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.
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jl0329 - Wednesday, October 9, 2013 - link
Your idiocy made my laugh out loud. You are truly clueless, aren't you?bznotins - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
Is this new version polarized? The 2012 Nexus 7 was on the horizontal axis, precluding from me using it in that orientation as a nav device with my (also polarized) sunglasses on. Looks like a great tablet though.OzedStarfish - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
Yes it is, for my unit it is almost entirely blocked when in landscape unfortunately.amdwilliam1985 - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
Good read, this is one of the very few article that actually praises on the new Nexus 7's battery life :)max1001 - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
I was expecting Gold since the review was all praises. lol.ikjadoon - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
If Anandtech compared this to all other 7" Android tablets, it'd be a gold. But, he might be taking the bigger picture: for myself, 7" is just too small, as well.It's portable, though, and for some people, that's more important.
Impulses - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
I'd prefer 8.9"... But until there's a Nexus 8 I'd rather deal with the size than any of the shortcomings on other current tablets.max1001 - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
I think it's better to have both. I have a 7" and a 9". Nexus 7 easily fit in my coat inner pocket and I can bring it with me everywhere. It's also a lot easier to handle on the subway. I can grip it by the side with 1 hand and not worry about dropping it. I user the 9" to watch Netflix and web browse when I am at home.mmarafie - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
I remember the old days when anandtech was the best tech site for reading awesome, detailed, and unbiased reviews. It seems those days are long gone, the more I read the reviews here (especially by Anand) the more I realize the site has become basically an advertising and marketing place for Apple. There are so many tell-tale signs in this review and others where its quite obvious..DukeN - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
Agreed.I automatically ignore Apple/iOS mentions and figure out my own comparisons to the rest.
Anand, perhaps this can be a feature for you.