Samsung Google Nexus 10 tablet review
Why would you buy a tablet other than an iPad? Obviously, some don’t care for Apple’s locked-in system and others like the way users can dig more deeply into the workings of Android. Good enough reasons, sure, but the truth is that until the day dawns when a tablet is of comparable specification, but substantially cheaper than …
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"Who derides the Boxster? By far better value for money than a 911 with all the widgets and gadgets added on"
Try driving with the top down for a few days and you'll find out that every road user and pedestrian does!
But on a more serious note 'Better value than a more expensive Porsche' is not really a great selling point. I can think of eight other cars I'd prefer for the money!
Very very tempted.
I currently have an Acer A500 and I think its time to upgrade. I have been sorely tempted by Windows ultrabooks and tablets with keyboard docks, however, the Nexus is turning my head as it could just slot into my Kensington case with bluetooth keyboard.....
First world problems eh?!
Re: Very very tempted.
I currently have an Acer A500 and I think its time to upgrade.
You might want to try an A510. Cheaper and faster (I'm getting over 11,000 out of AnTuTu from mine). Depends on what your use is. As a coffee table reference and media device for indoor use it's perfect, but the lack of an IPS screen might be an issue to you. To me, the horsepower of the Tegra3 is more important than the screen. If I can't see the pixels without holding it up to my nose and it's bright and clear enough in all light levels, I'm happy.
JB promised this year, Acer's addons seem both actually useful to have and easy to disable and it's got an SD card slot......!
I have to say that I am very taken with mine and think it represents the best "bang for buck" around at the moment. Build quality is a way above what I was expecting from Acer at that price too.
Stupid review...
This machine is so obviously superior in every way to the iPad, being Android, yet this fails to come across in the review.
Stupid review...
Just another wannabe iPad rip-off. For the cost of a tank of petrol (gas) you could have the real thing. the vast majority of people aren't interested in customising their tabs and just want the large ecosystem and app choice that iOS offers.
Re: Stupid review...
I see what you've done there. My money is on the "pro android" statement will win the battle of the votes, and the "anti" getting the most replies
Popcorn.
Re: Stupid review...
I was just about to hit the downvote when I saw the post above. For completeness you could have done one for Windows RT and maybe BlackBerry but nicely done either way.
Re: Stupid review...
Yeah - I expect the voting to really take of when the children are back from school. After all, have you ever met an adult that behaved like iOS/Android fans?
Re: Stupid review...
"For completeness you could have done one for Windows RT and maybe BlackBerry but nicely done either way."
I'm trying, but don't know enough about Windows RT...
LOL! What am I like! Thinking that knowing about something is a pre-req for commenting on it!
Re: Stupid review...
Another version of the device first seen in the film "2001", not only can you save the price of a tankful of fuel over El Shiny but you gain entry into the fastest growing ecosystem of apps.
Re: Just another wannabe iPad rip-off
Just another Apple fanboi
Re: Just another wannabe iPad rip-off
"Just another Apple fanboi"
Touchdown! The crowd goes wild...
who chooses an Android tablet over an ipad?
those of us with our music stored - for free - in the Google cloud.
those of us who use Google Docs for productivity.
those of us who buy our ebooks from Google Play Books.
those of us who use Picasa to store our photographs in the cloud.
those of use who want GPS, decent maps and full navigation as standard features on a tablet.
those of us who use Gmail as the primary resource for email and contacts.
the list goes on and one sign-in brings all that to any and all my Android devices instantly.
There are good reasons other than price that Android phones outsell Apple phones and the seamless integration of Google's cloud services with Android is one of them. I makes iCloud look medieval by comparison.
Granted there are more fancy apps for iPad but personally I don't want or need any of them.
As for who watches video on their tablet - me for one, every day on my Nexus 7.
Re: who chooses an Android tablet over an ipad?
That's fine and choose what works for you - I won't downvote anyone for that. But if you *honestly* believe that you can't do functionally equivalent things in the iOS world...
The key phrase to all of this is "...but personally I don't want or need ..." and anyone who has different wants or needs to anyone else automatically gets downvotes by the schoolkids.
Let the nit-picking begin...
Re: who chooses an Android tablet over an ipad?
Yep, you hit the nail on the head.
I really don't care there are more niche dedicated iPad apps (which of course you have to buy separately - someone nobody bothers to mention), pretty much all the top Android apps have included tablet layouts, and that's more than good enough for me, I buy the app once, and it works great on ALL my Android devices. I don't want two different ecosystems, one for each aspect ratio, that iOS has.
The Nexus 10 is better than the iPad4 in ever single way, it's just a shame nobody in the tech media is brave enough to say so...
Re: who chooses an Android tablet over an ipad?
But if you *honestly* believe that you can't do functionally equivalent things in the iOS world...
You certainly can, but if you want to extend that across your entire device set, that means also buying a Mac, Apple TV, etc, etc. As I've said before, that Apple iPad ad extolling how simple it is to play things on your telly sports the disclaimer "Additional hardware required.".....
