Cracked 2012 Nexus 7 Repair: Worth It Or A $55 Mistake?

[Daniel Sauvageau]

You do know that Google is probably releasing a 2016 tablet successor by this summer, right?

No, I didn't - and that article was sent in about three months ago while rumors of a possible 2016 N7 bubbled up only a few days ago. (Well, the rumor mill really started spinning around April 7th when Huawei registered the 7P trademark from what I have found so far.)

While I have no doubt that the 2016 N7 will have even better specs than the 2013 model, the seemingly ambitious targets I have seen people throw around make me little nervous about the price.

 

[Victory Toast]

While I have no doubt that the 2016 N7 will have even better specs than the 2013 model, the seemingly ambitious targets I have seen people throw around make me little nervous about the price.

I hope increasing your budget to somewhere in the vicinity of $300 sounds worthwhile. Considering everything you've gone through just for a decent experience, it's likely your only hope short of Obiwan or the Pixel C. (Kekeke)

I have a 6P and it's really nice, but it still isn't a replacement for the 2013 Nexus 7 I had before it exploded with my firm grip last year.

If Google brings its best foot forward and introduces a multitasking feature like Picture-in-picture that would be awesome.

Hopefully it isn't afraid to incorporate specs similar to those of the Pixel C.

 

[Mgo___]

I have had a nexus 7 2013 edition and it has been devoid of any problems! It is in a word, fantastic. I use it to read emails, to watch movies, to listen go music, to do research, and so many other things. In fact, I liked it so much, I went out recently a bought a second Nexus 7 because I believe it has become a classic or will be soon. I love it's light weight, dependability and size that fits into ones pocket or clutch putse. For the price point of under 250$ it is awesome. Price point aside, it is quite frankly the best tablet ever created! I use it to take photos , and I even reconfigured it to make free telephone calls! Awesome!
Finally, I have the security of knowing that I have that second Nexus 7 in reserve to use when the day comes that the one I'm using finally stops giving me so much joy and pleasure! Best..ever...tablet computer..the
Color piexel graphics are also by far the best and Android apps are te now and the future folks. Case CLOSED!

 

[Mgo___]

I've never had any problems with my Nexus 7 Second generation 2013.It is awesome!

 

[Daniel Sauvageau]

I hope increasing your budget to somewhere in the vicinity of $300 sounds worthwhile.

The 2012 N7 cost $200 at launch for the 16GB model, the 2013 model bumped that to $225 so following that pattern, I would expect the 2016 base model to be $250 which would already make it the most expensive 7" tablet on the market. If Google really wants it to be a launch vehicle to showcase N's multi-tasking capabilities and put them into as many hands as possible, I do not think it can afford pushing the price much further up to avoid a repeat of the N9's market rejection.

Coincidentally, I went to visit Staples' (.ca) web site yesterday and saw that they had the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4" (the SM-T700 from 2014) on clearance sale for $230 (CAN) but the nearest store that still has one (and only one) in stock is over 100km away. Now that would have been some serious tablet bang-per-buck. Could that be foreshadowing for where Samsung expects the 2016 N7 to land? That would shake things up.

The sub-$300 tablet market needs a massive kick in the pants to break the four years of near-stagnation.

 

[g-unit1111]

You do know that Google is probably releasing a 2016 tablet successor by this summer, right?

Details of its release date and price should be revealed at the Google IO conference this month.

HTC manufactures the current model Nexus 7 and on paper the specs are really solid but the lack of storage and no micro XDHC card slot is a deal breaker. I wonder if Google will stick with HTC or move to someone else? Maybe Huawei? I've seen some solid tablets from them and the Honor 5X and Nexus 6 look like solid phones.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

The sheer effort and perseverance that went into these repairs are amazing. Thank you for documenting everything so well, it is great to see people not giving up on their devices. I've got a small SMD inductor I keep CBAing to re-solder on my laptop for a year, which prevents the screen backlight from working, this story should be enough inspiration to finally get it done. Keep up the excellent work!

 

[Daniel Sauvageau]

HTC manufactures the current model Nexus 7 and on paper the specs are really solid but the lack of storage and no micro XDHC card slot is a deal breaker.

