Google says that "the Android team is aware of this issue and investigating." The new set of complaints call out phantom finger taps on the screen, and random reboots of the device.
In what is a case of history repeating itself, customers who have purchased the new Nexus 7 are complaining of multi-touch related issues and random reboots. This feedback from those who have bought the tablet comes just days after the GPS connectivity drop issue was reported. This isn’t the first time Asus and Google have had to deal with quality concerns with the Nexus 7, with the first generation device also having its share of hardware related issues.
Users have reported that the touchscreen registers what are being to referred to as “phantom” taps, even though the user’s hand might be well away from the screen at that time. Jason L had this to say on the Google Product Forum, “I picked up my new N7 on Friday. At first the keyboard seemed okay, though it would occasionally register double presses on the keyboard. Now it has gotten progressively worse and the keyboard getting very erratic. It is frequently registering double taps, and often ghost taps in areas not anywhere near where I’m touching on the keyboard. It’s almost to the point where it is unusable.” A lot of other users have chimed in with similar issues, and a Google rep responded to the issue with this, “Thanks again for letting us know how your touchscreen’s been doing after trying safe mode or resetting your tablet — it’s helpful to know that hasn’t resolved this issue for you. The Android team is aware of this issue and investigating. I’ll post an update when there’s new information to share.”
To highlight this issue better, bobafuzz on YouTube has shared this video, using a special touch detection software, to highlight the issue.
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The New Nexus 7 continues to suffer from quality issues, reported by users
The second set of problems relates to the new Nexus 7 randomly restarting. Keith House, a customer, was the first to report this on the Google Support Forums. He describes the problem, “I got the new 2013 Nexus 7 on Sunday and I love it except one problem… It will randomly freeze up during use and restart. It happens while using all sorts of different applications or games and I can’t figure out why. Could this be a hardware issue or something with a settings or software? Any direction would be great as I am finding this crash and reboot a little annoying right now.”
Another user, Jay 1 Davis adds another scenario to the issue, “Mine keeps rebooting right after I take it off the charger. While on the charger it doesn’t reboot by itself. I’m eyeing it closely to see if it is because of received emails. the last 2 times it rebooted was when I received an email. I’ve already done the factory restart. I had to do that because my battery was being drained by “media server” process.”
It seems that Google and Asus will need to work rather closely till these issues are ironed out. While the new Nexus 7 is undoubtedly a steal at the price it is being sold at, these issues will only dampen consumer confidence. For what is being labelled as the Android tablet to buy, we would have expected better quality control, from both Asus and Google.
Source 1: Google Product Forum
Source 2: Google Product Forum