[Nexus 7 (2013) Q&A] usmaak:
Just to update, I went ahead and picked it up. Figure that I can always return it if it has problems. Unfortunately, I'm going to need to return it. There are three problems that I saw right off.

1. There is a bright spot on the screen that's visible to the eye. If displaying white, the bright spot is brighter white, when displaying blue, it's brighter blue, etc...

2. There is a speck of dust under the screen, about half an inch below the bright spot.

3. It creaks pretty badly when held on the right side, near the bottom. So basically, when holding it in portrait mode.

Of these four issues, only the first issue is a deal breaker for me. The spot is large enough that it is noticeable when looking at the screen. It is more obvious when looking at a lighter color like white or light grey, but it is visible with all colors. I'm not sure how these screens are put together, so this might be completely off. It looks like there's some kind of film or something, and in the brighter area, it looks like it is a little thinner. The only reason that I noticed the spec of dust was because I was looking at the white spot under a magnifying glass, to see if I could figure out what it was. The spec of dust is not visible, even while wearing my strongest glasses. The creaking comes and goes. I'm guessing that with time, it would disappear entirely. And I do plan on having it in a case, so it really wouldn't matter. One thing that seems apparent while comparing the two, at least to me, is that the original model was more solidly built. Not that the new one seems cheap, because it doesn't. But it just doesn't seem as solid. Of course I did have to go through three original N7s before I found one that didn't have screen lift.

The screen itself (once looking past the white spot) is amazing! I have had a number of iPads and I have my current N7 and a Kindle Fire (original), and I have NEVER seen a screen that is so even. One of my primary complaints with my original N7 is that the screen is ever so yellowish along the right side of the screen. It is distracting enough when reading on the Kindle app that I set the background color to Sepia to overcome it. And not only is it very even, but the resolution is unlike anything that I've ever seen on something this small. The text on Kindle books is crisp and easily readable. On my original N7, I can see pixels. Though not nearly as bad as the Kindle Fire. Also, the white is more pleasing to the eye than the white on the original N7 was. I know that this is a subjective thing. Where my old N7 had a slightly reddish tint to the white, the new one doesn't have that. I'm not exactly sure how to describe it. But I think that it looks much nicer. The new N7 is also much brighter than the original. I'd say about 30% brighter.

And it's definitely fast. I wasn't really happy with my orignal N7, because of the issues that it has with light bleeding. But now it also seems really slow. I'm not sure how to fix that. Maybe a new ROM is in order.

Unfortunately, I can't keep one with a bright spot like this one has, so back it goes. Perhaps I'll take the advice given above, and give it a few months and try again.

One of the ways that I sold my wife on the original N7 was by saying that it would keep getting Android updates. I guess I accidentally lied about that. 4.2.2 appears to be as high as the original N7 will go, at least without a custom ROM.