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The new Nexus 7 changes everything, again

Google recently announced the brand new Nexus 7 tablet ready for 2013, some call it the Nexus 7 2 while others call it the new Nexus 7 but all we know is that it’s a brilliant piece of technology.

I was really looking forward to the new Nexus 7 when Apple announced their iPad Mini last year, although a great piece of hardware itself I was greatly disappointed by the lack of a retina display and the same 4:3 shape which I personally am not a fan of, I find widescreen tablets much easier to use so I was already a huge fan of the Nexus 7.

The older Nexus 7 was a great device for the time and price but it wasn’t build to last a while, my unit’s battery life greatly shortened after a few months of usage and the screen became harder to use as I got used to the new iPad’s Retina Display and 1080p screen of newer smartphones like the HTC One and Sony Xperia Z.

Priced at $229 for the 16GB, $269 for the 32GB and $349 for the 32GB LTE model making it one of the model affordable tablets on the market. Although priced cheaply the new Nexus 7 is no slouch packing the latest and greatest hardware available for the 7-inch form-factor.

New Nexus 7 Specifications

Produced by ASUS once again, hardware wise the Nexus 7 is fully packed unlike the older Nexus 7 which was already outdated when it entered the market. The new Nexus 7 is powered by a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro 8064 processor with a Adreno 320 chip doing all the graphics work. The multitasking is handled by 2GB of RAM while the storage options include 16GB and 32GB of non expandable memory.

The display is a 1920 x 1200 16:10 7-inch panel with great contrast and crazy viewing angles making the new Nexus 7 the perfect devices for reading books and magazines. The high resolution equals to 323PPI which is Retina Display territory so you know the display is top of the line. The iPad Mini which is the new Nexus 7′s direct competition features a 163 PPI display so the Nexus is the clear winner here.

The new Nexus 7 unlike it’s predecessor also has a back camera which is a 5MP shooter able to shoot 1080p video at 30fps, the back camera on the other hand is a 1.2MP unit which is more than enough for video calls.

Battery life has also been improved with the new Nexus 7 lasting around 10 hours per full charge making it the highest battery life Android tablet available on the market.

New Nexus 7 Software

As expected the new Nexus 7 comes packed with Android 4.3 which is still called Jelly Bean. Most of the changes in this update are low level changes adding functionality and improvements to the OS.

Some of these aforementioned changes include multi user settings with individual app restrictions, Bluetooth Smart which is also known for Bluetooth Low Energy and support for OpenGL ES 3.0 which should result in better games available for the platform.

Want some more user end features? Wait for Key Lime Pie.

New Nexus 7 Compared With iPad Mini

As mentioned before the new Nexus 7′s direct competition is the $329 priced iPad Mini from Apple until an expected refresh is released later this year.

Design-wise the new Nexus 7 has gone away with the leather back and has opted for a plastic finish this time which in my opinion makes it easier to hold and use. The iPad Mini of course has an all metal premium design with the distinct Apple finish. The Nexus due to to it’s plastic build is slightly lighter than the iPad Mini at 290 grams compared to the Mini’s 308 grams but in everyday usage you should not notice this.

Spec wise the Nexus 7 is the clear winner. The 1200p screen is the highest density panel on the market today for a 7-inch device, the iPad Mini has a bigger 7.9-inch screen with a lower resolution of 1024 x 768 so reading books and watching movies will obviously be better on the Nexus. The Nexus also has more RAM, a much faster processor and better graphics chip giving it the clear lead.

The iPad Mini due to it’s larger battery and lower screen resolution has a slightly better battery life of 11.6 hours compared to 10 hours of the Nexus 7 so this one goes to Apple.

The iPad Mini runs on iOS 6 (it is expected to be upgradable to iOS 7 which it releases) which as we all know is super smooth and easy to use but for the more tech savvy user Android 4.3 on the Nexus 7 should be the definitive choice. Both of the Operating Systems have their strengths and weaknesses, like Siri which is slightly better than Google Now and Apple Maps which suck in comparison to Google Maps. Still both the Operating Systems are quite different to each other so in the end the decision depends on the person and their usage. Personally I prefer Android mainly because it gives much more freedom to the user compared to Apple’s offering.

