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Why You Need to Think Twice Before Buying the New Nexus 7

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Google finally announced the new Nexus 7 tablet, a tablet that will come with some loaded specifications including 4G LTE data for Verizon. However, while the new Nexus 7 will be tempting to many buyers, there is reason to think twice about buying Google’s brand new 7-inch tablet.

At its event earlier today, Google, as expected, debuted both Android 4.3 and the new Nexus 7, a device that will be hitting shelves on July 30th and one that has already replaced the older Nexus 7 on the Google Play Store.

The device has some big shoes to fill as the previous Nexus 7 was considered by many to be one of the best 7-inch tablets on the market joining the iPad mini from Apple and the Kindle Fire HD.

On paper, the new Nexus 7 seems like a worthy successor to the older model. Instead of a display capable of 720p resolution, the new model sports 1080p capabilities with a display that Google is touting as the best in the 7-inch range of tablets.

It comes with an upgraded Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor from Qualcomm that should help to produce better performance in terms of gaming, multitasking and battery life.

The new Nexus 7 comes with a 5MP rear camera, something the previous model did not have. It features a new slim, lightweight design that puts the older model to shame. It also features 4G LTE data as it comes unlocked for AT&T, T-Mobile and yes, Verizon Wireless, the United States’ largest 4G LTE service provider.

Google’s new 7-inch tablet offers all of that at an extremely affordable price. The Wi-Fi only 16GB checks in at $230 while the 32GB model will run consumers $270. Both are cheaper than the starting price of the iPad mini. The 32GB 4G LTE model is a little more expensive but still checks in at a relatively cheap $350 which is only $30 more expensive than the 16GB Wi-Fi only iPad mini and just about $100 cheaper than the 16GB 4G LTE iPad mini.

Like the original Nexus 7, it’s a tempting tablet to be sure. However, despite all of the benefits and attractive features, there is reason for buyers to pause and think twice about buying Google’s new Nexus 7. We’re not saying don’t buy it, but we’re saying that there some things to keep in mind before plopping money down on July 30th.

Here’s why.

Nexus Problems

Nexus devices of all shapes and sizes tend to have issues.

Nexus devices of all shapes and sizes tend to have issues.

As owners of mobile devices know, devices of all shapes and sizes tend to have kinks, bugs, and issues. However, Google’s Nexus devices seem to have a knack for attracting issues. In particular, owners of the Nexus 7 have had to endure numerous issues since the device’s launch last year.

At the beginning, we saw a number of production issues afflict owners of the Nexus 7. From dead pixels to adhesives failing to do their job to nightmarish stories about the return process, the Nexus 7 did not launch without its fair share of issues. However, those are not the issues that prospective new Nexus 7 buyers should be aware of.

After the update to Android 4.2, things went downhill fast for many Nexus 7 owners. Devices began to randomly reboot. There was a huge drop in performance with many complaining about sluggishness. Battery life became abysmal for many and some Nexus 7’s, including my own, started to take hours to charge. Many of those issues have persisted to this day.

Read: Android 4.2 Issues Frustrating Verizon Galaxy Nexus Users.

Nexus 4 owners have complained about many of these Android 4.2 issues as well. Same goes for Samsung Galaxy Nexus owners. Turns out, it’s not always fun being first to Google software.

Nexus devices are called Nexus for a reason. They are aimed at users like developers and Android enthusiasts who want to tinker with new Android software as soon as possible. What this means is that while they get their updates first, they are essentially guinea pig devices, lab rats. Nexus owners get the brunt of the problems and Google then picks up on those, heads back into testing, and fixes them though updates are often scarce.

Android 4.3 will hopefully wipe away many of the bugs that arrived with Android 4.2 for the Nexus 7, Nexus 4 and others but unfortunately for some Nexus 7 owners, like myself, Android 4.3 will never arrive.

My Nexus 7 is Dead

See, today, in my excitement, I went to go grab my Nexus 7 (which has pretty much been sitting idle since the charging issues began) to charge it up and prepare it for the Android 4.3 update that is supposed to start rolling out today.

