Google Leaves Us With Few Choices Following Nexus 7 Retirement

April 30, 2015 By Jillian Koskie 5 Comments

nexus7

Google retired the Nexus 7 earlier this week, leaving many of us wondering what could be in store at the upcoming I/O conference in late May. Generally considered to be among the higher-end mobile device hardware options (don’t be fooled by the number of sales, which will appear small by comparison to the likes of Samsung or Huawei), the Nexus lineup is overdue for a refresh (and there may not be much time, if Google gets out of hardware it may be more difficult for the company to keep the reigns tight on the direction taken by Android as a platform).

Not that Google has been sitting on their mobile hands, especially considering the recent announcement of Google Fi (a hybrid wireless carrier intended to increase competition and innovation in the carriers marketplace)… we just want more (by way of an amazingly affordable, completely unlocked, incredibly powerful, terribly versatile, smartphone and tablet line-up). That isn’t too much to ask for is it?

Rumour mills are circling, with many suggesting that there is new hardware coming our way (and it may just be a refreshed, Fi-friendly version of the Nexus 5, called the Nexus 5 2015).

Jillian Koskie (437 Posts)

Jillian Koskie is an experienced software developer, content writer, project manager and usability design expert. With over 17 years in these roles, Jillian has enjoyed applying her skill-set to assist clients and users across a wide variety of sectors including: legal, health, and financial services. Combining these professional opportunities with a love of technology, Jillian is pleased to contribute articles, opinions, and advice to numerous news outlets, websites, and publications.

News Items of Interest

stephen taylor

The Nexus six was a bizarrely priced device and to a lesser extent so was the 9 inch tablet for design reasons. The phablet was ridiculously expensive perhaps as Samsung and others voiced disapproval of the great price point of the Nexus 5? The tablet was too small for owners that like and have become used to 10 inch tablets and were considering upgrading to a Nexus tablet. With Google making squillions out of advertising revenue there seemed no logic to moving from great, inexpensive Nexus price point for the phone to attempting to sell an ultra expensive device that had no precedent outside Apples price gouging. The next Nexus phone released in the majority of markets should be a screen size between 5 inch and 5.5 inch and it should be made by a trusted brand, juries out on Huawei but by all means give them the privilege of making a Nexus for the Chinese consumer. Personally I decided against Nexus 5 due to battery life and am still operating the Sony Experia Z. If Google releases the next Nexus for $349 USD outright and its based on the LG G4 or something to a similar standard then I’m in as will be a lot of people. However if Google decide they want Nexus 6 $649 USD gouging then they’re simply encouraging people that want the Apple IOS update type model in an Android to stay off the Nexus platform which is a real shame.Reality is that $349 USD get’s the still very capable LG G3, etc, so the Nexus price should be sitting around the sweet spot of this mid range price like the Nexus 5 was. If they want to offer big bang for buck then perhaps scale back the QHD LG G5 screen to 1080p to get there, remove leather, but retain the camera quality, ram, processor.
Russ Hawkins

So, I guess Google plans on continuing to update .so that way, your tablet only has a life of use for two years. My nexus 7 worked excellent until Google fucked it up with lollipop. This shows me google would rather render your tablet useless to force you to upgrade instead of fixing their mistakes. Goodbye android hello to the place I never wanted to go. Apple
stephen taylor

Have you logged a fault with Google support? It’s an extreme move to decide to shift to Apple who will overcharge you every purchase, only compatible with itself and has plenty of its own documented bugs and rendering older hardware buggy and so on. No, despite my minor gripe with current gen Nexus pricing I can still go out and buy great non Nexus hardware for half the iPhone price that provide superior innovation, higher quality screens, removable batteries, more ram, external storage, full backward compatibility, etc. IPhone six plus is the first iPhone to have a decent screen size but looks ridiculous with its mammoth bezels, lags the current tech with its screen quality, doesn’t run standard USB, huge price and dated looking operating system.
Russ Hawkins

I’ve contacted Google. Apollo they have are excuses and they try and pass the buck on Motorola. Say what you will about Apple. They are much better at fixing their problems. These tablets are not old to run like this after an update. Why would you mention going out to buy something else. Why should I? I’ve already purchased this now piece of junk. When Google received their first million complaints about this, they should have stopped the update. How convenient for them to release the update agreeing the same time their new tablet dropped. This is the type of crap we have to expect from Google.
stephen taylor

It’s a shame the update was poor on your tablet. I just got the Nexus 6 at a big price reduction a month or two ago and it’s been really really good. The 7 you could always download a custom rom to fix it, definitely would be a software issue. Moving to Apple won’t fix the problem as there are lots of stories on the web of people with older Apple hardware updating to a new ios and finding it renders the device laggy and useless. Good luck whatever you decide.