Google launched the 4G LTE version of its Nexus 9 tablet in India at Rs. 43,073. As of now, the device is only available in black colour and continues to be exclusively sold on Amazon. The Nexus 9 is the successor to the Nexus 7 and it was launched alongside the Nexus 6 smartphone in November 2014.
While the Nexus 6 is made by Motorola, the Nexus 9 is manufactured by HTC. This time Google has decided to sell both, the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 through the online only model. They also priced the products at a much higher amount than most accepted. While the earlier Nexus line up were known for its value for money, these two devices cost a premium.
The device runs on Android Lollipop (5.0) which is the most recent version of the operating system. Android Lollipop was a big redesign from Android KitKat (4.4). The sales of tablets are overall on a decline and the main reason for this is that phones are getting bigger. Google too increased the screen size of the Nexus 6 to 5.9 inches as compared to the 5 inch Nexus 5. The device will compete with the iPad Air 2 whose 32GB LTE variant is priced at almost the same.
The tablet market has been a contest ground between Google and Apple ever since Motorola launched the Xoom tablet with Android Honeycomb. However Google has so far failed to make inroads into the tablet market like it did for smartphones against the iPhone. The Apple iPad is still considered a better tablet and sells in much more numbers. Will Android 5.0 and Nexus 9 change that?
The key specifications of the Nexus 9 are
– 8.9inch display with the resolution of 2048×1536 pixels
– 2.3GHz Octa Core, 64-bit NVIDIA Tegra K1 Dual Denver
– 2GB RAM
– 8 Megapixel rear camera, 1.6 Megapixel camera on the front
– 6700mAh power battery
