Can’t decide whether you should get a Google Nexus 7 or an iPad? Well, maybe you should ask yourself first if you intend to tinker with your new toy.
iFixit, a website that’s known for tearing down devices to reveal their inner workings and helping users do “home repairs”, has gotten a hold of Google’s latest addition to the growing number of Android powered tablets. The iFixit team has given the Google Nexus 7 an amazing repairability score of 7 out of 10 (a score of 10 means it’s easiest to repair). In contrast, the iPad 3 has gotten a score of 2 out of 10 while the Kindle Fire received a slightly higher 8 out of 10.
As you can see, there’s a huge difference between the iPad 3 and the Google Nexus 7; something that the guys at iFixit chalk up to the 1 millimeter difference in thickness between the two devices:
“One millimeter. That’s the difference in thickness between the 9.4 mm glued iPad and the 10.4 mm retaining-clipped Nexus. That’s the difference between being able to open a device and service all of its internals, and not. That’s the negligible difference between extending the life of your device through repair, as opposed to tossing it in a landfill.”
iFixit also rightly points out that no one will notice or complain about the Google Nexus 7 being 1 millimeter thicker “but the user-serviceability it brings will make all the difference when the device breaks.”
As you may already be aware, the Google Nexus 7 brings with it 1 GB of RAM, a quad-core Tegra 3 processor, a gorgeous 7″ 1280×800 back-lit display, 1.2 megapixel front facing camera and comes in 8 or 16 GB variants. It will also be one of the first devices to run Android 4.1 aka Jelly Bean.
At the end of the day, we think both devices are awesome but we hope that this makes the decision of which tablet to get a little easier for you guys out there.