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
vailr - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
Won't Amazon be updating their Kindle Fire lineup pretty soon? Although not ideal: the 8.9" Kindle Fire could be improved by addition of an SD card slot, and an easier option of rooting and installing the stock Android 4.3 O.S. (not too likely, I'd guess).Impulses - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
Not too likely at all, on either count.Conficio - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
Anand, have you ever run comparison tests between 200, 300, 400, 500 nits display? It would be nice to get an idea as to what battery life one can expect if the display is used outdoor, where you need the brighter display. Just one or two tablets/phones would be fine to get an idea. The Nexus 7 '13 seems to be a good candidate with its high max brightness.ASEdouardD - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
You can check out Engadget's review for something similar to this. They use brightness fixed at at 65 % (if I remember correctly) which is much higher than 200 nits on the new Nexus 7. If you have to use one test, Anandtech definitely has the best one, but Engadget's one does give you an idea of the impact of cranking up the brightness on the N7. Bottom line, battery life does take a hit, but it's still ok.iamkyle - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
I don't see how this product can be called "the best" especially when Google/Asus has essentially railroaded purchasers of the 2012 Nexus 7. "Oh hey, I know we sold you this tablet, but check this one out! It's the same, but better!".Customer says "then why did you sell me this one in the first place?"
This endless praise of anything with a Google name on it reeks of bias.
turkeystyle - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
For real! Nissan did the same thing to me when I bought an Altima a couple of years back. The next year's model was better but for the same price! And good god, my Galaxy S3 is barely a year old and what does Samsung do? Release the S4! The nerve! And don't even get me started on Nvdia and AMD and how they keep making better graphics cards every year.My buddy did the smart thing and bought an iPhone 5 last year. He's got at least another year before Apple releases an upgrade. So lucky to have the latest and greatest technology for that long!
But yeah, Google is definitely the worst. They just try to hide it by giving away web services.
meloz - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
>Customer says "then why did you sell me this one in the first place?"While we wonder why you _bought_ it in the first place.
Thinly disguised Appletroll, you must do a better job.
ASEdouardD - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
You can't be for real. They didn't offer this product last year because available components and the prices of those components change every year. Prices go down, technology gets better. Google/Asus couldn't have offered a tablet like this at this price last year. Just plain impossible.Davidjan - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
I had Nexus 7 I. I will buy Nexus 7 II. It is really convenient to extend its storage with : http://goo.gl/U6IyYImpulses - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
I ordered two of those... Not sure how much I'll really use it tho, might keep one on my keychain along with my regular USB micro reader and see how often I have the opportunity to use it, but for traveling and transferring loads of content from a PC (i.e. movies) I'd rather use a regular USB OTG adapter and a much faster USB 3.0 drive... It's going into my travel bag until I'm sitting down on a plane/train/hotel either way.