The Google Nexus 7 is made by Asus and comes in a box much smaller than I anticipated. It appears to be difficult for some to open up the box, as shown in unboxing videos online.

The packaging is minimal, but well designed.

You will find a USB cable, charger, and couple of guides in the retail box.

The HTC Flyer is a very well constructed 7 inch tablet, but is clunkier than the sleek new Nexus 7.

The back has a leather feel to it and gives you texture that helps you hold onto it.

The Nexus 7 is made by Asus and their branding is embedded on the lower back.

There is a speaker on the lower back with the microUSB port centered on the bottom.

The power and volume buttons are found on the upper right hand side of the Nexus 7.

The Nexus 7 is thinner than the HTC Flyer and has a more modern design.

I am becoming more and more of a fan of the Nexus idea and now have a tablet and a smartphone from Google.

Similar to the Kindle Fire custom home screen, the Nexus 7 has a home screen with the most recently used applications.

Widgets are not supported on the Nexus 7, but Google does have a couple of their widgets for app discovery.

You can quickly and easily drag and drop application icons onto each other to create folders on the home screen.

Jelly Bean has enhanced notifications that allow you to perform actions right from the shade.

The icons appear rather large in the Play Store on the Nexus 7.

I was very pleased to see that Chrome was loaded as the default browser on the Nexus 7.

Exchange email is supported by Jelly Bean on the Nexus 7.

You can view and enjoy magazines on the Nexus 7.

This shows a sample of a magazine on the Nexus 7.

The Nexus 7 is perfect for enjoying movies on the go.

Flipboard works well on the Nexus 7.

Facebook works fine, but is not really optimized for tablets.

The default Twitter client could use some work to take advantage of the larger tablet displays.

The new Google+ client is provided on the Nexus 7.

Google Earth is an enjoyable application on the Nexus 7.

I recommend you purchase the 16GB Nexus 7 as you will likely quickly fill up the 8GB device.

The settings area has changed in Jelly Bean and there are several accounts you can integrate on the Nexus 7.