Nexus 7 Review

          I never thought of owning a tablet. Ever since my first smartphone (an HTC Nexus One), until my latest smartphone (a Samsung Galaxy Nexus), my media consumption and communication needs have been met. For more power and processor intensive activities like games or content creation, my desktop and laptop have done the job. This now brings me to the Nexus 7. 

          I was enticed into buying the Nexus 7 mainly by the price – at $250 or roughly PhP 10,000 after conversion, with an NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor and a beefy 4,325 mAh battery to boot, who wouldn’t want to buy this? Aside from the price, I was also considering a portable entertainment device because lugging around a laptop just to watch YouTube or surf on the net is not pleasurable. 

             

          After nearly 3 weeks of waiting, my order for the Nexus 7 finally arrived. Here’s my initial review after 3 days of playing with it. 

Note: I bought this device for more than the PhP 10,000 estimate and I’m running stock Android 4.1.1. 

Negativity: No Place In The Philippines

After watching the above video, I can't help noticing the "hopeless" view of many Filipinos. I have to agree to the fact the speaker mentions in the beginning about media outlets (TV, Radio, Newspapers) tending to only show the bad news. I guess bad or scandalous news gets the most hits just like a funny cat video on YouTube does, so naturally the media would lean towards broadcasting that kind of information. I can't imagine how I or even other Filipinos can live with eating dinner every night and watching the latest accident, rape victim, or dead body in the news. Maybe that's why Willie's show is the same time as these shows and he has a lot of viewers too but I digress...

This leaves out the positive news tidbits (like India being declared polio-free) in the dustbin. Admittedly, I'm not a reporter or anything, but from what I understand of the 24/7 news cycle, reporters simply have too short a deadline to truly create a decent report. Honestly, I find this kind of media hurts our country. Yes, there may be good news once in a while, but it's mostly about Manny Pacquiao and others like him anyway and not really concrete good news.

This is why I'm happy about what cable news outlets like ANC are doing (not plugging). Yes, there may be biased opinions and insights from some of the talking heads, but their reporting is top-notch. They mention only the really relevant news for the day.

Filipinos have a lot to be proud of everyday. How about news of heroism or the blossoming economy? Can't they at least highlight any growing local industries? Stories like these are submerged in the deluge of bad or sensational news that can get the most hits. When you go abroad, try and read their newspapers or watch their news and compare it to ours - notice any difference? Look outside your hotel window and you'll see the big difference good news can bring.