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While we all wait with bated breath for the new Nexus 7, Google has delivered a reprieve for those of us suffering slowdown or lag on the original.

Recently I wrote that you could get rid of this lag on your Nexus 7 by using fstrim. This solution unfortunately required root access though, and not everyone wants to go down that path.

Google seems to have solved this problem with the release of Android 4.3. Brian Klug of Anandtech today wrote in his “mini review” of the device that while Google built TRIM support into Android 4.2, it was essentially dormant. Android 4.3 now ensures that it is run daily as long as your device is idle with the screen off and above 70% battery charge.

If you’re running a standard, unrooted Nexus 7 be sure to install the Android 4.3 update when it arrives (and if you wouldn’t already do this, why not?) and let Google’s new optimisations breathe new life into your Nexus 7.

Have you received the Android 4.3 update on your Nexus 7? Did you notice any difference in performance? Let us know in the comments!

Source: Anandtech.
Via: AndroidAndMe.
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obeyno1

4.3 turned my zippy nexus 7 into a slow beast. Laggy and very slow internet browsing. I regret downloading. Have stopped using the n7. Now slow junk.

Cory

Android 4.3 is full of bugs. Do NOT upgrade!

Cory

Android 4.3 is full of bugs. Do NOT upgrade!

pvt

Not impressed by android 4.3 on my 2012 nexus 7. Drainage of battery much faster. Very very slow charging. No change in usage of the tablet, mainly browsing.
Rebooting does not help.

bryan

My battery drains more faster now, I’m not playing games, I just browse and stream videos, it consumes 50% for 2 hours n 15 min of browsing, all are turned off like NFC, Bluetooth, lowest brightness, all notification and updates are off except Google keep and contact which has no impact at all. all fresh installation after formatting after the 4.3 update to make sure no apps are conflicting. I also experience complete freezing that I need to shutdown my N7.

frank

No GPS app and magic jack stop working..is an upgrade?

Eric

My Nexus 7 cant access anything from the play store after the update. any suggestions on how to fix this issue?

kirk

My old Nexus 7 was working great before the 4.3 update. A number of applications no longer work correctly and auto-rotate seems to work very sporadically (right now, it stays in portrait, and yes, auto-rotate is enabled). So far, I’m disappointed and want my old Nexus back.

Sharp

After receiving the 4.3 update my nexus 7 battery life has significantly decreased… I’m happy with a day of no usage now… As opposed to 3 days Of heavy use age before the update

Roi

Hi, I got the 4.3 update for my N7 last friday and since then I encounter some really weird issues. when I enter into app such skype or a game, the 3 touch buttons are not shown on screen so i can not exit the current screen unless I slide down menu to go somewhere else like wifi or so and then I can see the 3 buttons. also, some other apps are nt functioning very well: when I hit the 3-dots button (menu) nothing happened. there are some other issues but I think you got the point. did anyone… Read more »

roi

well, what do you know, I found the solution. I resetted the tablet and now its ok.

kungfutigerr

Buy an ASUS laptop from Harvey Norman this weekend and get a free N7.

james

Got my 4.3 update last night for Nexus 7, and 2 days ago on my Nexus 4. Both installed without any problem at all. I haven’t had to charge the phone since applying the update, and I am still at 75% battery. I don’t play many games or make many calls on it, but do use wifi, Bluetooth and SMS fairly heavily. Overall pretty happy

hazchem

I was definitely noticing lag on my Nexus 7 (and GNEX for that matter) but since 4.3 got pushed to both devices it’s totally disappeared. I’ve never really struggled with battery life on my Nexus 7 so doubt I’ll notice any change there.

baz

I got my download of 4.3. early this morning , all good, I keep my storage just under 13GB always have, and have no lag problem, only problem is sometime slow internet due to other computers in use in the house,i’m at the end of the line for bandwidth, as for battery life, I charge overnight, and by around 9pm in the evening its starting to die, I’m not on it fulltime, will pick it up on and off during the day , to read or play a game or facebook.

Andrew

I got the 4.3 download on both my 7 and gnex but both ended up with an error, possibly because they’re both rooted??

Joshua Hill

Custom kernel, got an error with the OTA on my N7.

James Finnigan

I don’t think you can use the OTA updates if you’ve got a modified system partition. You’ll have to flash a factory image beforehand, or just download the 4.3 ROM yourself.