Current version? Both the 2012 and 2013 Nexus 7 were manufactured by Asus. The Nexus 9 was made by HTC.

Speculations about the new Nexus 7 point towards Huawei due to the "7P" trademark application last month, Google having announced that they want Android N into as many hands as possible, and Huawei being eager to use the Nexus brand to boost their worldwide consumer market recognition.

this story should be enough inspiration to finally get it done. Keep up the excellent work!

Thanks and good luck with your repair!

 

[g-unit1111]

HTC manufactures the current model Nexus 7 and on paper the specs are really solid but the lack of storage and no micro XDHC card slot is a deal breaker.

Current version? Both the 2012 and 2013 Nexus 7 were manufactured by Asus. The Nexus 9 was made by HTC.

Speculations about the new Nexus 7 point towards Huawei due to the "7P" trademark application last month, Google having announced that they want Android N into as many hands as possible, and Huawei being eager to use the Nexus brand to boost their worldwide consumer market recognition.

this story should be enough inspiration to finally get it done. Keep up the excellent work!

Thanks and good luck with your repair!

Yeah I meant to say Nexus 9. Brain fart. :lol:

 

[fr33d0m111]

The sub-$300 tablet market needs a massive kick in the pants to break the four years of near-stagnation.

Have you considered the Nvidia Shield Tablet (OG/K1)? May be slightly too big to fit in the back pocket, but it has a great 8" screen, sufficient RAM, and decent CPU. Just did the multi-touch test on mine, and it seems to handle 3+ finger-inputs very well. The K1 starts at $200, but surely beats the other tablets on the list in all aspects except a compact size.

 

[Daniel Sauvageau]

Have you considered the Nvidia Shield Tablet (OG/K1)?

After the "Everything else at BB/Staples" part of my market overview: "I am glad to see Nvidia re-launch its Shield Tab K1 at $200 but it remains scarcely available in Canada."

In the USA, you can walk inside the nearest Best Buy and buy one there. In Canada, it is mainly available through third-party vendors (many of which listing it at over $400) and online shops that charge 10-15% restocking fees on top of return shipping, not very whim-friendly.

 

[michael_280]

nvidia shield thats is a tablet that just does not dissepoint me.
its cheap has a good sock , only bad thing i can say about is is the battery life is to short. but it has android 6.0 official support so that is nice.they replaced my tablet free of charge after a battery bug presented its self . giving me 2 tablets . 1 for spare parts . witch i used to fix one i got cheap with a broken screen.

i have a nexus 7 2013 that one 2 is a great device but getting older

i have a 7 inch HD fire kindle for the kids ( model with volume buttons on the back.) yes its slow, heavy, but built to last. its handeling one an a halve years of abuse, you know small childeren they really hammer the stuff. but this one keeps on going.
more then i can say for my pore nexus 2013 USB connector broke.... and a samsung the broke the on off button. and the USB poort.
i own also a sony Z ultra a phone tablet (6,4 inch display)
and a Sony Z3 compact tablet ( 7 inch )
both are fine the Z ultra can take a plownding als well it does have a rubber protector. its 2 1/2 years old now but still doing its job. it has android 5.1.1 official updats from sony

 

[Daniel Sauvageau]

nvidia shield thats is a tablet that just does not dissepoint me.
its cheap has a good sock , only bad thing i can say about is is the battery life is to short. but it has android 6.0

Complaints about short battery life and high temperature are two more reasons why I'm skipping the K1 and never considered the N9. One of the things I liked the most about the Z580C is that it never got noticeably warm thanks to its 22nm Atom. (And unsurprisingly, the device getting uncomfortably warm is one of the things that annoy me the most about the 2012 N7 when mine isn't playing dead. That also annoyed me with the Tab 4.)

 

[xvegan]

It sounds like you are a meth head. It would have been so much more fun to put the unit under a back tire and peel out. I'm glad you got it working. What was the final cost in parts?

 

[Daniel Sauvageau]

I'm glad you got it working. What was the final cost in parts?

$50 CAN for the LCD, $5 for the LVDS cable, $0.20 for the capacitor if we include that first fix.

 

[electric_mouse]

Woohoo! Finally an interesting article on Tom's Hardware.

