So I've been using a Nexus 7 for about two weeks now, and I keep coming back to the same thought: this is what Android should've looked like from the start. Not the tablet itself necessarily, though it's pretty good at $199, but what it represents. Google's finally cracking down on the fragmentation mess.
If you've been paying attention, you know Android's biggest problem isn't that it's worse than iOS. It's that there's no such thing as "Android" anymore. There's Samsung's version, HTC's version, Motorola's version, some carrier-branded abomination on your Verizon phone, and then occasionally Google's own version. Each one ships with different apps, different versions, different update schedules. Users just see chaos.
Jelly Bean, the new version shipping with the Nexus 7, actually tries to fix this. Not by forcing everyone into line (Google's learned that lesson), but by making the Nexus line so obviously better that manufacturers actually want to copy it. The smart thing here isn't any single feature. It's that Google is using hardware to enforce coherence. The Nexus 7 comes with what Google ships, when Google ships it, period. No bloatware from ASUS, no Samsung interface layered on top making everything slower.
I tested this against a friend's Galaxy S III last week. Both are running Android, technically. But the Galaxy feels dated already, even though it's maybe three months old. The Nexus 7 just snaps. Project Butter, Google's name for their animation improvements, actually works. You feel it. Scrolling is smooth in a way that makes you realize how janky everything else has become.
The other thing that's kind of brilliant is the pricing. $199 for a real tablet with real specs: quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB storage. That's aggressive. Apple's cheapest iPad was pushing $400 when I last checked. The Nexus 7 isn't trying to be an iPad. It's trying to be affordable and useful, which is a very different goal. I've mostly been reading on it and browsing, exactly what you'd expect from a seven-inch device. For that, it's perfect.
Now, will this actually solve Android fragmentation? I'm not totally convinced. Samsung's been making phones so fast that even if they slow down their interface customizations, they'll have new hardware out before Android catches up. HTC's probably not going to strip away their Sense interface just because Google has a nice tablet. Carriers will keep bloating phones with nonsense.
But here's what might actually happen: enough people will buy Nexus devices because they're cheaper and cleaner that other manufacturers start getting pressure from consumers. That's how you change things, not through fiat. Apple doesn't tell you what phone to buy; they just make something so obviously better that you want it.
The Nexus 7 is the first time I've seen Google actually execute on that strategy. And I think it might actually work.