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Hi all,
When the N4 was announced I had my GNex up for sale within the hour, sold within two! The more I read about the Nexus 4, the more I am unsure it is actually for me. I do not play games and generally use my phone for browsing the net/forums, google currents, bit of music and social networking (Facebook etc.)
I am now unsure whether I have made the right choice, and whether I should snap-up another Nexus while people are selling them off cheap on the forums ready for the N4 upgrade.
I was hoping for upgrades in the following areas
Build quality... this is one area where I am fairly sure I would be happy! N4 looks great!
Screen quality... again, a fairly significant upgrade to me me as the Gnex screen always looked a little washed out and dull when sat alongside other handsets (One X, S3, S2 etc.)
Battery Life... Was hoping for this but am now unsure. Gnex seemed to heat up quite a lot and was looking forward to getting rid of that. it now seems that the N4 may have the same issues and reports of screen on time in the region of 3 hours do not seem that much of a step up from the Gnex
Processor... Whilst a speed boost would be welcomed, as I only use the phone for some casual browsing and not gaming I am unsure how much difference I will see.
Camera... Again was hoping for a major boost, but seems to be a minor incremental boost at best!
Any thoughts? Anyone else in the same position as me and wondering what to do? Price difference is in the region of £100-120 if I were to purchase like for like accessories etc.
Cheers,
Michael
The fact that it's "Nexus" also means you get a standard, Android experience, along with guaranteed quick updates (up until the point where the OS won't run smoothly on the device I guess; which should take a while). Other vendors for the most part offer updates slowly, and choose to make the general UI... non-standard (which usually has more downsides)
yeah... am only comparing the two nexus devices as that is all I would buy... love the specs of the S3 and can be picked up mint for about the same price as a new Nexus 4, but couldn't live without the updates
Literally everything is improved. You'll love it no matter what.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
One thing I wouldn't worry ahbout is battery life,
once the obvious software problems are fixed battery life is going to be good because:
-The battery at 2100mAh is pretty large
-IPS panels are allot more power efficient then Amoled screens, especially if your main use is web browsing
-The S4pro is the most efficient ARM quad-core and is the only one which allows to clock its cores independently
-There will be custom Kernels that allow undervolting and other features that improve battery life
I'm not a gamer either, but that didn't stopped me from getting this I personally think you won't regret getting it, but if you don't like it, you can always just return it and get something else
Swyped on my Galaxy Nexus running AOKP with Franco Kernel
wurzelsepp3 said:
One thing I wouldn't worry ahbout is battery life,
once the obvious software problems are fixed battery life is going to be good because:
-The battery at 2100mAh is pretty large
-IPS panels are allot more power efficient then Amoled screens, especially if your main use is web browsing
-The S4pro is the most efficient ARM quad-core and is the only one which allows to clock its cores independently
-There will be custom Kernels that allow undervolting and other features that improve battery life
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How much of a difference will custom kernels and ROMs make to the battery life? Roughly? 10% or more?
I know my current Galaxy 3 gives me an improvement of almost 30% with custom firmware, but that's because of removing the samsung bloatware.
I try to get the fastest, most powerful phone or computer out there that's at a reasonable price. By reasonable I mean most power per dollar. The people that say they don't need a super fast phone or computer are usually the ones complaining that Web pages open slow or it keeps freezing and slowing down. The better hardware you get, the longer you will be satisfied with the device. And for this price with this hardware/software? You gotta jump on it. You may not need a phone that could run crysis but if you could get it for the same or cheaper price as a lesser spec'd phone, wouldn't you?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
cyberkid2002 said:
I was hoping for upgrades in the following areas
Build quality... this is one area where I am fairly sure I would be happy! N4 looks great! I think we're going to love the build quality. I've said for a couple of years now that if Google could put out a Nexus device that felt like the iPhone 4/4S in the hand, then they'd really be on to something. I believe that's what LG has done here.
Screen quality... again, a fairly significant upgrade to me me as the Gnex screen always looked a little washed out and dull when sat alongside other handsets (One X, S3, S2 etc.) IMO, the screen is going to be great. From everything I've read, the screen is just a slight notch below the One X...so that would make it fantastic. And every review I've read that compared it to the GNex screen says that it's MUCH better and much easier to see outdoors in sunlight. This is a major upgrade.
Battery Life... Was hoping for this but am now unsure. Gnex seemed to heat up quite a lot and was looking forward to getting rid of that. it now seems that the N4 may have the same issues and reports of screen on time in the region of 3 hours do not seem that much of a step up from the Gnex. Again, this is something we'll have to wait and see (as everyone's day-to-day use is different), but I've seen a couple of reviews that say the Nexus 4 gets about the same, or just below, the battery life of the S3. If that's the case, then (for me at least), I'm golden. Yesterday I got 5 hours screen-on time on my S3 (50% brightness, stock rooted ROM, power save turned off, etc.) and I still had 23% battery life left. That's pretty darn good!
Processor... Whilst a speed boost would be welcomed, as I only use the phone for some casual browsing and not gaming I am unsure how much difference I will see. I think you'll see a major boost, even if you don't need it. Apps will open faster and things will just be snappier. I'd much rather have more performance than I need rather than the other way around.
Camera... Again was hoping for a major boost, but seems to be a minor incremental boost at best! This is the one place where I have to really disagree. The camera is VERY important to me (I use it daily in my job) and the shots I've seen seem to show the camera is a MAJOR upgrade over the GNex. While I didn't find the GNex camera to be awful, it certainly couldn't hold a candle to my S3 camera. If this camera is anywhere near as good as the S3, I'm going to be very pleased.
