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Gear Reviews

Gear Review: Google Nexus 7 Mini Tablet

Personalize your maps on the go with the beginner-friendly Google Nexus 7.

[beginner bargain]

Simple. Speedy. Tough. That’s our take after trail time with this 7-inch HD tablet. The operating system features two hiker-friendly features, voice-to-text and Gesture typing, that make for efficient on-the-go waypoint marking and information searching. Backcountry durability scored high marks: the Corning Glass screen survived drops and scrapes, and on short wilderness jaunts, our testers eked out three days of use (GPS enabled, in airplane mode).

With Android Beam, you can tap your tablet against another NFC (near field communication) device to swap pics and videos. One caveat: a single forward-facing (screen side) camera means landscape shots require creative framing. Bonus: price. $199/16GB (Wi-Fi), $249/32GB (Wi-Fi), $299/32G (Wi-Fi+4G); 11.8 oz.; google.com/nexus/7

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