I plugged in the charger, and waited, and waited, and waited. It has now been six hours since I first started charging my Nexus 7 and it’s clear that it’s never going to boot back up. My Nexus 7 is dead, a discovery that I conveniently made on the same day that the new Nexus 7 emerged.

I’d love to tell buyers that this is an isolated issue but it’s not. Nexus 7 horror stories are nothing new. In fact, several weeks ago, there was an uproar about Nexus 7 devices dying, possibly due to faulty memory. Turns out, I’m not the only one with a dead Nexus 7.

My Nexus 7 is dead.

My Nexus 7 won’t turn on any more.

Since buying it back in July, it’s just been headache, after headache, after headache. Same goes for my Verizon Galaxy Nexus which is just riddled with bugs and is all but unusable on Android 4.2. It would be great to be able to bring them to a Google Store to get them looked at, but the company still isn’t on the same level as Apple.

When Google announced the new Nexus 7 today, it made no mention of these issues. Of the bugs found on Android 4.2. Like any good pitch, the company touched on all of the successes of the previous model and the bright future of the new one.

So while I’m not saying don’t buy the new Nexus 7, I’m saying to keep this all in mind ahead of its July 30th release date. Think twice about spending that money. Do your research. And maybe most important, wait a few weeks or months before taking the plunge because unfortunately, the Nexus water can be murky.

16 Comments

16 Comments

  1. Ronald Geiken

    07/24/2013 at 1:15 pm

    One of the problems that I discovered twice in fact is that the charger that comes with the Nexus 7 can occasionally not make a good connection I returned one and got a new one and the second one exhibited the same problems since i did not return the old charger cable, but just sent the new one back. I had troubles with the second one too, and got a 3rd party charger that seemed to work just fine. Never had another problem with it, and now it has a new life by someone that I gave it too. Seems like the charger than came with my Nexus 10 was better than the Nexus 7 charger, since when I found a dead N7 and put the N10 cable in instead, It immediately started charging and notified me that the batter had become discharged. After several hours of charging, it came back up and never had another problem with the N7. If your charger cable has a loose micro USB connector, that may indicate a problem.

  2. praxis22

    07/24/2013 at 2:11 pm

    Bought mine retail in Europe, never had a problem with it, and at least three updates later it’s still doing sterling service. Indeed a large part of the family’s internet access is via Android devices. The N7 does get sluggish on occasion, but a reboot a week usually sorts it out. Of course I may have bought mine once they had sorted the bugs out, but it’s very reliable so far. sorry for your loss.

  3. Richard McKay

    07/25/2013 at 4:53 am

    Why would I – or anyone – need to think twice? Or once, even. You really are stellar at penning pointless articles.

    • Michael

      08/10/2013 at 6:54 pm

      I’ve been experiencing some of the same issues that Adam has been speaking of. My first one was experiencing dead pixels and the second one GPS problems. This third one is OK so far.

  4. Vinniw

    07/25/2013 at 5:59 am

    This guy Adam Mills is a pure idiot. I have written to his superiors to get rid of him.

  5. conrad

    07/25/2013 at 1:14 pm

    Coming from someone who enjoys owning/using electronic devices running Windows, iOS, OSX and Android, you, sir, are not worthy of your occupation. Please stop spewing these ‘articles’ out as if they are a sip of a chai latte that you specifically ordered with no cinammon but (like always) they put some in anyway.

    Under unforeseen circumstances, you eventually save us the trouble of reading your ‘articles’ and do what best fits your writing style: Join an online forum. You will find many good friends there that will respond to your bs with more bs and as it piles up higher and higher, you and your friends will have a nice mountain upon which you will climb and drive a flag post through the highest point, in heroic fashion nonetheless. Your claim to this new and glorious mountain will be known by all of your fellow members, all of whom slaved away at their keyboards in an effort to assist you in this glorious endeavor.

    From a distance, you will strain your eyes to see the old mountain of bs that you once called home. Mount Gottabemobile will still be there. It will still waist peoples time when they click on the link expecting to read an article. It will still have some Apple-Turkey writing about Android.

    I guess I can live with that though. I just learned how to turn off articles posted by certain sites in my Google News feed. Pretty sweet feature.

