Tech Insider: Can Google's new tablet take on big guns?

Nexus 9

Jessica Kelly

Google Nexus 9 tablet review: a rival to Samsung or Apple?

Google's latest Android tablet, the Nexus 9, is built by HTC. It has a bigger screen than its predecessor, measuring in at 8.9 inches, and runs Android Lollipop software.

The previous Nexus tablet was the 7-inch device made by Asus. It was extremely popular because of its solid build and very reasonable price tag.

Looking at the tablet straight out of the box, it's clear to see that effort went into the design. It's outer body comprises of high-quality, smooth plastic. It's slightly thicker than the iPad Air 2 and is around the same weight too. So far, so good.

The screen has a similar pixel density to the Samsung Galaxy Tab S, reviewed in this column earlier this year. When placed side by side, the screen and colour clarity of the Tab S appears superior to that of the Nexus 9.

Music and movie lovers will be happy to see two front-facing speakers, ensuring full sound is produced.

Also on the front of the device is a 1.6MP camera, and there's an 8MP on the back of the device.

After taking a look at the build and spec of the device, it was time to move onto performance. Unfortunately, this is where we run into our first stumbling block.

Set up was easy and pain-free, but jumping from app to app caused a bit of a stutter. This was very noticeable when tested next to the Galaxy Tab S.

Depending on what you want from a tablet, this is or isn't a big deal. Many users purchase a tablet as a companion device but still want to be able to jump from Netflix to email and onto Twitter within a matter of seconds. The device froze on a few occasions, which was frustrating.

This may be rectified with software updates and so on, but it did take away from my entire experience of the tablet.

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