Back when 7” tablets entered the market, Google joined hands with ASUS, and introduced its player into the market, dubbed as the Nexus 7. Pretty soon, it became one of the best 7” tablets out there. But it wasn’t long before other tablets took the lead, including Apple’s iPad Mini.

This year, Google had to come up with something to blow others away. Behold, the second generation Nexus 7. Being better, more powerful, faster than its elder sibling, and featuring a premium design, it certainly has an edge over most of the tablets that are leading the market right now. Let’s take it apart (not literally, of course), and see what it has got.

Build

In terms of its external look-and-feel, the Nexus 7 gives an initial impression of being a well-designed product. Unlike its predecessor which was pretty much a plastic tablet with a relatively cheaper feel to it, and even looked quite plasticky. The design to weight ratio of the tablet is much better, and makes it easier to hold. Call me a fanboy, but holding it for the fist time made it feel like Google’s version of iPad Mini, done well nonetheless.

The back of the device doesn’t feel like plastic at all, it gives a soft touch instead, and has ‘nexus’ and ‘ASUS’ etched into it. The front is all Gorilla Glass, with thicker bezels on top and bottom (camouflaging the camera and notification LED under it), and thinner side bezels. But even so, it’s comfortable to hold the tablet in one hand with the thumb gripping on to the bezel (as long as it doesn’t touch the screen).

There’s no physical button on the front - the volume rocker and lock button are on the top-right side, with a mic just below it. Apart from that, the top of the device has a 35mm headphone jack, and the speaker grille. The bottom has a micro-USB port and perforations for the other speaker (yes, this tablet has stereo speakers, and they’re impressively loud and sound good). There’s a front-facing camera just like the first generation model, but this one also features a 5 megapixel rear-camera as well, which we’ll talk about later. This is also a unique tablet offering wireless charging (using the Qi standard). Overall, the initial impression of the new Nexus 7 makes it feel like an expensive piece of technology.

Display

The 2nd generation Nexus 7 features a superb 7” IPS screen with a resolution of 1920x1200. This makes Nexus 7 arguably the highest resolution 7” tablet so far. In terms of pixel density, it is 323ppi (pixels per inch), which blows Apple’s Retina Display out of the water (on the 9.7” iPad), let alone the iPad mini (7.9”) which doesn’t even come close, as it lacks the Retina Display. The only device that can hardly match this sharp display is Google’s own Nexus 10 (made by Samsung). On top of that, colour reproduction is excellent, and the screen is well calibrated. All these things about the display make working on the Nexus 7 a pleasurable experience, no matter what you’re doing. Of course, watching videos and playing games is where the true glory of the screen can be seen.

Camera

I’m sure Google didn’t find a reason to equip the first generation Nexus 7 with a camera, but the tablet competition proved that the users don’t mind taking photos with a tablet, no matter it looks somewhat awkward. Lesson learned- and the new Nexus 7 now has a 5 Megapixel camera at the back, which shoots photos at a resolution of 2592x1944 pixels, and video can be shot in 1080p at 30 frames per second.

Meanwhile, the same 1.2 Megapixel camera resides on the front. However, there’s no LED flash, so you’ll be better off taking photos and videos in well-lit situations. As for the camera interface, it’s pretty much the same as on a phone running pure Android, and you can take photos, videos, panorama shots, or create ‘Photo Spheres’. I’d rate it pretty decent for a tablet, no high-end expectations here (as opposed to smartphones, where an extraordinary camera is one of the biggest preferences).

Software

Hardware is only half of the game, the rest is what lies under the hood. The new Nexus 7 is the first tablet running the latest version of Android at the time of its launch (Android 4.3). In case you’ve forgotten, this is a Nexus (or shall we say, pure Google) device, which means it runs stock Android, without any vendor customizations like HTC Sense and Samsung Touchwiz. Also, Nexus devices are undoubtedly the first ones to receive official OTA updates. But coming back to the point- existing Android users can familiarize themselves with it in no time. I’m a Samsung Galaxy Nexus user, and upon first interaction, the Nexus 7 didn’t feel any different since I’m already used to the OS. But still, there are a few tablet-specific features as well.