EDIT: I see you did exactly this. Carry on.

Vladimir Fomin

my N7 was rooted also, but it was updated with no problem. The only problem is video players. MX player doesn’t work, but I have found a replacement. But sopcast doesn’t work also. And as a result I cannot watch soccer game today. I am really thinking about downgrade to 4.2.2.

mark0Z

Mine is the 16GB from the Play Store. Just got updated a couple of hours ago. No noticeable differences yet, still looking forward to see how battery life holds up. Didn’t have quite big an issue with the lag before (me thinks it feels a tiny bit smoother now?) but the ‘snap-back’ issue when swiping through the homescreens still persist – it may have been a hardware issue with the touchscreen layer anyways.

Gregorian

Has anyone in Aus gotten 4.3 on their Nexus 7 yet?
I’m still waiting.

jimmyjack72

I received my update on the weekend for my 3g Nexus 7. It seems to be a pretty random schedule.

LegoVader

This worked for me –

Goto Settings > Apps > All > Google Services Framework.
Force Stop.
Clear Data.
Restart Tab/Phone.
Once its restarted, goto Settings > About Phone > System Update > Check Now.

Luke

You really shouldn’t do this. It used to be fine but now it causes Play app install errors and other drama.

Alex

I too had the same error updating apps after performing framework trick. Fixed by deleting and reinstating google account.

eric

this happened to me, how to i fix it?

Paul Gus

Yup, got the update to 4.3 last Friday, and all is well.

Joshua Hill

Yeah mine appeared 2 or 3 days ago. Only installed it yesterday as I had to re root and change dpi setting for a family member with poor eyesight. 24 hours on seems to be going well:)

You can download and flash it manually which is what I ended up doing as the custom kernel I was running resulted in an error with the OTA update anyway.

Gregorian

If anyone cares, it turned up this morning.

Ed

I have a different issue all together. My nexus 7 3g suffers from pitiful battery life related to baseband xmm wake lock issues. 10 hours with screen off and its dead. A well documented issue and 4.3 does NOT fix it. I have a pure 4.3 install- no other APPS and its dead in 10hrs. Same on 4.2.2 – I’m glad Google aren’t using tegra chips anymore as it is definitely a tegra chip set problem….

Joshua Hill

Except is wasn’t a problem in 4.1 so I think it’s just as much Google’s fault.

Joshua Hill

4.3 fixed this issue for me.

Joshua Hill

My N7 would die in one day even fully turned off with 4.2. Never had a problem with 4.1. Now had 4.3 for close to 2 days and I’m losing less than 20% battery per day with light use.

Fred

Beware, the install of 4.3 is accompanied by a forced downgrade to ‘hangouts’ from Google Talk. For those looking to avoid this festering pile of excrement it’s an unwanted and unpleasant surprise on reboot. Basically if it’s core gapps you are forced to the most recent version.

I’m looking for a way to find Talk as an apk and reinstall it – and I’m not the only one. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2377868

Andrew

A downgrade to hangouts? Not too sure that downgrade means the same thing to you and I. Hangouts is far superior in so many ways. What is it about Talk that you miss?

Tarrant Marshall

Reliability for one. I’m with @47950ecff367f8ca216bb4ccb3ac3b20:disqus on this one. Messages take sometimes 8-12 minutes to send through between myself and my partner. We can be on the same wifi connection, sitting next to each other!

Lack of clear status indicator is a royal pain, and is one of the most complained about parts

Lack of history accessibility from within gmail on the mobile app, albeit not a strict Hangouts problem, it was introduced by the new release. History of chats on desktop is fine.

The list goes on.

Tarrant Marshall

That was meant to be an @ Fred there, not ‘47950ecff367f8ca216bb4ccb3ac3b20’. Awesome Disqus!

Fred

You can add to that list an excruciatingly slow startup. Honestly, it’s 8-10 seconds of looking at an empty screen.

I don’t mind google providing it as an option for those who’ve fallen into the pit labelled ‘plus’ – but I simply don’t want such a brain dead app that gives me less than I already had.

After some searching it’s looking horribly like you have to root to kill the hangup apk before you can get Talk back in there. Mucking about in the system area, etc.

pete

Hangout worse than Talk? No idea what you are on about. Definitely not my experience