30+ Reasons You Should Buy a Nexus 10 Tablet
November 2, 2012 73 Comments
Last update: March 4, 2013
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It only took two days for every single model of the Nexus 10 to sell out worldwide. The 32GB model sold out just two hours after sales began.
The last two articles I wrote about tablets were my most popular ever, so I’ve decided to write another one about the new iPad 4 and its top competitor. Since some people complained my last article was unfair because I compared the iPad mini to several different tablets, this time I’ll compare the iPad 4 to a single tablet.
Don’t get me wrong, the iPad 4 certainly has some great qualities, but it’s no longer leading the way. Its Retina-display was the gold-standard for resolution, but those days are over. There’s a new tablet king and it’s called the Nexus 10. Here are over thirty good reasons why you’d be crazy to buy an iPad 4 over a Nexus 10.
- It costs less and gives you more – A 16GB Nexus 10 costs $100 less than a 16GB iPad 4. That 20% less, for a product with much better specs as you’ll see below.
- It has a better, higher-resolution display – Apple’s Retina displays used to be second to none, but those days are over. The Nexus 10 has a higher-resolution display than the iPad 4. It’s the world’s first tablet with a WQXGA 2560×1600-pixel display. But that’s not all, the Nexus 10 beats the iPad 4 in two other important areas as well: number of pixels and pixels-per-inch.
– The Nexus 10 has almost a million more pixels than the iPad 4’s Retina display (4,096,000 vs. 3,145,728)
– The Nexus 10 has more pixels-per-inch than the iPad 4 (300ppi vs. 264ppi). That may not sound like a lot, but you can see the difference on very small text. Like the iPad 4, text on the Nexus 10 looks very sharp.
The Nexus 10 has a processor with a faster clock speed than the iPad 4
- It has a faster next-generation processor – The Nexus 10 has a processor clock speed that is over 30% faster than the iPad 4 (1.7GHz vs. 1.3GHz). The Nexus 10 is the first tablet with an ARM Cortex-A15 processor that beats the iPad 4 badly on benchmarks like Geekbench (2480 vs. 1768). This processor is 40% faster than previous generation ARM chips. The A15 is expected to be used in the iPad 5, which won’t be released until mid-2013.
- It’s considerably lighter than the iPad 4 – The Nexus 10 is noticeably lighter than the iPad 4 (603g vs. 652g). This is a big deal when you use your tablet for hours at a time. I used to be able to hold the original iPad in the air with my left hand, but my new iPad with its leather case is so heavy that I have to put my elbow on the table or bed.
The Nexus 10 is noticeably thinner than the iPad 4
- It’s thinner than the iPad 4 – The Nexus 10 is thinner than the iPad 4 (8.9mm vs. 9.4mm). This is surprising, because thinness is one area Apple normally dominates in. The Nexus 10 also does not have sharp corners which dig into your palm when you hold it with one hand.
- It has twice the memory and twice the storage as the iPad 4 – The Nexus 10 has 2GB of RAM, while he iPad 4 has only 1GB of RAM. More memory allows you to run more apps at once without slowing down. A $499 Nexus 10 also has twice as much internal storage than an iPad 4 (32GB vs. 16GB). This is important because it’s not hard to fill up a 16GB iPad when you have a large media collection or lots of apps.
You can share media by simply touching two NFC-enabled Android devices together
- It has touch-to-share capabilities – Android tablets like the Nexus 10 can share media by simply touching another device with NFC support. This allows you to share photos, videos, contacts, Web pages — as well as information between apps. You can see Android Beam in action here.
- It has faster Wi-Fi than the iPad 4 – The Nexus 10 has dual-band Wi-Fi and MIMO support. Amazon claims that MIMO results in better range and 40% faster Wi-Fi data speeds. Google says accelerated page loading and MIMO gives you web browsing speeds up to 4x faster than normal WiFi. Of course these are theoretical gains, we’ll have to see what the real-world numbers are.
- It has a brighter display with wider viewing angles – The Nexus 10 has a Super PLS display, which has several advantages over IPS displays like the one Apple uses. Super PLS displays have wider viewing angles, and are supposed to be 10 percent brighter.
- It includes front-facing stereo speakers – The Nexus 10 has two large speakers on the left and right sides of its screen. These speakers shoot forward so the sound doesn’t get muffled by your hands (like it does on the iPad whose speaker faces down). The Nexus’ dual speakers also sound better than Apple’s single mono speaker. I was hoping the potential space savings that resulted from the switch to a Lightning connector the iPad 4 would allow Apple to add bigger, better-sounding speakers, but that did not happen.
- It has an extremely fast GPU – Engadget says the Nexus 10 has the “most detailed and smoothest graphics we’ve seen.” Early benchmarks are mixed. Some favor the Nexus 10, while others favor the iPad 4.
- It’s much easier to repair – According to iFixit, the iPad 4 is much more difficult to repair than all other tablets. iFixit gives the iPad 4 a repairability score of 2 out of 10, which is horrible. The battery is glued to the rear case which is unfortunate because it makes it very difficult to replace. iFixit goes on to say, “Just like in the iPad 2 & 3, the front panel is glued to the rest of the device, greatly increasing the chances of cracking the glass when trying to remove it. Gobs of adhesive hold everything in place, including the battery. The LCD has foam sticky tape adhering it to the front panel, increasing chances of it being shattered during disassembly.” I’m still waiting for a repairability score on the Nexus 10 from iFixit, but another source rates it “extremely repairable.”
