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Saturday, July 26, 2014
Google announces a quad-core, 1080p Nexus 7
A sharper display, wireless charging, quad-core processor, and
rear-facing camera: Google’s 2013 edition of the Nexus 7 proves you can
get plenty of bang for your buck, even though its latest entry in the
budget tablet market now exceeds that magical $199 price point.
But what’s an extra $30 between friends? Google’s new cost-of-entry
isn’t so much a price increase as an acknowledgement of success: You
loved us at $199. You really loved us. So take our hand, and let us
show you what we can really deliver for just a few dollars more.
Android fans have been waiting months for a hardware update from Team Google. The company’s I/O event in May
was conspicuously lacking in tablet or phone reveals, but on Wednesday,
Google finally pulled the curtain on the latest iteration of its
flagship Nexus hardware. Though the Nexus 7 tablet bears the same name
as its predecessor, its new look and long list of feature
updates—including the much-anticipated Android 4.3—give it the aura of an entirely new gadget.
The only similarity between 2012’s Nexus 7 and this year’s model is its
7-inch diagonal screen size. Indeed, the two tablets are so different,
they really should have different names. Google’s new tablet is thinner
and sleeker—Hugo Barra, vice president of Android product management at
Google, explained that the side bezels were reduced by 3mm on each side
so that the device would be easier to hold with one hand. Shaving off
that 6mm provides a “much more comfortable grip,” Barra said at the
event.
Google also stuck with a pure black-on-black design with the same soft
touch that Barra says “everyone loved in the original Nexus 7.”
Today’s announcements also pushed forth a new processor architecture for
the Nexus 7. Rather than stick with Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 chip,
the Asus-built device now features a Qualcomm 1.5GHz quad-core
Snapdragon S4 Pro processor. It’s the same chip featured inside the Nexus 4 handset announced late last year, though according to Android Police,
initial Nexus 7 performance benchmarks show the processor performing
just a bit better inside the tablet. This particular chip should help
increase battery life, as well as speed up software multitasking. The
tablet’s RAM has also been increased from 1GB to 2GB to help support
processing power.
Photo-frantic users will appreciate that the new Nexus 7 adds a
5-megapixel rear-facing camera to the mix, complementing the
front-facing 1.2 megapixel camera that was available in the original
model. There’s also a Slim Port on the back of the device that enables
you to pipe 1080p video to your TV with an HDMI cable.
The new Nexus 7 will also be the first device to feature the 4.3 version
of Android. The new OS version is still called Jelly Bean, and is
merely an incremental update with the inclusion of features like
restricted profiles for individual user accounts and Bluetooth LE
support, a standard that makes Bluetooth connections more
energy-efficient and thus less taxing on battery life. You’ll also be
able to take advantage of the new graphics capabilities—lens flare
effects, richer texture and more—made possible by support for OpenGL ES
3.0.
The Nexus 7’s new 1080p display is also a huge improvement over the last
generation. With a resolution of 1920 by 1200, and a pixel density of
323 pixels per inch, display sharpness is a big leap forward relative to
last year’s 216 ppi, 1280 by 800 display resolution. Applications,
pictures, games, and movies will appear clearer and brighter, making the
Nexus 7 a true contender among other entertainment-focused tablets like
the iPad mini.
And to help add to that experience, the new Nexus 7 will feature dual
speakers on each side of the device. Google teamed up with Fraunhofer, a
German engineering firm, to integrate virtual surround sound for the
onboard speakers and any connected headphones. Barra compared this new
features to a “5.1 surround sound system… just using the device speakers
or any pair of headphones.”
Other hardware perks include the ability to wireless charge the device
with an Qi-standardized wireless charger, a feature that is only
available on a limited variety of Android devices. You’ll be able to
simply plop down the device on a compatible charging base and have it
refuel overnight. The Nexus 7 will also have NFC capabilities, and
unlike its predecessor, Google and Asus will only offer a 16GB and 32GB
variant of the Android tablet, priced at $229 and $269, respectively.
You can also pick up a 32GB LTE version for $349. Last year's Nexus 7 is
now listed as "no longer available" in the Google Play store.