My Android tablet syncs data and mail with my other machines automagically. It also talks to my DLNA enabled devices perfectly too as either a push to the screen or as a DLNA server, as do my other machines. All seamlessly and without buying additional bits 'n pieces to make it work.
It's all done using a simple trick known as "adhering to the standard". Apple might like to give it a try rather than reinventing the wheel and deciding it should be square[1] all the time.
[1] With rounded corners. Obviously.
Re: it's just a shame nobody in the tech media is brave enough to say so...
Says the AC! That's brave!
Re: who chooses an Android tablet over an ipad?
But to Joe Public, buying an Apple TV vs understanding & configuring DLNA, isn't an obvious choice...
Re: who chooses an Android tablet over an ipad?
I've surprised people before by playing home videos off my phone to the tv without even being in the same room, or playing music, or starting a film, all I can do from my phone with my DLNA TV, i've even done it round friends houses once they let me get on their wlan.. iPhone users, and they buy a decent tv, but their iPhone doesn't have the same capability out the box as my phone...
Its much easier if I want to show off some holiday photos to just throw them onto the tv from my tablet or phone than to pass round the phone/laptop/tablet....
Re: who chooses an Android tablet over an ipad?
DNLA is nowhere the panacea that you're trying to claim. The "standard" has so many optional bits that it may be completely impossible to get two DNLA devices to talk to each other. It's certainly not zero config if you can get it to work.
Conversely AirPlay auto-discovers compatible devices when available and provides a simple pick list to select the device you want to play on. You get the options of audio playback, video playback and screen mirroring.
Even the DNLA folk realise that their standard is both broken and lacking. Microsoft are trying to push a certified DNLA config and Miracast are adding mirroring (but have almost no devices that support it).
Re: who chooses an Android tablet over an ipad?
I like the Nexus 10 a lot, but it's not better than the iPad4 in every single way. I'm teetering on the fence about which I'd get (if only I was rich enough). The GPU in the iPad4 is far more powerful, and there is (for now) much greater maturity and diversity of apps for the iPad. The biggest problems I'd have with the iPad are iOS and iTunes, both of which seem noddy and restrictive (probably because I've now got used to Android).
Screen is worse?
I read on here the argument behind the screen resolution and it persuades me. But saying that the screen is better because it has more pixels is as lazy as comparing digital cameras by the same metric. I read a review that said that the Nexus screen, while good, is not as good as the iPad's, in terms of colour saturation, black levels and backlight bleed. I'd like to do my own side-by-side comparison. And in terms of pixel count, unlike for digital cameras, once you reach a "retina" level of pixel density, increasing it further is a complete waste of time and CPU/GPU resources, because you won't be able to see the difference.
I'm no iPad fan, by the way.
Re: Screen is worse?
I'd be amazed if there are many people making a purchase decision based simply on tiny screen differences. Basically most people will decide on platform and go from there. Simply put, if you choose Android, and you are even remotely interested in a 10 incher with a decent display, this is the only choice.
Making a decision on screen only is like choosing between BMW and Audi based on top speed. Statistical correct but pointless.
Re: Screen is worse?
I agree (and did say the screen was good) - I was just responding to the poster who said that everything about this was better than an iPad.
Specs no longer a good benchmark
Judging from the praise through the review and the result shown in the benchmarks it seems that code is being massively optimised. It benchmarks lower than quad core systems but not by a high margin and it maintains the overall smooth performance. This can only be a good thing for battery life and I hope that it transfers to other devices from other manufacturers *cough*HTC*cough*.
Disclaimer: I own several HTC devices and really like them (and Sense) but they still have battery issues.
Re: Specs no longer a good benchmark
The Nexus 10 uses the latest and greatest architecture (A15) from ARM, which is considerably faster (per core) than the old one (A9). Fewer, faster cores is better than more slower cores, ceteris paribus.
Re: Specs no longer a good benchmark
Different ARM cores, most of the quad cores on there are Cortex-A9 dervatives, the Cortex-A15 is well known to be about 50-60% faster, clock/clock vs the A9.
The A15 is also more power efficient than the A9.
Seems quite slow actually given the spec, would have expected it to be on a par with the S3, if not slightly quicker.
Re: Specs no longer a good benchmark
I think quite at least some of the benchmarks are cut in half by using Chrome. For example, in Sunspider with the Nexus 10 Chrome gets roughly 1350ms, and Boat is more like 775ms (Dolphin is somewhere in the 800s). It's certainly subjectively much faster and more responsive using other browsers too (on both Nexus 7 and Nexus 10).
Re: Specs no longer a good benchmark - @annodomini2
The A15 is more power efficient than the A9? Think again. The A15 was designed as a desktop device and its actually quite power hungry. So much so that ARM have designed the A7 to pair with it and disable the A15 during light duty work. Hit the Nexus 10 with heavy workloads and its battery life falls to about 4 hours.
I wish reviews would stop referring to the "this could well be the ipad killer".
