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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Impulses - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
As the happy owner of an OG Transformer, I'm looking forward to upgrading to the new Nexus 7 (I've come to realize I prefer a smaller tablet for my uses), the TF will probably go to my father. Happy to support ASUS either way as I'm generally happy with their entire Android tablet strategy.Affectionate-Bed-980 - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
As much as I love quick reviews, please make sure that you follow up on your promises for a full review... soon. Where's that GS4 review Part 2 for example?FergusMackenzie - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
This look like an excellent tablet with one exception. 16:10 is a horrible aspect ratio on a tablet. Why does no major android manufacturer make a tablet with 4:3 aspect ratio?Broo2 - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
Most tablets are going 16:9 as that fits the 1920x1080 HD video standard and vendors probably get many complains from users watching HD 16:9 movies with black bars and the static sized Magazines/Comics/PDFs are a secondary concern.16:10 is not perfect for magazines/comics/PDFs, but it is better than 16:9; I have only seen the new Nexus 7 and the B&N Nook HD+ with this aspect ratio. The only 4:3s are the iPad and eInk eBook readers... :(
guidryp - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
Most Android tablets are 16:10, not 16:9.B&N Nook HD+ is not 16:10. It is 3:2. Which is a pretty good compromise. We need more like that.
Bob Todd - Monday, July 29, 2013 - link
Unless it was something odd with Cyanogenmod 10.1.2 on the Nook HD+, I'd have concerns about 3:2 in general. I always like the extra pixels, but I think that aspect ratio was rare enough that it tripped up a fair number of games that weren't tested properly on 3:2 (but worked fine on 16:9/16:10).charleski - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
In terms of rendering the varying aspect rations of books, comics and magazines 3:2 is probably the best compromise, but 16:10 isn't far off. 4:3 and 16:9 are both much worse.guidryp - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
It's irrelevant for regular novels which are just text, so you can read them on any ratio.Comics and Magazines would be good on 3:2, if your screen is big enough to show the whole page at once, which I would argue 7" isn't. If it isn't then matching ratios hardly matter. If you are going to be panning and zooming, I would definitely prefer 4:3 over 16:9/16:10.
Impulses - Sunday, July 28, 2013 - link
I like 16:10 in portrait a lot for web browsing and email, which is like 80% of my tablet use. Not sure why you'd prefer anything else for that or for media... 16:9 is noticeably narrower, grab any Win 8 tablet and see.Yofa - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
the original nexus 7 had a 1.2mp front-facing camera. that point is omitted from the comparison chart.