Why Nexus 7 Is Still the Best Damn Android Tablet, Period

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To look at just one aspect, the screen of the new Nexus 7 is an extremely sharp full HD display with 1,920 x 1,200 resolution. The iPad mini, which costs $100 more, has a 1,024 x 768 screen. That's even before you consider the 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor and 2GB of RAM, good specs for any tablet.

On top of that, the new Nexus 7 is the first device to run Android 4.3, letting owners take advantage of features like restricted profiles, which lets you limit the apps that specific users can access (handy if you have kids) as well as compatibility with low-power Bluetooth Smart Ready devices such as fitness monitors and smart watches.

Designed for Success

The first Nexus 7 was significant for its outstanding style and the new style is even better... mostly. Although its specifications are enhanced (and is still ranked at 9 time of battery power life), the 2013 Nexus 7 is a little bit slimmer and less heavy than the past one. It's actually just a bit higher and less extensive, and the sides are less curved, providing the product a somewhat sophisticated experience.

Google also modified the rear from the pierced "driver glove" content of the first Nexus 7 to something a little more like the flat "soft touch" on BlackBerry mobile phones. The move is actually more of a restrict since the unique content was a little more grippy, but it still seems a level up from, say, Samsung's plastic material supports.

The ports amount to a microUSB port on the bottom and a headphone jack up top. There's no microSD slot, but there are perforations for stereo speakers on the sides as well as a microphone hole. Google lent us the Wi-Fi version for review, so there's no SIM card slot (an LTE version is coming soon).

Like some other Nexus devices, there's a small round light within the lower bezel that lights up for a second or two when you get a notification or the tablet is charging. The way it lights up is actually way cool — quickly growing from a small white dot to a slightly larger circle, giving the feeling of a pulse. It's also almost impossible to see if its dim, adding to the chic factor.

Easy on the Eyes

The star of the Nexus 7 is its ultra-high-res screen, which, at 323 pixels per inch, Google claims is the sharpest tablet display on the market. It's a beauty, rendering details such as text on magazine pages with incredible clarity — I had to take off my glasses (I'm nearsighted) and get about 3-4 inches away to discern individual pixels.

The improved display is means video playback is noticeably better than its predecessor. Not only does its sharpness render details you'd otherwise miss, but contrast and color are improved as well.

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In side-by-side viewing with last year's Nexus 7, I could see just how much of an upgrade the new screen is. Details like the individual metallic shards of Megatron's damaged face in the climactic battle of Transformers: Dark of the Moon (from Google Play Video) was better rendered on the new model, and the color of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's face looked more natural (if its possible for a supermodel with several layers of makeup to look "natural").

Viewing the movie trailer for Man of Metal on YouTube, I could see that the new Nexus 7 didn't clean out the display nearly as much when A super hero, backlit to the excessive, comes out from his Castle of Isolation. His outline became noticeable about a second before the old display, with its more restricted evaluation, captured up.

For sneakers, I examined out how the new Nexus 7 in comparison to another complete HD product, the Microsoft company Area Pro. The Pro has a 10.6-inch 1,920 x 1,080 display and excellent handling energy to the Nexus in an Apple Primary i5 processor. However, Google Nexus was winning, with more natural-looking activity and better shade. It wasn't as evening and day as the evaluation to last seasons Nexus, (and the Blockbuster online app for Microsoft windows 8 is probably a problem here), but the new Nexus 7 display is clearly videos clip champion.

So we know that the Nexus 7 is a great primary screen, but what about a second screen? Tablets from Samsung and Sony seemingly have an edge there, since they have pre-loaded remote-control apps and built-in infrared blasters for controlling your TV and set-top box. However, paired with a Chromecast or a Google TV, the Nexus 7 is a capable entertainment companion. Still, it would have been nice if Google threw in an IR port, too.

Performance and More

The Nexus 7's quad-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, along with a hefty 2GB of RAM, provides a smooth overall experience. Apps — even graphics-intensive ones — launched extremely fast on the new Nexus. Magazine pages in the Google Play app loaded almost instantly as I scrolled, where they took a second or two on the old model. Everyday scrolling through visual apps (such as Pinterest) didn't result in any painful "waiting for the thumbnails to load/everscroll to catch up" moments.

I ran a Vellamo, an Android benchmark tool developed by Qualcomm, to see how well the Nexus 7 stacked up to other Android devices. For the HTML5 "browsing" test, the Nexus scored near the top of the list, better than the Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Nexus, although it was a hair's breadth under the HTC One X (the list includes mostly Qualcomm-powered devices).

For the app's "Metal" test, which measures overall performance, the Nexus 7 was the top dog, beating the HTC One X by a significant amount. The original Nexus 7 didn't do so well on either test, scoring a little above the middle of the pack on HTML5, and below on Metal.

The Vellamo tests are shown below, with the new Nexus on the left, and the first-gen model on the right.

One extra bit of hardware the second-gen Nexus 7 bestows is a 5-megapixel rear camera. Considering the number of people I see using iPads as their camera, it's a welcome addition, although it's not particularly remarkable. It's also not particularly bad, so it's good to see Google didn't scrimp. Also, as a stock Android device, the Nexus 7 can capture photo spheres — a special kind of panorama — and the larger screen is perfect for immersing yourself in them.

Battery life was excellent. Starting with a full charge in the morning, the Nexus 7 still had a small reserve after a day of heavy use — many downloads, a few hours of video playback, and multiple accounts synced with push notifications enabled.