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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wrkingclass_hero - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
^adfly linkstexasti89 - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
If they had included a SD slot (likely a dollar or so worth of parts), this tablet would have been the perfect tablet for me.CityBlue - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
"What’s a little awkward is how tall the bevel at top and bottom looks on the Nexus 7"I think you mean bezel, not bevel...
Brian Klug - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
Oops, fixed, thank you!-Brian
techtoll - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
Price is what is the most tempting. Surely going for this whenever available in India.flashbacck - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
people on the androidcentral forums are saying the headphone jack does function as a line-inImpulses - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
This mini war of small HDMI connectors is getting out of hand... Maybe I'm just the only oddball with this particular issue, but right now I have three different devices with three different HDMI output implementations, and the Nexus 7 will be a fourth...My pocket camera uses micro HDMI whereas my M43 mirrorless camera uses mini HDMI. Ok, I can understand that, I can even understated why we'd want a combined USB/HDMI port on phones and even tablets... Didn't MHL already solve that tho? AFAIK HTC & Samsung are still using MHL, now Google's pushing Slimport!
I can charge a phone, a small tablet, an MP3 player, a Bluetooth headset, a small portable speaker, a USB battery pack/back, and even a pocket camera with one micro USB charger/cable... Yet I need four different dongles for HDMI output. One step forward and two steps back I tell ya.
Impulses - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
Looked up Brian's old pipeline port on the Slimport adapter and answered my own question, I'd forgotten Slimport dispenses with MHL's need of powered adapters... I guess that's worth dealing with yet another port, why aren't other manufacturers transitioning to this? Not like MHL ever materialized on TVs (which promised power AND HDMI over a single cable if it came to pass). $30 is kinda steep tho, is no one else offering Slimport adapters still?JNo - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
wireless charging (Qi) ?!?!This will be such an awesome feature in the UK when they never bring out the charging orb, just like they haven't for the Nexus4 almost a year after release!
Well done google! Selling products based on imaginary features!
/angry sarcastic rant over
weiran - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
It's a bit disingenuous to say the Nexus 7 dominated it's form factor, the iPad mini probably sold 3-5x more than the OG Nexus 7.I say probably as we don't know for sure because Google refuses to release sales data, which also makes me believe sales either were under expectations or Google takes a big enough hit on each sale they don't want it public info.