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Inside the Nexus 7

nexus 7 teardown ifixit The new Nexus 7 has been in the hands of the average consumer for less than a day and the disassembly wunderkinds at iFixit have already posted a striptease.

Update: Apparently i am the one person in the world who didn’t know that this tablet had wireless charging. (What can I say, I didn’t pay much attention to the launch. After all the leaks I was bored with the story.)

Their efforts have confirmed the specs released before the official launch  as well as the FCC filing, and iFixit also found a feature that isn’t mentioned on the product page, spec sheet, or press release.

In addition to stereo speakers, NFC antenna, and all the other components we already knew about, the new Nexus 7 has an inductive charging antenna.

That is against the back panel, and according to iFixit there’s also a controller chip for it. Unlike the CPU and wireless chips, that chip was provided by Texas Instruments.

nexus 7 teardown ifixit 2

If you are looking to buy a Nexus 7, this tablet hit store shelves today. You can find it at Best Buy, Amazon, Google Play and elsewhere.

I got my unit this afternoon at BB. My local store had a huge pile of them in one of the locked cases, and I’m sure most stores were equally well supplied.

So far I am finding it to be an interesting tablet but I have yet to be amazed. It’s a polished and well-refined design which is easy to hold in one hand between thumb and fingertips, but I do not care for the non-removable bloatware or Google’s attitude towards registration. I much prefer a more generic Android experience.

I’m still not sure I am keeping it, but I plan to play with it for a few more days before making a final decision.

iFixit

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Comments


Sami Nenonen July 27, 2013 um 7:20 am

Hopefully the new Nexus 7 will have improved the build quality compared to that of the frankly shitty original.

Mine is less than an year old and it feels like its coming completely apart any moment. If AAPL gets an iPad mini with retina display out this year I’m definitely getting one instead.


Alexander Inglis July 27, 2013 um 8:30 am

Actually, that feature — wireless charging — was highlighted in the lengthy press event. It’s another reason I might be interested in this tablet.

Nate Hoffelder July 27, 2013 um 8:46 am

Really? Damn. How did I miss that?


Logan Kennelly July 27, 2013 um 9:46 am

I gave a day one Nexus 7 to my partner, who destroys everything, and it’s still going strong. The tablet is in a case, but it’s not as though I bought an Otterbox.

Nate, what attitude toward registration? I usually sign in with my Google account, but it still seems completely optional in 4.2. Has something changed?

Logan Kennelly July 27, 2013 um 9:52 am

I should have done my research first. Are you referring to the fact you have to connect to WiFi first before you can skip registration?

Nate Hoffelder July 27, 2013 um 10:23 am

Registration did not appear to be optional. Also, Wifi set up was not optional.

With many generic Android tablets you can simply turn them on and use them.


Fritz G August 8, 2013 um 3:30 pm

What would you consider a good generic android tablet?

Nate Hoffelder August 8, 2013 um 4:12 pm

Hisense just dropped the price of their Sero 7 Pro tablet. I have heard good things about it.


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