opinions about the Tegra Note 7

[ahomad]

I am looking to get some cheap tablet for my daughter, something that I can use as well (not a cheap Chinese tablet). I had nexus 7 2012 which is now broken so looking for an alternative.

I am interested to get one but I see that it is not famous even the forum is almost empty. Can someone tell me why. I see the specs and price are excellent.

I want to hear opinions from owners of this tab before getting it. what do/don't you like about this tab? before either getting this or nexus 7 2013.

what I like about this over the nexus is the speakers and the styles, they will be useful for me and my daughter (to listen to songs and draw things). but the nexus has more RAM and better support. I don't care about the camera (I have Z1 SGS4 and pro camera) or the resolution as long as the quality of the screen is good, my old nexus 7 screen is good enough.

what do you guys think? get it, get the nexus or do you have any other suggestion?

 

[ahomad]

My problem with 1G RAM is not with opening apps or multitasking. But I am worried that the support for this tab will be dropped very soon because it won't have enough RAM. Most Manufacturers dropped support for device with 0.5 RAM and some even dropped support for devices with 1G RAM. I know that 4.4 tried to solve this issue but I still think that 1 G RAM isn't much and Tegra won't support this tab for long and will drop support after 4.4. What make this problem even more serious is that there is no much support for this tab from the community itself and not many ROMs available that could support this tab if nevidia gone this way. Any opinions?

 

[cars10k]

Well, i think you gotta ask yourself a few questions if you consider buying the TN7.

1. How important is the screen? It's just like all the tests say, the screen ist not SO good. It's ok, i think the resolution is enough, and i am happy with the colors - its not like everything is blue or something. But it is just "ok" and could be better. (for example in the N7'13) (this might be interesting if your daughter wants to read alot)
2. Do you need the stylus? This was the #1 reason for me to get a TN7, and i love it. Good for drawing and writing, but also just for everyday use. I never touch the screen with my finger =)
3. Does your daughter need skype or something? The front camera is VERY bad, and not usable for anything. (640x480 i think, just VGA)
4. The speakers are superawesome. Loud, clear and in generel very good, it's fun to watch videos and movies.

So, in my opinion you should go for the TN7. Guess custom rom support and stuff is not important for your daughter, and for entertainment, drawing and stuff it's very good.

ps: the resolution is more then enough to read, the kindle 4 for exampe just got 800xsomething. but 1080 is better of course

 

[Vibrate]

I am looking to get some cheap tablet for my daughter, something that I can use as well (not a cheap Chinese tablet). I had nexus 7 2012 which is now broken so looking for an alternative.

I am interested to get one but I see that it is not famous even the forum is almost empty. Can someone tell me why. I see the specs and price are excellent.

I want to hear opinions from owners of this tab before getting it. what do/don't you like about this tab? before either getting this or nexus 7 2013.

what I like about this over the nexus is the speakers and the styles, they will be useful for me and my daughter (to listen to songs and draw things). but the nexus has more RAM and better support. I don't care about the camera (I have Z1 SGS4 and pro camera) or the resolution as long as the quality of the screen is good, my old nexus 7 screen is good enough.

what do you guys think? get it, get the nexus or do you have any other suggestion?

I don't own one (yet) but if you're looking for a reason to get this over the Nexus 7... aside from the far superior processor (perhaps you won't notice if you don't play games) the HDMI Out is a good one. The Tegra Note's screen lower screen resolution won't make a difference when you're viewing on a HD TV.

My problem with 1G RAM is not with opening apps or multitasking. But I am worried that the support for this tab will be dropped very soon because it won't have enough RAM. Most Manufacturers dropped support for device with 0.5 RAM and some even dropped support for devices with 1G RAM. I know that 4.4 tried to solve this issue but I still think that 1 G RAM isn't much and Tegra won't support this tab for long and will drop support after 4.4. What make this problem even more serious is that there is no much support for this tab from the community itself and not many ROMs available that could support this tab if nevidia gone this way. Any opinions?

