The two tablets are fresh additions to the market

Oct 17, 2014 07:21 GMT  ·  By

In an extremely interesting setup of events, Google unveiled the highly anticipated Nexus 9 tablet yesterday, which was immediately followed by Apple’s iPad event, where the company’s newest flagship the iPad Air 2 got announced.

Google and Apple have been constantly at each other’s throats while tablets are concerned, but the almost concomitant unveiling of the two models just takes things to a whole different level. Well, let’s see how the two devices stack up against one another.

Design

It’s quite obvious that both Google and HTC have been putting a heavy emphasis on design when the Nexus 9 is concerned.

As for the iPad Air 2, it follows the lines of its predecessor, coming with the same aluminum unibody. However, the product has been slimmed down to extremes and Apple claims the tablet is currently the thinnest tablet to arrive on the market (it has 6.1 mm / 0.24 inches in profile).

Well, the iPad Air 2 won’t hold this title for very long, because Dell has announced the Venue 8 7000 series, which is comprised of slates with 6 mm / 0.24 inches profiles. However these products are not available on the market just yet.

The Nexus 9 is a little bit fattier, coming with a 7.9mm / 0.31 inches thickness, which is not bad, but it’s way over the new iPad Air 2. Actually in this department, the Nexus 9 is comparable with the first-gen iPad Air which had 7.5 mm / 2.9 inches thickness.

Nexus 9 profile
Nexus 9 profile

In the design department, you can spot HTC’s interference with the way the Nexus 9 was built, as the tablet comes with the characteristic predominant brushed aluminum finish and takes advantage of front-facing BoomSound speakers up in the front.

As for Apple, the company has adorned its TouchID home button at the bottom, which is – as Cupertino itself recognized – the most asked for feature requested by customers.

Display

Moving on to the display, the Apple iPad Air 2 has a slightly larger 9.7-inch display, while the Nexus 9 comes in with 8.9-inch screen.

Both tablets take advantage of an IPS LCD display that delivers 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution. Taking into account that form factors vary between the two models, pixel density will too.

The Nexus has 288ppi while the iPad has 264ppi, so in theory images should look sharper on the Google tablet. However, some real-life tests will have to be performed before any definitive conclusions can be drawn.

The Apple iPad Air has anti-reflective coating that acts like a shield, preventing light to get reflected by the screen.

But the Nexus 9 has some perks of its own in the screen department, as it employs Corning Gorilla Glass 3 so you can expect the tablet to be immune to scratches and such. You can even let your cat play with it.

It looks like the competition between the two tablets is pretty tight, but the iPad Air 2 stands out due to its extreme thinness which entails portability and ease of use.

On the other hand, the Nexus 9 looks rather pretty, as the first real-life photos have aptly demonstrated.

Also check out our comparison between the Nexus 9 and iPad 2 in the Performance and Software department.

Also check out our comparison between the Nexus 9 and iPad 2 in the Performance and Software Department.

Image showing the extreme thickness of the iPad Air 2
Image showing the extreme thickness of the iPad Air 2

Photo Gallery (3 Images)

Nexus 9 or the iPad Air 2?
Image showing the extreme thickness of the iPad Air 2Nexus 9 profile
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