It works pretty much like an Android phone, but the OS makes effective use of the extra screen real-estate. Apps like Chrome (which is built into the OS) work differently compared to the phone version, better suited for small screens. Moreover, some elements of the OS are also different. For instance, the notification drop-down can be accessed by swiping from the top-left half of the screen, while the quick toggles/settings panel (introduced in Android 4.2) is revealed by swiping from the top-right half. On phones with stock Android, it’s just a matter of swiping down and tapping a button on the top-left (or swiping down with two fingers- bet you didn’t know that!).

Restricted Users

Perhaps one of the features worth mentioning about the new Nexus 7 (apart from the new hardware) is ‘Restricted Profiles’. Although multi-user profiles have been there since Android 4.2, a limited-user profile couldn’t be set (for kids who make in-app purchases worth thousands of dollars, Google it!).

Android 4.3 solves this problem by adding ‘Restricted Profiles’ to the existing feature. The easiest way to explain this would be to imagine a family where a single computer is shared by all the family members. Each user has his own personal space, and they can customize it to their liking. And if there are kids, parents can supervise their account by installing the programs that they need and restricting access to what they don’t need. Same is the case here.

Now there are two types of profiles - “User” and “Restricted”, the former being an existing functionality where a tablet can be used by two or more people, each having their customized working space, but with no restrictions. Restricted Profiles lets you create a user which has access to only those apps that you select. For instance, such a user cannot access the Play Store, or any ther apps that the owner decides to hide from the restricted user. Once that’s done, it’s just a matter of locking the tablet, and the user can be switched from the lockscreen.

The main user (owner) needs to set up a screen lock on their user before creating a restricted profile, so that the restricted user cannot access the owner’s section of the tablet. But I noticed some interesting bits during my testing (from an SQA Engineer’s perspective- even though that’s my day job). Firstly, once the restricted user is set, the owner can (forgetfully) remove the screen lock and revert back to the ‘slide’ unlock.

This is a potential vulnerability, if you ask me - the restricted user can hence access the tablet owner’s user. There should be a warning before the owner can remove the screen lock. Secondly, I had the ‘Gallery’ app restricted on a user, but NFC and Android beam were enabled (what’s NFC, you ask? Check out the basics of NFC in the August issue of Spider). Anyway, I ‘beamed’ a photo from my Galaxy Nexus to the tablet, and surprisingly enough, the transfer completed successfully. But since the gallery was restricted, I couldn’t find the photo anywhere (not even in the owner’s gallery). Magic! Google surely needs to refine this new feature, since the competitors (iOS and Windows Phone) are also trying to pay attention to it, as kids get geekier everyday.

Another new feature that comes as a part of Android 4.3 on the new Nexus 7 is Google Play Games. In simple words, it is the Android counterpart of Apple’s Game Center and Windows Phone’s Xbox Live, in some aspects. It tracks your achievements and progress in the games that you play, ranks you among friends, lets you challenge them, and discover new games. That’s all there is to it- for now.

Performance and Final Verdict

Overall, the new Nexus 7 proved to be snappy enough under normal use, thanks to the quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and 2GB of RAM. Even with a powerful processor, the battery appears to last well, around 7-8 hours can be expected on a full charge - but like always, it depends on the use (and yes, screen brightness). Gaming is one of the most immersive experiences, as the improved graphics processing really shows up on the exceptional display. But from reading ebooks to web browsing, viewing photos or HD videos, everything is just a treat.

The quad-core processor delivers the power, the display provides the visual experience, the stereo speakers sound really well, and battery holds it up nicely. I like this cooperation between the spectacular components of this device.

Considering the price, it is definitely a good option if you’re looking forward to a tablet purchase these days. But sooner or later, other tablets will give it a tough competition over the features it boasts, that’s what has happened in the past, and that’s how the tech industry works. Google probably will introduce the 3rd generation Nexus 7 then, but let’s save that for later. At the moment, this tablet can give you the biggest bang for the buck.

Specs Sheet

Display: 7” LED-backlit IPS LCD, 1200x1920 pixels (323 ppi)Storage: 16/32 GB, 2 GB RAMCamera: 5 Megapixels rear, 1.2 Megapixels frontProcessor: Qualcomm Snapdragon S4Pro, Quad-core 1.5 GHz with Adreno 320 GPUBattery: Li-ion 3950 mAh, ~8 hours usageDimensions: 7.87 x 4.49 x 0.34 inWeight: 290g

Thanks to HomeShopping.pk for providing us the Nexus 7 for review.