My Nexus 9 review

Hi all,

I grabbed a Nexus 9 during the $200-off Black Friday 2015 sale (specifically, the 32 gb model in "sand," a matte tan). I've been using it for a couple weeks, and wanted to offer my thoughts.

I. Hardware

First, the physical case design. Initial models had problems with a flexible back; my device has none of that. Initial models had problems with mushy buttons that were too flush to easily feel; the mushiness is gone but they're still too flush to easily feel. Still, that's a nitpick (particularly given that you can double-tap the screen to wake, and use onscreen audio controls if you prefer). I actually think the hardware design overall is excellent. The sides are metal and flat, making it easier to pick up and hold than a sharper-sided iPad. The slight lip on the front edge and the matte plastic back makes it grippy and easy to hold by pinching one corner--more so than the sleeker design of an iPad. It is very light, which combined with the plastic back makes it feel a bit less "premium" than an all-metal device, but this subjective downside is counterbalanced by the objective advantage of being so darned light and grippy.

Next, the screen. There definitely is light bleed from the edges when you turn the display down. That aside, it's excellent. Brightness is good, colors are vibrant without being oversaturated, the resolution is excellent, and the 4:3 aspect ratio is more versatile than a more letterbox design.

Next, the speakers. The tablet has front-facing stereo speakers. Volume is excellent; it can fill a room if you turn volume up. Audio quality is good for a mobile device, and completely out-classes your typical iPad or the like, but let's not get ahead of ourselves and start comparing it to dedicated speakers, or even a multimedia/gaming laptop. Still, if you need a bit of background music, you're not a hardcore audiophile, and it's what's within your reach, it's not a half-bad option.

Finally, cameras. It has 'em. That's about all I can say about the camera hardware. It's adequate but not remotely impressive.

I've attached a picture of it next to a third-gen iPad to give a sense of the size. It straddles the size of a full-sized iPad and an iPad Mini, offering more screen area than the latter, while still being just small enough to palm in portrait mode (thumb on one edge, middle finger on the other).

II. Software and Performance

I'm not going to endeavor to review all of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. I'll just say that while it shipped with Lollipop, it spent the first several hours updating software version-by-version until it got to Android 6.0.

In the first week, I had several surprising stutters and lag incidents, mostly in Chrome. Sometimes the device would become nearly unresponsive while trying to go from Chrome back to the homescreen. I never figured out if this was due to Chrome itself, certain websites (I mainly noticed the issue while on either ArsTechnica or TheVerge), or the Swype keyboard. More importantly, the issues subsided after a week.

Gaming performance is EXCELLENT, as one would expect from a device with an Nvidia Tegra SoC. It powers through Minecraft excellently, running unbelievably smoothly in normal play and even keeping framerates high when I mass-spawn blazes and magma cubes in creative mode. Geometry Wars 3 is similarly fluid, which is essential in a hectic twin-stick shooter like it. Other games I've tried that run superbly are Hearthstone (Blizzard's answer to Pokemon), Final Fantasy Dimensions, Kingdom Rush Origins, and Riptide GP2 (a graphics-intensive racing game, and Real Racing 3 (same).

The one exception is The Banner Saga, an excellent tactical RPG. Performance is godawful, and it crashes frequently. I consider the game unplayable right now on the Nexus 9. I'm not sure if this is an incompatibility with the Nvidia SoC or an incompatibility with Marshmallow, but it's definitely one of the two.

Apple Music will not install; it says the device is not currently supported.

All in all, performance in day-to-day tasks in the homescreen and Chrome is good-but-not-great, with an occasional dropped frame or moment of lag here or there, and occasional re-draws of the homescreen when exiting apps. Performance within apps, such as gaming, is downright remarkable.

III. Conclusion.

Would I have been happy spending $500ish for this? I dunno. It offers some ergonomic advantages over the iPad (which I keep referencing because it dominates mind-share in the tablet space) and an OS that I personally prefer to iOS, but the light bleed when at low brightness and occasional performance hiccups would leave me slightly underwhelmed. In the $200-$300 range, which is what you can get the Nexus 9 at now that the Pixel C has arrived, it's a superb value. And being a Nexus, it still has years of software support on the way. So I endorse it as one of the best values for a tablet out there right now, so long as you find it at a sale price somewhere in the $200-$300 range.

 

I still wholeheartedly agree that the Nexus 9 is a complete ripoff at its original launch price of 399. Had the Nexus 9 started at 250 or 275 and +50 for the 32 GB, that would be a much better value. At 199, I would have picked one up but I was sort of broke. Initially I also did not want the N9 because of the initial stigma of owning a Tegra device, as well as the heat issues and poor battery life.

 

I have not noticed any heat issues--either the device being hot to the touch after gaming, or signs of thermal throttling during gaming.

As for battery life, I don't really have a sense because, as an around-the-house device that gets used one hour here, two hours there, the difference between 6, 8, and 10 hours doesn't really affect its usability. It's very different from a smartphone, where I need to rely on it all day when I'm out and about, and so excellent battery life is a big selling point. It also drains far slower than a smartphone when just sitting there (I have the wifi-only model); it loses only a percent or two of battery when sitting untouched on table for twelve hours.