Google Nexus 7 tablet being shown off at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, in this June 2012 photo. Recent bechmarks have determined the 16GB variant to have a 43% improvement in storage performance over the 8GB model (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma).

Access speed is usually the litmus test for solid-state storage performance. Inexpensive devices usually come with slower Flash-based storage, while more expensive gadgets will feature faster “true” SSDs. Oftentimes, the architecture will dictate how quick read and write access will be. While not always an issue in devices like tablet computers, sometimes the added bit of speed helps in keeping things snappy.

AnandTech’s Anand Lal Shimpi has done some benchmark tests on Google’s latest Nexus 7 tablet and found out that the 16GB variant performs better than the 8GB tablet in terms of read and write speed. In fact, this variant outperforms other flagship Android tablets — such as the Asus Trasformer Pad Infinity — in terms of sequential read, random read and random write performance.

The 16GB Nexus 7 offers a 43% performance increase over the 8GB variant in random write testing, although performance is still not as good as “true” MLC solid state drives. As such, the difference in performance may only be marginal, and perhaps not very noticeable in every day use. Given this thought, you might want to hold out on spending the extra $50 for a 16GB Nexus 7 if the extra space is not not necessary. But if you are going for the 16GB model, then the “strong storage performance” would be an added benefit.

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