The Nexus 7 is the first Android device with Google's Android 4.1 (Jellybean) straight out of the box. Jellybean isn't a revolutionary new operating system, but more of a refinement of the previous one (Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich).

Android's notoriously laggy system animations and clunky user interface is quicker and cleaner. It's not as good as iOS or Windows Phone 7, but the trade off is a much greater level of customisation and a new notification system which gives a deeper level of information on updates.

With a 1 GB of RAM and a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset, the Nexus 7 packs firepower comparable to high end Android tablets and the iPad.

Running a dozen or so of my essential apps (not at the same time) I didn't encounter a single force close error. Even when I did tackle multitasking, I found the system ran as smoothly as it did with a single app going.

Searching through online forums I found out there are some apps not supported by the Nexus 7. The CNN News app is a prominent example which just refused to work for this reporter. This is probably a temporary issue until developers start pushing out updates for Jellybean, but it would pay to look online to see if your essential apps are all supported before purchasing this tablet.