The Nexus 7 tablet is almost too good to be true. I have one right now that I'm virtually drawing hearts and flowers on while I review Final Fantasy III for Android. It's swell.
But if you're going to build a slim, good-looking quad-core tablet and sell it for $199, apparently you have to cut some corners. And if you believe the many people complaining on Android fan sites like Android Authority, Android Central, and XDA Developers, the corners got cut on quality control.
Specifically, there's not just one bad batch of Nexus 7 tablets out there - there may multiple bad batches with different problems. Few reviewers got the bad units, of course, because one of the basic jobs of tech product PR is to make sure the gadget works before you send it out. Some of this is luck, of course; we have three tablets and no problems here.
Here's what we're seeing reported so far. None of these problems seem to be solvable by software; they're just cases of bad components, manufacturing, and assembly:
Screen separation and creakingAndroid Authority discovered that some Nexus 7 screens don't appear to be attached very securely, causing the case to make a creaking sound. The geeks at Android Authroity and XDA Forums have a DIY fix, but we'd advise ordinary consumers to just return their tablets.
Backlight bleedingPocketnow found a Twitter report with a photo of the Nexus 7's backlight bleeding horribly, which makes the lighting on the screen look very uneven. This might be related to the screen assembly issue mentioned above. I've seen backlight bleeding problems on plenty of "cheapo" sub-$100 tablets; it's one of the things that doesn't get checked for when you're cutting corners.
Charging problemsChris Ziegler at The Verge, one of the foremost mobile experts in the U.S., had this problem: his Nexus 7 wouldn't charge off of various wall chargers. It turns out it shipped with a broken MicroUSB port. Search through forums and you'll find other people with the same problem.
Same problem, same issue, same theme. The Nexus 7 doesn't have a bug - most devices ship with their MicroUSB ports working just fine. But whoever's sourcing parts out in Taiwan may have gone with the lowest bidder, or the production line just isn't checking all the USB ports that go out.
Touch detection issuesThis is the only problem on the list that may be solvable in software. Our sister site Geek.com has a video showing trouble with touch detection in some Tegra games, which the author surmises may have to do with heat.
Dead pixelsA poster on XDA Developers shows photos of a Nexus 7 screen with dead pixels, a traditional QA problem that has plagued every LCD-screen gadget from time to time.
Dead microphoneThis complaint is going around with the geeks at XDA Forums. It looks like some tablets have gone out with bad microphones, and Google support is asking those users to send their tablets back.
The Scale of the ProblemThe Nexus 7 is under a lot of scrutiny. It's a high-profile product. This is all good. But it's hard, without getting hundreds of tablets in one place, to tell how frequent these hardware issues are (and whether they're more frequent than hardware issues with other tablets).
We still recommend the Nexus 7 highly, because (unlike with the old iPhone Death Grip) none of these problems appear to be issues with the Nexus 7's design. Rather, they're manufacturing glitches affecting specific batches of devices. Still, though, don't be afraid to exchange your tablet for a fresh one if you see something wrong.
Have you encountered any hardware problems on your Nexus 7? Tell us in the comments below.
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