Which of the Tegra K1 tablets is the one for you?

Nov 3, 2014 13:55 GMT  ·  By

The Nexus 9 launched last month as the third tablet to take advantage of the NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor.

Before the Nexus came the Xiaomi MiPad and the NVIDIA Shield Tablet, but these models took advantage of the 32-bit variation of the chip.

So the Nexus 9 is special by being the first to come equipped with a 64-bit Tegra K1 and also with Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box.

Given that the Xiaomi MiPad doesn't currently sell in international waters, we thought we do a spec shootout of the two tablets that take advantage of the chip platform and are available for purchase.

Design and Display

The two tablets are quite similar in size, as the Nexus 9 comes with an 8.9-inch IPS LCD display, while the NVIDIA Shield Tablet is a tad smaller, coming in at 8-inch (same IPS LCD technology).

As for resolution, the Google tablet takes advantage of 2048 x 1536 pixels (288 ppi) while the NVIDIA one offers 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution (283 ppi) which is an improvement from the previous Tegra Note 7 that arrived with 1280 x 800 res.

It should be mentioned that the Nexus 9 tablet is a little bit chunkier than the Shield. It weighs 425 g / 14.99 oz, as opposed to 388 g / 13.7 oz of the latter.

However, the Google slate is less thick, coming in at 7.9 mm / 0.31 inches, while the Shield is 9.1 mm / 0.36 inches in profile.

Power and Performance

The difference between the chips powering the two tablets is that the Nexus’ is a 64-bit dual-core one clocked at 2.3GHz (known as Denver), while the Shield’s is a 32-bit quad-core one clocked at 2.2GHz.

Both models are fitted with 2GB of RAM and backed up by either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage. We do know that the Shield Tablet has a microSD card which can allow users to bump things up in the memory department up to 128GB.

Cameras

In the photography department, the NVIDIA Shield tablet brings two cameras to the table but both have the same capacity of 5MP.

As for the Nexus 9, it takes advantage of an 8MP main camera, while the one in the back is of the 1.6MP variety.

Connectivity and Ports

The NVIDIA tablet is equipped with HSPA+ Bands: 1, 2, 4, 5 and LTE, 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.3 & 5 GHz), Bluetooth 4.0, micro USB, micro HDMI.

As for Nexus 9 tablet, it is equipped with HSPA+/LTE, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5GHz), Bluetooth 4, mini USB and HDMI (via adapter).

OS

The Nexus 9 is the first to arrive in the wild with Android 5.0 Lollipop and this is certainly a big plus. If you’re really excited about the new OS, the good news is that the tablet will start shipping out to the first consumers in a few days.

As for the Shield tablet, it comes with Android 4.4.2 out of the box, but NVIDIA already promised the 5.0 Lollipop update, so the tablet should be among the first to receive it.