Nexus 7 2013
I have been a very happy original Nexus 7 owner since day one, but the tablet has gotten quite a bit slower as it ages. It seems this is a problem with the I/O and android 4.0+. (4.3 is said to improve this, btw). I decided to upgrade mainly because of the increased storage (upgrade from 16gb to 32gb) and better screen. So far I am not disappointed at all. Below are my quick thoughts. Great full length reviews are also online from The Verge, Anandtec, Engadget, Android Central, and others.
Pros
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The screen is a game changer. Colors are great, it’s bright, and the high resolution (Think “Retna”) looks fantastic. It’s an improvement in everything.
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Blazing fast. Everything is much faster. Even the processor itself is faster. I think the biggest difference is the faster storage.
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The build quality seems to be a large improvement. Despite being plastic it really seems like a solid construction. It also feels much thinner in the hand.
- Standby battery life seems to be improved over 50% when on WiFi. I no longer need to charge it nightly.
- Notification LED is a nice touch.
The Questions
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Why is the power adapter on the Nexus 7 2013 edition smaller at 1.35A vs the Nexus 7 2012 edition which was 2.0A?
Cons
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Audio – The speakers are a bit of a disappointment. While stereo is nice, I was really hoping for more volume. I like to listen to podcasts or stream radio stations while in the same room, and the volume is just not that loud. The internal noise when headphones are plugged in is vastly improved as well.
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Google needs to differentiate in the Play Store between the versions of Nexus 7. Currently by default they are just listed as “Asus Nexus 7” and the last date they were used. Google should at least change the icon of the new Nexus to reflect the one they are using on the box and in promos. You can go in and rename devices, but users should not have to do this.
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Touch on my tablet seems to be a bit off once in awhile. I am going to have to investigate this further to see if its an app problem or maybe a hardware issue.
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There seem to be some GPS issues with certain apps. This looks to be more of a 4.3 problem than a hardware problem in the new tablet. Over time apps should update and this will get fixed.
Chromecast
When this was announced it was a surprise for pretty much everyone. At $35 this is pretty much a no-brainer.
I had been looking for a way to get music to my receiver in the living room but be able to control it from my tablet or phone. Ideally I wanted the music source to be from my Google Music account, since I have everything uploaded there. Initially I thought this would be an app and I would plug in my tablet to act as the server, but control it from my phone. Turns out the Chromecast has this feature and it works really well. From my tablet I can power on the receiver (TV can remain off) and start music playing, all from anywhere in the house. It’s pretty slick. I have my Chromecast hooked up to my Yamaha receiver in the HDMI 2 position with AC power.
There are 2 methods of the Chromecast streaming content.
Mobile Device to Chromecast
Right now there are only a handful of apps that officially support this. Youtube, Google Music, Google Movies, and Netflix. It’s really easy to use; you start a video or song playing and then hit the Chromecast button, and within about a second it starts playing on your TV/Receiver. What is actually happening here is the Chromecast is playing directly from the cloud, allowing you to use your device to do other things, like social media etc. You can create queues, pause, next, etc from your mobile device.
Computer to Chromecast
Computer to Chromecast works a bit differently than Mobile to Chromecast. Computer to Chromecast requires you to use the Chrome browser, and install the Chromecast plugin. From there it allows you to share a tab to the Chromecast. You can display the text of a web page or most video. The computer is transcoding this information and then sending it to the Chromecast over wifi, so it does take some power on the computer side. I tried this on my i7 920 desktop and things worked well. I tried a few websites (Crackel, JaylenosGarage, Vimeo) and everything worked. There is also a trick that you can open local media files in Chrome using CTRL + O and these cast too. The MP4 files that were H.264 encoded played well. I also tried some MKV files I had and the video in these played well, however the audio did not. Hopefully this is something that is added in the future.
Pro’s
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Low Price, Small Size. At $35 this is a no-brainer, Since I ordered early I received 3 months of Netflix as well, which makes it even cheaper. It’s a small dongle that fits about anywhere.
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Setup could not have been easier with the app on my tablet. My one tip is if you have a long complex wifi password, email it to yourself first, and make sure you copy to your clipboard before you start the setup on the phone/tablet.
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To steal a famous quote, “It Just Works!” It just works, as Google said it would. It’s only likely to get better from here.
Cons
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AC adapter. This is one of those styles of adapters that can cover up the plugin next to it. On the positive side, Google did include a nice piece of velcro to keep the extra cord nicely bundled.
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Limited native app support right now, but this should get better since the API is open.
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No support for Mobile Chrome to Chromecast. Hopefully this will be added soon. I have a feeling that it was due to most hardware not having the power needed to transcode video fast enough.
The future potential of the Chromecast is huge. While it’s not a Roku or Apple TV replacement quite yet, it’s still very useful. At the $35 price level, you can’t complain about much. It makes getting Youtube and Google Music/Movie content to your TV/Receiver super easy. Beyond that, being able to quickly move a chrome tab from your desktop to tv is easy too.