29 Dec 2014
First impressions: Google Nexus 9 looks fat in front of iPad Air 2
The HTC-made Nexus 9 is Google's latest attempt to crack the premium tablet market. Previously, Google has done well with its rather affordable Nexus 7 tablets, but it has not taken a proper shot at the high-end tablet market, which is dominated by the iPad. The Nexus 9 is its first salvo at the iPad. We have been playing around with it for a day or so, read on for our first impressions.
Design wise, the HTC Nexus 9 does not hold a candle to the new iPad Air 2 or even the iPad Mini with the retina display. That said, the Nexus 9 is definitely a step up in terms of build quality than the previous Nexus tablets. Though its design is uninspired and feels similar to the Nexus 7, the metal band around the side of the tablet make it sturdier and nicer to hold.
The Nexus 9 is also smaller than the iPad Air 2. But it is bigger than the iPad Mini. It falls in-between the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini with its 8.9-inch display. This means that it is portable, but as it is a thick tablet, it does not feel as nice in hands as the iPad Air 2.
Both the iPad Air 2 and the Nexus 9 have the same resolution. This means on Nexus 9 we get a 8.9-inch display with 2048 x 1536 pixels resolution. In the short time we played with the device, we found the screen to be nice, but it did feel inferior to the screen on the iPad Air 2. The screen was not as vibrant and its brightness appeared to be lower.
Powered by the 64-bit Nvidia Tegra K1 processor and 2GB of RAM, the Nexus 9 feels very fast. But then again, it does not feel necessarily faster than something like the Nexus 7 (2013). While this is true, we did not get a chance to stress test the tablet. One of the biggest appeals of the tablet is the graphics performance, which reportedly can offer console like graphics.
HTC has also packed in a 8-megapixel camera on the back and a 1.6-megapixel camera. We did not test the front camera, but in initial tests we can confirm that the camera appears to be inferior to the iPad. Still we need to put the camera through the paces and once we have properly tested it we will report the findings in the review of the product.
The software is the real key with the Nexus 9. Android Lollipop looks great on it and the new features of the OS are a step in the right direction. That said, there is not much in way of optimisation for the tablet form-factor.
The tablet that we tried has 32GB of storage, but for the user only about 23GB is available, which is on the lower side. The 32GB model still does not have an official price in India, but it should be more expensive than the Wi-Fi only 16GB version, which costs Rs 28,990. Comparatively, the iPad Mini with Retina display with 16GB of storage and cellular connectivity is available for Rs 29,999 on Flipkart. Therefore, the Nexus 9 will have its work cut out.
The Nexus 9 appears promising, though a little undercooked. It will certainly have a tough time competing with the iPad. We intent to find out if can beat the iPad in our review.
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