- The Nexus 10 comes with lots of free content – Content varies by region. U.S. users get the following three free magazines: Conde Nast Traveler, Entrepreneur and House Beautiful. There are also five great books you are provided with including: “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens, “The Three Musketeers” by Alexandre Dumas, “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson and “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll. Like music? The Nexus also comes with ten songs from The Rolling Stones, Cat Power, M. Ward, The Lumineers, Bob Mould, Eskmo and more. And last, but not least, the Nexus 10 also comes with an HD copy of the full-length movie “Ice Age” and the BBC TV show “Planet Earth.”
- It has multi-user support – The iPad 4 is a single-user device tied to a single iTunes account. The Nexus 10 is the first tablet to allow multiple users to log-in. Each user has their own home screen, background, apps and widgets. Things like game-progress and high-scores remain separate. This feature will be very important for families.
- It has GPS support – The Wi-Fi only model of iPad 4 does not have a built-in GPS. That means you can’t use it to check-in or load maps of your area like you can using the Nexus 10.
- It includes digital wallet support – The Nexus 10 has Google Wallet preinstalled. It allows you to purchase things without a walled in places like Best Buy, CVS Pharmacy, Einstein Bros Bagels, Home Depot, Jack in the Box, McDonald’s, Peet’s Coffee, Pinkberry, Rite Aid, Sports Authority, Whole Foods and many more places. In fact, there are over 300,00 PayPass-enabled cash registers today. You can learn more about NFC here. The iPad 4 has something called Passbook, but it only works at Starbucks (and the Apple Store).
- It plays Flash videos – Flash may be a dying format, but there are still millions of Flash videos around, and the iPad 4 can’t play any of them. The Nexus 10 can play all Flash videos as long as you side-load Flash by following these easy instructions and use a browser like Firefox which supports Flash.
- Android beats iOS 6 in many areas – This will surprise some, but Android 4.2 has many advantages over iOS 6. You can read about those advantages here.
- File transfers are much easier – It’s a major hassle to get anything (but photos) on or off of an iPad 4. Android devices don’t need iTunes or iCloud to copy media. Just connect a USB cable and your device will appear on your desktop like a hard disk. You can then drag and drop any file (or folder) onto it.
- It has a better on-screen keyboard – The Nexus 10 has a much better on-screen keyboard than the iPad 4. In addition to all of the standard Apple keyboard features like a spell checker, auto-capitalization and auto-correction, the Nexus 10 also has the ability to add words to a personal dictionary, show correction suggestions, perform gesture typing (where you swipe from key to key), Provide next-word suggestions and the ability to change your keyboard to one that is more PC-like and includes all numbers and extra keys.
- You can easily load custom ROMs – Nexus devices do not come with locked or encrypted bootloaders. That means you are free to install customs ROMs and fully tailor your device however you wish.
- It has a better rear-facing camera – According to reviews, photos taken with the Nexus 10’s rear camera have better color accuracy, definition and less noise than the iPad 4′s camera. The iPad 4’s iSight camera lacks Panorama, Photo Sphere and other camera features present in Android tablets.
- It has a better front-facing camera for video calls – Apple upgraded the front-facing camera on the iPad from 0.3MP to 1.2MP, but it still doesn’t match the 1.9MP front-facing camera found on the Nexus 10. The iPad 4’s front camera records noisy 720p videos at a only 24fps in low light.
- It has an LED flash – Every camera needs a flash in order to take good photos in low light conditions. The Nexus 10 has one. The iPad 4 does not.
- It has a standard micro-USB jack – The Nexus 10 has a standard micro-USB jack, so you can easily connect your tablet to a keyboard or charger without purchasing an expensive cable. The iPad 4 has a new proprietary Lightning connector that is not backwardly compatible. This was done so Apple can sell you overpriced cables that cost $20 to $50. If you want an extra charging cable for an iPad 4, it will cost $19 and is hard to find. You can buy an Android power cord almost anywhere for as little as $2.
- It has a dedicated HDMI port – The Nexus 10 has a built-in HDMI port which ensures it can output video to all HDMI-equipped TVs, projectors and monitors. That’s not always the case when MHL over USB is used for video output. Another benefit is that any mini-HDMI cable will work and a special adapter cable is not needed.
- Its AV adapter supports 1080p – Although it’s hard to believe, Apple’s Digital AV adapter (which connects to the HDMI jack on your TV) doesn’t support 1080p today. It’s capable of supporting 1080p, but Apple has chosen to hold back 1080p support for now.
- It has a Gorilla Glass 2 screen – I know Apple uses Gorilla Glass 2 on the iPhone 5, but as far as I can tell they do not use it on the iPad 4. If they are using it, they are keeping it a secret — which doesn’t make sense because it’s a benefit.
- It has a larger display – The Nexus 10 has a 10.055” Super PLS display, while the iPad 4 has a 9.7” IPS display.
- It has a 16:10 screen – Tablets are great for watching movies, but all movies are formatted to fit on a 16:9 display. Because the iPad 4 has a 4:3 aspect ratio, all 16:9 movies need to be letter-boxed so they fit on the screen. This makes movies appear smaller. The Nexus is much closer to 16:9 than the iPad 4.
- It has dual NFC sensors – The Nexus 10 is the only mobile device with dual NFC sensors: one in the front, and one in the back. These have been added so you don’t have to turn the tablet around to beam things.
- It gives you quick access to settings from the notification bar – On the Nexus 10, settings can be quickly by accessed by pulling down on the top right portion of the screen. On the iPad 4, all app settings are grouped together in a Settings app making them harder to access.