It looks like Google is finally starting to take Android tablets more seriously. I took Google's second-generation Nexus 7
out for a spin and found it to be superior to its predecessor in nearly
every way: The tablet has a better screen, better guts, and better
software than the Nexus 7
that shipped last year. The only thing it doesn't do better than the
original Nexus 7 is coddle your wallet. This new model costs $30 more
(starting at $229 for a 16GB Wi-Fi model) but that extra $30 buys you a
much better overall Android tablet experience.
First generation Nexus 7 (left) with the new Nexus 7 (right).
The second-generation Nexus 7 is both thinner and lighter than the
original, making it even more comfortable to use and to hold one-handed.
The material on the back of the device isn't as easy to grip as what's
covering the original Nexus 7, and it felt like the new tablet was going
to slip right out of my hands if I relaxed my grip too much. It feels
solid and well-built, and didn't creak and groan when I tried to twist
and bend it. The drop test will have to wait a bit; we don't want to
risk breaking this thing right after taking it out of the box.
The bottom bezel on the new Nexus 7 is thicker than it was on the old one.
The top and bottom bezels surrounding the screen are thicker than they
were on the first Nexus 7, but the bezels on the sides have been slimmed
down some to make up for it. While the original Nexus 7 had the
front-facing camera sitting squarely in the top-middle of the device
when you held it in portrait mode, it is offset slightly on the new
model, so you don't cover it up as often when video-chatting with the
tablet in landscape mode. The power button, volume controls , and
charging ports are all in the same locations as before, but the
headphone jack now sits on the top right of the tablet instead of at the
bottom.
The new Nexus 7 has a 5-megapixel camera and an extra speaker at the top of the tablet.
On the back of this new Nexus 7 you'll find dual speakers with virtual
surround-sound (one at the top of the device, and one at the bottom), as
well as a 5-megapixel camera. The speakers on the new Nexus 7 sounded
crisp and clear in my limited tests, but I was underwhelmed with the
camera's image quality. It seems like it'll work great in a pinch in
areas where you have good lighting, but my quick test shots taken
indoors came out grainy and had a bluish cast to them. This new Nexus 7
has a sharper display (1920 by 1200) than the original (1280 by 800),
making it great for reading ebooks or watching HD movies.
The new Nexus 7 (right) has a higher resolution display than the old Nexus 7 (left).
Google ditched the NVIDIA Tegra 3 that was in last year's model and opted to instead go with Qualcomm's quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro
processor to power its new tablet. Games didn't seem to take as long to
load on the new Nexus 7 as they did on the old one, and the tablet felt
very responsive as I played a few minutes of Riptide GP2.
The second-generation Nexus 7 will be the first device to ship running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.
It doesn't feel much different from Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, but you
now you have the option to create restricted accounts that have limited
access to apps and content—perfect if you have a kid who likes to steal
your tablet to play Kingdom Rush
and you don't want them messing with your other apps. I did encounter a
few bugs while poking around the OS: The email app randomly crashed
even though I never opened it, and the tablet lagged a bit when I tried
creating a second user account.
Overall, it looks like Google has got itself a winner. The new hardware
might not be enough to make owners of the previous Nexus 7 want to
update, but the low price will definitely sway a number of first-time
tablet buyers into picking one up. Google still needs to beef up its
efforts when it comes to getting more tablet-optimized apps onto the
Play Store, but for now, I'm just happy that the company hasn't
abandoned the idea of running Android on something other than smartphones.
Hey, remember just the other day when Google told us that its new Nexus 7 tablet
would go on sale July 30? Good times, good times. Well, Google
apparently uses a different calendar from the rest of us because over at
the Googleplex, “July 30” means “right now.”
The Nexus 7 still ships by July 30 when you order through Google Play.
Shipping is free, if you go with the default three-to-five day ground
option, but you can pay an extra $14 to get the tablet in your hands
sooner. Only Wi-Fi-enabled models appear to be available from Google
Play at this time.
As you can review in our hands-on with the Nexus 7,
the latest version of Google’s tablet costs $30 more than its
predecessor. But it’s also thinner and lighter, runs on a Qualcomm
1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, and boosts the camera. It
also happens to be the first device to run Android 4.3.