My Nexus 7 was the ONLY purchase I made last year where I had no buyers remorse. I get remorse about spending ANY money so this is saying a lot. It's fast, I haven't had any crashing issues, very customizable (although you don't have to), sideloading is a snap (for example the xbox smart glass app wasn't initially supported but I sideloaded it on), and you can install the Amazon app store for some healthy competition between app sellers.
The Tegra chipset by Nvidia is awesome as well and the graphics resolution was pretty impressive for a non-retina display (but the iPad mini isn't either so there ya go!).
I can't recommend enough.