Hey Google, Your Nexus 7 Marketing Images Look Like Crap

No one understands why President Obama didn’t hammer Governor Romney on his 47% secret video comments during the first presidential debate. In hindsight, a mistake. Like President Obama, Google is throwing away its best ammunition against the iPad mini – pixel density – by publishing marketing materials that make the Nexus 7 look like a turd.

I’ve been perusing the iPad mini reviews and am thinking about getting one. A big negative that most people are focusing on is the screen resolution, which is just 1024-by-768 at 163 pixels per inch (ppi). The iPad 3 by comparison is 264 ppi.

“Ew, the screen is terrible” writes John Gruber (quoting someone else)

“The iPad Mini costs too much, especially considering the lower resolution of its 7.9-inch non-Retina Display” says CNET.

So 163 ppi isn’t all that bad, if we’re willing to live in 2010.

Anyhow, I read that the Nexus 7, Google’s competing tablet, has similarly sized 1280×800 display but far more pixel density at 216 ppi. The Nexus 7 is also just $200 to the Ipad mini’s $329 (for 16 GB).

So I’m thinking, maybe I’ll buy a Nexus 7. I haven’t been testing any Google hardware lately, since I moved to the iPhone last year.

As I’m perusing the Google Nexus 7 site with screen quality on my mind I notice something. All the screen images on the device are absolute crap.

Normally we all expect a little let’s say optimism in marketing materials for fast food and consumer electronics. But Google seems to be going the other way, showing a device putting out screen resolutions far below what they actually look like in person.

A few examples:

Here are a few from Apple’s iPad mini site:

Based solely on those images, which one of these devices do you want in your hands?

All of the above images were screen captured and then I played with the size with Skitch for this post. That distorts them somewhat, but you can go to the links above and see for yourself.

My biggest complaint with Android devices in the past was fit and finish. Apple nails it, Google doesn’t.

And even when Google has something to really show off, they fail to do it. Somebody in marketing needs to brush up on their Photoshop skills, pronto. Pixelated and blurry images (and boring ones, too) don’t make me want to buy a Nexus 7. I know the device has a way better screen than Google is showing me, but these things matter. Inattention to detail destroys products.