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
The lack of a rear camera on the original Nexus 7 was always a bit of a downer. It clearly had the space for a module inside, but including a camera didn’t align with the efforts to drive that device into the price point that made it successful. With the new Nexus 7 we finally get a camera, and a 5 MP one with autofocus at that. Inside the camera is an OV5693 sensor, which best I can tell is a 1/4" format sensor with 1.4 micron pixels. It might not be the world’s best camera, but it’s no slouch either.
I took a handful of photos and videos with the Nexus 7 (2013) to gauge camera quality, and even if this isn’t necessarily a device with focus on imaging it’s not bad at all. I came away pretty pleased for what kind of camera it is. Even though I still strongly believe that you shouldn’t be using a tablet to take photos you intend on using for anything more than sharing on social networks, in this brave new era of mobile devices it’s a feature every tablet and smartphone does need.
I’ll save you the discussion once again about how the Android 4.3 camera UI continues to present a 16:9 aspect ratio crop of the 4:3 image captured by the sensor, which results in a smeary looking, inaccurate preview.
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. I've uploaded a sample I took in SF to our servers as well as YouTube. Again I’m dismayed why more OEMs don’t use the full encode capabilities of APQ8064 (20 Mbps H.264 High Profile) but that’s what it is by default on the new Nexus 7.
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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.