The underlying software (I'm told by youtube videos) is about identical to the one the Shield uses (the Nvidia Marketplace looks different). These same videos sounded confident that the updates would come along with the Shield updates. Even though it's only 1 GB, the processor is top of the line (for any price range). So I really hope Nvidia doesn't burn us.

 

[bubblesmoney]

I have the tegra note 7 (x3), nexus 7 2013, Nexus7 2012 (×2 but sold one and may sell the other one).

Been using the tegra note 7 mostly since I got it a while back in Dec 13. Reasonably happy with purchase enough to sell one of my nexus 7 2012 and may sell the other too.

Screen is about the same as nexus 7 2012. Speakers are great much better than nexus 7 2012 and Nexus7 2013 or my note 3 or s4. Back camera is Ok, hdr Mode is cool. Front camera is **** and Can't believe Nvidia even dreamt of putting such a lousy one. Haven't skyped with it but expect it to be lousy after brief testing the camera. Low light performance is obviously poor from both front and back cameras.

Pen is good and accurate and faster response than my note 1 phone or note 3. But pen apps are not as much as for note series.

Have two slide covers. Might be getting the extra Pens set from Newegg. Got the slide covers from pc world / currys UK like the tablet (£89.99 then using a code) . Plus usual other android accessories.

Hdmi micro output is useful. But all ports including hdmi usb have too much jiggling about of cable even after it is in so if device is not lying still then will lose connection. Pet adapter cable is SHORT.

Miracast Wireless screen mirroring works great. You can see my YouTube video from a month ago if interested in my tag line below. Will try to upload some more tegra note 7 videos this Weekend if I get the time.

1gb ram has been Ok in my experience surprisingly. Should get better with Kitkat.

Some gameloft games Eg newer haves work only with controllers and not even due to gameloft coding issue and older gameloft games work fine. Game controllers work fine.

Screen not an issue For browsing, movies, games, satnav.

Satnav works great with several mapping applications. Satellite lock faster with Google navigation than others irritatingly but once locked no issues later. Works great for hours of driving.

Will update more in my video review after using all these tablets for a while now (if I get the time this weekend). Thought of doing a quick review earlier but decided to use it for a while before making one. Been using mine for more than a month now.

 

[ahomad]

I have the tegra note 7 (x3), nexus 7 2013, Nexus7 2012 (×2 but sold one and may sell the other one).

Been using the tegra note 7 mostly since I got it a while back in Dec 13. Reasonably happy with purchase enough to sell one of my nexus 7 2012 and may sell the other too.

Screen is about the same as nexus 7 2012. Speakers are great much better than nexus 7 2012 and Nexus7 2013 or my note 3 or s4. Back camera is Ok, hdr Mode is cool. Front camera is **** and Can't believe Nvidia even dreamt of putting such a lousy one. Haven't skyped with it but expect it to be lousy after brief testing the camera. Low light performance is obviously poor from both front and back cameras.

Pen is good and accurate and faster response than my note 1 phone or note 3. But pen apps are not as much as for note series.

Have two slide covers. Might be getting the extra Pens set from Newegg. Got the slide covers from pc world / currys UK like the tablet (£89.99 then using a code) . Plus usual other android accessories.

Hdmi micro output is useful. But all ports including hdmi usb have too much jiggling about of cable even after it is in so if device is not lying still then will lose connection. Pet adapter cable is SHORT.

Miracast Wireless screen mirroring works great. You can see my YouTube video from a month ago if interested in my tag line below. Will try to upload some more tegra note 7 videos this Weekend if I get the time.

1gb ram has been Ok in my experience surprisingly. Should get better with Kitkat.

Some gameloft games Eg newer haves work only with controllers and not even due to gameloft coding issue and older gameloft games work fine. Game controllers work fine.

Screen not an issue For browsing, movies, games, satnav.