Any thoughts? Anyone else in the same position as me and wondering what to do? Price difference is in the region of £100-120 if I were to purchase like for like accessories etc.
Cheers,
Michael
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See my replies above. I believe you've made a great decision. :good:
Engadget has had the most negative response to the battery life of anyone, and they still got 3 minutes longer out of the Nexus 4 than the Galaxy Nexus. Assuming they never fix whatever was causing the poor battery life, you'll see the same as what you get on your Galaxy Nexus.
In terms of overall performance which one is genuinely better, price is no concern because I can get them both for $399, storage is not a big concern because I don't plan on taking picture or having TOO MUCH music on there.
Jlox1 said:
In terms of overall performance which one is genuinely better, price is no concern because I can get them both for $399, storage is not a big concern because I don't plan on taking picture or having TOO MUCH music on there.
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I cannot speak as to the Nexus 10 yet, as I do not own one. Waiting for Google Play to get them back in stock.
I can, however, speak regarding the Infinity as for a brief period I owned one... actually went through four. Trust me, you do NOT want that tablet! Asus threw a decent CPU at it, but went cheap on the storage and as such its prone to stutter quite a bit. It's enough of a hit to harm the user experience... my HP Touchpad running CM9 ran circles around it and that thing was a full year older!
Get the nexus ive owned the infinity when it came out and while the screen is great and also build quality, the I/O lag is terrible you have to flash cleanRom to even get any kind of smooth performance and even then it cant match the nexus 10.
I used CLEAN ROM and Data2SD with a UH1 Micro SD, still laughable performance by comparison.
In my opinion, if you don't need a full fledged Keyboard dock (full size usb port, and extra battery) then get a Nexus.
The transformer is cool, and if the keyboard dock didn't cost an extra $150 I might have kept it for school. Otherwise, it's got a brushed aluminum back.
Sent from my Galaxy Note II
If you don't care about storage then there is no question you should get the nexus 10.
Speaking as a tf 700 owner, the user experience is awful.
The build quality is nice, screen is the best and it's got cool features but if constant stuttering and lag doing the most basic operations like opening a web page then switching to Kindle and going back to home screen, bothers you then stay away from the infinity.
+1 for all posts about how laggy the t700 is. Made a huge mistake buying this one.
I also had a TF700T....kept it for 58 days and returned it to Best Buy (60 day return option under Premiere Silver). Great case, overall fit and finish very nice, nice screen. But the periodic lag was annoying, there were periodic freezes, and I didn't want to depend on a custom ROM just to get normal performance. I liked the extra battery in the keyboard/dock, but found the keyboard to be unnecessary. In the end I found that I just wasn't bothering to use the Infinity.
In contrast....I love the Nexus 10, carry it and use it all day. Excellent device that will keep benefitting from Android evolution frequently and long into the future.
beamed from a Nexus 10 far, far away
I have had both as well. Although the 700 was decent - I am loving the N10. Wonderful screen and fast in all aspects....including games.
I have owned both, the TF201 Prime (C1) and then the TF700 (C6) which I exchanged the 201 for, and now after having N10, I'd take it over both- anyday of the week.
Keyboard attachment with battery and the look are really only things going for them there's so many cons to both all you have to do is go into one of their forums to get an idea of what is wrong with them. (Backplate interference, dead GPS on the 201, I/O, popping/clicking screens etc) 400 imo is still too much I wouldn't pay much more than 300 for either after all the BS I've experienced with them personally.
As the other posters noted the Infinity suffered from lag issues. I kept it for 30 days. The Nexus is clearly superior in performance.
Yup, I'm another one who went through 3 of them before getting the N10.
Love my infinity. Awesome tab. People say the screen on the N10 is better but honestly its not. Its pixel density might be higher (spec sheet booster) but the contrast sucks to all hell. I not rooted or unlocked and performance on the infinity since the updates is amazing. Add to that the form factor, full keyboard for extra battery and external storage and you have the best tablet IMHO. I would say around with both but honestly the infinity to me just the better all around device. Take a look at all the comparison sites and they will confirm what im saying. Also are you a student or just looking for a media consumption tablet? Best of luck!
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk HD
I've had tf201, tf700, n10 all at the same time. Performance wise you can't beat the n10. Its a beast but the form factor of the Asus is awesome. If you're only concern is performance don't get an Asus. Even with cleanrom, clemsey kernel and data2sd its not going to beat the n10 on performance.
N10 is also future proof for a while and will probably have a better resale value vs the tf700. Just in case you decide to sell it and go for the new tegra4 tablets
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
IO speeds on the nexus 10 (above 100MB/s) are second to none. In fact they are twice as fast as the second fastest device. They are more than 5 times faster than the IO speeds on the infinity. That alone plus the cortex a15 and the ridiculously fast gpu makes it a much better performer.
I bought a 32gb Nexus 10 from Staples over the weekend and am enjoying it, but I realize that I'm seven months late to this hardware (while still paying full price). Is there anything coming in the next month that I should return this unit for? A high PPI is a must at this point.
Thanks.
Samsung was trying to get a Nexus 11 going and had specs for it, but at the time Google had not yet approved the production of it. No word has been heard since then about a new model upgrade for the Nexus 10.
trimalchioinwestegg said:
I bought a 32gb Nexus 10 from Staples over the weekend and am enjoying it, but I realize that I'm seven months late to this hardware (while still paying full price). Is there anything coming in the next month that I should return this unit for? A high PPI is a must at this point.
Thanks.
