My Nexus 7 tablet has grown on me, though I think it’s more about having a dedicated tablet than the hardware. I’ve never been a big fan of cases for devices, they seem to throw away the lightness of the form factor that we pass extra for, and without any case I can slip the Nexus in my pocket (Dockers most days these days, sadly) when I head out to lunch. That means no kickstand for reading at lunch – usually I read some, then eat some, then repeat, and having to hold the tablet for half an hour is no big deal.

Things were going well until I put the Nexus on my dresser while I changed clothes. It promptly slid off the small stack of clean clothes it was sitting on and smacked hard on the floor. Picked it up, glass thoroughly cracked, but still working. Working except for the touch screen that is, making it useless for anything except continuing to wake up me up each morning with the alarm I had set until the battery ran down.

Local repair cost was in the $150 range, didn’t see anything much cheaper online. I looked at iFixit.com and contemplated a DIY fix,decided that was a coin toss given how my DIY projects often go. That left me with the option of doing without or buying a new one. Now I’m the owner of another Nexus 7. Office Depot offered to sell me a protection plan for $80,I declined (again), and will take my chances (again). The broken one sits on the shelf until the price of repair (or repair parts) declines or I get tired of looking at it and throw it in the trash.

I did bend and put a case on it this time. It’s ok, not great. I don’t want a case, screen protector, etc. I want the device to hold up out of the box. Of course I’d also rather not buy another one due to breakage. I’ll see how the case goes.