Very well written. However there are some "factual" errors.
The screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass, meaning this panel is scratch resistant, but not finger print resistant unfortunately.
Actually this can be somewhat confusing, as it certainly is not the older "soda lime" glass technologies of yore. It is Corning FIT Glass, which is a newer trade marked glass and method of constructing displays (this is the new Corning "one glass solution"
)
Here's a great PDF document link that explains the new FIT pretty well
http://www.globalcommhost.com/corning/CDTContent/assets/2011FINETECH_Tompkins.pdf
To quote the document,
- Pros: Lightest & thinnest, simple supply chain, Optical performance
- Cons: Weaker edge-strength (why the screen lift could make this a fragile Nexus 7 display, granted this is greatly reduced now as you said in your review), Cutting & machining difficulty, Limited know-how
You'll find that FIT is based on their IOX-FS glass and when you compare to the Scratch load and surface failure graph, it's very close to Gorilla Glass. It also looks like while it has less of a scratch load resistance (250g versus 300g) it has better surface stress resistance at 600MPa versus 500MPa of Gorilla.
So perhaps it's only a quibble as it's the nearest thing to Gorilla Glass without sacrificing the benefit of having the display technology much thinner for a much better viewing result.
I'm very surprised Google isn't crowing about this technology, as it's superior to the Gorilla Glass tech the Amazon Kindle Fire HD for the ability to provide a better purity of display. I suspect two factors. One, the display technologies superiority is hampered by the "lousy" display calibration (don't get me wrong, it's beautiful, but it could be stellar without any hardware replacement if Google fixed the calibration). The second is mastering the QA of the edge of the display and the surrounding bezel.
You'll note in the document that Corning states that the need for a very durable display in tablets and handhelds (phones) requires that a bezel or other protective edge technology be used.
You get a great example of this with the Nexus 7 torture test on YouTube. You see it dropped on purpose once and while it's back pops off, it continues to run and the display looks just fine. The second drop and the display breaks.
I suspect the test unit may have been one with the screen lift problem (lower left corner edge) and the second drop hit that causing the screen failure. It would be interesting to have the torture test performed with a newer batch of C90's or later to see the results. I'm not volunteering though
I really had a great time this week. I'm close the the Seattle Amazon head quarters, so when I'm taking public transportation and checking my Google Maps while not having Wi-Fi connectivity. They are amazed that the ability to have maps "offline" and the GPS/Compass working so stellar. It's also really funny when I show my iPhone 4s and how the turn-by-turn navigation with my Nexus 7 "offline" is greater than the Apple Maps from iOS 6 (really regretting the OS upgrade at the moment).
In summary, great review, you did a good job and it's easy to understand the confusion over it being Gorilla Glass or not.
