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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charleski - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
Great review Brian. I'm just interested to know where you got the info on the APQ8064–1AA having Krait 300 cores. Searching for that part no just turns up references to your tweet and this article.Brian Klug - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
There's no public disclosure I can link you to about it, however internal documentation and confirmation I got from PR acknowledge that APQ8064-1-AA (or APQ8064-1AA as I wrote it for simplicity reasons) is 4xKrait 300 at 1.5 GHz with DDR3L support.-Brian
karasaj - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
So my local best buys were selling them early and I picked one up last night :D I haven't played with it much but this mini review makes me extremely glad that I did!MarcVenice - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
Great review. I don't see how some reviewers don't think this isn't an epic tablet. I mean, it's beating the iPad Mini on all fronts, and it will probably be equal to the new iPad Mini, except for build quality, but the new iPad Mini will cost an arm and a leg compared to the Nexus 7 (2013).Compared to most other 7" android tablets, it's simply a steal? I'm not sure if I want to upgrade from my current Nexus 7, but if I didn't have one yet, I definitely would.
kascollet - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
This new Nexus is great, for sure, but honestly, I don't see myself replacing my ipad Mini with it for one unique reason : the size of the screen. Even if the low ppi screen of the Mini is not that great, it's still way larger (30 square inches vs 22) and as I mainly use it to browse the web, it's a no brainer. I guess many customers feel the same when they see both devices side by side. Then there is the ecosystem, again immensely better on every iPad.I seriously hope Apple upgrades the Mini with modern and powerful components like Google just did with the Nexus, but whatever pieces they choose, any iPad with this 4:3 ratio screen is better to me than a 16:10 below 9" Android slate.
MarcVenice - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
Hmm yeah got me there, screen real estate is bigger on the mini, but I find that I mostly use the tablet for reading or watching shows/movies, and then it's not a problem at all, in fact it's a plus since with 4:3 you get the black bars.As for eco-system, well, since I mostly read / watch shows, I'm not to bothered. But it should also be picking up, with ipad sales slowing down, and android-tablets grabbing a larger marketpercentage, should mean more devs making android tablet-apps. Of course the fact that there's so many resolutions out there will make it harder (and slower going).
doobydoo - Thursday, August 1, 2013 - link
The Nexus loses out on just about every single on screen GPU benchmark. Yes, I know this is partly because it has to push more pixels but it DOES have to push more pixels so real world FPS is much slower on this Nexus 7 - even though it's 9 months newer.I have no idea why you think it wins in every category, and it also has a smaller screen despite being larger in terms of volume, and we've yet to compare battery life.
nerd1 - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
I don't think 7.9" 1024*768 screen is any better than 7.1" 1920*1200 screen to browse the web.kascollet - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
To each his own of course, by size matters very much to me.The iPad Mini is not much bigger than the N7, but the screen is.
http://goodereader.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/uploads/i...
guidryp - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
I definitely prefer the iPad Mini screen size/aspect.But owning neither today, there is no way I could consider buying a Mini, with the new Nexus 7 on the market, that is pretty much better in every other way.
If Mini Retina fails to show up this Fall, I see Apple losing a lot more tablet market share.