 

[JonDol]

Hi there. Thank you for the admirable effort that went into this story. You made my job a lot easier on advising my friends/clients to buy iPads and make them understand why iDevices are more expensive.

 

[ignatu]

You can buy a used N7 for less than the screen/digitizer.

 

[Daniel Sauvageau]

You can buy a used N7 for less than the screen/digitizer.

I have bid on a few used 2012 and 2013 N7 between November and February. All of those I have bid on, even the non-working "for parts" ones, closed at over $70 with $10-25 of shipping on top.

 

[captaincharisma]

You can buy a used N7 for less than the screen/digitizer.

You can buy a used N7 for less than the screen/digitizer.

I have bid on a few used 2012 and 2013 N7 between November and February. All of those I have bid on, even the non-working "for parts" ones, closed at over $70 with $10-25 of shipping on top.

yea i need to start doing that soon. i scratched the motherboard on mine getting the battery connector out so i need a replacement board. the big problem for me is i need a 32GB board

 

[Daniel Sauvageau]

yea i need to start doing that soon. i scratched the motherboard on mine getting the battery connector out so i need a replacement board. the big problem for me is i need a 32GB board

Samsung's 7" Tab A (launched in March 2016) went on sale for $150 CAN (~$120 US) two months ago and I got one of 'em. It performs about on par with the 2012 N7 (quite sad for a 2016 product) but for the price, I'd say it might be the best of the worst tablets currently available through normal retail channels. I never cared about picture quality from cameras on sub-$300 CAN tablets since all those I had tried before, in-store or otherwise, produced barely usable images. I got really surprised when I saw how much better the 7" Tab A's pictures were despite being the cheapest tablet I have bought.

I had put together a little review since nobody seems to be bothering with reviewing entry-level tablets (can't really blame them seeing how unexciting four years of stagnation under $200 US is) but unfortunately, it got rejected.

 

[captaincharisma]

yea i need to start doing that soon. i scratched the motherboard on mine getting the battery connector out so i need a replacement board. the big problem for me is i need a 32GB board

Samsung's 7" Tab A (launched in March 2016) went on sale for $150 CAN (~$120 US) two months ago and I got one of 'em. It performs about on par with the 2012 N7 (quite sad for a 2016 product) but for the price, I'd say it might be the best of the worst tablets currently available through normal retail channels. I never cared about picture quality from cameras on sub-$300 CAN tablets since all those I had tried before, in-store or otherwise, produced barely usable images. I got really surprised when I saw how much better the 7" Tab A's pictures were despite being the cheapest tablet I have bought.

I had put together a little review since nobody seems to be bothering with reviewing entry-level tablets (can't really blame them seeing how unexciting four years of stagnation under $200 US is) but unfortunately, it got rejected.

thanks for the info. replacing the tab isn't a big deal for me right now. im just running my android games on my laptop now with AMI's DuOS. in the future i'll probably try for a nexus 9 tab

 

[Daniel Sauvageau]

in the future i'll probably try for a nexus 9 tab

Google discontinued the Nexus 9 when it launched the Pixel.

With the number of people complaining about K1-based devices running hot and having battery life issues though, I'll be skipping those - I do not like holding devices that have hot spots. For all of its flaws, I really liked how the Zenpad Z580C did not appear to put out any immediately noticeable heat.

 

[JonDol]

nvidia shield thats is a tablet that just does not dissepoint me.
its cheap has a good sock , only bad thing i can say about is is the battery life is to short. but it has android 6.0

Complaints about short battery life and high temperature are two more reasons why I'm skipping the K1 and never considered the N9. One of the things I liked the most about the Z580C is that it never got noticeably warm thanks to its 22nm Atom. (And unsurprisingly, the device getting uncomfortably warm is one of the things that annoy me the most about the 2012 N7 when mine isn't playing dead. That also annoyed me with the Tab 4.)

I don't know what you call "unconfortably warm" but if you'd ask my wife you'd find out that the the fact the tablet warms is its most important feature

 

[Daniel Sauvageau]

I don't know what you call "unconfortably warm" but if you'd ask my wife you'd find out that the the fact the tablet warms is its most important feature

I haven't measured it but I'd guess around 45C.