Google Nexus 9

“Google does not hit a homerun with its Nexus 9 like it did with its Nexus 7. The quality has suffered, and the price has been increased noticeably. Besides that, not everything seems to run smoothly in the 64-bit version of Google's new Android 5.0 Lollipop yet. While the Nexus 9 (Build LRX21L) still struggles with some issues, the new operating system runs smoothly on older Nexus devices.Nevertheless, HTC delivers a decent tablet though compromises have to primarily be made in build. The performance of the Tegra K1 is awesomely good and the screen is also compelling even if halos are clearly visible in some places. Additionally, the speakers are really decent.Furthermore, the K1's performance throttles noticeably under high load so that Nvidia's Shield tablet will remain to be first choice among tablets for gamers. It does not struggle with those kinds of problems. 2 GB of working memory also seem insufficient and push the device to its limits when used for a longer period. However, that only applies to the 64-bit version of Android 5.0. We did not ascertain these issues in the Lollipop test with the Nexus 5 (32-bit). The storage cannot be expanded either. We would have at least wished for a model with more storage in that case.”

“The Nexus 9 isn't the best tablet for everyone, but the brilliance of the Android approach is that one tablet doesn't have to be. Like other Nexus products, the Nexus 9 is designed to have the absolute latest version of Android at all times, letting software developers target a clean, updated OS. It also shows Google's purest idea of what its software experience should be like. For 2015, expect that to involve a lot of Google cloud-based productivity apps.”

“The HTC Nexus 9 is a proper, no-compromise Android tablet flagship. By combining sleek design, top-notch build quality, immensely powerful hardware, and spanking new OS version, Google's slate is probably the best challenger to the Apple iPad.HTC should be pleased with its effort too. Three years after leaving the tablet market, the Taiwanese manufacturer couldn't possibly have returned to it with a bigger bang. The Nexus 9 combines all the strengths that HTC has been known for with Google's newly found upmarket philosophy for the product range.”

“Had Google arrived with a $299 price point for its 8.9-inch tablet—obviously bigger and badder than a Nexus 7, but still inexpensive—it would be easier to overlook the various flaws we found in our testing. Yet even in a price-to-performance vacuum, the device's beefy specs didn't add up to the kind of jaw-dropping tablet experience you might expect from the latest Nexus offering.That stress on specs must have forced Google's pricing hand, as the Nexus 9's models line up competitively with Apple's thinner full-sized tablet, starting at $399 for the 16GB model and moving up to $479 for 32GB. The Nexus 9's backing doesn't pop out, either, so what you buy in terms of memory and battery is what you get.Some of the aspects of this review—camera speed, multi-tasking stutters—could change in a matter of weeks with the right Lollipop tweaks, though the fact that they shipped out the door this way doesn't inspire much confidence. Other possible improvements, like a world of games designed to tap into richer specs, may take longer. Just like on iOS, you can't expect game makers to sell the most visually rich stuff on marketplaces that punish designers for selling games for more than $7 (especially for a small niche of highest-end users for at least half a year).If you want to see the Lollipop interface's new animations and designs at their best, this is the screen and hardware to show them off with. I didn't spend this review talking about Lollipop's changes and updates, because we're going to focus on those in a more in-depth look at how Android 5.0 scales across all compatible devices thus far. For now, this device is proof that Android has certainly matured enough to where your average mobile app should scale up to a larger screen and resolution without major squinting or scaling issues, and it's easy to take that for granted.At the very least, the build quality is what it is. A thin, light device, a great screen with a white-bleed caveat, a plasticky body with a weird pressure-point issue, and a cool screen-tap-to-power function that's mostly required because the power button stinks. That all adds up to a tough sell on a crowded showroom floor, anybody working on commission will almost certainly turn to other devices if they plan to meet their holiday sales quota.”