The original Nexus 7 blew the
compact tablet competition
away when it first launched in
2012, so we were very keen to see how
Google would update it. Now it’s here,
we’re delighted to say the 2013 update
takes that superb template and
improves on it in multiple ways.
It might look a bit taller and thinner
than the old model, but the height and
screen size actually haven’t changed;
the reason for the new skinnier look is
that the hardware manufacturer Asus
has slimmed down the side bezels by
6mm, making the new model just
114mm wide.
This has the slightly unfortunate
effect of making the top and bottom
bezels feel even bigger than they did
before – an effect that’s exacerbated by
Android’s black notification and button
bars at the top and bottom of the
screen. Still, you quickly become
accustomed to the long shape, and it’s
hard to complain about getting the
same amount of screen in a slightly
smaller overall package.
The new Nexus 7 is also lighter than
before, down from 340g to 290g – a
palpable 15% reduction in mass over
the previous generation – and thinner,
too, measuring only 8.5mm thick. That
isn’t quite as slim as an iPad mini, but
it’s the thinnest and lightest Android
tablet we’ve seen. Don’t confuse thin
with flimsy, however: there’s very little
flex to the back of it, and with scratchresistant
Corning glass covering the
frontwe’d have no qualms about
tossing this tablet into a bag.
There’s good stuff on the inside, too.
The 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4
Pro is a beast of a processor that really
ups the performance from last year’s
model – and it’s supported by an
unusually generous 2GB of RAM, plus a
fast GPU. This being a Google product, it
comes with the very latest Android 4.3 OS, and those powerful internals
make flicking around the interface a
wonderfully snappy experience.
The full power of the hardware really
shone through in our benchmarks,
where it was anywhere between 30%
and 65% faster than the old Nexus 7.
That performance is evenmore
impressive when you take into account
the number of pixels it’s processing. A
fantastic new 1,200 x 1,920 IPS display
represents the highest resolution we’ve
seen on a compact tablet, delivering a
pixel density way higher than Apple’s
Retina iPads.As you’d expect, this
makes black-on-white text and vector-based appssuch as Maps look
absolutely pristine. Video content and
games look bold and bright, too, helped
by a searing maximum brightness and
very high contrast. Colours on our test
model verged slightly towards the cool
side, but not by enough to suck the
warmth out of the picture. In fact, our
only real problem was that a screen this
sharp tends to exposethe weaknesses
of the countless low-resolution images
you’ll find online.
On top of this,the new Nexus 7 has
a5-megapixel rear-facing autofocus
camera, to partner the fixed-focus
1.2-megapixel camera on thefront.
Images fromthe rear cameraare a little
cold and noisy, but the quality is fine
forsnapshots. You also get support for
Bluetooth 4, “SlimPort” HDMI (although
compatible adaptors aren’t yet widely
available) and Qi wireless charging, plus,
as before, GPS, NFC and the latest
dual-band 802.11nWi-Fi.
With all this great hardware stuffed
into such a slim case, you might expect
the power consumption to be a weak
point. The 3,950mAhrating of the
internal batteryis indeed below
average, yet impressively the device
lasted 11hrs 48mins in ourstandard
battery tests.That’s 1hr 10mins short of
theAsus Fonepad, but well ahead of
most other compacts; for comparison,
theoriginal 2012 Nexus 7 managed only
8hrs 48mins.
If you really want to find niggles with
the Nexus 7, you can. For a start, there’ s
no microSD card slot to expand on the
base 16GB of storage should the need
arise. The speakers aren’t very loud, and
their low-end responseis distinctly
lacking. The power and volume buttons
at the right-hand side are set almost
flush with the case, making them
awkward to press.
Plus, although theoriginal Nexus 7
seemed like incredible value at the time
of itsrelease, this new modelmust be
evaluated against some verycheap
additions to the compact tablet line-up.
What you get for that Nexus
premium, however,is a superlative
piece of hardware. Put simply, it’s the
fastest, lightest, thinnest and narrowest
compact Android tablet available, with
thecrispest Full HD screen as well. And,
because it’s a Nexus, you know the
Android OS will be well supported for
the foreseeable future and won’t get
bogged down by any third-party
“enhancements” .
If you just want a cheap and capable
tablet, thereare perfectly usable
alternatives out there. But if you’re
in themarket forsomethingmore
elegant,more capable andmore
future-proof, for only a littlemore
money, the 2013 Google Nexus7ismore
or less irresistible.
