Nexus 9: Google and HTC deliver Android 5.0 'Lollipop' at iPad prices

Not sure Andriod tablets have the same appeal?

The sold out so fast. most of us saw the announcement that they were up for pre-sale long after they were already gone... Almost instant sell out.

Personally, I do not expect to buy one. I just prefer being able to use a real keyboard and my very nice 29 inch 21:9 format IPS panel ultra-wide monitor vs attempting to read something that is much, much smaller.

But if I were to every want one, I already know it would be a Nexus unit.

$200 Laptop Comparison - Screen Quality

To me screen quality really matters. I know not everyone feels that way though. Tablets like the iPad and Nexus series have IPS screens with great definition, brightness, contrast, colour and viewing angles. Try getting that in a laptop without spending north of £750, you'll struggle, especially if you want a 15" screen.

I am in the market for a casual tablet

But with this I'm not so sure. My Transformer Book comes with full Windows 8.1 and Office, for less than Google's offering*. And since I'm OS agnostic, at this price why not just go for the iPad?

* Though to be fair, the keyboard stays on the Transformer Book pretty much 100% of the time - it's a great NetBook but I don't enjoy using it as a tablet.

iPad vs !pads...can Nexus compete using specs and features?

Being faster, with a better screen, a more sophisticated UI and good battery life and cheaper, picking these devices may seem like a no-brainer. Unfortunately all of these still fail against brand recognition. People on the street don't play the numbers game. The majority of potential purchasers will continue to ask things like "will iTunes work?" does it do "Facetime?" and see tablets as either ipads or !pads.

What about Root, and the abillity of Apps writing to either the Int. or Ext. SD?

So how easy is it gonna be to root these things? My understanding is it will be anything but, simple. Seeing that you have to install a custom Kernel do to so. Again what has google done to address the fact that Apps can no longer be written... Or, indeed write to the SD Card. Be this Internal, or External, and therefor limited to the very limited System Partition of most Devices?

I'm not sure about this....

I have an original Nexus 7 that is just over two years old now, and has served me extremely well on my daily ~1hr commute. When I heard rumours of the new Nexus 8/9 I was already prepping my credit card. But hmmmm I'm just not sure.

So this is £319 for 16GB and £399 for 32GB. The iPad Mini 2 is £239 for 16GB and £279 for 32GB and the iPad Mini 3 is £319 for 16GB and £399 for 64GB.

Once you lose ~3GB for the OS, the 16GB version might struggle for space, so if I wanted the 32GB version, I might as well buy a 64GB iPad Mini 3 for the same price?

Or going slightly leftfield, I could by a Hudl 2 for £129 and shove in a 32GB card for a tenner to have a slightly inferior tablet for £139...

If the prices don't drop (and I can't see that happening for a while) then I'm not entirely sure that I can justify it :-/

I bought an iPad Air2 the other day and am generally enjoying it but GOD HELP ME I'm this close > < to stacking it off and getting one of these instead because I want to be able to DNLA stream mkv files from my media server. Incomprehensible that Apple make this so difficult.

But games like Hitman Go, Civ Rev (2), and the Silent Age just keep me locked in.

Maybe I just need to man up.

Competition

I've held off a tablet for some time, and while I do now find myself tempted, its certainly not this unit that's tempting me. The Nvidia Shield Tablet, while admittedly lesser in several respects, beats this one for value, particularly the 32GB LTE version and the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact tablet (?) seems more desirable. Both of these have SD card slots, not that Sony makes that very clear on its glittery but uninformative website. And both do streaming gaming, should that be a selling point.

My Nexus 7 will soldier on for another year

7" in the perfect sofa surfing and commuting format and dropping the 7 seems like a massive miss to me (although you can still buy them from other retailers how long will it be before stock dries up?). This format is kind of nowhere, too big for sofa surfing and too small from any sort of proper work. I'll pass this year I think.

Ars Technica

Summarises

The good

Game performance simply blazes

Thin and light body matched with Nexus line's clean, unobtrusive design

We want to see tap-to-turn-on functions on every tablet from now on

Solid battery life

Android has matured enough that apps generally hold up well on the bigger screen

The bad

Stuttering and pauses between app switches are too common

Slightly loose plastic backing gives the device a cheap feeling

White bleed from the top of the screen is unfortunate

Auto-EQ on speakers goes so far as to ruin certain music and loud scenes

The ugly

8MP camera suffers from second-plus delays to shoot photos

I've been looking at previous post, something I rarely do, and one thing I keep seeing is people talking about storage space. Why does everyone need so much space? Not bashing, just really, really curious. My first Nexus was either the 8g or 16g version, can't remember because they dropped the 8 very fast when the 32g came out, but my point being is I never filled it up. I use the 32g now and still have over 20g left, and that's after a few movies, tons of books, documents, spreadsheets, some music....

I've never came close to running out of storage, so its hard to imagine what others are doing that would cause that.

One thing.

We are supposed to be reaching saturation point for mobile gadgets in the West it seems, be it phones, tablets whatever, but I don't see a glut of 1 or 2 year old gadgets for sale anywhere. And in some of those 'pawn' shops, if you call them that that these day, prices are still pretty high, so where are all the replaced gadgets? Yes some get passed down to family members but not all surely even E-Bay ain't all that cheap these days.

