Google and Asus scored a huge win the the tech space last year with the launch of the Nexus 7. With its small and neat form factor, stock Android OS seven-inch screen, nice specs and - crucially - exceptionally low price, it was one of the first Android tablets to truly spark a light in the iPad-dominated market.

Unfortunately, reports are starting to emerge that the tablet might be experiencing growing pains - or, possibly, a premature death.

According to Dustin Earley at Android and Me, in a blog post widely cited in the tech media on Wednesday, the Nexus 7 is showing severe drop-offs in performance.

"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance," Earley writes.

"I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps."

And he's not alone. Beneath the piece dozens of Nexus 7 users say they have also experienced issues, while Google's own forums hold similarly dispiriting tales.

"I have all the same exact issues. Horrific lag when doing anything in the browser, any simple multi-tasking, and at least one crash/reboot per hour," said one user, Kunal Patel.

Not all users said they had experienced problems however, with some saying the tablet worked as well as the day they got it.

Apple Insider (arguably not an unbiased source...) suggests that the issue might be down to cheap SSD memory. One Android app developer said it related to a well-known bug in Samsung's "flash controller firmware".

We wouldn't hold off on purchasing a Nexus 7 based on these reports alone - the tablet is still an excellent device for the price.