Android 4.3 and TRIM fixes the 2012 Nexus 7, so now is a good time to start using it again

BY Stefan Constantinescu

Published 30 Jul 2013

Yesterday, Brian Klug from AnandTech discovered that TRIM support was added to Android 4.3. What is TRIM? It’s a way for solid state storage to “clean itself up”. If you have the time, I highly recommend you read this 2009 article, again from AnandTech, that explains at a deeper level how this stuff really works, because I can’t do it justice with less than a thousand words.

Anyway, I opted to not report Brian’s findings because the mere existence of TRIM wasn’t enough, in my opinion, to justify coverage. Today that changes thanks to Dan Seifert from The Verge.

He flashed a clean Android 4.3 install on his old Nexus 7 and published a forum post that basically says the device isn’t useless anymore. To use his exact words:

“The interface is snappier than ever, apps open swiftly, scrolling actually happens when I want it to, and Chrome is able to load websites before my toddler graduates from college.”

It’s kind of embarrassing that Google didn’t include TRIM in the first place, but whatever, it’s been fixed now, and hopefully those of you who have been suffering from performance issues can now rejoice in owning a tablet that’s functional again.