Gadgetory

well this is David with the verge and this is the Nexus 10 it's the largest in Google's new tablet line and it really does fit right in with the Nexus 7 and the new Nexus 4 phone it's fairly average size for a tablet it's about the same weight and thickness as the iPad and it's well made but it's it has this rubbery smooth back that just doesn't feel as good as the dimpled material on the Nexus 7 the key feature of the Nexus 10 obviously is its display it's ten point oh five five inches and it's 2560 by 1600 resolution is just huge it looks amazing it's every bit as good as the iPads Retina display and I spent a long time trying to decide which was better before calling it a tie there are little things that each one does better or worse but for the most part they're both fantastic video looks amazing even high-def 1080p footage but text is really where you see a big difference between this and lower res displays no matter whether the text is large or small it looks crystal clear and there are no jaggies or missed pixels the biggest problem it is actually makes some elements look bad so I'm hoping that developers and site owners will upgrade some of their things like they did for the retina iPad the Nexus 10 is powered by a dual core Exynos processor along with two gigs of RAM and Android 4.2 and it really does work great it's performance is on the high end of tablets without being remarkable but that's mostly due to the fact that it's pushing so many more pixels than most tablets everything is smooth and fast and there are some odd Android caused lags but those are fewer and further between with every new release Android 4.2 also brings a bunch of new software features unfortunately I didn't get to test two of the coolest features lock screen widgets and multiple accounts but those will be here for anyone who buys the device once it goes on sale you also get a swipe light keyboard that lets you move your finger around the screen to type which is much better than typing on such a big screen with your fingers you get a new settings pull down and in general you just get overall stability and performance improvements even with the huge and pixel dense display this is definitely the fastest and smoothest Android tablet I've used and that includes even the Nexus 7 battery life is also really solid despite the great screen I used it basically constantly for three days before I needed to charge it and that's pretty good but there's still a huge problem with the Nexus 10 and it's the same one the Nexus 7 has and any other Android tablet it's the third-party app ecosystem in a vacuum I think this is every bit as good a tablet as the iPad but the iPad has 275,000 tablet optimized apps that and work great here you get phone apps blown up to huge sizes and resolutions and it's just not a good experience the Nexus 10 starts at $399 for 16 gigs of storage you can also get 32 gigs for $499 it's $100 cheaper than the iPad and if you just want a way to watch Hulu and Netflix or rent movies you'll probably be thrilled with this device but without an app ecosystem to match apples this isn't nearly the all-around tablet the iPad is and it certainly can't replace a computer in a way that the iPad might be able to the Nexus 10 feels a little like Google's way of showing off how good an Android tablet could be almost as if it's begging developers to help move the platform forward I don't know if that'll happen but if and when it does the iPad might actually have a genuine competitor