After taking the 7-inch tablet market by storm with the Nexus 7, Google enters a bigger arena with their 10-inch slate – the Nexus 10. The question is, does it have the capability to take on the iPad and make another killing? Let’s find out by reading our full review after the break.
Design and Construction
To start things off, the Samsung-Google tablet is made from high-quality glass, plastic and rubber. It is symmetrical in design with curved corners and tapered edges that contribute to its sleek look. On the front is a 10-inch True RGB Real Stripe PLS display with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 (299 ppi) topped with Gorilla Glass 2. Placed right above it is the 1.9 megapixel front-facing camera while at the bottom is the notifications light. Placed on the sides are the speakers.
When held on landscape, you’ll find on the top left the power/lock button and volume rocker. On the left-hand side is the microUSB port and headset jack while on the right is the HDMI port. Located at the bottom is the magnetic pogo pin. On its back is the 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and microphone.
Overall, the Nexus 10 has an amazing build and construction. The plastic and rubber materials used help keep the tablet’s weight down at 603g. There’s no evidence of creakiness and it is comfortable to hold.
Display
This is the area where the Nexus 10 rises above the competition. It is a 10.1-inch True RGB Real Stripe PLS capacitive touchscreen at a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. This calculates to a pixel density of 299 ppi, 39 ppi more than the iPad 4. As expected of a display with this kind of resolution, images, icons and texts are crisp with almost no sign of pixelation. However, if an image, application, or icon is not optimized for this resolution, expect it to look ugly.
If you like watching movies or reading eBooks, the Nexus 10 won’t disappoint as it has great viewing angles and good sunlight legibility.
OS, UI and Apps
The Nexus 10 comes with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean out of the box but immediately prompted for a 4.2.1 upgrade. This is a Nexus device so it will provide you with a pure Android experience. If you are used to devices with skinned Androids, you will most likely find the pure Jelly Bean as stripped-down but not at all bad.
For a 10-inch tablet you will certainly get a big homescreen for your icons and widgets. Docked at the bottom are eight icons which you can replaced depending on your preference. Tapping on the menu button brings up an 8 x 5 grid of apps while swiping further to the right brings up a collection of widgets at your disposal.
Swiping down from the top left shows a familiar notifications bar while swiping down from the top right shows a set of toggles of mostly used settings like WiFi, Brightness, Auto-Rotate, Bluetooth, etc. A really nifty feature that the new Jelly Bean has brought to the table.
As for apps, the Nexus 10 is backed up by the full power of Google Play Store. Meaning apps shouldn’t be a problem and are readily available except for those with geographical restrictions like Google Play Books.
Camera and Multimedia
The Nexus 10 is equipped with a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and a 1.9 megapixel front. The rear camera’s squarish design is similar to the ones found on the Galaxy S3 and Note 2.
Camera controls are very simple as there are only three buttons to start with. There’s the blue capture button, the camera/record toggle which you can also utilize to switch to Panorama or Photo Sphere modes, and the settings button. In addition, you can also tap and hold anywhere on the screen to bring up more settings to adjust such as white balance and exposure.
Shooting in bright conditions, whether in normal mode or in macro, produces sharp images with accurate colors and great amount of detail. Auto-focus was never an issue and is very fast. However, like most mobile cameras, the one on the Nexus 10 also suffers in very low light. It can still capture a decent amount of detail but noise are evident. You can view the sample images by clicking the link here.
There’s no HDR mode on the Nexus 10 so that’s a bit of a downer. But you do get Panorama and Photo Sphere capabilities. Panorama works great on the Nexus 10 and stitches images well. Although I can’t say the same thing for Photo Sphere as 50% of the time the resulting image looks like a poorly pieced jigsaw puzzle. Still, it is a very cool feature.
As for video recording you can record videos of up to 1080p resolution at 30 fps. You can watch the sample video below:
Being an Android device, the Nexus 10 handles multimedia very well. It can play mp4 video files straight from its stock media player but not AVI files. For that just download a media player from Google Play Store and it wouldn’t be a problem anymore.
