Upside is pretty much limited to 4.2.2 and I think maybe some improvement to the hardware stability. While battery is smaller the actual battery life is claimed good. Media codec support is equal or possibly improved. The MSRP is lower so expect to see them as cheap as $100 sometimes. 0.2mm thinner, claims of a less slippery backing.
DOWNSIDES. Initial benchmarks (2) imply equal or lesser performance compared to original 7.0 wifi. No front camera and the rear camera is an even crappier 2MP. Only one speaker, but located next to camera on back. The new backplate may not offer as much drop protection as the other models. It's actually a few grams *heavier*. The screen is reported to have lower contrast and brighter dark colors. The battery is a 3600 instead of a 4000. They claim only up to 32GB MicroSDHC is supported so maybe they even nerfed the expansion slot wiring. So they probably extracted another 5-10 bucks savings on the manufacturing cost.
Unsure: I don't think much in the way of software preload was added or removed. It only has 2.4GHz b/g/n wifi antenna, my LTE is 2.4/5.0 a/b/g/n wifi. But I don't recall if the original wifi and 3g had 5GHz wifi or not. Certainly no one would mind if it was 2.4GHz only and had further improved signal strength :/
That's all folks. ~$150 for the old wifi vs ~$150 for the new wifi, I'd take the original model while I still can.
DOWNSIDES. Initial benchmarks (2) imply equal or lesser performance compared to original 7.0 wifi. No front camera and the rear camera is an even crappier 2MP. Only one speaker, but located next to camera on back. The new backplate may not offer as much drop protection as the other models. It's actually a few grams *heavier*. The screen is reported to have lower contrast and brighter dark colors. The battery is a 3600 instead of a 4000. They claim only up to 32GB MicroSDHC is supported so maybe they even nerfed the expansion slot wiring. So they probably extracted another 5-10 bucks savings on the manufacturing cost.
Unsure: I don't think much in the way of software preload was added or removed. It only has 2.4GHz b/g/n wifi antenna, my LTE is 2.4/5.0 a/b/g/n wifi. But I don't recall if the original wifi and 3g had 5GHz wifi or not. Certainly no one would mind if it was 2.4GHz only and had further improved signal strength :/
That's all folks. ~$150 for the old wifi vs ~$150 for the new wifi, I'd take the original model while I still can.
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