Too expensive?

There is a report elswhere on el reg suggesting 44% of households have tablets which is probably not far short of saturation. We have two hudls in the house, just fine for browsing, reading and iplaying esspecially on the move, and there is no need to upgrade/replace yet and I don't suppose I am unique If tempted to make a purchase, wait till after christmas, I would not be surprised if there bargains to be had.

I bought one of the original Tesco Hudl tablets last year, and it's done exactly what I need it to at a fraction of the cost. I don't really play games on my phone or tablet... that's why I have a PC (also used for work).

It still does what I need it too... So the only reasons I can see for anyone to replace their tablet are thus.

1: They're the lame types that 'have to have' the latest stuff regardless of whether what they have is still of use.

2: They want Android Lollipop

I like my gadgets, and I like to get new ones when I can... However I don't believe in wasting money on replacing stuff that works perfectly well. If anyone I know makes any attempt to point out that what I have is 'old'... I simply mock them for their gullible devotion to consumerism and suggest that if they don't already own one... to buy something from Apple like the good little sheeple they are. :)

My phone was released in Nov 2010 and still works well, does everything I need it to and when it breaks, I'll replace it. My computer was built in 2010, and because I looked ahead and invested in Xfire graphics, still plays anything I throw at it in full HD.

The only thing I was considering replacing was my TV, it's only 32" and was bought so long ago that it's 720p and 1080i... and I do so much now that requires proper 1080p. But as I was given another 32" that is 1080p... theres no need to replace it at all and the old one was put to use in the bedroom.

The one thing that does bug me about the Hudl though, and it goes for every phone manufacturer out there... and this could be the best and most honest reason to change a device... Manufacture bloatware and refusal to upgrade the OS on devices.

I've suffered from this and it pisses me of a great deal... So much that when I do need to replace my phone, the only alternative I would consider is a Nexus device... the same goes for my tablet.

But NOT because they are the new 'shiny' gadget out there, but because of the lack of bloatware and the speed at which updates become available... I don't imagine I'll be doing any of that soon, I have better things to spend my money on than the latest toy that isn't needed.

At $100 cheaper, it's not "at iPad prices"

It's also not as fast as the iPad Air 2, despite the numbers on the specs.

The key difference is that the iPad Air 2 has 20nm chip architecture, where the Nexus 9 uses 28nm.

Having said that, it's not that far off in terms of speed, and single core tests reveal it to be faster than the new iPad. It just can't quite make it on all the other tests, which is a shame as I fell for the Tegra k1 Denver's hype as a new era device. Oh well.

For all the naysaying here

I'm really enjoying my nexus 9 (arrived this morning) I've so far found it to be fast and fluid, though the initial patch when I turned it on was a bit annoying.

I'm definitely looking forward to having a good play with it when I get home. Thus far though, it's a nice upgrade to my nexus 7. I just need to upgrade my pockets now...

"Full device encryption now comes enabled by default."

So somebody else has had possession of the private key?

Not giving up the TouchPad for this...

Apart from performance, screen and camera improvements, I don't see much reason to replace a 64GB firesale 4:3 aspect ratio HP TouchPad running Evervolv with wireless charging and bluetooth keyboard, which all together was cheaper than the 16GB Nexus 9 offering presented now. It serves perfectly well for consuming video using VLC or Youtube with the previous branding of speakers used by HTC here, while the Nexus 7 is the perfect form factor for games, browsing, reading, maps or streaming to the ChromeCast. With such a poor showing from HTC and Motorola removed from under Google's wing, I wonder if Nokia will Nokus for six Nexia with their return to tablets?

Jelly Bean works just fine thanks

Having disabled 90% of the bloatware off my S3 I can't update to KitKat, never mind Lollipop.

And you know what? I couldn't care less. It does what I need it to do.

And as for Google Now, they can feck off too. I've just deleted my Google+ profile so the last thing I need or want is more fecking Google.

I'd rather buy the Sony Z3 Tablet

Slightly smaller screen but 3GB of RAM and microSD card slot. The 16GB WiFi version is £300 on Amazon.

Still expensive but at least you can stick a memory card in it.

The Nexus 7 (2013 version) is the perfect device for me. For our office, it's now deployed for engineers to use for tracking jobs (everyone has one mounted to a desk - the price makes it a simple fix to a relatively straightforward need).

At home, there is one pretty much in every room - used as the remote/control/home automation controller - again, great price and spec and device and decent enough that it'll last as various things change over time.

£200+ - no deal on any front, and I don't want it any larger thanks.

Thought this was the UK

Come on, theregister.co.UK but all prices in dollars!

What Android or iOS games????

There isn't an Android or iOS game yet that can tax Tegra K1. Which does not mean that there will not be. It will be interesting to see how AMD's 4 core Amur with Radeon on die, their ARM 20nm APU will compare against nVidia.

On the other hand, Windows tablets running AMD Mullins A10-6700T with Radeon cores on board will likely be able to run games like Civilization: Beyond Earth. Of course no Intel mobile processor with Intel HD graphics can run it. But expect Photon 2 Windows Tablet with AMD Mullins to be a Game changer.