Satnav works great with several mapping applications. Satellite lock faster with Google navigation than others irritatingly but once locked no issues later. Works great for hours of driving.

Will update more in my video review after using all these tablets for a while now (if I get the time this weekend). Thought of doing a quick review earlier but decided to use it for a while before making one. Been using mine for more than a month now.

Thanks for the detailed answer.

I just have one question since you have both the note 7 and nexus 7 (2012). Can you tell me whats better in the note 7 and whats better in the nexus 2012 as I had nexus 7 2012 and was a great device, I just want quick comparison in few lines if you don't mind.

Thanks in advance.

 

[cars10k]

Better in the N7'12:
#1 colors might be bit better
#2 community, rom support
#3 updates
#4 accessoire availability

better in tn7:
#1 performance is way better
#2 stylus ofc =)
#3 usbotg works with for example usbsticks or 360 controller (both tested), not sure about the n7 there

for me its defenitly the tn7. stylus is just awesome

 

[ickk]

So I have the tegra note 7 and I've owned other devices like both of the n7s, 10 inch tablets like transformers and galaxy note tabs.

This tablet is THE FASTEST tablet I have ever used.

Tegra Note 7 Pros
-MicroSD card slot
-Front Facing Speakers
-Stock android with a few OEM applications that are actually useful
-Pen Input
-One of the fastest SoCs out there, probably the most featured.
-instant HDR photos
-USB Digital to Analog Converters work out of the box, USB audio sounds good too.
-dedicated HDMI/miracast support
-The best value around at $199


Cons
-Front facing camera is very low resolution, like 640x480. I don't video chat much and even when I do I don't really care about these things, I'd actually prefer not to be in ULTRA HD while I've been lounging around the house unshaven. But still, 640x480 is quite low for a newer device, even if it is $199.
-Short USB cable. I really hate when OEMs get stingy over an extra 2-3 feet of cable.
-IPS displays illuminate blacks and sometimes have bad 'backlight bleeding' on the sides. I would have paid an extra hundred dollars for a display with better color balance than what IPS offers. The screen gets bright, and has good viewing angles/color balance for an IPS display, but at the end of the day it's still IPS. It fits the price of the tablet.

What can be seen as cons:
1280x800 resolution
I do not feel 220ppi is bad in any way shape or form. I can not see pixels even when I move it about 5 inches away from my face. The resolution works great on 7 inch tablets and reduces the strain on the GPU. This translates into higher FPS and a lighter GPU load, leaving a lot of computational power for the tablet to tap into when needed.
1 GB RAM
While I would prefer 2GB, I have grown used to 1GB. Here's a big misconception people make "More RAM is better". More RAM means more power draw, having high amounts of RAM can drop battery life. The way android handles RAM is to kill old processes when more memory is needed, this has worked for years with lower amounts of RAM because it means your most recent processes will always run at a higher priority.
The drawback to this, is that with resource-intensive applications open like games, you can lose old processes from days ago from memory. But I would argue that this is a good memory management scheme because it gets rid of apps you leave open for ages and forget to close, and gives more memory to your game so it doesn't lag. Now with more memory that old application would be around longer, sitting in memory, eating up energy until you close it, run out of memory, or open it again.
At the same time, some newer devices NEED more RAM. This is due to having a high resolution, on a 720p screen your UI elements may be 64x64, well on higher resolutions it goes up to 72x72, 96x96, 128x128, etc. This means that higher resolutions have higher memory requirements because their resources are larger. With a tablet like the tegra note 7, 1GB is okay for 720p resources. With a tablet like the 2013 nexus 7, it is not.


Other Thoughts
I am left handed and really love that Nvidia didn't forget about us lefties. The draw app included with the tablet has leftie optimization. I also love the placement of all the connectors, they are all on one side of the tablet. The settings app has a CPU menu where you can change from quad core mode to dual core mode and I liked that. I would have preferred to have the front facing camera in a closer location to the rear camera, so it doesn't get covered in landscape as easily.

