Media Consumption device

Media Consumption device.

I mentioned in the previous post that I would post separately for a media consumption device and so here it is.

This was going to be a long post of all the things I would want in a device, but then I got my hands on a Nexus 7.2 and it addressed most of that list. So the below will be based on the N7 and just be differences I would like to see in a revised device. So take all the wants below in context of the Nexus 7.

- Front facing speakers. They have these in the Nexus10 so I'd like to see them in a 7inch form factor. Also, the speakers on the N7 have a large amount of floor noise/hiss at low volumes which I only noticed after the OS update to 4.4.1 kitkat. Not sure if it was there before but I read it was a hardware issue, but some think it may have something to do with the audio optimisation algorithm from Fraunhoffer. Speakers that don't hiss would be good.

- Finger grip/nurl on the back behind the large bezels. I sometimes find I want to hold the N7 in landscape mode with one hand and the slippery front and back on such a thin device made this hard on my thumb joint as I have to lay my entire thumb on the glass to stop it spinning in my fingers. If there were a small indent or ridge in the soft-touch material on the back I could use that to stop the rotation rather than fricton on the front.

- Double-tap screen to wake (and wake on touch app method). I believe it was the LG G2 phone that allows you to wake on double-tap of the screen. THIS SHOULD BE ON EVERYTHING. Of course, you would have the option to turn this off, but I would definitely use this. On a side note, thinking about some of the apps I would like to create, Android needs a method to disable the backlight of the screen without disabling the touch sensor. This would be awesome for digital ports of board games where the majority of the time is spent waiting. When it's not you're turn you could tap a button to turn the screen off hiding your 'hand' (and saving battery), then when it's your turn again, tap the screen. On most devices doing non-3D rendering, the main power draw is the screen backlight. OLED doesn't have this issue, but has other drawbacks.

- Slightly more capable graphics chip. Don't get me wrong. The graphics in the N7 are great. But at 1690 x 1200, I see stuttering in some apps. When I turn on forced MSAA, scrolling performance seems to take a noticiable hit. On paper, something like the Adreno 330 in the Nexus 5 would be a good revision 3 idea. CPU and general compute performance doesn't seems underpowered though so no need to put the entire Snapdragon 800 SoC in there unless there is no economic difference for not doing so.

- Angle the backfacing camera slightly. The selfie/chat camera is angled directly perpendicular to the screen. This makes video chat strange as the angle you need to get your face in the shot and the  position/angle your head is in so you can see the screen straight don't line up on the N7. This would be an easy fix with either the mount for the camera module or the module housing itself.

- Reinforce the micro USB port. One area of the build quality of the N7 I've noticed degrade is the micro USB port. Just having the cable angled slightly towards or away from the screen a few times has been enough to loosen the connection. I suppose this wouldn't be a problem if I had a wireless Qi charger but until I get one, I still have to use the port at least one every 2 days and I can see that as the first part of the device to fail. At such a low price, I think they should have included the flat wireless charge mat and upped the price by $50.

Anyway, that's all for the moment for media consumption devices. Until I think of more at which point I'll add them.