    • Michael

      08/11/2013 at 12:47 pm

      So, what about the article do you disagree with? Can you attempt to stay on topic? None of this drivel you scribbled has anything to do with the contents of the article.

  6. Steven

    07/25/2013 at 2:27 pm

    Sorry mate but this is a poor article. There is nothing wrong with the Nexus 7, it’s the people that use it.

    If your Nexus 7 won’t switch on it’s because you let the battery run down. A little 5 second Google search came up with solution.

    https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/mobile/J8283AK1kss%5B226-250-false%5D

  7. Brendan

    07/26/2013 at 5:01 am

    Sooo, don’t buy the new Nexus because the old one had some issues? That’s a really weak argument. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the first model (of anything really) had some unforeseen issues. Google can take those learnings and make their next generation better just like any other manufacturer of anything (cars for example; many people like waiting until the second year to buy a new model).

    This article actually has nothing to do with the 2013 nexus 7 and should be renamed to “Why you need to think twice before buying the OLD nexus 7”

    • Josh

      08/21/2013 at 1:36 pm

      Totally agree.

  8. thomasisaiah99

    07/26/2013 at 8:24 pm

    Just bought the new 2013 Nexus 7 and its not working out of the box. It keeps resetting its self and won’t connect to my WiFi. It’ll say connecting for the longest time then it says set up wizard has failed. Never have I had a product that didn’t work out of the box. Now I have to wait till tomorrow to return it to best buy.

    • Mark Holyoke

      08/12/2013 at 4:53 am

      I’ve experienced the exact same thing Thomas. I’ve tried booting in safe mode, still happens. I’ve tried dumping 3rd party apps, still happens. I’ve tried a factory reset, still happens. I’ve had it for 2 days, returning it today.

  9. query

    07/29/2013 at 7:28 pm

    Adam how can you display your name so prominently on this piece of tripe? You are trying to caution people from purchasing a product based on your lack of tech saavy. Build quality issues are inherent in nearly any launch day product, even Apple’s first gen iPod touch had display issues and questionable build quality and I’m sure there are forums devoted to complaining about issues with the iPhone 5.

    Warning users about buying products on launch day because of launch day issues is one thing but to specifically target one product and say be cautious because the N7,1 had launch day issues and then dramatize it to say everything nexus you’ve owned has been a headache is making it clear to me you are not up to par with troubleshooting your devices and are quick to jump to the conclusion the product line is crap.

    A little searching has revealed fixes and solutions provided from google itself and other user communities.

    These devices work nicely and many of the people who have switched to Nexus that i know of are quite happy and in fact have recently tinkered with their phones to get 4G speeds.

  10. Bryan

    08/02/2013 at 12:35 am

    I got a n7 at the end of sept 2012. I had an issue with charging it after some time. The issue wasn’t the device or charger, it was the connector on the wire not being snug enough. Used a different wire, works fine. The original wire works with my kid’s childpad. I think this is why there is wireless charging on the n7, something the author missed.

  11. Josh

    08/21/2013 at 1:34 pm

    Ok, well this is the old Nexus 7. This doesn’t accurately represent the quality of the New Nexus 7. Besides, you are obviously biased against Nexus devices. This is especially evident in your article “Android 4.3: 7 Things Users and Buyers Need to Know” (seen here: “https://www.gottabemobile.com/2013/08/09/android-4-3-7-things-users-buyers-need-to-know/” ) The very first subtitle within that article was “Android 4.3 Has Bugs”. Seriously, if that’s how biased you are going to be, do NOT waste your time and our time by writing articles about Nexus devices that are not relevant at all. And as a side-note here, I have not experienced any bugs in 4.3 whatsoever and the UI is not sluggish AT ALL. Each new iteration of Android (with the exception of 4.2) is smoother than the last.

  12. Dean

    10/17/2013 at 5:50 am

    My Nexus 7 FHD is darn good. It is my first tablet and there is a slight learning curve. But it has a disturbing problem, don’t know if it is in the Nexus OS or in the browser. I start up a music video in Youtube but if I go to another tab on the browser (Chromium) the music stops. This doesn’t happen on my Linux (Kubuntu) or on the Windows computer.

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