- It has haptic feedback – Like most Android devices, the Nexus 10 supports haptic feedback. This gives you a little vibration when you type, long press, or touch the navigation buttons. This makes it clear your touch was acknowledged, so you don’t have to tap twice. Haptic feedback makes games much more enjoyable because of the tactile feedback.
- It has a built-in barometer – The Nexus 10 has a built-in barometer, which improves GPS accuracy. I didn’t believe this would make a difference until I compared the GPS in a Galaxy Nexus (which also has a barometer) to the GPS in an iPad and Galaxy S III which do not.
- Works with a USB mouse – One advantage of having a micro-USB jack is that it makes it easy to plug-in peripherals like a USB mouse. Even if you could figure a way to attach a USB cable to the iPad 4, it still will not work, because iOS 6 doesn’t support mice. You can also attach USB keyboards or memory sticks to the Nexus 10 after purchasing an adapter for a few dollars.
- It has multicolor LED alert – The Nexus 10 has a small LED indicator at the bottom of the screen (when held in landscape mode,) which alerts you to new messages or other system events. As with other Android devices, you can customize exactly how this LED works by installing a third-party LED control app like Light Flow. The iPad 4 does not support any type of LED alerts.
- It’s stock photo viewer has more advanced photo editing – There are some good photo editing apps available for the iPad, but the best are not free. The stock Android Gallery app has much more advanced photo editing than you’ll find in than Apple’s Photos app.
- It has dedicated back button – All Android devices include a dedicated back button. In addition, most apps have a menu button proves fast access to settings and other app-related commands like Share. The back button makes it easy to go back to where you were before. This is one of the features I miss the most when I jump between Android and iOS.
- Gizmodo said: It feels extremely solid and well-built. The back panel is a hard plastic that has been rubberized in a really interesting way. It’s very smooth, but very grippy at the same time.
- Ars Technica said: “I do find that I actually prefer the textured plastic back of the Nexus 10 to the aluminum back used by the iPads—the latter gets pretty cold to the touch in November in New Jersey, and the tablet is only too happy to transfer that coldness straight to your hands. The Nexus 10 is a bit more hospitable when pulling it out of a bag that’s been outside.”
- CNET said; “It is the most comfortable 10-inch tablet to hold in your hand its light weight and smoothly rounded corners the tablet never digs into your palms when held with two hands. The back is a soft, grippy, almost rubbery plastic that not only feels great to hold, but doubles as protection for the tablet. The aforementioned rounded corners have that same rubbery plastic around them. The whole outer shell feels almost like an exoskeleton accessory, specifically designed to protect the delicate tablet organs.”
- Ubergizmo said: “To put it simply, the design of the Google Nexus 10 is beautiful. The front of the tablet is made of a pristine black glass surface from edge to edge. I really like the soft touch treatment which gives a solid grip when holding the tablet. This is an issue that I have regularly with the iPad. Overall, I find the industrial design to be excellent and high-quality. Unless you are adamant to feel metal when you touch the tablet, I expect most people to be pleased with the quality of this device.”
- The Guardian said: “The Nexus 10 is a sleek, smooth tablet that feels solid, and sits nicely in the hands with its rounded corners – more rounded than the iPad.”
- Venture Beat said: “The tablet’s curved design makes it surprisingly comfortable to hold, and the soft back case material feels simply luxurious. The Nexus 10 is so well designed that you’ll be tempted to fondle it even when it’s turned off.”
- Android Community said: “It’s extremely well made, very durable, feels great and is indeed a polished and beautiful product inside and out.”
- Android Police said: “Amazing build quality. I tried really hard to find a flaw in the build of this tablet. But I couldn’t. It’s top-notch – everything is super-solid… The back is the real standout feature of the device’s physical design, as it’s coated in a very soft rubbery-plastic that feels almost like leather. It definitely adds a feeling of quality, and is absolutely fantastic in the hands. It’s not cold and slippery like aluminum, nor does it feel cheap and flimsy like typical plastic. It’s slightly grippy, which allows you to hold the unit with less “force,” leading to less wrist fatigue. It also makes it easier to hold the device in your hand palette-style without fear of dropping it.”
- Tech Radar said: “The rear plastic chassis has a soft-touch feel, with the rubberised effect providing additional grip in the hand, and wrapping round to the front of the tablet for a smooth, seamless finish.”
- Wired said: “The back panel is a grippy plastic that makes the Nexus 10 much better than previous Samsung tablets and even the iPad for one-handed use.”
Size matters when it comes to speakers. The Nexus 10 has two front-facing speakers
You can see the Nexus 10 is fast. I’ll replace this once I find a comparison to iPad 4
The Nexus 10 comes with 5 books, 3 magazines, 10 songs, an HD movie and a TV show
You can use Google Wallet anywhere you see these images
The Nexus 10 has several different keyboard layouts like this one with number keys
Nexus 10 Flash
HDMI connector
The Nexus 10 has a slightly larger display than the iPad 4
Android 4.2 allows you to access settings from the Notification Bar
Micro-USB jack
The preinstalled Android Gallery App has more powerful photo editing than you’ll find on any free iPad app
Why You’ll Still Buy an iPad 4
If you’re an Apple fan, you don’t comparison shop, you don’t care that Apple products cost more and do less. You’ll find a way to convince yourself that all of the above reasons somehow don’t apply to you, and you’ll buy an iPad 4 anyway. And in six months, when Apple comes out with an iPad 5, which is twice as fast and has a better Retina display, you’ll buy that one too – and thank Apple. This may sound harsh, but it applies to millions of people. So go ahead and buy one — you know you want it.
