Google Nexus 7 screenshot tour

Last updated Aug 13, 2012 — 9195 views

This screenshot tour accompanies DeviceGuru’s in-depth review of Google’s first Android tablet: the $199 Nexus 7, manufactured by Asus. The tour includes over 350 images showcasing numerous aspects of the tablet’s Android 4.1-based user interface, home screens, customization, and apps.

Browse the extensive Nexus 7 Screenshot Tour using the index below. For the full story behind these screenshots, read our complete in-depth Google Nexus 7 review.

Nexus 7 Screenshot Tour Index

The list below offers quick access to screenshots by category. Click the screenshot thumbnails for larger images.

Initial homescreens and folder function

The following two sets of screenshots show the tablet’s initial homescreens, widgets, apps, and default folder capability…

Initial homescreens, widgets, and apps:

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Android 4.1’s built-in homescreen folder function:

You can add apps, widgets, or folders to the tablet’s homescreens and can increase or decrease the number of active homescreens. Although you can’t change the appearance of folders, the function seems to let you add as many app launchers to a folder as desired.

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Tweaked home screens and folders

The Folder Organizer app provides greater flexibility for creating customized folders, app launchers, and launchers, and assigning custom images to the folders, apps, and bookmarks. The finished setup has two homescreens: one containing apps and folders, and the other with a handful of widgets; plus, there’s a customized lockscreen.

These screenshots show the lockscreen and homescreens:

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These screenshots show the contents of the 14 homescreen folders:

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Device & file management apps

This screenshots in this section show several valuable system management apps: ES File Explorer, Advanced Task Manager, WiFi Manager, and DropBox.

ES File Explorer:

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Advanced Task Manager:

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WiFi Manager:

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Dropbox cloud storage:

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Keyboard alternatives

These screenshots show three options for text entry: the standard Samsung keyboard, the Hacker’s Keyboard (my favorite), and “Google voice typing” (which works surprisingly well)…

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Mail, calendar, contacts, messaging

Mail — I prefer the user-installable Gmail app to the default “Email” app:

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Calendar — As with email, I prefer an alternate calendar app, aCalendar, to the tablet’s default Calendar app:

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Contacts — Contacts information is provided by Android’s “People” app:

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Skype messaging — The Android Skype app provides text, voice, and video communications, although the Nexus 7’s video support currently is categorized as uncertified:

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Google Talk messaging — Although less ubiquitous than Skype, Google Talk, which comes preinstalled on the Nexus 7, is another good option for text, voice, and video communications:

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Maps & navigation…

Google’s Maps and Navigation apps render well on tablets, and include turn-by-turn voice prompts. One nice touch is that you can “pre-cache” map areas (see below) in advance of situations where Internet access won’t be available…

Google Maps…

Google Navigation…

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Productivity apps

In case you were wondering: yes, you really can do work on the 7-inch Google Nexus 7, although its reduced-sized onscreen keyboard can be inefficient to use unless you happen to have tiny (or extremely talented) fingers. However, Google’s relatively accurate voice-to-text input capability can help a lot, as can an external bluetooth keyboard. Here are several examples of productivity apps that we’ve tested on the device…

Office Suite Pro — The Android Office Suite Pro app currently costs $15, but you might want to download the fully-functional 7-day free trial version to try it before purchasing it (it’s good, but has some flaws):

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QuickOffice Pro HD — Unfortunately, there’s no free-trial version of this $20 office-style app (available here), although with all apps purchased in the Google Android market you can cancel your purchase within 15 minutes for a full refund. The first group of screenshots below shows the creation of simple Powerpoint slides and spreadsheets in Quickoffice. In the second set, you can see OfficeSuite Pro being used to add a chart to the QuickOffice-created spreadsheet.

