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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darkich - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
*notebookcheckHere:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Notebook-Laptop-Revie...
RyuDeshi - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
Oh man, the Verge's review was a mess, and the video review was even worse.ScruffyNerfherder - Tuesday, July 30, 2013 - link
Heh, yeah, TheVerge is less of a tech site than it is a hipster site that covers tech and gadgets because it is now in vogue. But I don't think most of its readers and readers if other tech-porn sites know any better and mass confusion and lack of tech understanding ensues. I appreciate Anandtech's thoroughness even if it means I have to wait a few days longer to read about it.darwinosx - Tuesday, August 6, 2013 - link
Verge reviews are of pretty uneven quality and the Nexus 7 reviews was just odd.speculatrix - Thursday, August 8, 2013 - link
Indeed. I trust anandtech.com to give accurate information, honest and fair opinions.Also, I trust anandtech to correct errors and respond to comments.
I wouldn't buy a gadget without checking if anandtech had a review or were likely to do one.
fteoath64 - Tuesday, August 6, 2013 - link
The SoC is mis-labelled apparently to not offend handset customers (possibly for the lower prices that Google negotiated). These are Krait 300 cores clocked at 1.5Ghz while the S600 is exactly the SAME cores running at 1.7Ghz. I would say minor speed dip but gpu is quad Adreno 320 which are pretty fast units with OpenGL ES 3.0 support. Great deal on the whole package plus a superb screen!. Shame the bezel on top and bottom are so thick.relativityboy - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
Google will be 'doing right' when they stop creating devices with a super-limited lifespan.No removable memory? Going to be out of space in just a couple years.
No replaceable battery? 300 or so recharges - call it 2 years until your device lasts for about 1hour not tethered to a usb plug.
Google is making stuff that even in the short term, harms the environment far more than better competitors.
Until batteries and memory are user-replaceable, google products are loosers right out the gate.
aNYthing24 - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
This is ridiculous. How many tablets do know that have replaceable memory and replaceable batteries?fokka - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
it's not about how many tablets you know that do these things. sure, making the battery replacable on a tablet may not be the most important thing and an engineering challange, but not putting a simple thing like an microsd-reader in it is just a no go in my opinion.Impulses - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
On a phone it's debatable IMO, on a tablet it's nowhere near as egregious an omission IMO... USB OTG works well enough and it's more flexible than a microSD slot in some cases anyway.