Google Nexus 7 (2013): The Best Android Tablet Yet
Performance: CPU and Web Browsing
In the following tests, we take a look at how the 2013 Nexus 7 compares to other tablets by running a few common benchmarks that are currently available in the Google Play Store. Since it was available, we also upgraded the original Nexus 7 to Android 4.3 Jelly, the same OS that's on the current model, and re-ran those benchmarks for a more accurate comparison between the two.
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Right out of the gate, Google's updated Nexus 7 shows a vast improvement in performance over the original model. The 2013 Nexus 7 also runs circles around the competition, which is a testament to the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and 2GB of RAM. It also works in the Nexus 7's favor that it doesn't have to waste any resources on third-party overlays like TouchWiz.
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Here again, the 2013 Nexus 7 put a fair amount of distance between it and its predecessor, though it wasn't quite able to dip below the 1,000ms mark like the Surface RT, Galaxy Note 8.0, or Transformer Pad Infinity. Subjectively, browsing the web on the Nexus 7 is silky smooth. We didn't experience any hiccups or lag, nor did we expect to with 2GB of RAM at our disposable and the most mature version of Android to date.
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In Browsermark, the 2013 Nexus 7 didn't put any significant distance between and the 2012 model, but it did run at the front of the pack trailing only the iPhone 5.