The Tide is Turning
Apple has dominated tablet sales since the original iPad launched back in 2010. But those days are coming to an end. For the first time, Apple is losing tablet market share. According to Strategy Analytics, shipments of Android tablets surged to new highs in the third quarter of 2012, accounting for 41% of all tablets shipped. In the same period, shipments of Apple’s iPads shrank to only 57% of the market. IDC paints an even gloomier picture for Apple and says they now have only 50% of the tablet market. That may sound like a lot, but it wasn’t long ago that Apple had 90% of the tablet market. Apple’s drop in market share started before the Nexus 10 and Kindle Fire HD tablets were available, and will likely accelerate now. Apple’s still an important player in the tablet space, but they need to lower their prices significantly or improve their products to justify their price premium. Apple image has taken a big hit as well. As TechCrunch said, “the fourth-generation iPad doesn’t seem to be nearly as big as the leap from the first to second generation, or from the second to third generation.” Sure, most Americans will continue to buy Apple exclusively no matter what, but it’s a big world, and buyers from other countries are much more discriminating and price-sensitive.
Update 1 – The Nexus 10 went on sale on 11/13 and the 32GB model sold out within two hours in the U.S. The 16GB Nexus 10 sold out in the U.S. in the first two days. However, since then, additional supply has become available, and the 16GB model is now available for purchase again (11/18)
Update 2 – My Nexus 10 arrived on 11/16 and I’ve posted my first impressions here. You can find a list of 21 tips and tricks for the Nexus 10 here.
– Rick
For the Apple Fanboys
1. This is an opinion piece – I think the title makes that very clear. Don’t read this if you can’t handle an opposing view point.
2. This article is focused on the Nexus’ advantages – I’m aware there are good reasons to buy Apple products. Since every other reviewer focuses on those, I saw value in showing another point of view.
3. I don’t just pick on Apple – I write highly-opinionated articles about other companies as well. Here are examples where I single out Samsung, AT&T, United, Google and Rhapsody.
4. I don’t hate all Apple products – I think most of the new products Apple announced are good or great — just not the new iPad 4 or iPad mini. I own two iPhones, an iPad, an iPad 3 and an Apple TV. I buy Apple products when I believe they outperform other products and are not outlandishly priced.
5. I want this to be factually correct – Believe it or not, I really do try to keep my articles factually accurate. If think one of these points is incorrect, let me know and I will edit or delete it, but you’re not going to change my beliefs, just like I’m not going to changes yours, so we’ll just have to agree to disagree.
What About Build Quality?
Since most comments about this article mention the so-called “crappy build quality of all Android tablets” I thought I would address this issue. When I first wrote this article, I mentioned the build-quality of the Nexus 10 was good, but not great, but after reading close to twenty reviews I removed that comment. Read on to see why:
These are just a few of the positive comments about the Nexus 10’s build quality. There are many more online. I’m not saying the build quality of the Nexus is better than the iPad 4. I’m just saying most reviewers like it.
Copyright 2013 Rick Schwartz. All rights reserved. Linking to this article is encouraged.
Follow me on Twitter @mostlytech1
About Rick E. Schwartz
Mostly-Tech 
Correction: screen is 16:10.
Thanks for pointing this out.
It’s seems like the verdict is still out on this issue:
People who say it’s 16:9: ZDNet, Wired,
People who say it’s 16:10: IGN, LA Times, Wikipedia, Verge
I’ll update this, once I know for sure.
– Rick
It´s easy to do the calculations:
16:9 ->16 / 9 = 1,77 aspect ratio
16:10 ->16 / 10 = 1,60 aspect ratio
Then you divide the pixels in N10´s screen:
2560 / 1600 = 1,6 , so this means the screen is 16:10 🙂
That´s why iPad is 4:3.
4 / 3 = 1,33
and 2048 / 1536 = 1,33
Thanks for posting the formula here. I already changed the article to read 16:10 a few days ago.
– Rick
As always, superbly organized and comprehensively researched, Rick! I’m looking forward to reading to your side-by-side comparison of the newly announced Nexus 4 and the iPhone 5 (in case you haven’t already published that). Anyway, as a current iPhone 4S user, my first and foremost gripe with iOS products is Apple’s attitude to make incremental changes to iOS which powers all iDevices. So when you can’t perform many tasks on your iDevice, it doesn’t help that much when you have the best CPU, GPU and design in your hands. Now I understand that innovation in the world of Android has been so phenomenal that it might have overshadowed the iOS, iPhone and iPad, but wasn’t Apple known for innovation and creativity in the first place? I’d be happy to continue my barely noticed existence within the walled garden of Apple as long as I feel it meets most of my needs; but when features increasingly fail to deliver or when older built-in apps aren’t satisfactorily updated to reflect the passage of time, it becomes all the more difficult to put up with the confines of the so-called garden. The very same applies to the iPad 4 and if I’m not accused of “fanboyism,” the same is true about the iPhone 5 when compared with the likes of Galaxy S III, Nexus 4 and, I daresay, the Note II which is a phablet. After all, you need very good and cogent reasons to justify the walled garden without innovation.
Amir
Thanks for the compliment!
Your comments are interesting.
I’m not trying to switch anyone who’s happy with Apple. I just want to make sure people are well informed, and make intelligent purchasing decisions.
