It’s official–I have been living with the Google Nexus 7 for about six weeks now, and I kinda love it.

I’m generally not huge about being on the cutting edge of a product. I’ve been an early adopter several times but, even when I move to a new technology, I rarely do it first thing. I’m happy to let producers shake a few bugs out of a product first. In fact, one need not look any further than the Nexus 7’s rival, the Kindle Fire, for an example. It sold very well early, and then dropped off in a marked lapse of enthusiasm.

My involvement with the Nexus 7 was quite circumstantial. A client offered to send me a loaner when the product came out so I could write a guide for them. They casually mentioned I could take the cost of the device as part of my pay, if I wanted to keep it. Thinking of the Kinde Fire, I hedged and told them I’d write the guide before I decided.

It quickly became clear I would keep the Nexus 7. My eventual ambition is to get an iPad–I like the larger screen, but I did quickly warm to the Nexus 7’s smaller, 7-inch form factor. It fits pretty well into a jacket or coat, my backpack, or even the back pockets of my jeans. I’d recommend you skip the $199 8 GB model and spring the extra $50 for the $249 16 GB. I use the model with 16 GB of storage and, trust me, by the time you add a lot of music and a few videos, you’ll start brushing up against an 8 GB limit pretty quickly.

A big part of my enjoyment of the new operating system, Jelly Bean. I’ve used a few generations of Android now and Jelly Bean strikes me as the most attractive, stable and intuitive version yet. I’ve used the device pretty steadily since I got it and have not had any serious issues with crashes yet.

Don’t misunderstand me, the iPad 3 is definitely the class of the tablet market, from what I’ve seen so far. But the Nexus 7 is a worthwhile challenger. And, if you don’t happen to have $600-$900 to spend on a tablet right now, this $249 model doesn’t feel like a compromise at all.

Nexus 7 Home screen