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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hughlle - Wednesday, July 31, 2013 - link
Agreed, what is the issue. I do not know whether my N10 has dual line in line out for the very reason that I have absolutely no reason to have tested it, the built in microphone is more than sufficient in terms of quality for video calls and such.Hrel - Tuesday, July 30, 2013 - link
Seriously with the no 802.11ac? It's 2013, no wireless devices should be shipped without 802.11ac; that's stupid.Arbie - Tuesday, July 30, 2013 - link
-No micro-SD = no sale. As the author notes, tablets are widely used for watching videos. With SD you can swap media sets in and out infinitely faster than any other way. Like... 16GB in 5 sec. Google and Amazon can continue to pretend that it doesn't matter, but that's obviously idiotic. I'll buy something else, that's designed for ME. The price difference is worth it for a such major feature.
fteoath64 - Tuesday, August 6, 2013 - link
Yeah. No SD no sale for many out there. Look at HTC, almost going OUT OF BUSINESS for omitting such a simple thing. In fact, none is so bold as to provide TWO microSD slots!!!. People looking to MicroSD slots flocking to GS4 by the millions and millions!, Like over 10 million!.darwinosx - Tuesday, August 6, 2013 - link
Good for the few how care. Very few devices have them now and soon none will. Get used to it.netmann - Tuesday, July 30, 2013 - link
Can someone please review Nokia Lumia 1020 since 920 review was skipped!darwinosx - Tuesday, August 6, 2013 - link
Yeah! There's like 3 people who care!!Travis Jackson - Wednesday, July 31, 2013 - link
Very tempting... However, I think I'll wait a few months to see if a "Bay Trail" equivalent turns up - Preferably something with the same resolution (1920x1200), but an 8-inch screen.I would gladly pay extra for Intel inside.
fteoath64 - Tuesday, August 6, 2013 - link
Forget Intel's BS of a chip for any tablets. Their gpus are so slow, you might only be watching videos and not playing cool games you wanted. Sorry, that chip has been left behind unless you are after a Windows RT tablet ?!.! Why would you want that ?.KDOG - Saturday, August 3, 2013 - link
No HDMI?? Why? It seems backwards that the Nexus 10 - with its already easier to view bigger screen has a HDMI out port but the smaller one - that you'd be more likely to want to send out to a bigger screen - doesn't have one. Its not like the hardware wouldn't support it.