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The next Nexus 7 will probably come out in a month or so, if you're okay with a 7" tablet. If you must have 10", the high-end announcements so far are a new Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, not coming till the fall, and the Toshiba Excite Pro, coming next month, both running Tegra 4 and with the same 2560 X 1600 resolution as the Nexus 10. If you want a stylus, the Toshiba Excite Write is the same as the Pro, but with a Wacom digitizer and a stylus.
There are always new announcements being made in the runup to the holidays, this is just what we know so far. We can't say how good any of these devices will be, as none of them are out yet.
Just got the Toshiba Excite Write
And it looks to be a damn fine tablet. Antutu scored 28k+ and the graphics power is phenomenal. Has built in video and audio enhancements, seems pretty stable on this kernal build, although I expect an update soon because of a couple of weird quirks. The stylus works great (love the eraser by turning over the pen!), but not as developed as the Note 10.1, however, the screen rez is fantastic at 320 DPI and looks as good as the Nexus 10. The rear camera is REALLY great...best I've seen so far on a tablet, and the speakers are clear as a bell with excellent surround sound controlled in hardware, so anything you play gets enhanced. It does get a little warm on the left side under the camera when running an intensive app.
If you have any questions or requests, fire away!
babblin5 said:
And it looks to be a damn fine tablet. Antutu scored 28k+ and the graphics power is phenomenal. Has built in video and audio enhancements, seems pretty stable on this kernal build, although I expect an update soon because of a couple of weird quirks. The stylus works great (love the eraser by turning over the pen!), but not as developed as the Note 10.1, however, the screen rez is fantastic at 320 DPI and looks as good as the Nexus 10. The rear camera is REALLY great...best I've seen so far on a tablet, and the speakers are clear as a bell with excellent surround sound controlled in hardware, so anything you play gets enhanced. It does get a little warm on the left side under the camera when running an intensive app.
If you have any questions or requests, fire away!
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I will keep my tablet thanks. At least I know my benchmark scores are 100% raw horsepower and not shady nVidia "optimizations".
brees75 said:
I will keep my tablet thanks. At least I know my benchmark scores are 100% raw horsepower and not shady nVidia "optimizations".
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Suit yourself, but that's a lot of wasted CPU cycles and amps there for a misplaced sense of "power." Mobile devices are all about optimization right now, and if the reports show the device to be fully usable, then you're unlikely to run into issues. Certainly this has my eye.
babblin5 said:
And it looks to be a damn fine tablet. Antutu scored 28k+ and the graphics power is phenomenal. Has built in video and audio enhancements, seems pretty stable on this kernal build, although I expect an update soon because of a couple of weird quirks. The stylus works great (love the eraser by turning over the pen!), but not as developed as the Note 10.1, however, the screen rez is fantastic at 320 DPI and looks as good as the Nexus 10. The rear camera is REALLY great...best I've seen so far on a tablet, and the speakers are clear as a bell with excellent surround sound controlled in hardware, so anything you play gets enhanced. It does get a little warm on the left side under the camera when running an intensive app.
If you have any questions or requests, fire away!
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How did you get your hands on it? None of the major tech sites have even reviewed it yet and they say it's not supposed to be delivered to buyers for another week.
How does it compare to the Nexus 10 otherwise? Specifically, the resolution is the same, but are the colors as good or better? Forget about benchmarks, do you notice any differences in a quad-core A15 compared to the dual-core A15 in the Nexus 10 in real-world use? What is battery life like with such a powerful CPU? Do the speakers go louder than the Nexus 10's speakers, when cranked up to the max? Can you post some pics from the rear camera, so we can see how good it is?
I'm happy with my Nexus 10, so I doubt I'll be picking up another tablet for a while. But I'm curious how these upcoming spec-hogs will compare to the current spec-hog king, the Nexus 10.
joakim_one said:
How did you get your hands on it? None of the major tech sites have even reviewed it yet and they say it's not supposed to be delivered to buyers for another week.
How does it compare to the Nexus 10 otherwise? Specifically, the resolution is the same, but are the colors as good or better? Forget about benchmarks, do you notice any differences in a quad-core A15 compared to the dual-core A15 in the Nexus 10 in real-world use? What is battery life like with such a powerful CPU? Do the speakers go louder than the Nexus 10's speakers, when cranked up to the max? Can you post some pics from the rear camera, so we can see how good it is?
I'm happy with my Nexus 10, so I doubt I'll be picking up another tablet for a while. But I'm curious how these upcoming spec-hogs will compare to the current spec-hog king, the Nexus 10.
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I don't have a Nexus 10 at the moment for direct comparisons, but I personally think the brightness and color are at least on par. I do feel that the viewing angles aren't quite as high however in the Write. Don't know if this has anything to do with the digitizer or not. The pic of my kitteh was taken with the rear camera in room light, but I'll shoot a few more and post.
I also think that the Write's Tegra 4 delivers the goods in gameplay, even when set to balance mode, there's no stuttering in anything I've thrown at it so far, and Autocad 360 rendering is blazingly fast in real time 3D view, even when rotating fully rendered 3d models. I'm not sure how well the Nexus 10 would handle the same stuff, especially in power saving mode.
I do question the battery life a bit, as it seems to chew through the battery at times, and at this point I'm kind of doubting the life claimed by Toshiba. I'm not sure if the current kernel build is fully optimized yet, as there's at least one major issue when streaming or watching video, both through Google Play or from a file saved on the SD card. The screen goes black after a few seconds of playback, although the sound continues to play. Pressing the power button to put it in sleep mode, then again to wake it up, solves the issue and everything plays and streams fine after that. YouTube streaming doesn't have this issue. Also, it doesn't matter which player you use, it still does it, which leads me to believe that the unit I got might still have an early, unoptimized build on it. I seriously can't see them mass shipping with that kind of readily apparent bug, but who knows?
