Asus Online Rep Reveals Nexus 7.2 Specs / Available Later This Month (July)

[Babyfacemagee]

Sometimes if you want to know top secret new product information all you gotta do is ask.  At least that's how it appears from the screen grabs of a conversation that an XDA forum member had with an Asus online chat support representative.  The chat, which was found on XDA and posted to Google+ by Tim P shows someone simply asking Asus online support when the new K009 Nexus 7 tablet will be released to the public, to which the Asus rep replies 'before Q2' and then 'before the ending of July'.  He then goes on to list what he says are 'unconfirmed specifications', and these line up well with what we've previously seen and heard: 7 inch LED with 1980 * 1200 resolution, Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 Quad Core CPU / Snapdragon APQ8064 CPU, 2GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, 5Mpx rear camera and 1.2Mpx front camera, Android 4.3, 4000 mAh battery, Wifi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC enabled, LTE / WCDMA / GSM support.

Now there's no real surprises here in the specs, although it's nice to see the Snapdragon 600 mentioned and not the Snapdragon S4 Pro which had been previously rumored.  Also the mention of Android 4.3 as well as the LTE / WCDMA / GSM support all go along with previous leaks and rumors so while the rep calls these specs 'unconfirmed', we'd say they're a pretty sure bet.  Now the only thing we need to know is the final pricing and what the redesigned Nexus 7 will look like.  What do you guys think?  Are you happy with these specs?  Will you be buying the 2nd generation Nexus 7 when it becomes available later this month?

[engineer]

Looks very nice. There's no mention of an sd slot for additional space. Also hope the power cord will be better located.

Will probably buy, depending on price.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[JayJ]

There won't be an SD card slot on a Nexus...

Sent from my Paranoid Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[engineer]

Why is that? Is it a matter of Google policy?

Sent from my Nexus 7

[JayJ]

Google don't believe in them, they believe no SD card gives a better user experience plus it makes mounting user memory easier with MTP and no hacks to mount the card. Any Android device running Jelly Bean will need a workaround from the OEM to mount an SD card because it simply isn't a part of Android.

Sent from my Paranoid Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[sholling]

The lack of a SD card will be a deal killer for me. My OG Nexus 7 will just have to soldier on until I can afford a full featured 7 or 8" tablet. The lack of as SD card isn't a technical limitation, lots of Android phones have SD cards including 64GB SD cards, it's Google's way of forcing Nexus users to use Google Drive. The fact that it makes the Nexus 7 a far less than ideal tablet for vacations does not interest Google - they want to force you to keep your data on Google Drive. The only thing that makes sense is they must be mining user data on Google Drive, there simply isn't any other reason for pushing Nexus users to store their data there. 

[JayJ]

I disagree, Google drive is not the reason. It's Google's belief that not having external storage gives a better use experience and makes an Android device less complicated. It's the whole where do apps save data and people getting confused as to whether the data they are looking for is on the internal or external storage. I'm happy with no external storage on a Nexus but I wish they'd give more storage options like 64Gb et cetera.

Sent from my Paranoid Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[Babyfacemagee]

This article would seem to corroborate JayJ's statement.

[engineer]

I too don't believe the reason given for no sdcard. How can saving files to an sd be more complicated than selecting which folder to save to? It's just another storage device! I don't know why Google does not want Nexus users to have an sdcard but complexity is certainly not the real reason.

Here's an honest question: if I wanted to buy an android 7 inch tablet that is at least as good as the Nexus 7 but has an sdcard which tablet should I look at? Thank you for any advice.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[Babyfacemagee]

The Sero 7 Pro is basically identical to the current generation Nexus 7 in many respects but has a Micro SD and is less money to boot.  Check out www.Sero7Forum.com to learn more.  You won't get the latest updates to Android as soon as they're released like you will with a Nexus device however and it's made by 'Hisense' which appears to be some kind of Walmart in-house brand, not Asus so I can't vouch for the build quality or long-term support.

[engineer]

Thank you. Interesting.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[matt]

There's also the asus memo hd. I'd prefer an sd for media storage, but I like the usb port on the n7 as it is not soldered to the motherboard. Had a few devices break there. I'll wait til I need a replacement, always something better round the corner.

[JayJ]

MTP or Media Transfer Protocol is a method of mounting internal storage, this method (although with its problems) allows the internal storage to be mounted to the computer without being unmounted from the device. This means applications don't lose their storage whilst mounted to a PC.
Yes, OEM's do put in place ways around this but they are hacks or workarounds and Google isn't about to hack it's own OS.
My N7 is 32GB which is plenty big enough for what I need, I use an OTG cable, a USB thumb drive and Stickmount to transfer movies to my N7 which I delete once I've watched. Personally I feel no need to have expandable storage and I'd rather this workaround that wait for updates from an unknown OEM. That's my personal opinion.

Sent from my Paranoid Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[S.Prime]

Just to offer a conflicting view, which unfortunately cannot be verified, because it states the need for hardware which was not included on our Nexus 7. Notably, it supports JayJ's statements entirely, with the exception of Google's choice to exclude the hardware. I can neither verify or deny the validity of the following, but I do find it interesting.

ICS supports USB Mass Storage (UMS). The Nexus 7 does not. This is the same scenario as Honeycomb, as for instance HC supports USB Mass Storage while Xoom did not.

If a given device has a removable SD card it will support USB Mass Storage. If it has only built-in storage (like Xoom and Nexus 7) it will (usually) support only MTP and PTP.

It isn't physically possible to support UMS on devices that don't have a dedicated partition for storage (like a removable SD card, or a separate partition like Nexus S.) This is because UMS is a block-level protocol that gives the host PC direct access to the physical blocks on the storage, so that Android cannot have it mounted at the same time.

With the unified storage model introduced in Honeycomb, you share your full 32GB (or 16GB or whatever) between app data and media data, it's all one big happy volume.

However the cost is that Android can no longer ever yield up the storage for the host PC to molest directly over USB. Instead we use MTP. On Windows (which the majority of users use), it has built-in MTP support in Explorer that makes it look exactly like a disk.

[engineer]

Oh darn! Why do we have to have facts to ruin a good argument! ;-)

Sent from my Nexus 7