from left).

With the tablet you don’t need to download an additional app to use Nexus Q, Google’s $299 new media streaming device, like you do on a smartphone. See that red circled icon? If your tablet is connected to Q, that icon appears when you’re playing media. Tap it to stream it on a TV screen.