The sound is also a bit odd. It seems pretty muted, even at full volume, when playing any type of media. Games are plenty loud though, and the stereo separation and surround enhancements are simply stellar, even when I have the thing parked on my lap. I strongly suspect that there's some sort of limit as to the max volume switched on in the hardware to avoid blowing out the speakers or something, or it could be in the kernel itself...I honestly don't know at this point. I just know that the maximum volume is significantly lower in media playback for some strange reason.
As for how I got it, I'm just as amazed as you are. I pre ordered on July 2, and the shipping date showed July 3 on my order. I called toshiba and asked them if this was correct, and was told that they weren't scheduled to ship until the 18th. I thought they'd go in and change the date after I called attention to the ship date, but it stayed showing the 3rd. Low and behold the next day I got an email with a tracking number, and sure enough it arrived the following Monday due to the delay caused by the 4th (2 day shipping).
Was it a mistake? I have no frigging idea, and feel pretty privileged to have one before any of the major sites have reviewed it. Here's a pic of the tablet and box it came in, to satisfy any doubters that might be out there, as well as the invoice that came with it.
babblin5 said:
Was it a mistake? I have no frigging idea, and feel pretty privileged to have one before any of the major sites have reviewed it. Here's a pic of the tablet and box it came in, to satisfy any doubters that might be out there, as well as the invoice that came with it.
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Thanks for the info, sounds like a nice device, although with some early hiccups. This is the first Tegra 4 device on the market, now that the Nvidia Shield has been postponed, so I was curious how it would do.
How long does it last in normal, continuous usage? My Nexus 10 goes about 5-6 hours.
joakim_one said:
Thanks for the info, sounds like a nice device, although with some early hiccups. This is the first Tegra 4 device on the market, now that the Nvidia Shield has been postponed, so I was curious how it would do.
How long does it last in normal, continuous usage? My Nexus 10 goes about 5-6 hours.
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I'd say it's at least 5-6 hours, but nowhere near the 9-11 that Toshiba claims.
Here's some photos off the rear camera of the Excite Write.
Excellent stuff, thanks for posting babblin :thumbup: I have one heading my way (shipped July 12th) and will admit to a certain amount of trepidation since that last 5 tablets I've tried to buy (2 Nexus 10, 2 Nexus 7, 1 Xperia Tablet Z) were faulty out of the box.
I'm curious — although I suppose I'll find out for myself soon enough unless it's a total dud — does stylus pressure register in any drawing app (eg. SketchBook)?
TellTenPeople said:
Excellent stuff, thanks for posting babblin :thumbup: I have one heading my way (shipped July 12th) and will admit to a certain amount of trepidation since that last 5 tablets I've tried to buy (2 Nexus 10, 2 Nexus 7, 1 Xperia Tablet Z) were faulty out of the box.
I'm curious — although I suppose I'll find out for myself soon enough unless it's a total dud — does stylus pressure register in any drawing app (eg. SketchBook)?
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I'm not sure, but I'll check into it. I did use it to sign a PDF though, which was pretty cool...
babblin5 said:
If you have any questions or requests, fire away!
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What is the available ram after reboot? The N10 GPU takes 800 meg now so only ~1.2gig available.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
no.
this tablet will long for the next 3 years at least
rxnelson said:
What is the available ram after reboot? The N10 GPU takes 800 meg now so only ~1.2gig available.
T
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
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I have quite a few things running in background, and it's using .89 gb
To the OP...
There is "ALWAYS" a better tablet coming soon. You should never, ever, ever purchase a tab because of what is around the corner.
Of course this means that you'd never, ever, ever own a tablet either
I don't see a problem with an N10 purchase around this time, after all, I purchased one last month. The closest "reviewed" tab is the Sony 10.1" tab and it's not enough of a boost over an N10 to warrant upgrading from the N10 to one.
Specification wise, other than a microSD slot (which has less benefit with each release of Android due to DRM), camera and the ability to take it swimming (water isn't good for the Nexus), the N10 still seems to have the top specs. Screen resolution, audio quality and several GPU benchmarks appear to have the N10 still in the lead.
This fall? That's when you'll likely see some 10" tablet refreshes.
babblin5 said:
Here's some photos off the rear camera of the Excite Write.
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Nice, there's no way the Nexus 10 produces shots like those, with its below-average camera. Looks like a clear win for the Excite Write camera, though I barely use the camera on my Nexus 10, so not a big deal for me.
To answer my own question, the Toshiba Write doesn't get pressure sensitivity — much less good performance — out of either SketchBook Pro or Ink. It does, however, do a nibble job in HandyNote Pro which is why I bought it.
The normal swiping and app switching is not quite as smooth as I was expecting from the "next gen" Tegra 4 — especially not in Balanced performance mode. I also find it odd that it has a dedicated charging port which I keep mistaking for the headphone/mic jack, but at least it charges reasonably quickly which is good because battery life leaves something to be desired — like more of it.
Nevertheless, I'm still giddy from actually being sent a tablet without any discernible defects. 6th time the charm And it only took 8 months.
Update - July 29, 2013:
I celebrated too soon — defects discerned.
1) Brightness fluctuates even with Auto-brightness OFF. The screen seems to go brighter when displaying light content and dimmer when displaying dark content. It does it abruptly and annoyingly at any brightness and there's no way to disable it.
2) Dust under screen protector or, worse, glass. The Write, like the Xperia Tablet Z, seems to have a factory installed screen protector over the glass. Whether the dust was under this protector or the glass I could not tell. The two Nexus 10 I had (and returned) had stuff under the glass so it's possible.