The Nexus 10 has dual-front speakers capable of producing stereo sound. It is crisp, clear, and very audible but can’t be considered as one of the loudest out there.
Performance and Battery Life
Being a flagship tablet, you might expect the Nexus 10 to top the charts in benchmark tests. Unfortunately, the actual results won’t impress you that much. AnTuTu gave the Nexus 10 a score of 12,718 – better than the ASUS Transformer Prime but below the HTC One X+. Quadrant Standard scored it a 3,806 – better than the Galaxy Tab 10.1 but scored below the Transformer Prime TF201. As for GPU prowess, NenaMark2 gauged the GPU at 52.9fps.
But despite the modest benchmark performance, it is evident that the Nexus 10 is smothered with Project Butter. It is fast, fluid, and shows no sign of lag even when playing graphic intensive games.
As for battery life, the Nexus 10 uses a 9000mAh battery which seems like a massive amount of juice on paper. But during our use which consists of heavy SNS and web browsing, taking pictures and watching videos, the battery lasted for almost 10 hours. Also, we noticed that if you have multiple user profiles stored, the battery drains faster. It is not a deal breaker but it gives you something to watch out for.
Conclusion
To conclude, the Nexus 10 is an amazing device. The build is great, the design is sleek, the hardware is impressive especially the display, and it has the performance you’d expect from an elite Android tablet. Compared to the iPad, it is definitely lighter, thinner and has a better display in terms of pixel density. It is also cheaper compared to other tablets plus, being a Nexus device, you can be sure that it gets timely updates.
So, can it take on the iPad and other Android tablets? Absolutely. But can Google make another killing similar to what they’ve achieved with the Nexus 7? That depends. Google’s challenge is not in producing top notch hardware, it is in distribution. Currently, the Nexus 10 has limited availability and hasn’t landed officially in the Philippines, yet. So if Google and Samsung can make the Nexus 10 widely available as soon as possible, then there’s a good chance that they’ll make another killing.
Google Nexus 10 specs:
10.1″ True RGB Real Stripe PLS, 2560×1600 @ 300ppi
Gorilla Glass 2
1.7GHz Exynos 5 Dual 5250
2GB RAM
Quad-core Mali T604 GPU
16/32GB non-expandable internal storage
5MP autofocus camera w/ LED flash
1080p video recording @30fps
1.9MP front-facing camera
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
NFC
9000mAh battery
Dimension: 8.9mm
Weight: 603g
Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean
What we liked about it:
* Great build and design
* Thin and light
* Amazing display
* Fast and smooth
* Cheaper than competition
* Nexus timely updates
What we didn’t like:
* So so battery life
* Limited product availability
So unlocking it would give you considerable advantage over
a phone that you are using under contract with some carrier.
) It has only gotten more difficult to compare between the
carriers. Beginning today Apple has begun accepting orders for unlocked GSM versions of the i – Phone 5S via the
firm’s online store.
hi meron po ba nito available sa mall? saan po b nkakabili other than sa widgetcity or kimstore? thanks..sana may sumagot…
I bought a Nexus 10 Tablet from Widgetcity
after 3 months it suddenly shut off. when i returned it to them. They told me the battery was the defect. up until now (august) my nexus 10 is still sitting in my cabinet.. i bought that Last february
=( very hard to find batery part
i can’t seem to find a store that carries this.. help, please, anyone? :)
Live richer and happier lives by living for others.
The first case in point is the Israeli-Palestinian problem.
Despite how it measures, it can still spark your interest, that’s for sure.
Thanks , I’ve just been looking for information approximately this topic for a while and yours is the greatest I’ve came upon
so far. However, what in regards to the bottom line?
Are you positive about the source?
This tablet would have been an ipad killer here in the philippines if it didn’t cost almost the same as an ipad 4.
saan po kayo nakabili?
