"Google Nexus 9 is an 8.9-inch upgrade on last year's Nexus 7 and a great introduction to Android Lollipop. It just doesn't measure up to the slightly more expensive iPad Air 2 in more ways than one."

For

Ideal 4:3 aspect ratio
Android 5.0 Lollipop
Knock-to-wake feature
Strong speakers

Against

Pricier than before
Subpar display quality
Uninspiring design
No expandable storage

Nexus 9 sepfication(source:-gsmarena.com)

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
	4G Network	LTE
	SIM	Yes
	Announced	2014, October
	Status	Coming soon. Exp. release 2014, November

Body	Dimensions	228.2 x 153.7 x 7.9 mm (8.98 x 6.05 x 0.31 in)
Body	Weight	425 g (Wi-Fi) / 436 g (3G/LTE) (14.99 oz)

Display	Type	IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	1536 x 2048 pixels, 8.9 inches (~281 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
	Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 3

Sound	Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes, with stereo speakers
	3.5mm jack	Yes

Memory	Card slot	No
Memory	Internal	16/32 GB, 2 GB RAM

Data	GPRS	Yes
	EDGE	Yes
	Speed	HSDPA, HSUPA, LTE
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
	Bluetooth	v4.1, A2DP, apt-X
	NFC	Yes
	USB	microUSB v2.0

Camera	Primary	8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
	Features	Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection
	Video	1080p@30fps, stereo sound rec.
	Secondary	1.6 MP, 720p

Features	OS	Android OS, v5.0 (Lollipop)
	Chipset	Nvidia Tegra K1
	CPU	Dual-core 2.3 GHz Denver
	GPU	Kepler DX1
	Sensors	Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
	Browser	HTML5
	Radio	No
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS
	Java	Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
	Colors	Indigo Black, Lunar White, Sand
		- DivX/MP4/H.265 player - MP3/WAV/eAAC+/Flac player - Photo/video editor - Document viewer - Voice memo/dial

Battery		Non-removable Li-Po 6700 mAh battery
	Stand-by	(2G) / Up to 720 h (3G)
	Talk time	(2G) / Up to 9 h 30 min (multimedia) (3G)

Google's Nexus 9 has been designed by HTC to be Goldilocks of pure Android tablets and, for the most part, it succeeds at being "just right."
It's not as big as the seriously outdated Samsung-made Nexus 10 and not as small as the ASUS-crafted Nexus 7. It's the silver bullet tablet entry that costs more of your hard-earned gold.
There's a specs bump behind the 8.9-inch display to help justify the price of $399 (£319, about AU$460) for the space-limited 16GB model and $479 (£399, AU$552) for the prescribed 32GB option.
We're talking about the latest Nvidia 64-bit processor, a decent 2GB of RAM, dual front-facing speakers and a hulking battery to keep it all up and running for a little over nine hours.

Even with those specs, Nexus 9 has a hard time measuring up to the iPad Air 2 in every category. Its own Android competition is fierce too - the Samsung Tab S is a rather lovely in 10.5- and 8.4-inch sizes to flank this 9-inch (well, 8.9-inch) option, and the Sony's Z3 Compact Tablet is a decent choice.
But Nexus 9 is the biggest and so far only way to dive into Android 5.0 Lollipop (with the Nexus 6 coming next week), which makes it the sweetest Google tablet in more ways than one.

Display

Nexus 9's display size is a few tenths of an inch smaller than the iPad Air 2, but it happens to be the same exact resolution as Apple's 9.7-inch tablet.
In fact, it's Google's 8.9-inch tablet that actually has a few more pixels per inch packed into its QXGA-level 2048 x 1536 IPS LCD screen.
That's why it's surprising that there's no comparison: the new iPad has a richer display in a side-by-side test. Apple's thinner, gap-free screen laminants everything for much better results.

I also found minor, but noticeable backlight bleeding around the bezel, which made the Nexus 9 picture quality less uniform when watching full-screen videos.
All of this makes Nexus 9 in a 4:3 aspect ratio more useful for productivity compared to the video-friendly 16:9 Nexus 7 that now seems very narrow and outdated in my hands.
With more height in landscape mode, it's a two-handed device with additional headroom to read text. That's great for surfing the web or editing a document. The screen size makes sense, even if the technology behind it doesn't shine as much.

Design

It's about time HTC engineered a Nexus tablet or any modern-day tablet for that matter. After all, the crafty designers at the company brought us the polished-looking the HTC One M8.

No surprise, the Nexus 9 includes a metallic frame around the perimeter of this larger device. It's nice as long as you don't expect that all-metal design to continue around back.
This year's tablet sticks with a soft, rubberized back cover - the same one that's adorned by the smaller Nexus 7. It's not an all-metal HTC One M8 equivalent, but it is easier to grip. That matters.
Being able to firmly hold this Google tablet in my hands is more important now than ever because of its two-handed design. Nexus 9 colors include more premium-looking off-white and a fingerprint-attracting matte black colors and feel resilient enough to go without a cover.

The only thing I feel as though I need to protect against is lodging dust in the speakers slots. There are two dust-collecting traps at the top and bottom of the tablet that also happen to contain powerful front-facing speakers.
Even though the all-metal design wasn't carried over from the HTC One M8, at least the BoomSound speakers point the audio in the right direction, not in the back or at the bottom. YouTube videos at least sound better than they look.

