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
One of the biggest complaints I had about the original Nexus 7 was connectivity, as it only included 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n support. The hilarity of that situation was only compounded by the fact that Google could only demo the Nexus 7 at that Google I/O plugged in through USB-OTG Ethernet adapters because 2.4 GHz is effectively impossible to use at conferences. With the new Nexus 7, dual band (2.4 and 5 GHz) WLAN is now included with a WCN3660, Qualcomm’s companion WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n, BT 4.0, and FM Tx/Rx combo (though FM features aren’t enabled on the Nexus 7 2013).
Performance is correspondingly improved, and if you’re in an urban area where 2.4 GHz is congested beyond use, this makes the difference between an unusable brick and working tablet. Many have asked, why not WCN3680 (the 802.11ac enabled successor to 3660), the answer is of course, you’re talking about a ~$200 tablet, stuff like this understandably has to be n–1 without making the bill of materials untenable.
There’s also GNSS (GPS+GLONASS) on the WiFi only model which I tested, this goes through WCN3660 and into the baseband on APQ8064 in this configuration I believe. I’ve had nothing but great success with Qualcomm’s GNSS being the fastest out there to 3D cold fix, that holds true with the Nexus 7 (2013), even walking around the urban canyon scenario that San Francisco poses to GNSS.
Charging
The Nexus 7 (2013) is Qi (pronounced: “chee”) enabled, the de-facto wireless charging standard of the now. The Qi charger area is dead center in the middle, using a coil inside of the NFC one. That makes positioning easy.
I tossed the Nexus 7 on my Energizer Qi two-position mat when I got home, and it works perfectly, of course Qi can only charge at up to 5 watts. The in-box supplied charger is a 1.35 A variant, which isn’t anything special. Connected to my special linear power supply and battery charge downstream port controller which negotiates the proper standard, I saw the Nexus 7 (2013) draw a max of 1.32 A (6.6 watts), which makes sense given the supplied charger. I don’t have a 0–100 percent charge time number yet.
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thesavvymage - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
Any word on if this supports usb otg out of the box?rhx123 - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
Yes I too would love to know if even USB OTG Keyboard/Mouse works.Bob Todd - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
I'll third this request. I assume it is, but Brian can you confirm if USB OTG is working properly? I've actually ended up preferring USB OTG to a micro sd card for my most common use case for oodles of storage (obviously having both would be best). It's more convenient for me to quickly slap a bunch of HD movies onto a fast 64GB USB 3.0 flash drive before a long flight than it is to screw around with painfully slow microSDXC cards. I get 60MB/s on the flash drive writes vs. < 15MB/s on a 64GB microSDXC card (that's actually performing above spec). The write speeds are just way too slow on the micro cards to make transferring copious amounts of data an enjoyable task. The flash drives are cheaper as well. And if I need more space I can just use a cheap 1TB 2.5" external (Timur has kernels for powered USB OTG for the original Nexus 7 so battery life isn't an issue).Brian Klug - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
I always forget to test, I will do so.I should mention that I brought USB-OTG up with some Googlers, they said this is not a priority at present, but it's on their long laundry list of things. I'm not sure what that means, but it backs up my impressions that again, it just isn't a focus and has inconsistent support.
-Brian
Bob Todd - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
Awesome, thanks Brian! And I'll just add to the chorus (and something I've mentioned before) that I'm really happy with the "mini" reviews. I know the big ones take a lot of time to put together, but the smaller reviews here are still 10x more insightful than you'll get from any gadget blog. So much so in fact that these are useful for real purchasing decisions. I originally thought I'd upgrade my old N7 to this, then decided I'd just wait for a Silvermont (or possibly Temash) Windows 8.1 tablet, and after reading this I'm probably back to upgrading if USB OTG works. The inclusion of Krait 300 cores is a nice bonus even if we're only talking about a ~15% IPC improvement.Impulses - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
I'd like to know as well, it isn't crucial for me but it'd make it a whole lot more pleasant to use... 60MB/s? I've seen USB 3.0 flash drives that can easily do triple and quadruple that for sequential transfers. USB OTG for me satisfies every possible usage case I'd have for a card slot, and more. I'm hoping it works with that importer app at least, like the original Nexus... It should, unless there's some glaring hardware omission like with the Nexus 4.Bob Todd - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
Yup, there are definitely much faster flash drives. But the ones I'm talking about in the ~60MB/s range are cheap (regularly on sale for ~$0.57/GB). You can get over 2X the performance, but it's over 2X the cost. There's obviously a big form factor advantage for the flash drive, but once you start talking about ~$90 for a very fast 64GB flash drive I'd personally rather just buy a 128GB SSD/enclosure that is much faster still. I actually bought a 256GB Agility 4 to use as a "big ass fast flash drive". I still think it was a good idea for my use cases, too bad that drive was absolutely unreliable trash and it needs its third RMA.aylak - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
Thank you for the review. I'm not sure it was mentioned and I missed it but does it have haptic feedback?_jsw_ - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
No, it does not. No vibrating motor at all.fatso485 - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
I fail to see why this is a mini review. Its better and a lot more detailed than the other "big tech blogs" reviewsKeep doing what you are doing anandtech