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Nexus 7 2013 |OT| No SD card edition

Jzero

Member
Man, Nova makes Android a lot better visually speaking. The black app drawer was annoying me a litte too much. It looks much better now with some transparency.
 

Andrea23

Member
Hi guys.
Has anyone encountered this graphical bug on landscape mode (it does not occur in portait mode), during the switch from the boot screen to the lockscreen ?


foto02271dszi.jpg

Video (not mine):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEN8mbc3R4M

Thanks in advance for any feedback.
 

LCfiner

Member
I’ve been using my nexus 7 for just under a week now (16GB). I figured I’d collect my thoughts on this lazy Sunday morning. I’ve mostly used iOS devices since 2007 and have just sold a one year old ipad mini (potentially waiting for a retina mini). Main reason I got an N7 was that, since getting the mini, my ipad use had consisted almost entirely of reading twitter, Gaf and RSS feeds...

General impression is that the N7 a very good tablet for reading twitter, Gaf and RSS feeds. The screen is gorgeous, the unit is light and solid and it’s pretty responsive.

So, regarding screen size compared to the ipad mini, I find the 7” widescreen display is just fine for reading single column text. pages render great and are very easy to read.

But if, for whatever reason, I want to “take in” the design of a complete page. stuff like nytimes or The Verge (or non mobile gaf), the narrow aspect ratio and smaller size makes it a little harder to read than using the ipad mini - even though the mini has a lower screen res. But once I double tap to zoom into an article, it’s A-OK.


Apps:

I found some good apps for twitter and feedly on the Play store. I needed tweet marker support for the twitter app and a simple, clean UI for the feedly syncing (not a huge fan of the feedly app on any platform).

I think Plume for twitter and Press for RSS/feedly are excellent. Maybe missing that very last bit of polish found in the best iOS apps but certainly good enough for most (good enough for me, FWIW) and, of course, they can offer some functionality not found in iOS versions like seamless background updating (which only just got added in iOS 7 but not all apps use it)

Some other apps were less impressive. I don’t know why the imdb app is formatted the way it is but the top half of the screen is fixed and the space for new content is mostly limited to the bottom, scrollable half. it makes the app feel cramped.

The Flipboard app looks like the ipad version on the homepage but actual articles are more constrained and render as single column text whereas the ipad version feels more magazine-like with multiple columns and images mixed together.

And the tumblr app is really slow and bad. this one puzzles me. gifs do not load at all unless you tap them and then they run way slower than just loading tumblr in Chrome. Not sure what’s going on here as the iOS situation is different - the tumblr app is faster than loading tumblr in safari.

The nexus 7 has issues with gifs in general. animating them eats battery and heats up the top third of the device to hotter-than-ipad3-levels. and they run waaaay slower than on the ipad mini.

Also, they don’t animate at all in mobile gaf but I wonder if that’s a mobile gaf thing and not a Chrome/Android thing. This may seem small but it could be a deal breaker. I need my gaf gifs!

I have not found the kinds of unique apps that I like on the iPad. Stuff similar to The Elements, Korg iElectribe, Brian Cox Wonders of the Universe. But the flip side is that there are SNES emulators and apps to modify OS level stuff like Do Not disturb functions (glad I found this one). so that’s a bit of give and take. Depends what your priorities are

I did find a very good comics reader very easily. Sidebooks supports dropbox, renders files super fast. lots of touch options. very, very nice. And it’s free!


Other Android 4.3 thoughts:

I really like the notification shade in Android. easy to clear all items, access to the music controls, some items are directly actionable. And it doesn’t take up the entire screen like NC on iOS 7 on the iPad. The control center shade on the right side of the screen is also useful.

I would prefer if the UI for the entire OS was not black but I am glad that Google’s UI for their apps are mostly greyish and white. very clean.

I still have limited use for widgets. I put an accuweather forecast widget up there. But no need for RSS or email widgets. seeing limited info of those items is not that important to me as I can’t really action anything unless I get into the app. I think the library widget to get shortcuts to media you’ve bought on the play store is pretty handy.

Scrolling, panning performance across the system is a mixed bag. It is still not as smooth as the one year old ipad mini (which uses a 2 year old CPU). Scrolling in Chrome is close to the ipad and generally good enough. I know the acceleration curves are way different between OSes but I can get used to either after a minute. But pinch to zoom performance in Chrome is awful. Don’t know why but it’s animating at under 30fps. definitely not smooth. double tap to zoom is fast and good. but pinch to zoom is not.

I’ll continue to use the Nexus 7 for the next couple weeks at least. The gif animating issue is a surprisingly big one for me as I do browse tumblr everyday and lots of gaf threads are more fun when the gifs actually, y’know, animate. But I can shift some of that time browsing those sites to the laptop.

I’d say if the ONLY ipad Apple sold was $500 for the 10” model, the $230 for the Nexus 7 would be a no-brainer for more people. But with a mini coming in at $330, it becomes a tougher decision and you need to balance what your requirements really are and what’s more important to you. The ipad mini is better at some things (apps designed for larger screen, more games, better performance with some multituch gestures) but the N7 is more portable, customizable, has a sharper screen, and is cheaper. I hope the screen res difference becomes moot after the new mini is announced this month. If it doesn’t then it remains a big, easily noticeable advantage of the N7 for another year.

score: 83 slices of individually wrapped american cheese out of 100.


edit: after a reboot, gifs now animate in gaf. I don’t know if this is something that will reoccur.
 

