I ordered a Nexus 9 on Black Friday (online, of course, because I'm not completely insane) and it arrived yesterday. I've gotten to play around with it a fair amount these past couple of days. Here's my thoughts!
Overall, I like it! It's easily the fastest Android device I've used by far, most likely as a result of HTC's decision to use a fast dual-core rather than a lethargic quad- or octa-core like Samsung and friends tend to do (hint: people tend to browse the web on tablets quite a bit, and...well,
662061791497744384[/tweet]]here's a nice visual analogy of how JavaScript engines handle multicore processors [spoiler alert: they don't. They can't. Get a clue, Samsung]). Android 6 has been a real treat so far. There's tasteful animations and sleek transitions between a variety of screen elements, and the product as a whole feels a lot more cohesive than Android 5 did. I haven't gotten a good idea of battery life yet, but I can say that after three hours of heavy use it brought me down to around 55%, which doesn't seem all that bad. If my usage were a bit more practical I estimate that I'd probably get 8-10 hours out of it. It's no iPad in terms of battery life, but it seems fine. It should get just about anyone through a work day and have life to spare.
It also has a very nice, solid feel to it. I'd heard of some build quality issues when the Nexus 9 was first released (slight flex on the back, crappy volume/lock buttons) but those have definitely been corrected. The tablet is fairly light--about what I'd expect for something of its size--and has a simple, elegant design.
That said, this wouldn't be a Spectere write-up without criticisms, so here we go!
First of all, the cover is kind of meh. The iPad Smart Cover has a little faux-hinge on the side that attaches very firmly to the side of the iPad with magnets. The Surface/Surface Pro line has something similar, with a data port on the side to easily support a keyboard and trackpad. The Nexus 9 just has a single flat piece with magnets in it. It tends to slide around a lot in normal use, and if you use it to prop up the device you have to be very careful if you have to move it around at all, since the magnets could easily slip off and cause the tablet to fall. When it is standing up I've found it to be sturdier than the iPad cover, but heavens help you if you decide to move it when it's in position.
It's not awful, but it's definitely disappointing, especially since its two primary competitors have both been around longer and have significantly better designs. I'd give this a pass and look into a third-party option, if one is even available. Fortunately, I bought this at half off. It's definitely not worth the $40 asking price.
While we're on the topic of covers, there is a keyboard folio available to that which appears to have its own set of problems. Please bear in mind that I don't actually own one (it's $140, which is a lot considering how many USB OTG cables I have lying around), but I've made a number of observations from looking at the site for them which makes it unappealing to me. First of all, while it does surround the tablet, it also uses magnets around the edges of the tablet, so I have a feeling that if you're not careful the tablet could slip out of the case. Seeing as it's designed to look like a folio case, I find that to be an unacceptable way to hold the device. Every folio case I've seen for other tablets has held the device securely in place, not with a simple magnet. Given how much slippage there is with the standard cover, I would probably maintain a death grip on the poor thing the entire time.
Second, the keyboard connects via Bluetooth, so you've got yet another battery to contend with. It would have been much better if there were an accessory port on the side of the tablet that the keyboard could have plugged into so that you wouldn't have to charge a second device. To be fair, there is an estimated 5 month battery life on the keyboard, but it seems silly and wasteful to me to have a battery on a keyboard that's designed to hold the device that it's controlling. Plus, there's the fact that it most likely jacked up the price to where it is. It's actually $10 more expensive than the Type Cover for the Surface Pro 3, and that includes a decent multitouch trackpad! Again, I would look elsewhere if you need a keyboard for any reason.
The display on the Nexus 9 is nice. It's an IPS LCD with reasonably dark blacks. It uses a 4:3 aspect ratio--which I prefer for tablets--with a 2048x1536 resolution (the same as the Retina iPads), so it's reasonably sharp without causing excessive battery drain and a ton of jankiness as the little mobile GPU struggles to keep up. Unfortunately, the screen does have some
nasty light bleed around the corners. I realize that you're going to get some light bleed with any LCD panel, but I don't think I've ever seen it that bad. It's easy enough to ignore when there's a bunch of stuff on the screen, but I noticed it even with the home screen up. I do tend to notice that sort of stuff more than most, so please bear that in mind.
The last issue that I've run into is just straight up bizarre. The stock charger for the Nexus 9 seems to really suck, and I can't find a good reason why. The charger is supposed to output 2A. However, when I plugged it in I noticed that the lock screen was stating that it would take 4 hours to charge from 75% to 100%. After grabbing a utility that allows me to check the actual charge rates (
Ampere, to be specific), I discovered that the charger was only providing 500mA to the device! When I tried to use the tablet while it was charging the battery percentage was actually going down. Whoa!
I tried swapping cables per some suggestions I'd seen on XDA, but that didn't help. Finally, I plugged it into another charger and, suddenly, the device was charging at a consistent 1.4A. I plugged it into a different charger. Same thing. Specifically, the two chargers that I used were the one for my Samsung Focus S (the Windows Phone 7.5 handset that I'm currently using as an alarm clock) and my iPad charger. It's not a huge deal for me since I already have those chargers available, but I really don't understand how something like that could pass QA. I figured that I might have just gotten a dud at first, but judging by the number of people who have had the same experience, the chargers must be either very shoddily made or just suck in general. Very bizarre.
Negatives aside, I find myself really liking it. It's a worthy successor to my old, dearly departed Nexus 7 (2012) and it kicks the shit out of any other Android tablet I've used. To make matters even better, since it's a Nexus device you won't have to worry about shit like TouchWiz eating up 1.5GB of RAM when you boot the tablet (I'm not joking...the bloatware on my old Tab S literally caused Samsung's perverted version of Android to use significantly more RAM on boot than Windows) and the tablet is very easy to unlock and root. If you're in the market for an Android tablet, I'd definitely suggest picking one of these up.
Edit: A Google Top Contributor
672270193222135808[/tweet]]reached out to me via Twitter about the charger issue. He believes that I just got a dud, which I'm inclined to believe as well at this point. I'm going to contact Google to try to get a replacement AC adapter and will update this thread with the results.