But really, for $200?! It beats everything on the market right now, including the 2013 nexus 7. For any tablet that has a feature that edges out on the Tegra Note 7, the tegra note 7 has about 4-5 tricks the other tablets don't. I cannot complain at all for what I paid, this device will be fast for years to come once the AOSP builds come.

 

[bubblesmoney]

Thanks for the detailed answer.

I just have one question since you have both the note 7 and nexus 7 (2012). Can you tell me whats better in the note 7 and whats better in the nexus 2012 as I had nexus 7 2012 and was a great device, I just want quick comparison in few lines if you don't mind.

Thanks in advance.

Looks like others have covered many points I agree with already.

Basically almost everything is better on the tegra note 7 than nexus 7 2012. Screen is debatable though.

Tegra note 7 is better ..... cpu, gpu, speakers, sd slot, pen, miracast, hdmi, back camera, Slide cover accessory.

Nexus 7 2012 is better. ... Faster software updates better grip while holding in one hand, front facing camera is better quality, battery life better than tegra note 7, can get 32gb internal storage unlike the tegra note 7, more accessories available.

Some other things.... Nexus 7 2012 although does not have miracast but can cast some apps to miracast receivers. Nexus7 2012 too has usb OTG support when used with nexus media importer app. The loud speakers on the tegra note 7 make it better as a sat nav in my experience.

Some things I don't like. ....
On the tegra note 7. .... random screen switches on. Ports have too much looseness Eg need to keep usb cable still add If you move Tablet then easily gets dislodged. Sane problem with hdmi. Both ports too close together and some cables might not fit together but other cables will fit.
On the Nexus7 2012. .. starts lagging like hell when full unlike the tegra note 7.

This is as short as I can get it.

If your want shorter then. ... Just buy the tegra note 7
Can't wait to ditch samsung note 3 to get a full specked tegra note phone if and when launched with premium features.
Great buy for £89.99 at Curry's using code but code expired now.

 

[NCSUZoSo]

Everyone in here needs to realize something, there has to be a profit margin in ANY device sold. How much do you think it cost for just the bare Tegra 4 chip? I would guess $75-$100 OEM for just the chip itself and then you have roughly $99 more to build EVERYTHING else. I honestly only have 2 complaints with the TN7, 1GB of RAM and the Screen. For the cost though, I can't really say they are complaints, more just something I could point at as a short fall if asked to name some. Everything else is awesome, from sound to Tegra 4 speed.

 

[ahomad]

Thanks everyone for your nice and informative answers, (there is a community for the TN7

I ordered mine and should be receiving it tomorrow. I noticed that the main issue is with both cameras which isn't important for me. What worries me is that most people aren't very happy with the screen but I guess I will have to wait and see myself. I am happy to see that the speaker and the styles are of very good quality.

I got mine from PCWORLD for 129.99£ I wish I knew about the 89.99 offer, I would have got two , anyway it is still a bargain.

 

[e8hffff]

I got my first Tegra Note from Aliexpress as soon as they were released, a Chinese Homecare model, the same company that manufactures all the version I hear. The problem was the tablet I got seemed to be poorly made. On day 0 I couldn't get the usb cable in. I realised most of my sockets were unaligned to the plastic case. Then there was missing Google Apps and the GPS didn't work so I needed to root and go into repair mode. After bending the USB connector up a little I could power and start work at making this tablet usable. Well within a few days I had a software bricked unit and the repair mechanisms like recovery and bootloader partitions were so limited on this model that I couldn't remedy. The moral to the story is buy local if you can.

I now have an EVGA Tegra Note and it's far better experience. The manufacturing is better and everything works bar the GPS which may come down to the satellite table being narrow.

Buyers should consider that Nvidia's Tegra Tablets are a new series using one of the fastest CPU cores around so if you want to be apart of this new cruise get onboard. It's only going to get better.