Both the tablets feature WiFi and LTE options in 16GB and 32GB with the iPad Mini also being available in a 64GB model. Unfortunately neither of the tablets’ storage is expandable via MicroSD.

Price wise the Nexus 7 is the clear winner with the 16GB priced at $229 a whole $100 cheaper than the 16GB $329 iPad Mini.

Overall the higher density display, surround speakers, NFC, wireless charging and the aforementioned features make the new Nexus 7 the clear winner. Will the next iPad Mini be able to one up the new Nexus 7? Guess we’ll find out in a few months.

Accessories for the new Nexus 7

Although new accessories for the new Nexus 7 haven’t been announced by Google or ASUS themselves expect many third party manufacturers to deliver awesome accessories.

There are already tons of covers available, I personally like the simple official ASUS Travel Cover but you also have the choice in between hard covers and soft pouches.

There are also other miscellaneous accessories available like wireless chargers, desktop and car charging docks.

New Nexus 7 Availability

The new Nexus 7 is currently available for purchase in the United States from leading retailers including Amazon, Best Buy and also from Google’s own Play Store. The tablet will be officially available in UK, Germany, Japan, Canada, Spain, France, Australia, and South Korea at launch while other potential regions are to be announced later.

The tablet will be available in three versions as mentioned earlier; 16GB WiFi for $229, 32GB WiFi for $269 and 32GB LTE for $349.

Will you be getting the new Google Nexus 7 tablet? Let us know in the comments below.

August 7, 2013
One million Nexus 7 units are sold each month says Asus

In an official statement Asus’s CFO David Chang has revealed that his company is selling one million Nexus 7 tablets per month. He announced this information after the company’s third quarter conference that took place on Tuesday according to WSJ.

Nexus 7 is a joint venture of Asus and Android maker Google which has been undoubtedly become the most success Android tablet ever produced. Asus revealed that the sales were 500K-700K in the beginning but last month the sales jumped to 1 million units. While the number announced by Asus is good, it is no where near to the market leader Apple’s sale numbers. Apple recently announced in its third quarter results that it sold over 14 million iPad units in the last quarter alone in the US while the global sales of iPad were 25 million in the third quarter.

While Apple is enjoying the status of the most successful and the only king of the tablet industry Google is expected to boost its sales in the coming months. Google recently announced Nexus 10 with 2560×1600 resolution display and a 32GB version of Nexus 7. Google has also reduced the price of 16GB model to $199 replacing the 8 gig version with it.

July 19, 2013
Nexus 7 XenonHD Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean Custom ROM Install Guide
Good new for Nexus 7 owners as the much anticipated XenonHD Android 2.2 Jelly Bean custom ROM has been released and is available for download.

Google and ASUS’s budget Nexus 7 tablet certainly helped in turning the tide on Apple’s domination of the tablet market. The Nexus 7 is cheap but packs a lot of neat features which can be expanded even further by installing custom ROMs like the XenonHD.

XenonHD’s feature list includes:

JB 4.2.2 JDQ39
Rooted
Busybox

Miscellaneous:
Add reboot and screenshot options to power menu.
Additional tiles in Quick Settings.
Theme Chooser support. (Updated for 4.2)
Volume rocker wake. (Settings>Display)
Volume rocker long press to seek tracks. (“”)
Show rotation lock in quick settings.
Bluetooth Message Access Profile support.
Improved scrolling cache.
Fixed December bug.
Fixed Google location service.
Add an option to change the device hostname.
New moto style softkeys.
DSPManager added with all the binaries.
Apollo Music player added and fixed for JB.
Added XenonHD wallpapers.
Louder output on speaker for Maguro and Toro.
Added Galaxy4, PhaseBeam and Holo spiral wallapers.
Run sysinit during boot.
Change sysfs permissions to allow user control ksm.
Wi-fi scan time to 100 to save battery.
Performance, battery life and other misc tweaks.
Init.d support with added tweaks and scripts.
SuperSU application for root.
CMFile manager added.
GPS, Camera, Keyboard gestures fixed.
Build.prop tweaks.
Battery life tweaks.
Some secret tweaks.
I’m forgetting soo many things. Flash and see.
Etc

Browser:
New navbar buttons.
Added a menu item in Browser called Close other tabs.
Open in incognito tab option in menu.
Increased tab limit.
Added menu option to open url in browser.
Enabled tablet like browser on grouper.