Most new tablets have overtaken the ipad in terms of usability ages ago. If you want to be locked in then fine get an Apple product. If you want more freedom to do what you want with YOUR hardware, get an Android device.
The sales figures make it clear which people prefer, and it's not what you want them to.
The fact you think the iPad has been killed purely because newer tablets out-do it on the technical side just shows how little you understand about people.
Stupid review...
At £140 for a 64Gb Blackberry Playbbok 64Gb, which will do all of the web/email/music & movies you'll ever need, and run Android apps, anyone who buys anything else must be a moron.
Re: Stupid review...
You stopped being funny a couple posts ago
Re: Stupid review...
That would be, "a couple OF posts." Besides, the last one was a different, more subversive brand of humour in that it was funny because it was true.
Pro Apple Register does it again.
Better resolution than ipad, more power, better speakers, lighter, cheaper. clearly an all-round better tablet. they whine about no sd slot and even though apple doesnt have one either, they still award them the standard 10% apple bonus score for their reviews.
Register, I hope Apple are paying you cash for this bias, because if you're doing it independently of that then you're not right in the head.
Re: Pro Apple Register does it again.
You are fucking kidding, right?
Stupid review...
Why get this when Windows RT just launched? It's different, not just another Windows Mobile clone like iOS, Android and Blackberry plus full interoperability with 95% of desktop PCs will soon enable it to dominate the market. Anyone who says differently is a moron. Please feel free to advertise your 'moron' status with a downvote.
Re: Stupid review...
LOL - I think that's all the obvious bases covered.
GPS
"if you haven’t downloaded maps when you were in a suitable hotspot." Surely anyone toting a tablet is also carrying a smartphone which can provide hotspot functionality. This is why I want GPS but not 3G on my Nexus.
Maybe it's different in real life
But it looks really ugly in those photos. It looks big and clunky even though I imagine this is not the case, maybe just the way black plastic looks against an aluminium iPad? Has anyone seem them both in the flesh to compare?
Also - do you really need to fight on the resolution front? Why not just pick a good resolution and leave it at that, rather than mess about in a pissing match?
Re: Maybe it's different in real life
If the back of it is anything like that of the Nexus 7, then looks aren't important. I was in an electronics shop and held a range of tablets, and the feel of the Nexus 7 in the hand was by far the best, in my opinion.
Re: Maybe it's different in real life
I wasn't overly keen on the looks based on the photos.
In the flesh it's a different matter, I think it looks great.
Cease Fire
This is a good tablet computer.
The iPad is also a good tablet computer.
Each will meet different people's needs more closely in different ways.
Choice is appropriate in a large market.
Grow up.
Waste Of Space
Why is there a notification bar and a button bar wasting all that space on the screen? Surely they can combine both together?
IOS vs Android...
In my view, IOS wastes space on larger screens with the rows and rows of icons with zero customisability.
Sure, we need an 'app drawer' to choose apps from - but what about the option to have widgets to show informationat a glance? I mean, why does Siri have to launch using the HOME button rather than a drop down menu or widget? Why not have a quick view with weather, time, and recent emails/ims? Or a popup video viewer, split screen etc....
The thing is, Android is offering all these things and more depending on which ODM you go for, and you can ADD the functionality a device lacks from the store.
As for diversity in the App store. yes, IOS has the advantage there, but it's diminishing rapidly.
18 months ago when i had a HTC Desire, it was abysmal and way behind IOS in both quantity and quality.
It's a whole different story now, and not only is the PLAY store significantly better, with editorial and curation, but the range of apps is better and higher quality.
I switched from an iPhone to a Galaxy Note 2 recently, and have never ceased to be impressed by what the Android OS and samsung are offering.
My ipad may well be replaced by a Nexus 10 or similar soon.
iPad has mindshare right now, but the markeshare taken by Android tablets is eating into ipad rapidly - it's about 48% of the market now, but that wil easiy increase next year with devices like this.
People are no longer 'automatically' choosing iPads and will do so less and less in the coming year.
Re: IOS vs Android... @ac 11:54
Whilst I don't disagree with you, you seem to be forgetting about something....
"Why not have a quick view with weather, time, and recent emails/ims? Or a popup video viewer, split screen etc...."
Its called notification centre and does exactly what you are asking for!
http://www.planet1107.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ios_5_notification_center_lockscreen.png
You choose what you want in in and what to display then you simply swipe your finger down from the top of the screen. And you claim to have an iPad?
"there are no complaints in terms of power"
Actually there are.
The iPad wipes the floor with this one on graphics performance. The Nexus doesn't even come close, see Anandtech for details. Even the old iPad 3rd gen was faster than this.
Guess what matters for apps driving such a beast of a Hi-DPI screen?
But I'll give you that to run a couple of crappy widgets and a do a bit of web browsing it may be OK.
Re: "there are no complaints in terms of power"
I haven't looked at the benchmarks, but I can tell you that on my Nexus 10 HD video and games are both as smooth as can be.
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