The Nexus 7 (2013) Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 22, 2013 6:00 PM ESTWiFi, GPS
I won't spend too much time on either of these points as Brian already did so in his initial review. WiFi duties are handled by Qualcomm's WCN3660 WiFi combo chip. The new Nexus 7 sees an update to include 5GHz 802.11n support, which is a very welcome addition. There's no 802.11ac, understandably for cost reasons. 802.11ac is probably the only thing missing from this otherwise awesome platform.
When it comes to GPS, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that Qualcomm's GNSS implementation remains the fastest we've tested as far as time to lock is concerned. The bad news is there seems to be an issue with the Nexus 7's impementation, likely in software, that results in the tablet randomly losing GPS lock. Update: It looks like this has been fixed!
Note that neither my Nexus 7 nor Brian's have exhibited the instability or consistent reboots that I've seen reports of. I had a single unexpected reboot during my GPS testing but that was it. Brian's sample has been running with over 22 days of constant uptime at this point. I also haven't seen any multitouch issues on my Nexus 7, although touch controllers are sometimes sourced from multiple vendors which could explain some of the issues others are seeing. Update: Looks like this one is fixed too!
Camera
The new Nexus 7 adds a 5MP rear facing camera, something its predecessor didn't have at all. While I rarely use my tablet for taking photos, I will admit the absence of a rear facing camera on the old Nexus 7 caught me off guard. Image quality out of the rear camera is decent. I threw together a gallery comparing the Nexus 7's rear camera to the iPad mini, MeMO Pad HD7 and Galaxy Tab 3 8.0:
In well lit situations and if you're sharing photos at lower resolutions, the Nexus 7's camera isn't bad at all. It's not the best thing in the world but in a pinch it's fine. I also threw in iPhone 5 samples as a reference in the gallery above.
Video on the Nexus 7 (2013) is 1080p30 at 12 Mbps, H.264 Baseline with 1 reference frame, and 96 kbps 48 KHz single channel AAC audio.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
202 Comments
View All Comments
bubblesmoney - Wednesday, September 4, 2013 - link
Learn a bit more about android, quite a bit of what is state is inaccurate. Read all the parts, wanted to leave a comment on the blog but wasnt interested in leaving my email address on your website so didnt bother commenting there. Some simple things you need to know, get rid of the 'anti virus' you dont need it, you can read USB OTG hard drives, wifi drives, dvd players, cameras, wifi camera apps, dslr controller apps, miracast for wireless mirroring (does not need wifi for mirroring, stop comparing to airplay where you need a wifi signal, you dont need an app like you state in the article), nexus media importer can read NTFS hard drives, you can power hard drives with the nexus 7. So read up a bit more about android devices before writing a review as there is so much that is incorrect in the article (all parts) on your website. If you want to see wireless screen mirroring via miracast without using 'apps' or using hard drives etc then just search youtube for such videos or see my youtube channel veryannoyingname where i have uploaded hard drive being powered and read, dvd drive usb otg, etc you can also see some miracast videos so check it out if interested. See the other uploads and numerous playlists to use your android device better. Cheers.jb14 - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
Hi Anand thanks for the great review as always.I have a quick question for anyone here - i'm abit puzzled by the first two graphs on page one, ie the CalMAN display white point & Greyscale graphs. Here the Nexus 7 (2013) seems significantly worse than the original Nexus but there is no mention of this, however when the black levels are slightly worse on the new nexus in comparison this is picked up and explained. Am I missing something here or was the original nexus screen really that good in comparison, or do those two graphs have the nexus results the wrong way round so to speak? Are the differences too small to warrant highlighting? Thanks
darwinosx - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
Not a word about the fact that these are sold at cost.I have bought three of these as gifts but a retina iPad Mini will be a much better device when it arrives next month. 35 to 40% more screen real estate and real tablet apps instead of upsized apps plus three choices of memory sizes and LTE. This screen is too small for me though. Also the buttons are terrible.
sherlockwing - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
For 16:9 content, a 7.9" 4:3 screen only give you 13% more space. In exchange the Mini is almost an inch wider than N7 2013 while having much less bezel, not to mention Mini2 will end up being much more expensive than N7 2013 just like how N7 2012 vastly under priced the original mini.madmilk - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
I don't understand why people criticize the Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 for being sold nearly at cost. Are you really so eager to help Google, Apple, etc. make money? I'd prefer to keep it in my own pocket.BMNify - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
If subsidised hardware kill off the hardware manufacturer's then you will be left with a monopoly that is Google who can charge you more later and make money on Ad's too like they do now. This is the reason why selling at-cost or dumping is not desirable.sherlockwing - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
The sold at cost N7 is competing with the sold below cost Kindle Fire. The console market have the sold below cost Xbox competing with the sold below cost Playstation. Your logic doesn't work out in practice.BMNify - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
I have covered Amazon strategy in the below comments and console market is the perfect example of what will happen if all OS manufacturer's start dumping their hardware in the market. And console market is a much much smaller market where even 2-3 companies are enough but smartphones, tablets and laptops market is a very huge which needs healthy competition and many manufacturers to support all price points, device differentiation and quality.smartypnt4 - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
And? What's your point? How is it a negative that these are sold nearer to cost than Apple's 40%+ margin?Mivo - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
End customers don't care if a device is sold at cost. I don't consider a low price a negative. The retina iPad mini won't be out next month, which is one of the main reasons why I now pre-ordered a N7 (hitting German shelves next week). I waited long enough.