Nexus 7 Tablet Makes a Great Bible Study Companion
I got ahold of a Google Nexus 7 Tablet and really enjoy using the Android 4.1 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet. The device comes with a 7-inch display that looks beautiful. Text shows up crisp and easy to read, except in bright light. The user interface runs smoothly, thanks to something Google called “butter” as in buttery smooth. The technology caches the OS display elements and they run quickly thanks to the fast Tegra 3 processor powering the Nexus 7 Tablet.
The tablet comes with either 8 or 16 GB of storage. For those who want to install a large Logos or Olive Tree library, get the 16GB for $50 more. I don’t install all of my books, just those I use a lot. You’ll need to connect to Wi-Fi to stream your content using a tool like Logos or the YouVersion Bible app that also streams some of the Bibles available. The Nexus 7 Tablet doesn’t offer a 3G version, a real weakness.
The main thing to consider is the size. The iPad gives us plenty of room, but also makes the tablet less mobile and heavier to hold as I read. I love the smaller 7-inch form factor. It feels more like holding a book. It’s more comfortable.
One weakness makes it a little less than perfect for preaching. I use my tablet to hold my notes. The iPad works better with the larger display. I write my sermons on a Mac, so, with Mountain Lion’s new iCloud tool, I can write using the Pages word processing app and save them in iCloud. The notes show up as soon as I open the Pages app on my iPad, simplifying my sync workflow.
If you’re scoring at home, the iPad wins for syncing and the workflow used to get preaching notes on the tablet. The Nexus 7 Tablet wins for size and form factor. Both look great, perform quickly and smoothly and function well. The Bible apps on the iPad have a slight edge over those available on the Nexus 7 Tablet and Android in general. But not enough to make that an obvious win for the iPad thanks to recent improvements to the best Bible apps. The size of the Nexus 7 Tablet trumps most of the iPad’s strength’s making me a Nexus 7 Tablet guy primarily and an iPad user for only a few occasional tasks, like preaching.
I use olivetree with android tablets also. works great. A couple things:
1. The Nexus 7 tablet runs on jellybean, not ice cream sandwich.
2. The sync you mention with icloud is just as easy to do with the nexus 7. You can setup google drive to save Any file to and it will sync to all devices you wish. You can also grant other’s rights to add/edit/or view your “cloud files”.
Thanks! I’ll fix it.
You’re right about the Google Drive thing. In fact I copy my stuff to Google Drive, but if you don’t use iCloud and Pages on a Mac and iPad, you don’t get how incredibly easy it is. I hit save on my computer and it’s just there when I open my iPad app. No other steps. So I’m still going to use my iPad for teaching and preaching and the Nexus 7 for most other things.