 

[slybunda]

gps is non functional on this tablet, takes over half an hour to aquire a lock and looses it in 30 seconds.

 

[bubblesmoney]

gps is non functional on this tablet, takes over half an hour to aquire a lock and looses it in 30 seconds.

Gps works fine on mine but slightly slower with new updates. Lock was faster before. Lock is faster with Google Navigation than other apps. Mine work fine in the UK for online and off line navigation using various sat nav apps for hours of driving to unfamiliar cities. Once locked have never lost a signal since I bought in December. I have compared it with Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and nexus 7 2013 and For long journeys now mainly use tegra note 7 due to Good speakers. For short journeys I use my note 3.

Lock time is Ok with updates but was faster before. Only on 3 occasions lock took a while but rebooting device sorted it out.

Battery life is better with nexus 7 2013 and 2012 during navigation though than the tegra note 7.

 

[Vibrate]

Ok, I bought the Tegra and have had time to play around with it.

• The USB cable it comes with fits loosely into the port. Other cables I've tried fit much better however.
• The casing makes noise when I'm holding it. If my thumb is on one of the front facing speakers, iI can feel it compress slightly and its accompanied by a clicking sound. As I walk my fingers around the edge of the tablet and press down gently, I hear a slight clicking. I worry that the screen is going to come out of the plastic shell. And for this reason, I will not root this device until the warranty has expired. I should probably review the warranty sooner rather than later because I'm not sure of the details.
• Overall I'm very happy with the purchase and performance of tthis tablet but I will update this post if needed.

 

[Arpit_Gupta]

Freeze!

I recently bought this tablet but was disappointed to find out that it froze quite often and had to be rebooted after every 15-20 minutes. The problem continues to persist even after upgrading to Android 4.3. Please help!

 

[bubblesmoney]

I recently bought this tablet but was disappointed to find out that it froze quite often and had to be rebooted after every 15-20 minutes. The problem continues to persist even after upgrading to Android 4.3. Please help!

Freezing is an issue if apps are moved to sd card improperly. This causes freezing and reboot loops and low battery in my samsung devices. Have you moved apps to sd card. If so then remove sd card and see if problems resolved. If it is Ok without sd card then start deleting the apps one by one when in your tablet. If it crashes too often the insert the card into your laptop and delete the hidden Android folder which should sort the problem if it was due to improper moving of app to sd card

 

[Arpit_Gupta]

Freezing is an issue if apps are moved to sd card improperly. This causes freezing and reboot loops and low battery in my samsung devices. Have you moved apps to sd card. If so then remove sd card and see if problems resolved. If it is Ok without sd card then start deleting the apps one by one when in your tablet. If it crashes too often the insert the card into your laptop and delete the hidden Android folder which should sort the problem if it was due to improper moving of app to sd card

Thanks for the speedy reply. But I haven't even yet installed an sd card.. All I have done is install apps from playstore to the tablet's inbuilt memory.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

 

[bubblesmoney]

Thanks for the speedy reply. But I haven't even yet installed an sd card.. All I have done is install apps from playstore to the tablet's inbuilt memory.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Have you tried a factory reset. Did it sort the problem out. After factory reset install apps one by one and wait 15 to 20 mins to see if any of the apps wad causing the issue. Can't think of anything else to suggest. If problem continues then I would get an exchange or refund if I were you.

 

[Arpit_Gupta]

Have you tried a factory reset. Did it sort the problem out. After factory reset install apps one by one and wait 15 to 20 mins to see if any of the apps wad causing the issue. Can't think of anything else to suggest. If problem continues then I would get an exchange or refund if I were you.

By any chance, could there be some problem with the hardware which is causing such freezes?

Sent from my GT-I9500 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

---------- Post added at 11:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:47 AM ----------

By any chance, could there be some problem with the hardware which is causing such freezes?

Sent from my GT-I9500 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

I have tried resetting the tablet too by the way.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app