Nexus 7 FHD Alternative 2016

[Killer_Z]

Hi great Android People ,

 

this morning my nexus 7 2013 just died, five blinks of death and then got stucked on the google logo.

I was able to access the bootloader and now I'm trying to unlock the bootloader and reinstall the factory image. I don't think I'll be able to save it, it's been 2 hours and the fastboot it's still "erasing userdata" with no feedback at all (thanks Google, will you ever understand that we love rotating bars, progress bar, and status messages during boring slow operations?)

So I'm asking here what can be a good alternative to the Nexus 7 in 2016. I need a 7-8'' tablet with a decent cpu, a good FHD (ad least) screen and an ok battery time for around €250-280 (of course something cheaper is appreciated). Not much bloatware as a plus. I don't like the Samsung Tabs, I'm against physical buttons and the firmware is just terrible.

From my online searches,  at the momen,t I'm considering the Asus ZenPad S Z580CA or the Sony XPeria Z3 tablet compact (it's a little bit older). I'm not much impressed with any of the two but at least it's a start.

Any suggestion?

Thanks a lot.

 

PS

this is a photo of the recovery errors on my poor, disloyal N7:

[+Warwagon MVC]

Well you could always buy a $50 Amazon Tablet and put CM12 on it

 

[Killer_Z]

1 minute ago, warwagon said:

Well you could always buy a $50 Amazon Tablet and put CM12 on it

Yeah that 1024x600 resolution is a killer feature

[tsupersonic]

The N7 2013 was an amazing tablet, and mine died about an year ago. Loved the tablet, awesome size and price.

 

I came here to recommend the Samsung tablets, but see you're not a fan. Let me know what you pick out. I've been using an iPad Air, which has been nice (especially for free ) What about the N9, I know it's slightly larger, but it's new, and prices have come down. 

[Killer_Z]

1 minute ago, tsupersonic said:

I came here to recommend the Samsung tablets, but see you're not a fan. Let me know what you pick out. I've been using an iPad Air, which has been nice (especially for free ) What about the N9, I know it's slightly larger, but it's new, and prices have come down. 

Can't help with the Samsung tablets, it's true that the hardware's good but they're stuck competing with Apple and I really prefer a cleaner Android experience.

Yeah the N9's good but it's a little pricey, in Europe'still around €350-400. I'll surely let you know, but i'm a slow buyer so it'll take a while before I'll decide .

The iPad Air's an excellent tablet but I have invested in the android ecosystem so I'm not really into change right now.

 

 

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

I purchased the ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA as a replacement for my Nexus 7 and... it's okay.  It's definitely bigger than the Nexus 7, and a little heavier.  While you can hold it for a long time, you'll probably find yourself shifting hands more often, moving it around, etc.  As you might expect, it has unwanted bloatware, most of which are just copies of Google's apps, and in no way better than them.  On the other hand, having more on-board RAM and storage (4GB/64MB) and a Micro SDXC slot are nice bonuses.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[Killer_Z]

Thanks @goretsky,

 

after reading online a little more I'm considering the Nvidia Shield K1 or the ZenPad. The Shield has less RAM and storage (only 2GB/16GB) but it has the micro SD slot too. The price's really good for the specs, it's about €190. The zenpad costs a little more but of course the hardware's way better.

[Killer_Z]

A little update.

With the help of the Google Nexus twitter channel I was able to get in contact with the Google technical support. They were extremely nice but there wasn't anything they could do.

 

In the end i settled for an Nvidia Shield K1. The price was good for the hardware, the tablet is quite fast. The OS is the nearest thing to stock android I ever saw. It came with Andorid 5.0 on board but I immediately received the OTA with the 6.0.1. The DP is higher than my old N7 so the fonts seemed too big to me but after some hours I really started to appreciate it. The colors are a little too saturated because it's gaming oriented I think.

I think I'm satisfied with this tablet . I'm sorry for the loss of my 1600 temple run's gems

[PGHammer]

On 5/25/2016 at 2:21 AM, Killer_Z said:

Thanks @goretsky,

 

after reading online a little more I'm considering the Nvidia Shield K1 or the ZenPad. The Shield has less RAM and storage (only 2GB/16GB) but it has the micro SD slot too. The price's really good for the specs, it's about €190. The zenpad costs a little more but of course the hardware's way better.

Of the two, I'd go with the K1.  First off, Android for the K1 is darn near a clone of pure AOSP, with extremely little actual bloat.  Second, the K1 is also nearly identical in PRICE to the 7 FHD, even on Amazon.  Newer does not necessarily mean better - while the ZenPad IS newer, the Tegra GPU is darn hard to beat in the mobile space.  Lastly, if you prefer CyanogenMod, both have CM13 available as a straight replacement - which can't be said of all that many tablets (as opposed to phablets or phones).

[Anibal P]

Holding out for a new Shield this year, using an 8"Kindle fire for now 

 

Pretty sure if I were to root and get rid of FireOS and use vanilla Android it could be a decent tablet, the bits of lag are not annoying at the moment