– Rick
Your review was excellent and I’m fairly convinced I’m going to buy this as my next tablet instead of making the switch to Apple. Like you I own apple and android equipment and I am looking to replace my Tab 10.1 so I’ve been doing some hard research before I make the plunge.
Two things though, I’d really like to see some more detailed benchmark scores from someone that will give an unbiased view as the info out there now seems to sway towards the ipad. And something else I hear negative about the Nexus 10 is its screen brightness. I hear it’s max settings leave something to be desired Is this just anti-android trolling I hear or fact? Not big things but something nice to know before I buy one.
I agree most of the Nexus reviews have been a little biased. CNETs and Engadget’s were OK.
Ubergizmo said some good things: On our one resolution-agnostic test, GLBenchmark, it absolutely demolished other tablets I’ve tested. The Antutu Benchmark is interesting because it shows that the Nexus 10 easily leads every other dual-core systems and gets close to quad-core systems. The single core performance on the AnTuTu benchmark was remarkable. On other benchmarks iPad does much better, but I’ve learned that benchmarks aren’t a reliable indicator of real-world performance.
Re: Brightness
It depends which reviewer you trust. One said the screen is bright and incredibly sharp, but most say: It’s good, but not as bright as the ASUS Transformer or iPad.
Details can be found here:
http://reviews.cnet.com/tablets/google-nexus-10/4505-3126_7-35513295-2.html
– Rick
Why I don’t trust most mobile benchmarks: https://mostly-tech.com/2012/09/29/the-dirty-little-secret-about-mobile-benchmarks/
Finally an excellent, well-researched, unbiased, well-written comparison piece which states *facts*. You could teach the guys over at Engadget a thing or two. They called the iPad mini “Apple’s greatest tablet yet”. Astounding.
What also irks me is that iFans claim that “specs don’t matter”, yet add in 0.3 inches to a phone screen or throw in another core a year after other competitors and they drool and slobber like it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.
I look forward to reading more of your articles from now on.
Thanks for the compliment. I agree most of the professional reviewers are clueless. They all write the same things because they base their reviews off Apple and Google’s reviewers guides.
I also completely agree that Apple fans change their minds about which specs are most important to them. It used to be pixels-per-inch and thickness, but now that the iPad 4 isn’t leading in those, they don’t matter any more. They ignore the fact that the iPad 4 is really heavy and gets really hot when you use it. Not a single reviewer has mentioned that. Makes me wonder if they really use this stuff.
– Rick
Seriously, Rick, WTF is this sh*t?!
http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/08/modbook-pro-specs-doubled-ram-ssd-touchscreen/
$3500?? iFans the world over will be lining up to sell their left testicle and right kidney to buy this piece of crap. All in the name of crApple. This is just absolutely ridiculous.
Agreed.
– Rick
Followed here through the verge, nice list. I’ll be picking up an N10 (my first tablet) the second they are available on the 13th.
A couple things on your list:
1. The picture comparison from the verge which you use to cite the N10 producing deeper blacks is not really a fair comparison. The backdrop for the N10 is actually black where the backdrop for the iPad is the typical gray hatched pattern you see in iOS. That said, I personally think the colors look better on the N10, with the red coming off a little orange-ish on the iPad, and overall the colors look a little less vivid on the iPad.
2. Citing the processor clock speed as making it a faster chip than the iPad’s isn’t really fair. For example when you compare Intel’s processor clock speeds to AMD’s, AMD is constantly ramping up clock speeds and number of cores, while Intel is still widely regarded as the better performing processors (depends on the tasks of course). In the end it comes down to real world performance.
3. Your picture after point 22 has a caption saying the N10 has a super AMOLED display, which is incorrect and contradicts your earlier post saying it’s super PLS. I realize this picture may not be created by you but there was no credit.
Just posting this because I’m a staunch moderate when it comes to gadgets, I am extremely excited about the Nexus 10. Nov. 13th can’t come sooner 🙂
Thanks for your comments. All of your complaints seem valid. I’ll try to address them in my next update.
– Rick
Windows RT tablets are out now and have multiuser support. So number 13 is void….stopped reading there.
Thanks for the comment. You must have missed the FIRST SENTENCE where I said this article ONLY compares iPad 4 vs Nexus 10. Details matter.
In my tablet article that includes all platforms I made it clear from the beginning that the Surface RT has multiuser support.
– Rick
Great article!!!
if apple don’t make something new they are no longer tech leading company. and it is not surprise that they are losing most of market share to others. google microsoft also not making new product. nexus surface is just non apple ipads. samsung uses a plastic insteed glass or alumunum so they can change it often and put faster chip in it. if i need to upgrade my old ipad i’ll go for samsung tablet because it is cheaper and faster.
True.
Thanks for the comment.
– Rick
Thank you for your wonderful site. It would be great if you could include the new windows 8 tablets in a future comparison. I am currently debating between the Galaxy note 10.1 and the lenovo thinkpad tablet 2. So far the thinkpad seems to be the winner as it would be the only one to truly replace my ageing x61t thinkpad.
thanks Pio
Thanks for the feedback. I do plan to add more Windows 8 tablets to my Best 10″ Tablet article in the future.
– Rick
We don’t know yet whether the Nexus 10 will support Miracast, that is to be announced. It is an Android 4.2 feature, but not a documented N10 feature.
Thanks for the feedback Thomas. Most of the reviews I’ve read say it’s supported. I’ve only seen one that says it it not supported, but even that one wasn’t sure whether support for it was going to be added in the future. If you have a definitive source please post a link here — otherwise I’m waiting to revise this until I have a unit to review.