I contacted Toshiba Canada and they sent me a box to send it back to them for service. At least they're paying for all the shipping.
After a week's heavy use, I have to say that either the OS is still unoptimised for the hardware, or the tablet I got was defective (not beyond the realm of possibility). The Balanced mode was very stutter-y and sluggish especially in app switching. Maximum Performance mode was smoother but ran real hot and got about 6 hours battery life.
Furthermore, some apps (including the built-in Think Free Office) flickered when the onscreen keyboard was engaged. Also happened with the xda-developer app and Flick Note and a few others but not with Google Docs or Evernote so I suspect it's down to app/OS optimisation for high res screens. Does the Nexus 10 have this problem?
My nexus 9 recently started doing this...
Credit to Andrew Spyker
I've always had Nexus items.. First gen Nexus tablet, second, 3rd.. hell I have a nexus Q
So with this new issue I've run the gamut of Nexus 9 issues. Frisbee backplate, speed that, so you have a reference understandable to the human mind, ill describe as glacial. Charge to 100% eta. 2017. I got stuck on android 5.0.0 because.. who the hell knows. And now randomly my tablet has what I can only describe as seizures. HTC wants me to RMA it.. but you know what, I do not want to RMA it because then I'd be given another one and I would rather have the current one blow up in my face then to subject myself to the false hope of receiving a replacement and assuming, nay believing that all is well.
This is twice Nvidia has been contracted to put a processor in a Nexus and this is the second time the result has been total complete garbage. The entire Nexus9 experience has gotten me closer than I have ever been to buying an Ipad.. Google's and to an extent all Android tablet makers ability to get a tablet produced that even comes close to an Ipad in its ability to run the same way every day has been weighed and measured and found wanting.
The phones, which by all accounts are still their main focus have not suffered like the tablets so I will continue to enjoy them.
They seem to be unable to produce a table that is consistent or compelling and are thus going through the motions and just making a tablet because they have to.. So the Ipad decision is because quite frankly Apple does "going through the motions" better than Samsung/Google/HTC apparently can.
Maybe this will all change.. maybe it will not. At some point I will make the change these manufacturers will not. One thing I will not do is be suckered into a new tablet every 12 months.
More...
I'm not happy with my Nexus 9 either. It's lacking in both hardware and software.
Hardware:
- backlight bleeding
- too heavy
- flex in the back cover
- battery life is not that great
Software:
- random reboots / crashes
- RAM bug (causing chrome tab reloads for example)
- slow performance occasionally (probably caused by the RAM bug)
- software updates were rather slow for a Nexus device, we had to wait months for 5.1.1
I don't have any hope that Android M will fix any of the software problems. The Nexus 9 has been out for almost a year and there hasn't really been much improvement since the release.
I would like to buy an iPad mini 4 (never owned an iPhone or iPad, but I think there are no good Android tablets out there), the problem is that the Nexus 9 has a bad resell value (<250€) and the iPad mini 4 costs 389€ and I really don't feel like spending that much on a tablet again considering that I haven't even had the Nexus 9 for a year.
Asus zenpad 8.0 S. ... Love mine, sold my Nexus 9 to buy it. Super thin, great screen but get the CA version
I jumped on the bandwagon and bought the 32gb N9 from Google Play in December. After a month of use I felt it was an "okay" tablet. Last month I inherited an iPad Air 1st gen. The iPad gives a much more gratifying user experience.
I feel that Google really blew it with the N9, rushing to get a tablet out and winding up with a rush product at a premium price. I will be much more reluctant to go with another Google product in the future.
I don't know but I actually love my tablet... The biggest gripe I have with it is the tabs in Chrome refreshing, but besides that the tablet works great... There is a small light bleed but nothing as bad as my G3... Sorry to hear you guys had a bad batch, but what might have helped my tablet experience is that I rooted mine and running dirty unicorn...
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app
cables2590 said:
I don't know but I actually love my tablet... The biggest gripe I have with it is the tabs in Chrome refreshing, but besides that the tablet works great...
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Same here. And my N9 is bone stock.
hardware is fine, but the drivers running it are crap. stutters, background task getting killed, refresh on tabs when browsing, touching the screen ramps up the processors (it's why the browser uses more power than the screen, each touch takes a crap-ton of power. a few updates back fixed it to 1/2 but still is too much. lowering it to 800 and it stutters, my other tablets only ramp up to 300 with no stutter)... as crappy as samsung is with support i'd have gotten a better tablet sticking with them. i've tried four different roms with the same results and was on stock/rooted for the longest with fire-ice kernel.
I assume you've done a full wipe and ruled out it being a software bug?
If the company is offering to RMA a defective unit in favor of a non-defective one and you turn them down how is that Nexus/HTC/Android/whomever's fault other than your own?
Other than the backlight bleed I don't have too many issues with my Nexus. And that was purchasing a refurb scratch/dent 32gb model from Amazon Warehouse for $290. Is it what I'd expect for a $290 tablet? Absolutely.
I'd consider an iPad Air 2, but those guys are $600 and won't sync up quite the same as all my other crap. Or alternatively the Mini 4 ($500).
Mine is on Preview M unencrypted. I really like it. My 10 is a fine tablet, as well. The 7's I've had I've never really liked.
The apple tablets I've tried seem no different to me. I've even changed my Window animation scale 1, Transition animation scale 1 and Animator duration scale 1.5 and it acts just like an apple tablet.
The freeze on OP's video is caused by an undervolt-powersave thing. It has been reported many times and only an RMA can save you from that.