Messaging:
QuickMessage and Reply.
Custom notification vibrate patterns.
Timestamp options.
Input type selection.
Add reminder to calendar.
Templates functionality.
Split SMS functionality.
Emoji and Strip unicode support.
Etc

Phone and Contacts:
T-9 Dialer and with other stuff.
Dialpad settings.
Etc

Toro:
Use correct battery capacity, add missing eri.xml
Allow tethering.
Fix overlay/networkAttributes array

Maguro:
Fix MMS receiving on T-Mobile
Enable automatic backlight by default.

Tuna:
Removed bugmailer.
Fix gps issues.

Add simtoolkit application

Now that’s a lot of stuff, so before we get started make sure that you have CWM recovery installed and that your Nexus 7 tablet is rooted.

Step 1- Download the XenonHD Android 2.2 Jelly Bean ROM and Google Apps.

Step 2- Connect your Nexus 7 to a computer using mass storage mode.

Step 3- Copy and paste the ROM and Google Apps zips downloaded in step 1, into the root folder of the mass storage device. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the root, but putting it in the root helps finding it easier.

Step 4- Turn off your Nexus 7 and reboot into the bootloader. Do this by pressing and holding the Volume Up + Volume Down and Power buttons.

Step 5. Use volume rocker to navigate and power button to click. Perform a data wipe + cache wipe

Step 6. Navigate to flash ZIP from SD card and choose ZIP from SD card

Step 7. Select the XenonHD Android 2.2 Jelly Bean ROM’s zip downloaded in step 1 first. Select it using the power button and confirm installation.

Step 8. Now do the same things with the Google Apps zip file.

Step 9. When installation is done, go back to the main menu of CWM and perform a reboot.

Also check out:
- Nexus 4 Slim Bean Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean Custom ROM Install
- Galaxy S II I9100 UHMS8 Firmware Update And Root
The process is now complete and you should boot into the installed ROM. If you have any questions or problems feel free to ask us in the comments below.

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March 7, 2013
iPhone 5 Benchmarked; Faster Than Galaxy S III, Nexus 7 And iPad 3

The iPhone 5 finally got benchmarked today after AnandTech’s analysis of the phone’s A6 chip which we found out contains 1GB of RAM and a Samsung build processor.

The iPhone 5 sporting a 1.02 Ghz processor scored a very impressive Geekbench score of 1601 making it faster than its direct competitor the Galaxy S III, ASUS’s budget tablet the Nexus 7 and even the iPhone 5′s big brother the iPad 3. The benchmark is picture below:

For comparison the iPad 3 which sports a A5X chip scored 790 and the iPhone 4S which has an A5 chip scored a abysmal 630 confirming Apple’s claims of the A6 being twice as fast as its predecessor.

Even leading Android devices can’t beat the A6, the closest device Geekbench scorewise is the ASUS made Nexus 7 sporting a Tegra 3 scoring 1591 followed by the Samsung Galaxy S III and its Exynos 4412 scoring 1560.

Well that outa’ shut them competition up for a while don’t you think? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

January 31, 2013
How To Install Nexus 7 Android 4.1.1 AOKP (Build 1) Jelly Bean ROM
Great news for Nexus 7 users who’ve been waiting for AOKP (Android Open Kang Project) to release their ever famous ROM for the tablet. They’ve only released the first build i.e Build 1 so far so there may be bugs and glitches here and there so install the ROM at your own risk. A few features of the Android 4.1.1 AOKP Build 1 ROM are below:
- Notification Toggles
- Lockscreen tweaks (no custom targets yet)
- Navigation bar modifications
- Custom kernel performance options
- LED colors
- Notification wallpapers
- Phone ringer modifications (Flip call to silent, silent/vibrate when headphones are in)
Before starting the install process make sure that your Nexus 7′s battery is above 85% and you have your important data all backed up. Also make sure that you have CWM (ClockWork Recovery Mod) installed.

Lets start

Step 1. Enable USB Debugging by going into Settings > Developer Options and then tapping on the USB Debugging box.

Step 2. Download the AOKP Android 4.1.1 Build 1 Jelly Bean ROM from here and the Google Apps package from here.

Step 3. Connect your Nexus 7 to your computer via USB cable.