– Rick
This seems really biased. I don’t see the point in saying it has more pixels AND saying it has more pixels-per-inch – when comparing two devices of the same size, that’s saying the same thing and amounts to nothing more than rubbing Apple’s nose in it. Also, you can’t say it costs less (comparing the $400 model vs $500) and then turn around and say it has twice as much memory (comparing the $500 model vs $500).
That said, I find the rest impossible to refute. I had no idea iPads didn’t have such simple but remarkably useful things like haptic feedback, LED notifications, and to a lesser extent, mouse support. Your review also pointed out a couple features I didn’t know about. I was going to get a Nexus 10 anyway, but now I’m a bit more excited about it.
Good feedback. I’ll try to address some of your issues over the next few days. Thanks for also pointing out that you learned a few new things from this as well.
If you are considering buying a Nexus 10, I wouldn’t wait too long. The 32GB model sold out two hours after it went on sale. Might be a few weeks before they get more.
– Rick
I like your article!
Here in France all the nexus 10 available were sold in 45 min. I did not connect soon enough to buy one and I am waiting for a new sale.
With this new device I think nothing will ever be the same.
Apple fans will be floored by that…
True. Hopefully you get one next time. Check out my first impressions here: https://mostly-tech.com/2012/11/16/nexus-10-first-impressions/
– Rick
Very interesting I just purchased a refurbished iPad 3rd generation 32GB from the apple store, I may have to return it. Thx
Good write up. I’ve been hearing lots of negatives on battery life on the nexus 10. Can you comment on this issue?
Battery life has not been an issue for me so far. I’ve been getting 8-9 hours of moderate use. On days where I use it heavily, I charge it for about an hour mid-day and can go 12 hours or more.
Like any mobile device, you should turn it all of the way off before you go to bed and charge it all night. If you do that, you shouldn’t have problems.
– Rick
You forgot one very major difference. By the way, I love my Android phone. It has Android phone apps, lots of them. My iPad 3rd Gen has 250,000 apps built for iPad exclusively. I look at it like this, what good is a HDTV with no channels in HD? Catch up is always on Googles radar.
Are there more good tablet apps for the iPad? Certainly, but Apple has issues in this area as well. I have an iPad 3 as well and many popular apps like Instagram still only display 1x. They can be blown up but they look like crap.
Thanks for the comment.
– Rick
Hi Rick, I just stumbled onto your blog, I think yours is one of the most informative, unbiased, and interesting blogs that I have come across. I am not tech savy, I have been researching tablets and was sold on the Samsung Note tablet, or the new Surface until I read your reviews on the Nexus 10. One of the features I really wanted was the SD slot and the Nexus 10 does not have one, I tend to store a large amount of pictures and music on my devices and am nervous about buying a tablet without one, I would like to know your thoughts on this. My son is an apple fan, he has the Mac Book Pro, the first IPad, and the IPhone 4, I have spent a lot of time on his devices and I really prefer Androids. I have the Samsung Galaxy 3 and I love it. He needs a new IPad, I was thinking of the IPad 4 but now again after reading your blog, I think I am going to go with the IPad 3, do you think that is best of the IPads. I apologize for ambushing you, and for all your time and trouble, thank you, Maria
I tried to post this for some reason it didn’t seem to post so if this is a repost, I apologize.
No worries about the double-post. I’ve copied my original answer here:
First off, thanks for the nice comments about Mostly-Tech.
I have an iPad 3 and its screen is beautiful, but it’s really heavy and thicker than the iPad 2. Also its battery life is not near as good as my old iPad 1. I always buy refurbished Apple products because they are like new and you typically save $100 or more. I don’t think you’ll find a refurb iPad 4 yet, so you should look at the 2 or 3.
Since you’re an Android fan I would strongly recommend the Nexus 10 over everything else – – even though it doesn’t have an SD slot. iPad is missing a slot as well. If you have a lot of media, make sure to get the 32GB model.
If you really want an SD slot, get an ASUS Transformer Prime Infinity. My son has that tablet and loves it.
– Rick
My only complaint is that three or four of these are about the USB advantage. That really should just be one point.
Although you’re correct. Each benefit is unique to Android tablets and I think important enough to leave it as is. Thanks for the feedback however.
– Rick
Really really nice read. Informative and factual.
Android user myself since I got my Galaxy S2 phone last year, and I’ve since tried to inform people around me the good of Android. It seems like a lot of people, especially iDevice users, still tend to think that Android devices are cheap and slow. That’s hardly ever the case for the high end (or probably even mid class) Android devices, flagship devices from various manufactures, and of course the Nexus line from Google.
I just find Android so much more open and flexible compared to iOS. A lot of people say that iOS has tens of thousands of apps available, an app for doing anything. However, if I have to search and find a decent app just to do some Bluetooth file transferring with my friend since iOS does not allow it, that seems pretty lame (Correct me if I’m wrong, does iOS allow this feature now?). Another thing I don’t really like about iOS is the lack of a file explorer. I can say a lot about why I need it, but anyone who uses a computer should know, so I won’t waste the time. I even bought an Ipad 3 two month ago, but decided to return it the next day, as I felt very constrained when using the device. Good decision for me, because if I kept the Ipad, and then 2 month later the Ipad 4 with “double the speed” jumped out for the exact same price, I would’ve been sooo pissed.
