I’ve heard many people saying that the new Nexus 7 isn’t a huge upgrade over last years, and I’ve heard many others saying it is. So I thought I’d take the time and put the specs side by side so we can really see the differences. The Nexus 7 was announced today and features a 7-inch full HD display along with a Snapdragon S4 Pro processor which is much faster and powerful than the Tegra in last years model. There are also some other improvements, which you can see in the table down below. Including a jump in price. While the jump isn’t huge, it still looks pretty big. Going from $199 to $229 looks big even though it’s only $30.
As you can see the screen has been updated, more pixels. Along with the RAM being doubled, but it has a smaller battery. I’m not sure why Google opted for almost 400mAh smaller battery. Especially since the screen has more pixels being pushed now and a more powerful CPU as well. Then again, Android 4.3 is also supposedly improving battery life quite a bit. Which should help this out. Also the the height is one millimeter taller while the width is about 6 millimeters smaller and thinner as well. Google and ASUS also threw in a rear-facing camera as well. Which is nice to have even though I almost never use it.
The price has jumped a bit, but Google is also offering an LTE version that will work on Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T. Which is great. That means you can jump from one carrier to another and keep the same device. The LTE version is also in 32GB only and runs about $349. Which is another jump from last year’s $299 HSPA+ model. But that could entirely be due to the LTE radio being more expensive to throw in the device.
So looking at the spec-to-price ratio. Is the new Nexus 7 a big enough upgrade to justify buying the new one? Or are you going to sit tight with your first generation Nexus 7? I’ll be hanging onto my first generation Nexus 7 until the next Nexus 10 comes out, personally.