The RAM deficiency is caused by the one and only Chrome that consumes a ****load of ram on any platform. It fills my G3's 3 GBs of ram in just 5 tabs.
Just use another browser.
ive got a sluggish n9, backlight bleed and a few reboots. battery life is weak...
love aspect ratio though and still think this is still a good tablet overall...
There is no way anyone that is happy with this tablet uses multiple profiles on a regular basis.
If you fresh boot and sign into one user things are ok... not horrible or super fast but ok. Sign in to an additional profile and the tablet goes to complete hell. Stutters, stalls, crashes, etc.
Really sucks because its shared between myself and my girlfriend. This has been the case since 5.0.1 through 6.0 preview 3.
People are never happy with what they have. Yes the tablet has a few issue here and there. Very little consumer grade electronics are "perfect" there will always be something that bugs you.
I like this tab, took a little tweaking, as it usually does with any device to reach the standards of a "current XDA'r".
But at the very LEAST i would disagree with this being a tab to avoid.
Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk 4
No offense but your optimism does not apply here. Get off the koolaid
osiris355 said:
No offense but your optimism does not apply here. Get off the koolaid
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The incredible pessimism doesn't apply here, nor belong, either. Get off the juice.
RickInHouston said:
The incredible pessimism doesn't apply here, nor belong, either. Get off the juice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
His post is misleading and mine is not pessimism when its reality. Everyone knows this tablet has issues worse than typical bugs or hardware annoyances.
Edit: I just finished flashing 6.0. I can't believe I am saying this but it looks like google has finally fixed most of the performance issues. I can finally load up multiple profiles/chrome browsing and it doesn't start hanging/crashing. 1 year later and they finally got it right. Too bad it still heats up when gaming but that's not as big of a deal.
I love mine personally, there is a tiny hint of backlight bleeding but it's hardly noticeable. Battery life isn't that great, but that's the only downside for me. It always gets me through 2 days of use anyway since I have a phone for other functions. I also would gladly take a slight issue or two for the vastly superior sound setup for media consumption. Apple could maybe get my buck if they integrated FF speakers, and good ones at that. Until then the Nexus is the best for me. I was also thinking about the Asus 8.0 too, it looks good but it's too damned small. I actually think my Nexus is a bit small too, but it's the biggest and best tab I could get for under $300
I've had all sorts of issues with my Nexus 9. Software is better now than it used to be. But up until 5.1.1, multitasking made me want to kill kittens. It's more usable now with the latest 5.1.1 revision on the Pure Nexus ROM and Fire kernel. Except for Chrome, even XDA makes it choke. HD video performance is hit or miss, MX player with Tegra plug-ins was OK and other media apps stutter with high bit rates. I'm not on M now but when I tried it the battery life improved so there is that to look forward to.
The screen bleed on the bottom has gotten worse.
I learned my lesson and won't buy Nexus products again till they are on the market for a while and are thoroughly reviewed/patched.
Stock feels a little clunky on the Nexus 9. Installed CM and it feels much smoother. Overall, I am fairly pleased with mine.
Then again, I do not use Chrome, rather I use Firefox with Adblock+.
I have has both gen 7, and now the 9. I have also had iPads' and a Sony Tablet.
The 1st gen 7 was my favorite. Its form factor felt the best in my hand, the 2nd while faster was uncomfortable to hold. I'm not an Apple fan but work gave me an iPad 2. I rarely used it. Seemed okay. The Sony Z3 Tablet Compact has AMAZING quality. I just wish I could put AOSP on it, not a fan of the Sony tweaks, but over all its made from great materials and its very smooth to operate.
The 9 for me has been great so far. I did the following as soon as I got it, these are things I generally do to EVERY Android device when I get it.
* Change DPI to the screens native DPI (288 in this case)
* Added a line in build.prop to enable hardware UI rendering. <-- not sure if this is really needed anymore so I continue to add it until I'm told its not.
* Hard code the DNS used to the Google DNS servers
* Set all animation scales to .5
* Force GPU rendering to ON
I have never had any crashing or RAM management issues. I DO have the light bleeding issue, but not bad enough to really complain about.
I'm going to save you a lot of trouble if you're considering this tablet and are unsure, as I just put this thing through a lot of testing.
First off I would like to say that I think this is a fantastic tablet. It is just the right size, has an excellent build quality, and runs pretty good all things considered. This has a decnet running/looking Samsng UI, especially considering that it's an older build running on a slower processor. If this tablet had a better processor and maybe stylus support it would be a killer tablet with no competition. It's sad that Samsung doesn't take this size range seriously any longer.
Now for the badish part. This tablet is great for gaming, perfect size, great screen, good enough speakers (mount them stereo next time Samsung!) However it just won't handle intensive gaming stuff, such as Order and Choas 2 or Rules of Survival with the settings turned up. It will certainly play them if you don't mind the low FPS though. Definitely playable FPS for sure, but it won't be butter.
I was curious to see if this was a Samsung processor optimization problem like it is with the Tab s3, so I did some testing to find out. I can confirm that flashing LOS 14.1 it did nothing for the gaming performance. The tablet was quicker and less laggy overall, but the gaming is still limited by the GPU. This tablet also is so good out of the box that it doesn't need the help of LOS anyway.
So there you have it. Great little tablet, just don't expect any sort of massive gaming performance and don't even think about voiding your warratny to try a custom rom because it won't help. In this size range it is really the ultimate for gaming, so I figured a lot of people would be buying it for that, and I wanted to give a heads up. The benchmark scores don't tell the whole story sometimes. I hope they refresh this tablet in 2018 with a better SOC and keep it alive.