And so the 750000(or with another 0, or whatever insanely high number) apps made exclusively for the Ipad, it seems to make such big of a deal for people. Let’s be honest, probably an average user would install 75 apps, and actually use 25 of them that are popular and worth using. Out of the 25 apps, 23 of them are already working perfectly on Android tablets, with the remaining 2 busy in development. So whenever I see someone say something like “GL with your amazing Android tablet with no apps”, I laugh quietly inside and feel bad for those ignorant people..
I’m going to buy the Nexus 10 for sure, but I’ll wait a bit longer. It’s out of stock for one reason.. Another is that I’m waiting for a 64G version if there is one, or one with cellular. Sigh, a couple more month..
You make some good points Tony. Thanks for commenting.
– Rick
I looked into this more and you’re right about the file explorer. I added info about that to Tip #23 in the second section here. https://mostly-tech.com/2012/09/30/3219/
iOS does have some basic Bluetooth transferring capabilities, but there are limitations like no iOS to Android xfers unless you have a jailbroken device.
– Rick
Hey Rick, just thought I’d point out a mistake on #32, “It has haptic feedback – Like all Android devices…”
Not all Android devices have it, one to mention is the Nexus 7. Which is very unfortunate, being a Nexus device. But all in all, this was good review.
Thanks for pointing that out Kevin. I’ll fix that error now.
– Rick
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In item no. 2, a gross overstatement regarding color accuracy. The Nexus 10 does not have good color accuracy for some color esp blue colors. I am not an apple fanboy, in fact, i hate apple (which is why i made every excuse to buy this nexus 10 despite all of the problems noted elsewhere online), but I do have an ipad that i am doing my own comparison with and to be honest, the only complaint I have about the Nexus is the screen and in particular, but not only, when watching videos. I use Watch ESPN and Xfinity player when I’m away from my TV, and I couldn’t get either of those videos to be as clear on the nexus 10 as i could on the ipad. I am not sure if this is a matter of app optimization or what as I could get youtube to look clear.
More importantly when looking at pics there is a noticeable difference in color saturation and accuracy. It just isn’t there. In looking at a some recent pics on my 2008 cpu, 2011 Rezound, nexus 10, and ipad4; the only one that was different was the nexus 10 and the blue was not even what i would consider to be the same (correct) shade of blue. The red was more red orange, the black was black, and white was white ect, but man there was a huge difference in the quality or lackthereof, on the nexus 10. i have been searching around all day to see if that is something that could be fixed OTA or something i just have to live with.
To be clear, the color are NOT accurate and are very dull. Also, the screen when watching videos is just not as astounding as everyone makes it out to be. It’s very “cool” i guess. Dull and even unispired. I guess my biggest mistake was holding it next to the rezound (the device that took the pic in perfect daylight) and the iPad. I am still considering keeping it because of the aspect ratio and the weight, but there is definitely color issues with this thing. looked at max and min brightness no change in color quality.
Hi Marcos,
Although use a Nexus 10 side by side with an iPad 3 every day and don’t have major issues with color, I’ve edited #2 to remove the comment about color accuracy because I am aware of the fact that the iPad does have better color accuracy.
Thanks for the good feedback. Let me know if you see more errors like that.
– Rick
Not that you don’t, I’ve got some pretty good eyes…. The issues are not major, they just exist. Were it not for the lack of apps, I’d really like to keep it. Also, I can appreciate that google is trying to push people to thus open internet experience, but it comes at the expense of its users. My iPad seems to play more internet videos than the Nexus 10 because chrome doesn’t support certain video formats that Apple does. This wouldn’t be such a problem (for me) if there were more apps. As everyone points out. Yeah i can sideload some flash player add ons, but i cant use them in chrome and the firefox experience is less than desirable on some sites. The main reason I got it was for videos viewing (free video viewing due to the aspect ratio (more than half the viewable area is useless on iPad when watching some videos. )
Thanks for the additional comments. I know I’m not going to change your mind, but I do want to point out that VLC Direct Pro Free, MX Player or MoboPlayer can play many more video formats than the iPad. Thought I would post this for others.
– Rick
Ummm. (Non sarcastically) do any of those work through chrome? Does dolphin support the flash or h.264 stuff? Or is dolphin no better than chrome?
There are many different ways to play Flash on Android. I normally use Firefox, so I can’t comment on the others.
– Rick
Thanks for those players. I was able to use Mx and mobo to play the video using the “open in new tab” feature. Only thing is, the videos are not in HD. Any ideas?
Not sure, but I use both to play 2.7K and 4K Ultra HD, so they are certainly capable. 🙂
– Rick
Love your review man. I’m a long time Apple fan and I own a ipad 3. I barely dropped it on the floor and the corner of the screen cracked with the protective case on. I could really appreciate the durabilty of the Nexus 10 and that alone wins me over. Thanks for the informative review.
Thanks for the compliment. Sorry to hear about your iPad 3 screen. Fortunately I haven’t dropped either of mine yet.
– Rick
Hi Rick,
There’s no menu button if I’m not mistaken. The bottom 3 soft buttons are back, home, and background apps.
I miss my menu button 😦
You’re right! Thanks for pointing that out. I must have been thinking about the Galaxy S III, which does have a dedicated menu key. I’ve editing the article to fix the error you pointed out.
– Rick
Hehe, that’s fast. Thanks for your article, now whenever someone asks me why I prefer Android, I can just redirect them here 🙂
One more point you could add (after rephrasing it in a better way) is:
– For Android, you can copy a video into your device and then choose to open it with any video player that you prefer. Which means I only need one copy of the movie inside my device.
