The Nexus 7 (2013) Review

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• solipsism - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link

  With the Amazon Kindle Fire having the same size display, aspect ratio, running Android (even if it is a more limited version of it), and being at the same $199 price point I wonder why the Kindle Fire isn't compared directly with the Nexus 7.

• jeffkibuule - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link

  Because it's a more limited version of Android, and software really is everything. Unless you are really into Amazon's ecosystem or just absolutely love hacking software onto hardware, the Kindle Fire isn't a device that should be recommended over the Nexus 7 (2013).

• hugh2323 - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link

  Have you even used a Kindle Fire? They are so locked into Amazon they are useless as a general purpose tablet. And hacking them is not easy, if possible at all with newer models.

• BigLan - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link

  I've had the GPS problem on 2 units now - took the first one back which wouldn't last more than 5 minutes without loosing a lock.
  
  I've avoided using the google maps/nav app which seems to have worked. I had one gps drop for the first 2 weeks (after copilot crashed) but after update Maps the other day the issues started up again. I uninstalled the update and disabled Maps and it seems to be working again.
  
  I know this is just an anecdote, but maybe it'll work for someone else.

• BigLan - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link

  I think that's because Anand is one of the few sites that test at a standard brightness. Most of the other reviews will just use a standard % like 50% which on the new N7 is the same as running the 2012 model at 90% brighness.
  
  I haven't seen battery life as long as Anand's numbers though, even using auto brightness which seems like 30-50%, but I do use the gps and play some games which will impact battery life.
  
  It'd be nice to see an idle battery life test as I've seen people complaining about the device losing 10% of the charge daily when unplugged. I know that's be harder (and take much longer) to test, but I've noticed that my adroid devices do drain faster than ios ones do.

• teiglin - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link

  You don't need to remind Anandtech readers why brightness-calibrated battery tests are the only reasonable way to test battery life. Percentage tests crack me up every time I see them.
  
  I'd also be interested in seeing some sort of idle test, but the things that cause battery to drain while in "standby" are very hard to pin down. Fully power-gated current draw is going to be basically zero for any modern SoC, so that's not really at issue--what causes idle drain is things that wake the device, but usage varies so much that you could argue the issue is not testable--most people probably use push email, so how many emails do you get in a day? Some people may only get half a dozen, while others get hundreds or even more. Do you use Google Now and its location-seeking wakes? Do you let your social networking clients check all the time (some default to ridiculous levels like automatically checking every 15 minutes)?
  
  That doesn't even take into account smaller concerns like signal strength and bluetooth devices--my thoroughly unscientific testing puts the former at around a 1%/hr swing on my phone, while the latter can drain nearly 2%/hr despite being in deep sleep the whole time. I consider "good" idle drain on my phone to be under 1%/hr, though realistically I'm usually a bit higher than that.
  
  That's not to say the issue isn't worth investigating--I'd love to see testing using Brian's base station emulator, and a regular interval for waking with fixed workload at each wake--say, wake every 10 minutes, scan wifi/cellular for location, and receive 1MB of data, or something--but the fact remains that individual circumstances are going to be the absolutely dominant factor in any idle scenario.
  
  As a final note to your iOS comparison, iOS obviously has the advantage of tight controls over how apps can wake the device, so most people will have fewer issues with rogue apps causing high idle drain. Combined with the lack of aggressive Google Now location services, it's not hard to see why iOS tends to do better on battery than Android.

• jeffkibuule - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link

  Brian Klug recently stated that an app like Reddit HD, a very popular Reddit client on Android, mindlessly checks for new messages every 15 minutes. That's incredibly wasteful and one of several reasons why Android battery life numbers can easily be all over the place depending on what you have installed.

• teiglin - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link

  Exactly, dumb apps like that are why the plebs think android has bad battery life. It's unhelpful to said plebs to say "it's not Android's fault" since it is, as far as they know/care, but imo, if you have standby time issues but can't/won't use BetterBatteryStats or similar to determine why, then you're probably better off getting an iPhone (or Windows Phone, if that's your cup of tea).

• Impulses - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link

  That's totally accurate and yet a lot of people would take offense at it... Android gives you a bit more freedom, which is great for some, but it's just more rope to hang yourself with for others. I think both OS approaches have plenty of merit in this world.

• sprockkets - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link

  ever going to review the nexus 10?