Step 4. Transfer the AOKP ROM and Google Apps packages to your Nexus 7, make sure they are in the root directory.

Step 5. Now turn your Nexus 7 off.

Step 6. Now hold Volume Up + Volume Down + Power at the same time to boot into the Bootloader.

Step 7. Navigate into the Recovery menu.

Step 7. In CWM perform a factory reset and delete the cache and dalvik cache. This is optional but will help avoid any errors.

Step 8. Navigate to Install from ZIP and select the AOKP ROM we transferred to the SD card earlier.

Step 9. After that’s done navigate to Install from ZIP again but this time install the Google Apps package.

Step 10. After the installation is complete navigate to Reboot system now option.

The initial boot should take a few minutes and if everything goes well you’ll boot into AOKP Android 4.1.1 Build 1 Jelly Bean. If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments below.
November 20, 2012
Google is now rolling out Android 4.1.2 update for Nexus 7

Google has announced on its official Android building group that the Android 4.1.2 update for Nexus 7 tablet will roll out to the users today. The update that is termed as ‘minor’ brings several performance and stability improvements to the tablet. Android 4.1.2 also fixes several bugs that were reported by many users and devs. Along with the improvements to the software this update also adds a new landscape mode on the Nexus 7 home screen. While Android 4.1.2 is an incremental update, it certainly brings Nexus 7 and us one step closer to Android 4.2 update.

Android 4.1.2 update is rolling out to users steadily and it may take some time for it to reach a tablet near you. There have been reports from many Australian users about this new update becoming available on their devices. I have attached two images that show the landscape home screen and about page of the new build.

You can check out the full change log for the Android 4.1.2 update here.

November 20, 2012
32GB model for Nexus 7 appears again, this time on Staples Advantage website

After making an appearance on a Spanish retailer’s website and on several other sites, the 32GB model of Nexus 7 is back to tease us all again. AndroidPolice reports that the new model of Nexus 7 tablet with upgraded storage was seen on retailer Staples Advantage’s site. The tablet appeared in a search result of Staples website for business users.

According to the site, 32GB version of Nexus 7 will be available on October 18th and will cost $248.37. Interestingly according to Staples site the price of the 32 gig model of Nexus 7 is almost $3 less than the 16 gig model, which is really strange. One explanation for this could be that Google wants to kill the 16GB model in the coming days and sell the 32GB model at the same price. But if that’s the case then why not kill the smaller 8GB model and continue selling the better 16GB and 32GB models? Well it seems like Google does not want to miss the $199 price mark of 8GB model and cannot sell the 16GB model of Nexus 7 for that price.

While there is a lot of confusion regarding the pricing and availability of the 32GB Nexus 7, as October 18 launch date does not seem possible as this leak suggests at this point of time, we certainly know that the 32GB model of Nexus 7 is coming following all these leaks thanks to the retailers from around the world.

November 20, 2012
Retailer starts selling 32GB Nexus 7 for $249, 16GB model slides to $199

Google’s plan of announcing the 32GB Nexus 7 along with the new Nexus 10 tablet and LG Nexus 4 smartphone was ruined when the warning for the Hurrican Sandy was issued. The company cancelled the highly anticipated Android event and is yet to announce a new date for the event.

The new upgraded model 32GB Nexus 7 was expected to get announced on October 29th and go on sale right after the event, but things didn’t went according to the plan. Although Google has not made the official announcement yet, at least one retailer in the US has started selling the new 32GB Nexus 7 model and it is now available for purchase on its stores. As reported by Droid-Life, the 32GB model is on sale at Office Depot at a price of $249, while the 16GB Nexus 7 that was selling for $249 perviously is now available for $199. Just like the Google Play store, the 8GB model that used to sell for $199 is no longer available for purchase at this retailer.

The 32GB Nexus 7 is on display at Office Depot stores and several users have confirmed that they have been able to buy this new model, that Google has yet to announce officially. While only Office Depot is reportedly selling the new model of Nexus 7, we expect others who have it in stock will follow the trend sooner or later, with or without Google’s announcement.

