Gadgetory

Sonne brought out a hell of a device into the ten inch tablet market with their latest release but the space is starting to get a little crowded especially with Google's own offering to contend with hey Josh from guard from Android authority what's going on everybody and this is the sony xperia tablet z vs the google nexus 10 and what might become one hell of a tight race we start off with the design we'll start with the sony xperia tablet z which really turns heads easily with its rigid rectangular design the Xperia tablet Z is a black slate with rigid corners and one of the thinnest profiles we've ever seen on a tablet the front is all black with a front facing camera and the spine has all the buttons on the left side including the metal silver power button the ports include SD card and micro USB slots covered by pieces of plastic of course you know what that means water resistance the back houses the rear facing camera and is made up of a slightly rubberized material that helps keep it from slipping about bottom line this is one of the most attractive tablets on the market and also one of the best handling well the tablet is thin and light as this only 495 grams to be exact you'll be tossing it around as easily as a spiral notebook the Google Nexus 10 on the other hand takes on a more classical look made by Samsung it gets the more rounded pebble design that has been pretty tried and true you have the black slate front with front facing camera but this time you also get stereo front-facing speakers along the sides the buttons are found at the top with the port's found on the sides the right side port is four mini HDMI connections the back of the Nexus 10 has a much stickier material around the rear facing camera now I know I have a big scratch down the middle altogether the Nexus 10 is a somewhat no-frills tablet in terms of design other than those front-facing speakers in the hands it is heavier than the Xperia tablet Z at around 600 grams you probably will be keeping the Nexus 10 in both hands as one-handed performance may feel a little perilous bottom line if you want a tablet that brings a new exciting style to what we already know the Xperia tablet Z is going to please you the Nexus 10 might be a little more classical but it is far from unattractive it's just something we've seen before we could expect a lot from displays on larger tablets and both of these devices give their best while both of these screens our teenage beasts the Xperia tablet Z rocks a LCD display capable of 1920 by 1200 resolution at 224 PPI with good viewing angles and the Bravia Engine backing it you get a TV like experience worthy of Sony's pedigree the Nexus 10 on the other hand has some extra power with its display capable of 2560 by 1600 resolution rated at 299 PPI with a resolution so off the charts as this the viewing experience is onion soup rising Lee great while this pls display is definitely not a Super AMOLED like we generally expect from Samsung it still has good color reproduction that rivals the great performer in the Xperia tablet Z while there is a difference in the pixel density between these two it is pretty negligible general users will not notice the difference and viewing text whether in websites or ebooks poses absolutely no problems if you really need that extra resolution the Nexus 10 obviously will be your choice but when 95% of our media is made for 1080 resolution anyway you should have a great time with either choice it's really up to how spec hungry you are in this case performance might change the game up a bit while the processor package in the Xperia tablet Z might seem a little dated by now Sony knew that the Snapdragon s4 pro was and still is a reliable performer there is no reason to discount that 1.5 gigahertz processor backed by the Audrina 320 and 2 gigabytes of RAM as if powered their flagship devices and achieved scores of above 20,000 in n22 the same goes for the tablet Z you'll get a lot of multitasking done with the RAM and small apps and everything from work to play will be easy to handle Samsung didn't exactly follow the Snapdragon herd when it came to the Nexus 10 as they instead outfitted the Google tablet with an in-house package the exitos dual-core cortex a15 that comes in at 1.7 gigahertz while we might be used to hearing about quad-core processors these days don't count the Nexus 10 out because it is still a reliable performer backed by the Molly T 604 and 2 gigabytes of RAM the stock Android experience here is still very speedy the scores in antutu this only tell part of the story optimization may play a big role in the Nexus 10 obviously those wanting more updated specs will go with the Xperia tablet Z but I cannot stress enough how a tablet like the Nexus 10 that scores under 15,000 antutu actually feels more like a 18,000 for former and now we come to hardware the Sony Xperia tablet Z already has a trump card in its water resistance it isn't a feature that will always take advantage of but it helps keep accidents from being more than just mishaps another boost comes from the expandable