The speakers slots don't have me worried, though. It's the lack of a micro SD card slot that is the biggest design omission. There's no expandable storage whatsoever, meaning the 16GB model is going to be a tough sell if you use even a little bit of non-streaming multimedia.
We've actually come to expect this on most Android tablets, and the extra cost of the 32GB model looks like the only way to safeguard yourself from larger apps or big HD movie libraries.

I would have also liked to see better buttons on the Nexus 9 rim. Having tested the Nexus 6 and the new Moto X before that, I've come to appreciate the power button accented with ridges.
That a Motorola's design choice that helped me differentiate between the tiny volume rocker and even tinier power button in the dark. Hopefully it becomes a trend now that no one is adding a mute button to tablets.

CPU

The big thing to note here is that HTC has switched away from Qualcomm to go with an Nvidia K1 chipset. This probably won't mean a lot to many users, save to say it really improves the speed under the finger when flicking through the Nexus 9 and making the graphical prowess that much better.
However, it makes the new tablet a good bet for the future, as with a 64-bit architecture in the tablet and available on the new iteration of Android, the two together will result in more powerful and useful apps.

At first, we ran into a few performance hiccups with our review unit including unregistered touch abnormalities and slowdown when there were only a few tasks going at once. Google has promised that it fixed these Nexus 9 problems in a last-second firmware update that made it to the end-consumers device.
As future-proofed as the CPU may be, there's only 2GB of RAM at the heart of the Nexus 9. It won't really be able to take advantage of the 64-bit ability, but will have some slight performance enhancements. It's actually only a dual core CPU, but don't let that put you off as the early benchmarking numbers for this tablet have been very impressive.

Interface and apps

Nexus 9 marks everyone's first lick at Android 5.0 Lollipop, and this year's software update stands to be more as exciting than the hardware specs bump.
That's because the new operating system fixes a handful of the problems we've had with prior Androids, and it sports a cleaner look - just enough to stay fresh next to Apple's iOS 8 update.

Google's "Material Design" dials things back for a flatter, geometry-focused interface, one that pops off the screen with a more colorful palette. It's bold and refreshing.
Android Lollipop also features have you do more tapping too. First up, Tap and Go makes it easy to set up or restore a new device from an older one that's also running Android 5.0. Back-to-back, the two transfer all data through NFC and take Android Beam to the next level.
Double tap to wake is even more convenient. Giving Nexus 9 screen a quick knock brings it to life with one hand. No more awkwardly clutching the rim to press the tiny power button.

At times, manually waking the screen isn't even necessary. Lockscreen notifications show up by default and briefly brighten the display. Don't worry: Just in case you like pretend people are peeking into your life via glimpses at your tablet, these automatic alerts can be blocked on a per-app basis.
A similar option comes to the all-new, system-wide Priority Mode that acts as Google's Do Not Disturb feature. Certain apps can be set to function in this nighttime-friendly mode, which makes paying for inferior third-party apps irrelevant.

Quick settings is easier to access all-in-one menu within this pire Android version of Google's operating system. Swiping down on the Nexus 9 screen one displays notifications. Swiping down again or swiping down with two fingers from the start reveals quick setting controls.
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and airplane mode are joined by new switches for a flashlight, display slider and Google Chromecast cast screen. Sadly, the quick settings can't be changed or moved. Likewise, the battery percentage is hidden in this second menu. There's no way to make it appear in the first swipe-down menu or top system tray next to the lonely, ambiguous battery draining icon.

The real other downside I noted - and it's not a big one, given it's not a key part of the tablet experience - is the camera. Like every Nexus device, this seems more like a proving ground for the software than allowing users to take great photos.

Early verdict

Google's Nexus 9 tablet has display size and price that's indicative of everything you need to know about how it stacks up against the iPad Air 2. It's just a little less.
The smaller 8.9-inch screen is good enough until you sit it next to the richer-looking, laminated 9.7-inch iPad display. The LCD backlight bleeding didn't help in our comparison tests either. Among Androids, its 4:3 aspect ratio makes it a great two-handed upgrade over last year's narrower and slower Nexus 7. It's almost as thin, but nowhere near as sub-pencil-thin as Apple's "laser-cut" iPad.

More design cues appear to have been taken from the ASUS-made Nexus 7 than HTC's own all-metal HTC One M8. The soft rubberized back is easy to grip, yet doesn't feel as premium. That's a problem because this Android tablet costs much more than last year's model. It starts at $399 (£319, about AU$450) for the 16GB version, and that space fills up rather quickly.
Android 5.0 Lollipop gives Google's slate a software facelift, even if the hardware construction isn't especially innovative. The Material Design theme is where this tablet shines in terms of look, while lockscreen notifications and priority mode add overdue functionality. It helps us forget about Google's lack of a cohesive messaging app strategy that challenges iMessages on iOS 8.
Nexus 9 is a few tenths of an inch shy of matching the iPad Air 2, which wouldn't be so bad if the display and design didn't come up short as well.
We'll continue testing Nexus 9, considering the new, late-breaking update from Google and will give it a final score considering what we find.

source:-Hands on: Nexus 9 review

Review Sense

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Hands on: Nexus 9 review