November 3, 2012
Install Ubuntu on Nexus 7
Nexus 7 is one of the best Android tablet ever released and those who already own it wouldn’t disagree. Nexus 7 runs Android by default which is a great platform, but if you want to try something new on your device and don’t mind installing Ubuntu OS on it then we have got you covered. In this post we are going to show you how you can install the official build o7 Ubuntu on Nexus 7 device.

Before beginning make sure you back up all of your data so you don’t loose it in the process. Also, before you begin please note that this guide is taken from the official Wiki of Ubuntu and works properly. However if you do any sort of damage to your device during the process, TechDeville will not be responsible for your loss. If you are fine with that then begin with the procedure.

Here are the things you will need for this installation:
- A Nexus 7 device.
- A microUSB cable that you use to sync with your PC
- A PC running Ubuntu 12.04 or later
- Ubuntu Nexus 7 Desktop Installer installed on your development system
Unlocking your Nexus 7 tablet:

First of all before you install Ubuntu on Nexus 7 you will need to unlock your device so that you can flash certain images to your device. You will only need to do this once, but be warned as the process of unlocking will erase all of your data and will restore your Nexus 7 to default or factory settings. It may also void your device’s warranty.

To unlock you Nexus 7 reboot your device and while it is at the Android boot loader screen hold the volume button and the power button. Keep these two buttons pressed until the boot loader UI appears on your screen. The boot loader UI can be seen in the image below.

To Verify that the fastboot lists the device enter:
1. $ sudo fastboot devices
2. 1234567891234567 fastboot
Afterwards you can start the bootloader unlock process by entering:
```
sudo fastboot oem unlock
```
After you have entered the command above you will be asked if you want to unlock the bootloader of your device. Simply tap the Yes button and proceed.

After tapping on the Yes button reboot your device by entering or pressing the power button of your device.
```
sudo fastboot reboot-bootloader
```
Ubuntu on Nexus 7

After you have unlocked your Nexus 7 by performing the steps above you can install Ubuntu on your Nexus 7. Before proceeding to the installation process make sure your device is in fastboot mode. Plug Nexus 7 to your computer. Remove all other devices that are connected to your computer because they will get erased too, if not removed.

Now on your computer, type nexus in the search field of your dash and from the search results launch Ubuntu Nexus 7 Installer This installer will help you in installing Ubuntu on your Nexus 7.

The installer will download the latest available version of Ubuntu for your device automatically. It will also flash your Nexus 7, which will take up to 2 minutes. After getting flashed your Nexus 7 will reboot. Then the process of Ubuntu installation will start. This process will take up to 10-15 minutes.

Installing Android back on your Nexus 7

After installing Ubuntu on Nexus 7 you would want to return to Android. You can do it quite easily if you follow the steps below. Be warned that all the data present on your Nexus 7 will be erased. Remove any other device that is attached to your computer before proceeding as it will be flashed too if not removed.

You can download the official ROM of Android for your device from here. After downloading, uncompress it by entering the following command.
```
tar zxvf nakasi-jro03d-factory-e102ba72.tgz
```
After that connect your device to computer and put it in fastboot mode and run the resulting script.
```
cd nakasi-jro03d/
sudo ./flash-all.sh
```
If you get any errors related to boot.sig, recovery.sig, or system.sig simply ignore them as they would not affect the installation.
October 29, 2012
Google Reportedly Prepping $99 Nexus 7 Tablet

Google revealed the highly acclaimed Nexus 7 tablet running the Mountain View’s latest operating system Android 4.1 Jelly Bean back in June. The tablet went on receive rave reviews and sell relatively good thanks to its low price and performance. Now according to latest rumors Google is planning on releasing a $99 version of the Nexus 7 tablet.

The Nexus 7 hit stores with a 7-inch HD IPS display, a Quad Core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor and was the first device to run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box.

The smaller form factor tablets like the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 have proved to be huge competition for Apple and its iPad tablet, the Cupertino based company is also expected to launch a 7.85-inch iPad Mini later this year but looks like Google is fully prepared for it.

Digitimes reports that there will be two versions of the Nexus 7 tablet and will again be made by ASUS. One will be prices at $199 while the cheaper one will be priced at $99, both the tablets will be slimmer than the current Nexus 7 tablet.

We’re not sure if Google will be putting in slower components in the cheaper Nexus 7 tablet or even introducing ads to compensate, guess we’ll have to wait and see how much this rumor holds up.

October 10, 2012