memory a microSD card that can bolster the 16 or 32 gigabytes built in the speakers found on the two bottom corners are decent performers but this is where the Nexus 10 shows its trump card it's clear nowadays that front-facing speakers are awesome these two nondescript speaker grilles on the Nexus 10 provide rich and loud sound that you don't often find on mobile devices they are certainly the biggest selling points in terms of hardware the 16 or 32 gigabytes built-in are not expandable though what the Nexus 10 can boast also is HDMI connectivity secondary display capabilities on the Xperia Tablet are through MHL ultimately comes down to this do you want your tablet to survive a dunk in the depths or as sound your ultimate satisfaction these features do well to truly differentiate these two top tier tablets so it's up to you what is more important it might seem unfair to compare the battery life in this test considering the Xperia comes with a six thousand milliamp hour unit that is somewhat dwarfed by the 9000 milliamp hour performer in the Nexus 10 while the Nexus 10 does get through about seven and a half hours of general usage on Wi-Fi quite easily the Xperia is able to reach Sony's claims of around 6 hours of usage in the end you'll get a little more work and play out of the Nexus 10 but it really isn't that huge of a difference cameras on tablets are often hard to take seriously but both of these optics packages actually perform pretty well the Xperia tablet Z comes with an 8 megapixel shooter that is less powerful than but still similar to the 13 megapixel shooter in the Xperia Z smartphone as such you get an X more sensor and the app is bolstered with many different scene modes that support superior auto which helps you get the right shot picture quality is quite decent though it definitely doesn't perform as well as its smartphone counterparts the Nexus 10 doesn't have as powerful the camera as it is a 5 megapixel shooter instead the app is also not as robust though it does come with the yet ubiquitous a photosphere function it is a fast performer with a good shutter to file speed but pictures are even worse here which doesn't come as much of a surprise really while it is nice to have a camera handy even on a tablet these are definitely backups when you have much better performers on any smartphone you might have in your pocket and finally the software depending on who you are this could be a skewed category after all many of us Android users really do prefer the standard Android experience the Nexus line makes it clear that Android at its purest can be the best and that's what you get with the Nexus 10 not only does it come with the most advanced version of jellybean you can rest assured that we'll continue to get the most updated software available apps optimized for tablets come along with Google now and the smoothness of project butter it might not come with a whole lot of bells and whistles compared to forked versions but it is usually thus the best performing hands down those extras might help Sony's Xperia UI though while the general look of the UI found in the Xperia tablet Z resembles at least the Ice Cream Sandwich edition of Android it does come with some other apps and functionality that give it a boost in this case we have the small apps that serve as small overlays overcurrent workspaces for easy quick multitasking but on top of all of that or Sony's own great applications like the Walkman and album picture gallery they do bring some key differences to this version of Android if you are certain that you will be using the extras in the Xperia UI it will be the right companion for you to get stuff done otherwise stock Android is as smooth as it can get and in general functionality isn't far off in this comparison either way you get an easy-to-use interface with a few extras depending on your choice and now finally price the Nexus 10 is the tablet made for Google's line but it doesn't retain the same low price that the Nexus 4 in the Nexus 7 can boast but the 399 price tag is still eclipsed by the much more premium price of the Xperia tablet Z at $499 and so there you have it this really is a matter of necessity there's no question how much fun you'll have on either of these devices so you have to ask yourself what is it you really want from a 10-inch tablet experience do you need water resistance or do you want the nimble kind of fun that you can have from such a thin and light device do you need sound fidelity via front-facing speakers or do you at least want the promise of the latest and greatest that Google stock Android has to offer well I can't answer those questions for you but I can tell you this these are two of the best tablets around and no matter which one you choose you are in for a good time if you want to see the full reviews for both of these devices check out the links over on the side drop us a like down below and don't forget to subscribe and then remember to stay tuned because we've got all the best coverage here at Android authority because we're your source for all things Android