Husker86

Member
Just one thing I wanted to say about the GIF issue you're having...they animate in mobile GAF. I'm not sure why you're having this issue. They always have on any Android device I've owned (they do tend to be choppy when there are several though).
 

LCfiner

Member
Just one thing I wanted to say about the GIF issue you're having...they animate in mobile GAF. I'm not sure why you're having this issue. They always have on any Android device I've owned (they do tend to be choppy when there are several though).

I’m glad you posted this! I rebooted the N7 after reading your post and now gifs in mobile gaf animate as expected. Hopefully that bug doesn’t come up again but if it does, it’s just a quick reboot to fix.
 
Hi guys.
Has anyone encountered this graphical bug on landscape mode (it does not occur in portait mode), during the switch from the boot screen to the lockscreen ?

Mine does that sometimes. It always goes away within a second or two though, so I never really worried about it.
 

Groof

Junior Member
Click image for photo album said:

Setting this device up has been a joy. Didn't even skip a beat downloading a bunch of apps at the same time as messing with the settings and other stuff. The screen is absolutely gorgeous, and it's definitely noticeable how much of an improvement it is over the old one, especially when put side to side.
Will be taking more time for some hands on before I place final judgement, but initial impression: very good.
 

Blablurn

Member
Setting this device up has been a joy. Didn't even skip a beat downloading a bunch of apps at the same time as messing with the settings and other stuff. The screen is absolutely gorgeous, and it's definitely noticeable how much of an improvement it is over the old one, especially when put side to side.
Will be taking more time for some hands on before I place final judgement, but initial impression: very good.

nice button design. man, wish i could do the same with my nexus lol. do u guys use nova?
 

Rafy

Member
Guys I need your help, I am torn between buying this or a ps3. To clarify I never owned any consoles of the current gen only used PC. Now my PC is outdated and I am in a completely different country for uni. I have a macbook that I strictly use for uni (ok, you got me, a couple of indies too.) I would buy both to game and watch movies. So what do you think I should do?
 

BadWolf

Member
Guys I need your help, I am torn between buying this or a ps3. To clarify I never owned any consoles of the current gen only used PC. Now my PC is outdated and I am in a completely different country for uni. I have a macbook that I strictly use for uni (ok, you got me, a couple of indies too.) I would buy both to game and watch movies. So what do you think I should do?

I'd go with a PS3 if you already have a Macbook and can watch movies and stuff on that.

is it smart to buy the 2nd gen now, or just wait until the 3rd gen next year ?

The 2nd gen is my first tablet and will stay as my only one for a pretty long time I think, I was waiting for something future proof to pop up and this is it.
 

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
It's like $85 less, so it depends on how used it is. If you literally can't tell, yes, that's a great price.
 

DonMigs85

Member
For the past few hours my tablet has been stuck on CHARGED (100%), and says not charging instead of "discharging".
Restarting didn't help...
 
hmmmmmmm im very late but what screen protectors are you guys using? Unless some of you guys go naked nexus :p

I don't like those screen protectors with the "oli residue" when applied, i need to see dat screen clearly
 

DonMigs85

Member
hmmmmmmm im very late but what screen protectors are you guys using? Unless some of you guys go naked nexus :p

I don't like those screen protectors with the "oli residue" when applied, i need to see dat screen clearly

Just be careful with rocks, sand and jewelry since they're the only common materials that can scratch the display.
 
D

Deleted member 325805

Unconfirmed Member
hmmmmmmm im very late but what screen protectors are you guys using? Unless some of you guys go naked nexus :p

I don't like those screen protectors with the "oli residue" when applied, i need to see dat screen clearly

ElecShield Ultra Clear, it works fine. I decided to go for ultra clear because it doesn't affect the picture unlike the anti smudge/matte ones.
 

VPhys

Member
hmmmmmmm im very late but what screen protectors are you guys using? Unless some of you guys go naked nexus :p

I don't like those screen protectors with the "oli residue" when applied, i need to see dat screen clearly

No screen protector, Just a case.

Modern smartphones do not need screen protectors.
 

Threi

notag
Seriously, it feels like it's scoffing at everything I throw at it. Doesn't even break a sweat.
Devices less powerful than it can also run android damn near flawlessly as well.

At this point its just wanting spec bumps for the sake of having spec bumps.
 

DonMigs85

Member
Devices less powerful than it can also run android damn near flawlessly as well.

At this point its just wanting spec bumps for the sake of having spec bumps.

This is what shortsighted people thought back when the Pentium III hit 1GHz and you could have 512MB RAM.
The march of progress is exciting! Besides this tablet can't even run many high-end games at 60FPS. The Adreno 330 in Snapdragon 800 is a significant jump already.
 

Threi

notag
This is what shortsighted people thought back when the Pentium III hit 1GHz and you could have 512MB RAM.
The march of progress is exciting! Besides this tablet can't even run many high-end games at 60FPS. The Adreno 330 in Snapdragon 800 is a significant jump already.
I should have edited my post to say "barring any significant changes in android development". I am referring to how android is right now, and with google's (correct) decision to focus on OS optimization. As for games that is indeed a neverending climb in technology, and that wasn't quite what I meant when I was referring to how well the tablet runs the OS.
 
I love my Nexus 7.

But I just dropped it and shattered the screen on one edge, and the digitizer is also funky.

Early research suggests that these are way expensive to fix. Anyone have any first-hand experience?

:(
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