Asus Nexus 7(Released July 2013)

Introduction

A year after the original took the tablet market by storm, the second generation ASUS Nexus 7 has arrived to take part in an altogether different ballgame. With the first generation of the compact slate having established the Nexus 7 brand as the most popular Android tablet available on the market, it is up to the newcomer to elevate it even further and sway potential users away from the Apple iPad Mini and Amazon's Kindle HD.

    

ASUS Nexus 7 (2013) official photos

At a first glance, the new ASUS Nexus 7 appears to be everything a tablet sequel is supposed to be. It is thinner, lighter, more powerful, and better put together. And naturally, in a fashion befitting the release of a new Nexus device, the compact tablet sequel comes with a new Android version out of the box.

Here goes the list of talents, which the second generation ASUS Nexus 7 has to offer.

Key features

• 7" LED-backlit IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels, 16M colors
• Android 4.3 Jelly Bean out of the box with the best update support in the business
• 1.5 GHz quad-core Krait CPU, Adreno 320 GPU, 2GB of RAM, Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset
• 5 MP autofocus camera with face detection; 1080p video recording @ 30fps
• 1.2MP front-facing camera
• 16/32GB internal storage
• Dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n support
• Optional LTE support
• NFC connectivity
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity
• Bluetooth v4.0 LE
• microUSB port with USB host and TV-out (1080p) support, MHL, charging
• Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
• Wireless charging (Qi charging standard)
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Built-in stereo speakers
• 3950 mAh battery
• Thin and light construction; solid build quality

Main disadvantages

• Awkwardly positioned stereo speakers
• Poor video codec support out of the box
• Stock Android does not allow manual re-arrangement of app icons or folder creation
• Memory not expandable
• Limited availability at launch

Unlike the first Nexus 7 whose spec sheet sported some notable hardware compromises, the second generation of the slate appears to be a much more balanced product with no major omissions. The tablet ticks all the right boxes to find a spot in the Android tablets' top league - from the ultra-sharp display, through the capable chipset, all the way to the latest OS version, with timely updates guaranteed by Google itself.

Google has also ramped up its attention towards the tablet realm recently, so the long-standing lack of quality apps for tablets may finaly be taken care of in the year ahead. This would certainly help the cause of the 2013 ASUS Nexus 7 in expanding its reach beyond the current Android users.

    

ASUS Nexus 7 (2013) live photos

Naturally, considering the success of the first Nexus 7, our expectations towards its sequel run quite high. As always, we'll kick the review festivities off with an unboxing, followed by a design and build quality inspection

Specifications

GENERAL	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - all versions
	3G Network	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
	4G Network	LTE 800 / 850 / 1700 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600
		LTE 700 / 750 / 850 / 1700 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100
	SIM	Micro-SIM
	Announced	2013, July
	Status	Available. Released 2013, July

BODY	Dimensions	200 x 114 x 8.7 mm (7.87 x 4.49 x 0.34 in)
	Weight	290 g (Wi-Fi), 299 g (LTE) (10.55 oz)

DISPLAY	Type	LED-backlit IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	1200 x 1920 pixels, 7.0 inches (~323 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes, up to 10 fingers
	Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass

SOUND	Alert types	N/A
	Loudspeaker	Yes, with stereo speakers
	3.5mm jack	Yes

MEMORY	Card slot	No
	Internal	16/32 GB, 2 GB RAM

DATA	GPRS	Yes
	EDGE	Yes
	Speed	HSPA+, LTE
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band
	Bluetooth	Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, LE
	NFC	Yes
	USB	Yes, microUSB (SlimPort) v2.0

CAMERA	Primary	5 MP, 2592х1944 pixels, autofocus
	Features	Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection
	Video	Yes, 1080p@30fps
	Secondary	Yes, 1.2 MP

FEATURES	OS	Android OS, v4.3 (Jelly Bean)
	Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon S4Pro
	CPU	Quad-core 1.5 GHz Krait
	GPU	Adreno 320
	Sensors	Accelerometer, gyro, proximity
	Messaging	Email, Push Email, IM, RSS
	Browser	HTML5
	Radio	No
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	No
	Colors	Black
		- Wireless charging - HDMI port - Google Wallet - SNS integration - MP4/H.264 player - MP3/WAV/eAAC+/WMA player - Organizer - Image/video editor - Document viewer - Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa - Voice memo - Predictive text input (Swype)

BATTERY		Non-removable Li-Ion 3950 mAh battery
	Stand-by
	Talk time	Up to 9 h (multimedia)