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Since my version of Quickoffice (v4.6) does not provide a feature to add a chart to the spreadsheet, I used OfficeSuite Pro to add one:

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Kingsoft Office — This office-style app is currently free in Google’s Android market. Like the paid office suites above, Kingsoft Office is useful for creating and editing MS Office-compatible text, spreadsheet, and presentation documents compatible. One unfortunate drawback is that its top-of-screen menu fonts and widgets are small and lack contrast, making the app somewhat tedious to use, at least initially. Still, the app does offer extensive text document-editing capabilities, plus the ability to create spreadsheets and presentations, and at a price that’s hard to resist!

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Google Drive apps — In addition to providing Dropbox-like cloud storage and sharing services, Google’s Drive app lets you create and edit Google documents (text and spreadsheets only, at the moment) directly on the Nexus 7:

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LogMeIn — The LogMeIn app, currently priced at $25, lets you access your remote Windows or Mac desktop and even run desktop programs remotely. The screenshots below show the Nexus 7 being used for creating an Open Office spreadsheet and browsing the Web in Firefox on a remote Windows 7 desktop:

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SketchBook Mobile — Autodesk’s free SketchBook Mobile app is a nifty painting and drawing tool. Using it, you can create mixed text/graphics images that can be embedded in presentations and other documents…

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Calculators — These screenshots show the standard Android 4.1 calculator and the wonky RealCalc Scientific Calculator:

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Google Play apps & entertainment

The Google Nexus 7 comes with the Google Play market pre-installed, offering a wide selection of apps, games, magazines, music, movies & TV, and books…

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Streaming multimedia from the web

The Google Nexus 7 can stream audio and video content from both dedicated apps and Web-based sources via its browser…

Netflix — Streaming Netflix movies and TV episodes, via a tablet-optimized app:

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Crackle — Streaming Crackle movies and TV shows, via a tablet-optimized app:

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PlayOn — Using the PlayOn app to stream multimedia from a multitude of sources — including free Hulu — using a Windows PC as a streaming intermediary:

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Plex — Using the Plex Mobile app to stream multimedia from a multitude of Internet-based sources and your local — including Comedy Central — in conjunction with the free Plex Media Server app running on a Mac, Windows PC, or Linux PC:

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YouTube — Streaming YouTube via the Nexus 7’s preinstalled tablet-optimized app:

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Vimeo — Watching Vimeo videos via a tablet-optimized app:

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TED — Watching TED videos via a tablet-optimized app:

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MSNBC — Streaming MSNBC’s Hardball and Rachel Maddow shows via the browser:

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Pandora — Streaming music via the Pandora app:

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TuneIn Radio — Listening to TuneIn Radio via a tablet-optimized app:

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BeyondPod — Subscribing to, downloading, and playing audio and video podcasts with the highly-flexible BeyondPod Podcast Manager app:

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Streaming multimedia from network shares

The screenshots below demonstrate various apps streaming multimedia via UPnP/DLNA and Windows shares over the local network…

UPnPlay — UPnP streaming via UPnPlay:

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Bubble UPnP — UPnP/DLNA streaming via Bubble UPnP:

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PlugPlayer — UPnP/DLNA streaming via PlugPlayer:

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Ark Media Center — UPnP/DLNA streaming via Ark Media Center:

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Avia Media Player — UPnP/DLNA streaming via Avia Media Player:

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Twonky Mobile — UPnP/DLNA streaming via Twonky Mobile:

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Samba via ES File Explorer — Windows share (samba) streaming via ES File Explorer:

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Reading ebooks

Below are demonstrations of three popular ebook readers…

Google Books — Google’s Books app:

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Kindle books — Amazon’s Kindle app:

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Nook books — Barnes & Noble’s Nook app:

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Taking photos

Surprise! Despite the lack of a rear camera on the Nexus 7, a third-party Camera app enables taking photos with the tablet’s frontside camera. It’s a bit awkward to use, and the resolution leaves much to be desired, but it can come in handy from time to time. The screenshots in the group below show some of the functions available using the third-party camera app and include two photos taken using it: