Google introduced the new Nexus 7 last week, and some consumers will have already upgraded to the latest model. Others, however, will hold onto last year’s Nexus 7 even if its performance has diminished somewhat over the last year. Fret not, frugal consumer, as the promised Android 4.3 update will make your old Nexus 7 feel brand new again.
Anandtech reports that Android 4.3 includes support for a feature called fstrim. Think of it like a defragmentation tool for the flash memory inside your Nexus 7. In Android 4.2, the OS would continue to look at memory blocks that used to house data even if the data in question had been deleted. This could lead to serious performance issues, but that’s all been fixed in Android 4.3.
In the latest version of Android, the fstrim tells your OS that it no longer has to monitor data blocks that used to hold data. This allows the OS to focus on data blocks that actually house data instead of the ghosts left behind by deleted games, movies and music.
As you can probably already guess, the advantages to Android users are immediately apparent. You will no longer have to deal with decreased performance as you download, install and delete apps, music and movies.
The new feature isn’t just restricted to the old and new Nexus 7 either. Any device that’s upgraded to Android 4.3 will be able to take advantage of better data management. You should see performance increases in devices like the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 as well.
Of course, you may be wondering where your Android 4.3 upgrade is. At the new Nexus 7 reveal, Google said it would start pushing out the upgrade later that day, but these things happen in waves. It could be a few weeks before you get Android 4.3, but it will definitely be worth the wait.
For all the other new stuff in Android 4.3, check out our previous coverage.
