Had a few friends who got invites and have one to play with for a month now.
Must say I'm somewhat feeling meh about this on many levels.
Initialy the price was a wake up and I thought, ok I'm missing something so I did a little digging and still think its too expensive for the sum of parts.
Issues I have are:
1) Price
2) Limited local storage
3) Only USB2 and no USB3
4) No 3g or 4G options in the UK and given the price I'd expect at least 3 years worth of unlimited 3G internet based up consumer prices and that spec.
5) battery life, is somewhat lacking
Concerns that may also be worries when I know more are:
1) Keyboard mic could be used to snarf passwords via applications that have access to the mic
2) No vents apparent and suspect hidden under the keyboard which is worrying in case of spill/splash
3) Screen mooted to have good viewing angles so more mindful to shoulder surfing
But in general for what you get it seems way too expensive and look forward to a teardown.
Now all that said Google did somewhat get burned on the Nexus 4 pricing and I don't know if they are over compensating or what. They may be releaseing at a silly price for those with more money to burn, then gradualy lower the price to fit all price pockets.
Another aspect a friend said was it has 1tb for 3 years cloud storage and whilst nice and with that local storage overly needed I do think such lockins to Google without being able to tap alternatives and cheaper alternatives distracting from the price. Remember Microsoft many years ago got lambasted for tieing in everybody to IE on windows as default and not offing a simple-janet-and-john alternative for the happy people. This ties in more than that, but different times.
When I factor all that it is and is not I still think if I had that money I would get a macbook air and I have never had Apple product and very much a google fan, but this is so over priced to me that it would be insane to buy one at that price, least for me.
I would also add that two wifi ipads with retina screens and a bluetooth keyboard works out cheaper and with that, it does somewhat again highlight the price factor.
So with all that I'll stick with my plans to get a Chromebook (cheap one) and probably get one even cheaper 2nd hand now :) that and my netbook with built in 3g modem and twice the battery life is still nothing to worry about.
I would like to see a resolution like this but with more storage, USB3, built in 3g modem (3G in the UK is faster than USA 4G and CDMA 4G with voice is a battery nightmare apparently as well as a kludge somewhat). Also at the very least twice that battery life.
So I will with for a tegra 4 version, which will make more sence on more levels.
Must say I'm somewhat feeling meh about this on many levels.
Initialy the price was a wake up and I thought, ok I'm missing something so I did a little digging and still think its too expensive for the sum of parts.
Issues I have are:
1) Price 2) Limited local storage 3) Only USB2 and no USB3 4) No 3g or 4G options in the UK and given the price I'd expect at least 3 years worth of unlimited 3G internet based up consumer prices and that spec. 5) battery life, is somewhat lacking
Concerns that may also be worries when I know more are:
1) Keyboard mic could be used to snarf passwords via applications that have access to the mic 2) No vents apparent and suspect hidden under the keyboard which is worrying in case of spill/splash 3) Screen mooted to have good viewing angles so more mindful to shoulder surfing
But in general for what you get it seems way too expensive and look forward to a teardown.
Now all that said Google did somewhat get burned on the Nexus 4 pricing and I don't know if they are over compensating or what. They may be releaseing at a silly price for those with more money to burn, then gradualy lower the price to fit all price pockets.
Another aspect a friend said was it has 1tb for 3 years cloud storage and whilst nice and with that local storage overly needed I do think such lockins to Google without being able to tap alternatives and cheaper alternatives distracting from the price. Remember Microsoft many years ago got lambasted for tieing in everybody to IE on windows as default and not offing a simple-janet-and-john alternative for the happy people. This ties in more than that, but different times.
When I factor all that it is and is not I still think if I had that money I would get a macbook air and I have never had Apple product and very much a google fan, but this is so over priced to me that it would be insane to buy one at that price, least for me.
I would also add that two wifi ipads with retina screens and a bluetooth keyboard works out cheaper and with that, it does somewhat again highlight the price factor.
So with all that I'll stick with my plans to get a Chromebook (cheap one) and probably get one even cheaper 2nd hand now :) that and my netbook with built in 3g modem and twice the battery life is still nothing to worry about.
I would like to see a resolution like this but with more storage, USB3, built in 3g modem (3G in the UK is faster than USA 4G and CDMA 4G with voice is a battery nightmare apparently as well as a kludge somewhat). Also at the very least twice that battery life.
So I will with for a tegra 4 version, which will make more sence on more levels.