Nexus 7 (2013) - Mini Review
by Brian Klug on July 27, 2013 12:54 AM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Snapdragon
- Qualcomm
- Android
- Mobile
- APQ8064
- Nexus 7
- Android 4.3
The lack of a rear camera on the original Nexus 7 was always a bit of a downer. It clearly had the space for a module inside, but including a camera didn’t align with the efforts to drive that device into the price point that made it successful. With the new Nexus 7 we finally get a camera, and a 5 MP one with autofocus at that. Inside the camera is an OV5693 sensor, which best I can tell is a 1/4" format sensor with 1.4 micron pixels. It might not be the world’s best camera, but it’s no slouch either.
I took a handful of photos and videos with the Nexus 7 (2013) to gauge camera quality, and even if this isn’t necessarily a device with focus on imaging it’s not bad at all. I came away pretty pleased for what kind of camera it is. Even though I still strongly believe that you shouldn’t be using a tablet to take photos you intend on using for anything more than sharing on social networks, in this brave new era of mobile devices it’s a feature every tablet and smartphone does need.
I’ll save you the discussion once again about how the Android 4.3 camera UI continues to present a 16:9 aspect ratio crop of the 4:3 image captured by the sensor, which results in a smeary looking, inaccurate preview.
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. I've uploaded a sample I took in SF to our servers as well as YouTube. Again I’m dismayed why more OEMs don’t use the full encode capabilities of APQ8064 (20 Mbps H.264 High Profile) but that’s what it is by default on the new Nexus 7.
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psyside1 - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
Did you even read the article from the link? also Brian already confirmed that 32GB will be faster.Death666Angel - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
Well, he didn't reply to an eMMC based comment, the comment he replied to specifically talks about SSDs. No idea why you bring HDDs into this either, you are replying to nothing I said.Death666Angel - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
Your comment was in reply to SSDs (and USB drives), not eMMC controllers, so I maintain that you are incorrect in this paragraph:"They might, but I doubt it has anything to do with the size, and more with the manufacturer's "strategy" of making higher store that is more expensive, also have higher speed."
phillyry - Tuesday, July 30, 2013 - link
His initial question was about the 32GB model vs. the 16GB one, so it was about eMMC.His source, written by Anand about last year's Nexus 7s, supports that his question is valid.
So, Brian, do we get the details on any noted differences in I/O performance between the two models?
phillyry - Wednesday, July 31, 2013 - link
Anand replied to my tweet clarifying that he has a 16GB to review but that he can't of confirm that there will not be multiple controllers, which could affect storage speed:@phillyry @nerdtalker yep I've got a 16GB model here, I don't know how many places ASUS sources eMMC from though. That could matter as well
phillyry - Wednesday, July 31, 2013 - link
My question was:@nerdtalker @anandshimpi are we going to get the I/O performance numbers for both #Nexus7 models in the full #anandtech review?
lightsout565 - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
At least with SSD's, larger models benefit from increase write speeds. I'm not sure if you'd notice a difference in 16 vs 32GB models though. I'll wait till a more informed person responds hahaEgg - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
Brian Klug said on twitter that he was sampled the 32 GB version.With regards to performance, https://twitter.com/nerdtalker/status/361201767733...
More flash is faster. Please do your research before making bogus claims.
eio - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
waiting for a storage performance comparison between 16G/32G models...will AnandTech be the first to do this?psyside1 - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
Me to bro, i already suggest this :)