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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RYF - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
It is always important to benchmark and compare against the best-selling 7 inch tablets. What is the point of comparing N7 against the half-hearted efforts shown in the recent Galaxy Tabs?I am not a fan of iOS. But I have to state that iOS is still, by far, the easiest mobile OS to be used by the majority.
Impulses - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
It's not even about that, I appreciate the comparison too despite wanting nothing to do with any iOS device... Apple is still a premium hardware company so the comparisons ate entirely relevant. The day their devices aren't built up to snuff or their market share falls as far as Mac share has at times then the comparisons become irrelevant.Impulses - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
Besides, Anand can mention Apple every other paragraph and the general comparison is still more unbiased (not to mention the review more in depth) than the vast majority of sites can manage...ESC2000 - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - link
I don't think the person complaining about Apple bias in this article is referring to the fact that the benchmarks included ipads. I think they are referring to the comments like (I'm paraphrasing) 'the new nexus is a downright Apple way to rev a product' as well as the constant comments about how aluminum is premium.People want to hear comparisons to the competition in reviews but it doesn't make sense for the review to be touting another product. No more backhanded compliments please ('a downright Apple way. ..').
lmcd - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
I came out of this review with "there's no way in hell to buy an iPad Mini right now and feel good about yourself."So, link me to what you just read please?
sweenish - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
Same.This review in no way made me think that an Apple tablet was more deserving of my money.
jeffkibuule - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
Considering Apple's tablets are 9 months old at this point, is there any different conclusion a reasonable person should make other than wait?ESC2000 - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - link
I didn't wait. Whatever Apple releases I know it will cost more and probably have less than the nexus 7 2013... or maybe it will be equivalent to the nexus and cost 2x as much and charge $100 for each 16 GB increase in storage ($40 for 16 GB increase on the nexus) not to mention $150 extra for cellular.Seriously what is there to wait for?
smartypnt4 - Thursday, August 22, 2013 - link
Obvious troll is obvious.Diorarat - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
No offence but I'm not catching on what you mean by biased. Well what can you compare the N7 with the other than the iPad. You have to compare it with something and the iPad is definitely the best comparison. There are great android tablets in the market but I don't think they're as familiar to the consumers as the iPad. Besides, I think Anand is being fair to praise hardware that is excellent whether apple or android.