Thanks for the info seh6183. :highfive:
You need to tell us what hardware you are testing as the 2015 is using Exynos and the 2016 is Snapdragon. From previous posts on here, the consensus is that the 2015 has the better GPU for gaming but the 2016 is faster.
I don't game on my tablet so I can't add anything to your observations.
I have the 2016 S2, and it is fine for light gaming. However, it heats up fairly quickly if you are doing anything graphically intense for long periods and throttles pretty noticeably. Even fairly simple apps, like Alto's Adventure, will eventually become unplayable if you don't take a break periodically to let the SoC cool down.
Masteryates said:
Thanks for the info seh6183. :highfive:
You need to tell us what hardware you are testing as the 2015 is using Exynos and the 2016 is Snapdragon. From previous posts on here, the consensus is that the 2015 has the better GPU for gaming but the 2016 is faster.
I don't game on my tablet so I can't add anything to your observations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Snapdragon 652.
I just bought a new 'open box' from BestBuy for $209.
I'm not a gamer or user of graphics, mainly a business user. I had the latest 9.7 iPad for a week, and I just kept feeling like one of my arms was tied behind my back.
So I returned it and bought the Samsung Tab S2.
seh6183 said:
Snapdragon 652.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the update seh6183. :highfive:
Are you able to update the title of your post or your initial post to reflect this? Others may find this useful.
Would be interested to hear from a 2015 owner on how it handles the games you mentioned.
I cant imagine buying thos for gaming... If you want to game on a tablet I would just go with the iPad. The new iPad 2017 is so much better than this, and you can get one new for 250 and a bigger screen. I went with tablet only because I can torrent and use my Micro USB to USB 2.0 adapter for music and videos on torrents. Thats literally the only upside to going with an Android tablet nowadays
JoRocker said:
I cant imagine buying thos for gaming... If you want to game on a tablet I would just go with the iPad. The new iPad 2017 is so much better than this, and you can get one new for 250 and a bigger screen. I went with tablet only because I can torrent and use my Micro USB to USB 2.0 adapter for music and videos on torrents. Thats literally the only upside to going with an Android tablet nowadays
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, not the ONLY one, but yeah - most of the best games come out for iOS first and then, if ever, for Android. On the flip side, Android lets you actually use your device like a computer and not merely a media consumption machine. I consider that a pretty big plus.
JoRocker said:
I cant imagine buying thos for gaming... If you want to game on a tablet I would just go with the iPad. The new iPad 2017 is so much better than this, and you can get one new for 250 and a bigger screen. I went with tablet only because I can torrent and use my Micro USB to USB 2.0 adapter for music and videos on torrents. Thats literally the only upside to going with an Android tablet nowadays
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me it has to be Android for little things like power toggles, screebl and the OLED screen.
seh6183 said:
I'm going to save you a lot of trouble if you're considering this tablet and are unsure, as I just put this thing through a lot of testing.
First off I would like to say that I think this is a fantastic tablet. It is just the right size, has an excellent build quality, and runs pretty good all things considered. This has a decnet running/looking Samsng UI, especially considering that it's an older build running on a slower processor. If this tablet had a better processor and maybe stylus support it would be a killer tablet with no competition. It's sad that Samsung doesn't take this size range seriously any longer.
Now for the badish part. This tablet is great for gaming, perfect size, great screen, good enough speakers (mount them stereo next time Samsung!) However it just won't handle intensive gaming stuff, such as Order and Choas 2 or Rules of Survival with the settings turned up. It will certainly play them if you don't mind the low FPS though. Definitely playable FPS for sure, but it won't be butter.
I was curious to see if this was a Samsung processor optimization problem like it is with the Tab s3, so I did some testing to find out. I can confirm that flashing LOS 14.1 it did nothing for the gaming performance. The tablet was quicker and less laggy overall, but the gaming is still limited by the GPU. This tablet also is so good out of the box that it doesn't need the help of LOS anyway.
So there you have it. Great little tablet, just don't expect any sort of massive gaming performance and don't even think about voiding your warratny to try a custom rom because it won't help. In this size range it is really the ultimate for gaming, so I figured a lot of people would be buying it for that, and I wanted to give a heads up. The benchmark scores don't tell the whole story sometimes. I hope they refresh this tablet in 2018 with a better SOC and keep it alive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far the only bad side of this tablet that I saw was mentioned the battery life (as they reduced it from S1) and the speakers.
My main concern is the speakers which are at the bottom - how do they behave when you hold the tablet in landscape for watching a video? Is all the sound on the right side? Can the speakers be accidentally covered off with the hand that's holding the tablet? How is the sound on this thing?
My Nexus 7 (2013) is seriously showing its age now and due for an upgrade.
I'm considering this (T713/715) or the Huawei Mediapad M3 (or lite) 8.0 which is not at all supported on XDA so I would be stuck with it's software and bloatware whether I like it or not.
atirage said:
I'm considering this (T713/715) or the Huawei Mediapad M3 (or lite) 8.0 which is not at all supported on XDA so I would be stuck with it's software and bloatware whether I like it or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in the same boat, but it's vs the M5 and I'm more of a reader. It's a tough decision.
stoatbroker said:
I'm in the same boat, but it's vs the M5 and I'm more of a reader. It's a tough decision.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your a reader at night, it's all about the reduced eyestrain of the OLED screen. For me, the M5 is overpriced considering I picked up an M3 for only $180.