– For iPad, lets say you have two 3rd party video player apps. Both of them have their own way of ‘syncing’ it to your device. If you want to play the video in both of them, there will be two copies of the same video in your device which takes up twice the space. If I have a video with some unknown codec which I’m not sure which player supports it, I basically have to sync it to all of them (let’s say I have 6 players), it is a pain.
Same goes with documents (pdf, doc), zip files, music and the like.
Thanks for the additional input.
– Rick
Ni Rick,
Thanks for sharing you’re research.
I was undecided as to buying a nexus 10 or an iPad and bought a nexus 10 after reading your post as soon as it came out here in Spain a few weeks ago.
I must say I’m really disappointed (and often irritated) at the lack of accuracy when tapping (for instance on web links on browsers) at least compared to the flawless performance of my iPhone 4. I’ve never tried an iPad but if it’s anything like the iPhone then this is a crucial difference you should report if, like me, you’re neither an apple or android fan but just someone who’s trying to report the facts.
Firefox is absolutely hopeless in this regard, but even with Chrome I often must tap twice or three times before I get any response. “Tap and hold” (to open on a new tab) is even worse.
This is a crucial point for me and probably for so many of your potential readers who like me might use their tablet mostly for web browsing. I agree with your 30+ reasons and while maybe only six or eight of them (like the speakers or multiuser capabilities) are important for me, they’re perhaps put together enough to offset my one important complaint… But just barely…
Thanks for the feedback. It sounds to me like you have a defective panel. I would contact Google to get an RMA number. While it’s true the Nexus 10 may not be as sensitive as your iPhone 5 panel, I rarely have to click on links multiple times to get them to work. One factor here is the much higher pixel density that the Nexus 10 has over your iPhone and the iPad. That makes everything on the screen smaller and harder to click.
– Rick
Thanks for the great report. I read somewhere the charging of Nexus 10 is a big problem, has Google fixed this? Some report said it is slow and you can’t charge it while you are using it. I am sure to a lot of people like me, this is a major point in considering buying Nexus or ipad?
Charging is not a problem if you turn off your tablet and charge it all night. I can go an entire 12 hour day when I do this. If you use your tablet more, you may want to charge it for an hour mid-day.
Battery life on the iPad3/4 may be slightly better than the Nexus, but it’s much worse than the battery life on the iPad 1.
It is use the optional Nexus 10 pogo charger available on eBay, it charges faster, but the difference isn’t day and night.
It’s also true that the Nexus won’t charge if you plug it’s USB cable into a normal laptop while your using it. This issue applies to the iPad as well.
– Rick
Great article Rick. You convinced me to buy a Nexus 10 as my 1st tab, and not looked back. very impressed! Cheers for the work.
Just one update to tip #13.
Not sure if this is a UK thing, but the Free Content is almost decimated over-the-water in little ‘ol England!!
to compare against your list:-
Free magazines. We had 3. Mens Fitness, Net and Vogue. thats it.
Books we only had 3…“Treasure Island” “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, “The Three Musketeers”. Unfortunately no… “Great Expectations”, “Pride and Prejudice”,
Music:- A big cut-back here. only 3 songs from obscure artists (to me). ‘Good Old War’, ‘Black Sun Empire’, ‘Fytch’ . None of the ten songs you mentioned like The Rolling Stones, Cat Power, M. Ward, The Lumineers, Bob Mould, Eskmo.
Movies. Yes we do have Ice Age, but not the BBC “Planet Earth.” shame!
As I said, maybe its just the UK market that has been short-changed (again!!), or Google have cut-back as the tab has proved more popular?!?
Just for info…. It has not reflected my choice in Tab.
Cheers
Mark
Thanks for letting me know. I’ll mention this in the article when I get a break.
– Rick
Is there a way to do select/copy/paste the text from one app to another app in Nexus 10. Any suggestions please ?
Yes. Checkout Tip #45 here: https://mostly-tech.com/2012/11/28/more-great-tips-tricks-for-the-nexus-10-and-other-android-devices/
Web browsing and e-reading is more suited to 4:3 ratio.
The “Why You’ll Still Buy an iPad 4” part made me lagh a lot! :’)
Applefags everywhere (once i was one of them too)
I was an Apple fanatic for many years as well.
– Rick
Furthermore I appreciated your article 🙂 I’m now a proud owner of both Nexus 10 and 4
Sweet.
– Rick
iPad 4 will sell because it has faster screen response, and for some people, screen response is everything.
The white casing makes iPad’s screen appear more brilliant and colorful – this attract lots of kids and women who convince their men to buy. Maybe Nexus should also come up with white casing to attract kids.
My family has 3 iPads and 1 Nexus 10. Guess who’s using the Nexus?
Thanks for your comments.
I used an iPad 3 side by side with a Nexus 10 and both screens were very responsive. The iPad did have a small edge, but it wasn’t very noticable. With both Android and iOS there is still clear latency on music performance apps.
I completely agree with your comments on the color. There should be more white Android tablets. The white iPad looks much better than the black one.
– Rick
So my friend has a karaoke CD for a song he is going to perform. He asked me to use my laptop to play the music (without vocals) so he can practice the song.. Is it possible to play the songs in the karaoke CD in a laptop without its vocals? If can, can anyone tell me how? What program will I need and how to mute its vocal part?.
If you can find software that will put one channel out of phase, it will eliminate everything in the center channels. Normally that removes the lead vocal, but leaves its reverb. I haven’t checked, but I would be surprised if there isn’t an app that does that.
– Rick