NVIDIA Tegra Note 7 Review
by Brian Klug on November 12, 2013 9:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Mobile
- Tegra 4
- NVIDIA
- Tegra Note
It's hard to conclude the review for the Tegra Note since my thoughts focus mainly on its competition. For a while now, it's been hard to recommend any tablet in the 7-inch class that wasn't the Nexus 7, and the refresh made it even harder to do so. At present, the Tegra Note 7 enters a market that its predecessor arguably defined, but it's much more crowded now. At the high end we have the iPad Mini which just was refreshed with a retina display, in the middle we have the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 with active stylus, and then finally the refreshed Nexus 7 and now the Tegra Note 7.
It's a market where what product makes the most sense ultimately depends on what you want to do with it. If you want a smaller iPad, buy an iPad mini in one of the two flavors it now comes in. If you want an all around great 7-inch tablet, go for the Nexus 7. If you want to take notes or to save a bit more money versus the Nexus 7, the Tegra Note has a strong value prospect with a lower cost stylus solution that works surprisingly well and solves one of my main complaints with the other note-taking devices – fast pen tracking almost devoid of latency. If you absolutely need an active digitizer with hover capabilities, Galaxy Note 8 will do the job.
NVIDIA's Tegra Note 7 undercuts the refreshed Nexus 7 by $30 and comes in at just $199 from partners who will soon be making them available to shoppers. But that $30 savings comes at a price – that dollar amount means you lose the high DPI display, 5 GHz WiFi connectivity, get slower internal storage, and trade some battery life off. What you do get in its stead is what we've touched on – an even faster hardware platform with faster CPU and GPU, reasonably well executed note taking capabilities, and audio that sounds better, even if it isn't necessarily louder. Like anything, which combination of tradeoffs is "better" really is a story of tradeoffs.
This has to be frustrating for NVIDIA, because with Tegra Note 7 it has arguably built the original Nexus 7's spiritual successor, though I couldn't imagine Google ever being happy without a high resolution display. What it has done however is give all of its partners a tablet that they can sell, bundle, and use to differentiate their current lineups. I suspect building NVIDIA's brand in the mobile space and at the same time making the traditional GPU partners happy with a tablet platform they can somewhat call their own is the real success story for Tegra Note.
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ddriver - Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - link
Blame Java for that, it is one of the worst programming languages in terms of memory efficiency. And naturally, the lousy developers... heck, the skHype on my PC right now consumes 102 MB of ram, I'd say any developer who produces a simple messaging app that takes 100 mbs of ram idling should be fired out of a cannon into the sun.Dribble - Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - link
nexus 5, 7 have 2GB, some android tablets now have 3GB.iPad/iPhone handle less ram better but that's because they don't really multi task, and even then they don't have enough - e.g. browsing web have a load of tabs open and it'll keep reloading pages if you switch between them loosing anything you had done in them. I wouldn't buy an iPad with 1GB either.
BallGum - Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - link
I would say wait for the Nexus 10 2013.It has a larger screen, that much we know for sure.
A potential leak occurred a short while ago which I have detailed over at my blog here: http://theballofgum.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/nexus-1...
I hope that information helps,
BallGum
ChanduG - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link
1080P needs 2GB RAM otherwise you won't need 2GB.ESC2000 - Wednesday, December 25, 2013 - link
Agree about the RAM.... really too bad esp RAM is crucial on Android. Course I don't need another tablet anyway bc I bought the nexus 7 2013 in July and got the Dell venue pro 8 in the awesome microsoft sale a few weeks back.lever_age - Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - link
I don't really follow the tablet market. Is there anything with a similar price with similar GPU performance? Seems like it makes a strong case for the price as a gaming device, but do people actually play those 3D games on Android? I mean... touchscreen lag, controls... I don't even want to get started. You can use a controller, but that kills the portability unless maybe we're talking Shield.TraderHorn - Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - link
Your 3d Mark physics score for the Asus T100 appears to be incorrect. I noticed the same thing in the initial review ofthe Asus T100. The number seems to mixed up with the graphics score.kdr9hu5 - Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - link
And I stopped reading after the bit about the display resolution... For $30 just get the Nexus 7.Pirks - Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - link
Tegra Note pwns Nexus 7 in game framerates, and it will pwn even next version of Nexus 7 judging by how poor Nexus 7 GPU showed off in on-screen benchmarks. If you are after gaming tablet, Tegra Note is light years ahead of competition right now.lmcd - Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - link
On-screen means that the T4 was doing 2/3 or less of the work.