Surprise, it was known from the beginning that it has slow gpu, but also not the best cpu, they are continuing this with s3 and s4. They ar selling it for big money and yet, no wonder sales ar low
Extreemator said:
Surprise, it was known from the beginning that it has slow gpu, but also not the best cpu, they are continuing this with s3 and s4. They ar selling it for big money and yet, no wonder sales ar low
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me the S3 and S4 bring little new to the table.
The S2 (when first released,) had that awesome screen. Even though I never intended to own any Samsung product due to touchwiz, I was sold when that Samsung handed me the 8" version in a store. The combination of killer screen and stupidly low weight set this apart from all opposition. For the 8" version, it could be argued this is still the case.
As long as Samsung keep giving us security updates for the S2, I'm not that interested in the S3 and S4 as 9.7" is too big for me.
So, I bought the 8" wifi version (T713) and I'm severely disappointed with battery life: around 6h SOT!?
I keep reducing the brightness but battery percentages just melt away. I don't know, maybe the LineageOS battery life is better, or a custom kernel would help. (I'm still on stock)
Other things I dislike are the volume/speakers - they're easy to cover up and don't sound so great. Not to mention they're basically mono in landscape mode, I hate that on my phone!
The tablet has sharp edges, very uncomfortable to hold and it hurts my hand after a while, fortunately I can buy a silicone cover for this problem. The rest will stick with me
I come from the Nexus 7 2013, and this is definitely a side-grade. The only thing that I missed on the Nexus is that it struggled with hi-res 60fps video (couldn't even do higher than 720p60).
Oh well.
Not much choice in the Android tablet market currently, but I certainly wouldn't recommend this one.
No problem,in the future it will not be Android tablets anymore,so you will not have choises at all.
Google just removed tablets section from Android page,take a look at http://www.android.com/tablets/ .
Cheers
viasat said:
No problem,in the future it will not be Android tablets anymore,so you will not have choises at all.
Google just removed tablets section from Android page,take a look at http://www.android.com/tablets/ .
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are very few redeeming qualities left keeping me on the Android side of the fence anyway, and Google seems intent on killing them. The ease of data management, and the ability to run apps that wouldn't have a shot in the App Store (like Nova Launcher, Solid Explorer, etc.) are about the only things keeping me in the ecosystem. Otherwise, it seems like every time I look, the iPad Pro gets more and more attractive.
atirage said:
So, I bought the 8" wifi version (T713) and I'm severely disappointed with battery life: around 6h SOT!?
I keep reducing the brightness but battery percentages just melt away. I don't know, maybe the LineageOS battery life is better, or a custom kernel would help. (I'm still on stock)
Other things I dislike are the volume/speakers - they're easy to cover up and don't sound so great. Not to mention they're basically mono in landscape mode, I hate that on my phone!
The tablet has sharp edges, very uncomfortable to hold and it hurts my hand after a while, fortunately I can buy a silicone cover for this problem. The rest will stick with me
I come from the Nexus 7 2013, and this is definitely a side-grade. The only thing that I missed on the Nexus is that it struggled with hi-res 60fps video (couldn't even do higher than 720p60).
Oh well.
Not much choice in the Android tablet market currently, but I certainly wouldn't recommend this one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TBH atirage, 6h of SOT is very good for the 8" tablet. My T715 has only ever managed 5h. I doubt lineage will increase battery life by much. At the end of the day, that 4000Mah has to power a hell of a big screen.
I find the tablet the best I've ever held, (also had a Nexus 7 2013 in the past.) but I just hold it in the bottom corner, not attempting to get my hand the whole way around. Agreed about the poor quality speakers.
The thing I've liked about this tablet the most in the last 2 years is the solid, (not ever fantastic,) performance. I've suffered no bugs and everything just works as well as the day I've bought it. :angel:
Not to be all negative about this tablet: the performance is great, granted I didn't fill it up with apps and games yet but I'll see how it will hold up over time.
Even in battery saving mode (70% CPU) it's still blazing fast and a joy to use.
I got a silicon case on it so the handling became better.
And I got used to the sound - it's not good, but passable and loud enough to watch a few YouTube videos in a quiet environment.
I managed to install SABS on it (and make it work), so I got ad blocking now and the ability to disable apps I don't need/use (Samsung bloatware) so I'm hoping battery life will improve a little bit.
It's growing on me.
It was a weird transition from the Nexus 7 (2013), but that fellow got so sluggish that I wanted to chuck it at the wall. That's why I needed the upgrade and the ability to play qHD nicely, and the S2 tab does it oh-so-well.
Anybody can suggest a nice blue light filter app for it?
atirage said:
Not to be all negative about this tablet: the performance is great, granted I didn't fill it up with apps and games yet but I'll see how it will hold up over time.
Even in battery saving mode (70% CPU) it's still blazing fast and a joy to use.
I got a silicon case on it so the handling became better.
And I got used to the sound - it's not good, but passable and loud enough to watch a few YouTube videos in a quiet environment.
I managed to install SABS on it (and make it work), so I got ad blocking now and the ability to disable apps I don't need/use (Samsung bloatware) so I'm hoping battery life will improve a little bit.
It's growing on me.
It was a weird transition from the Nexus 7 (2013), but that fellow got so sluggish that I wanted to chuck it at the wall. That's why I needed the upgrade and the ability to play qHD nicely, and the S2 tab does it oh-so-well.
Anybody can suggest a nice blue light filter app for it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad your starting to see the advantages of this tab atirage: :victory:
You'll also notice the screen picks up far fewer fingerprints than the Nexus 7 2013. Don't know what Samsung have done with the glass but its much better. Even though the FP reader is very 1st gen, its still nice to have and better than a pin every time.
I find the sound to be much better if you put the tablet of a flat surface so the sound reflects off it.