Galaxy note 10.1 over google nexus 10….? Anu mas ok?
I was thinking to remain on my note 10.1 over the nexus 10? Help me to choose.
That’s comforting to know, but I think the issue still persists. I am saving up to buy a tablet and I’ve got my eye on the Nexus 10 because it”s more reasonably-priced than the iPad4, with just about the same specs. I really hope Google comes out with fixes in 4.2.2.
I heard that there were a lot of random reboot and crash issues sa Nexus 10. Did your test device show these problems as well? Is Google any closer to actually coming out with a solid fix for it?
Hi Karla, during our use of the Nexus 10 it only stalled once. I just did a reboot and it didn’t show any problem since then. It’s now being used by my sister in Jakarta (she owns the unit actually). She lets her kid students use it and suffered three drops already. Still working like new.
Sad thing about Nexus 10 is that you can’t use your sim on it. It is a WIFI only tablet.
Though still, I am planning to buy for this tablet.
Sir where did u bought ur unit and how much?
Dammit, and I was *just* about to get a Nexus 7. I wonder how they compare with each other aside from the increased display size.
@Yuga
Wala sa article yung DeltaE score. Pa update naman sana sir how does this Nexus 10 or 7 compares to Ipad 3 or 4 in terms of color reproduction with DeltaE score. pls! pls! pls! :)
Ganyan din nababasa ko, marami daw apps not compatible with Nexus 10 screen-wise. Pero baket naman sila maglalabas ng Nexus 10 kung di compatible karamihan ng android apps for it. Isn’t that a deal breaker?
The best thing about this product is its unmatched screen resolution. that is the sharpest among all tablets currently available.
the only dealbreaker for this gadget, as with most Android tablets, is the fact there are only a few number of apps in the play store that are optimized for tablets. i believe this is where iOS tablets has an edge over the Android ones. the iOS app store have a tons of apps optimized for the iPads. however, if you utilize a tablet merely for surfing, watching videos and reading then clearly the Nexus 10 is the best gadget for you.
i actually thought of buying this one but just ultimately decided not to upon the announcement of the Asus VivoTab Smart (which runs on Windows 8). I dont have any gadget with Windows 8 OS so the said tablet would be perfect as my very first one.
Hmm… I’m curious. Can you give us an example of an app on Google Play which is NOT optimized for tablets? I’ve been using my Nexus 7 for months now and I’ve bought/downloaded tons of apps from Google Play and they all look/work great on my tablet.
@justin: half of the people that say android apps are “not optimized for tablets” are talking out of their @$$.
The other half mean that a lot of these apps are designed primarily with a phone in mind. And though they scale up well, unlike in iOS where a phone app on an ipad is just an ugly blur, they’re just basically a phone app that takes up the entire 7″ or 10″ screen. They don’t take advantage of the extra screen real estate. An example is gmail. On tablet, it splits the screen into the inbox and the contents. On a phone, clicking on an email in the inbox will switch the view to the contents of the email.
Another example is flipboard, which until recently, was mostly a phone app. On the nexus 7, you get one article per page and it was locked to portrait view. With the new update, it now displays 3 articles per page and can rotate to landscape view.
dual core processor running a device with resolution wayyy beyond full hd is great..
di mo talaga aasahan na matatalo nya sa benchmark ung mga naka 720p na resolution.. try mong mag run ng 720p na resolution sa dual exynos 5.. tataas score nyan..
TOTALLY AGREE! Hindi man lang nabanggit ng author yun for consideration.
The author should take writing lessons. His writing is amateurish at best.
I think Nexus 10 is around 25k.
Got Ipad3 and nexus 10, nexus 10 is far better than ipad screen. Personally I like android better than iOS.
Magkano nga ulit to?ipon ipon ulit muna ako..
too lazy to go through previous posts but does yugatech already have a side by side comparison of the Nexus 10 with the iPad?
If none, are you guys planning to make one? :)