Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) Improves Performance
Android 4.1, code-named Jelly Bean, is one of the Nexus 7's greatest assets. It's an apropos combination: the Nexus 7 is a tablet aficionado’s hard candy, and Android turns out to be a delicious filling. Google is using its first tablet offering as an opportunity to debut Jelly Bean, which contains several usability improvements, including voice dictation (read all about the operating system's new features).
As a hardware guy, however, it's also easy to be impressed by how Jelly Bean affects the Nexus 7’s CPU and GPU performance.
Google claims that Jelly Bean’s internal improvements make the Android user experience so much smoother that the company internally dubbed its efforts “Project Butter.” Page 2 of Reporting From Google I/O 2012: Nexus 7 And Jelly Bean (Android 4.1)details many of the enhancements, but we'll review some of the raw benchmarks comparing Jelly Bean to its predecessor, Ice Cream Sandwich. According to Android engineering director Dave Burke, the core changes include:
- To quote Google's developer page, "To ensure a consistent frame rate, Android 4.1 extends v-sync timing across all drawing and animation done by the Android framework. Everything runs in lockstep against a 16 millisecond v-sync heartbeat—application rendering, touch events, screen composition, and display refresh—so frames don’t get ahead or behind."
- Again, to quote Google's already-simple explanation, "Android 4.1 also adds triple buffering in the graphics pipeline for more consistent rendering that makes everything feel smoother, from scrolling to paging and animations."
- Finally, "Android 4.1 reduces touch latency not only by synchronizing touch to v-sync timing, but also by actually anticipating where your finger will be at the time of the screen refresh. This results in a more reactive and uniform touch response. In addition, after periods of inactivity, Android applies a CPU input boost at the next touch event, to make sure there’s no latency."
In practice, battery life seems largely unaffected moving from Ice Cream Sandwich to Jelly Bean.
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I've had mine for about a week now, picked it up in JB Hi-Fi for $317 (AUSD 16GB version).
Extremely impressed, blows my Iconia A500 out of the water.
I just wish they had cases for the Nexus 7 in stock.
No thanks, I'll wait for Surface Pro. It will only be 5 times more expensive, three times heavier, and I simply must run Photoshop and AutoCAD on a tablet, because... just because.
Microsoft FTW
Wow, it seems that the nexus 7 is a really great product. Every reviewers seems to be very pleased with it's performance, portability and low price. This really is what every tablet should be
. The only issue I heard was that the speakers are quite terrible although I didn't see that mentioned in this review
if it had a fruity logo, it would be $400more
Well, I have the Nexus 7 and I love it, I really dont like the 10" screen size on other tablets, I think 7" is great, but speaking of the Surface Pro, depending on how that thing performs it could easily replace my current notebook since it could have the capabilities of a ultrabook
I was reading the specs and was really impressed with the screen pixel density but missed reading the price first time around. Then when I saw the price that just blew me away.
This isn't some left field tablet with no supporting software and apps. This is android and all that is attached to the OS. Google is going to blow apple out of the water. I'm looking forward to the lowered earnings guidance from apple any day now.
Love what they've done with the the Nexus lineup. All pretty affordable now and now with Jelly Bean, I'm sure even Apple lovers will like Android honestly. Project Butter and the new Voice Command is much better. Voice is better than Siri now too, pretty awesome.
Hope they don't take long to release a nexus 10 tablet. Me want a bigger screen
+ Getting all updates first straight from google + best dev support FTW.
Great review, love how Toms always goes a little further while most other gadget sites only present an opinion.
Any numbers on internal storage and wifi throughput performance?
Have one on order and it would be interesting to know how long it would take to copy for example a movie onto the device.
Great review! I wanted one sooooooooo badly but wound up going with a Samsung Galaxy 4.2 media player because all I needed was a super portable way to do email and manage my business calendar and contacts on the go without having to whip out my laptop (and there's no way I'll ever pay for a data plan aka ripoff for a smartphone).
Would have LOVED this tablet instead, because it looks incredible, but sadly it won't fit in my pocket 24/7
On the other news, Apple is releasing a smaller version of iPad to compete with nexus 7 at a "compelling price" of $400.
I just recently received my 16GB. It's surprisingly solid and is a great little consumption device. Plus, they make the deal pretty sweet by throwing in $25 Google Play credit and free $10 to your Google Wallet (Can be used for NFC transactions). I couldn't ask for better hardware for the price.
Johanj- I've had 0 issues with the wifi, in facts, it's performed rather well in my little apartment hitting some of the upper limits of my connection.
The internal storage does poorly on random 4k writes, average on 4k reads, and average on larger read/writes (compared to current top Android tablets).
All-in-all it will serve it's purpose as something to do while the girlfriend is asleep next to me.
If I install Android 4.1 on my Samsung ATT Galaxy 8.9 will I see a significant improvement in performance? It seems that Google waited long enough for the launch to finally come out with the right oversion of the operating system to give them a head start over other tablet vendors.
google play has so much junk in it....i am still waiting for my ICS....is there anyone listening out there?...GOOGLE=fail when it comes to updates, this is one thing Apple does better
Well, I have the Nexus 7 and I love it, I really dont like the 10" screen size on other tablets, I think 7" is great, but speaking of the Surface Pro, depending on how that thing performs it could easily replace my current notebook since it could have the capabilities of a ultrabook
If your notebook can be replaced by a device the size of a netbook with a crappy keyboard. I hope you have sharp eyes and small hands
google play has so much junk in it....i am still waiting for my ICS....is there anyone listening out there?...GOOGLE=fail when it comes to updates, this is one thing Apple does better
Better my a*s. I bought an iPod touch 2G 16GB a few months after it was released and a year and a half later (2010) they dropped support with iOS 4.2.1. It pissed me off so much I swore that I will never buy another Apple product again.
Also, on a hardware level, people who "upgraded" from the iPhone 4 to iPhone 4S. And don't forget that the iPod touch 4G remained absolutely the same.
"Updates are the one thing Apple does better"... Yeah, right. Give me a break.
google play has so much junk in it....i am still waiting for my ICS....is there anyone listening out there?...GOOGLE=fail when it comes to updates, this is one thing Apple does better
DA.
It's not Google who release updates to your phones, it's the manufacturer. Blame them for the slow updates.
It's not google that is bad at updates it's your tablet's manufacturer. As the article stated. Each one modifies the Android operating system to fit their hardware design better. So, if you do not get updates complain to the maker of your tablet they are the ones not giving you the update.
Thanks for the comments everyone!
Cheers,
Andrew Ku
Tom's Hardware