The Nexus 10 represents Google’s entry into the 10-inch tablet market, an arena thus far dominated by Apple’s iPad, among a sea of mediocre Android slates. Google aims to change this using it’s Nexus line and 3 key facets: capable hardware, a fast and consistent software experience and affordable pricing. Nay, very affordable pricing. Let’s see how the Google Nexus 10 fares.

Background History

An integral part of reviewing a Nexus device would be to give the reader some perspective on the purpose of such devices. Over the past few years, the landscape of Android devices has been plagued with one major drawback – fragmentation. That is, different devices running different software versions/ customisations, hardware barriers and carrier bloatware. This leaves the end user’s experience in the hands of third-parties (i.e. manufacturers and carriers). Google’s initiative with the Nexus line of devices is to set the pace for the next generation of Android devices hardware-wise, and offer a purely stock, unchanged Android software experience, directly supported by themselves.

With these ethos in mind, let’s jump into looking at the Nexus 10 itself.

Design

The Nexus 10 device follows the styling of Samsung’s previous Nexus opportunity, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. The grey plastic shell, black bezels, soft keys and curved nature of the display will be familiar to Galaxy Nexus users. A couple of subtle changes however make a big difference in augmenting the Nexus 10 over the competition – these being the rubber insert on the back which provides grip and tactile feedback when held, and the front-facing speakers flanking the screen are better positioned for media consumption as one would expect from a device of this nature. Overall, the device is fairly solid, with little flex (useful in the case of drops) and slight heft in the hand.

Display

If there is one singular stand out feature of the Nexus 10, it is by far and wide the display. What we have here ladies and gentlemen, is probably the finest display that any Android tablet has ever seen. Measuring in at 10.1”, with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 (c. 300ppi) the screen is the highest resolution on a mainstream Android tablet and is even higher than the Retina display on Apple’s iPad 4 (2048 x 1536).

As for technology, Samsung call it the “True RGB Real Stripe PLS” panel and it really does make all the difference from the end-user perspective. Text appears crisp and videos appear sharp and clear. This kind of display varies from the other type of panel Samsung uses to great acclaim on its line of Galaxy S phones – the AMOLED panel. The trademark differences are that LCD screens exhibit more accurate, if less vibrant colours. Also, AMOLEDs have inkier, darker blacks and LCD screens have cooler or more prominent whites. Regardless of your preference for colours, the sharpness is unmatched.

Hardware and Processing Power

The Nexus 10 was the first tab to use a pair ARM’s A-15 CPU cores, powered by Samsung’s proprietary Exynos 5250 chipset. As you can see from the second digit in the chipset code, there are two processing cores, clocked at 1.7GHz. Coupled with the dual-core CPU is the Mali-604 GPU and 2GB of RAM. In simple terms, the processor is fast enough to handle the tasks one throws at it (1080p video playback and casual gaming for example). However, when compared to my Galaxy Note 2, I found it to offer a slightly smoother user experience. The Nexus 10 is available in 16 and 32GB internal storage variants, with no external storage options available.

Software

Google’s Nexus 10 debuted with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. While it’s not such a big deal in mid-2013, it certainly did make up the initial class of devices to receive Android 4.2. Some of the new features offered include Photosphere, Multi-User Support, Android Daydream and some clean ups under-the-hood. An evolutionary upgrade to Android 4.1, it does make the Nexus 10 that much better to use. Multi-User Support is a fantastic new way to enable different people to use the tablet in different ways. In fact, it made the review easy to do as I could just sign in as a new user, use my Gmail account and settings and I was ready to go. When we were done, it was just a matter of deleting the account.

The Nexus 10 features dual cameras. The primary camera is a 5 megapixel shooter located on the rear of the tab. Photos are captured at a resolution of 2560 x 1920 and 1080p video capture is possible. Unfortunately, the ergonomics of taking pictures with a tablet are not very convenient, and to add to that, the camera quality on the Nexus 10 is merely average compared to Samsung’s newer devices and nothing to write home about. The front-facing camera is a 1.9 megapixel unit and capable of 720p video. One of the new features of 4.2.2 is the Photoshere feature. It allows the user to photograph not only in a panorama but vertically as well.

Value for Money and Final Words

The Nexus 10 retails at US$ 399.99 for the 16GB model and US$ 499.99 for the 32GB model. Currently, this places it as one of the sweetest Android tabs on the market in terms of price/ performance ratio. The display betters the iPad 4 which is more expensive and the dual core CPU yields enough processing power for everyday tasks. Couple this with fast over-the-air updates from Google directly as and when they’re available, this tab is the breath of fresh air that the overcrowded Android tab market needed. It will essentially push other manufacturers to make better devices, and that too at lower price points. 

In conclusion, the Nexus 10 makes a compelling all-around offering for different types of tablet users. It lends itself to productivity related usage, since the larger screen allows easier reading, browsing and navigating excel etc. (The only thing that could be added in this regard is an S-Pen as in the Galaxy Note 10.1) Furthermore, the extra high-res screen beats out the competition, and coupled with the front-facing speakers (they’re decent in sound quality, but not quite as refined as HTC’s BoomSound speakers on the HTC One) this makes for a great media consumption experience. And it does all this at a low price point, which should appease to even budget-conscious end users. Currently, all these points come together to make the Nexus 10 my top pick of the Android tablet market, and more importantly, finally, a worthy challenger to Apple’s iPad, a product which literally created a market of its own.