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Dave Taylor of http://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ reviews the Google Nexus 9 Android tablet (manufactured by HTC) and really likes what he finds. The Nexus 9 is a credible competitor to the dominant Apple iPad. But there's trouble in paradise too, as he finds when he checks out the HTC "Smart" Cover....
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0:04
hi dave taylor here again and this time
0:05
i'm looking at a tablet
0:07
now i know you're thinking oh an ipad
0:10
and really ipad has really become
0:13
synonymous with tablets but they
0:15
shouldn't be apple has a really good
0:17
product but there are some really
0:18
amazing alternatives out there now and
0:20
this is the nexus 9 this is from google
0:24
although it's actually manufactured by
0:26
htc
0:27
you see it comes with a smart cover
0:30
we'll get back to the smart cover later
0:32
but the device itself let me unlock it
0:36
and
0:37
you can see here i don't know how well
0:39
you can see the screen
0:41
but let's go home
0:44
you know this is running full android
0:47
and
0:48
it's incredibly fast so i have a variety
0:51
of different ipads and you get used to
0:53
the speed of ios and it's not a slow
0:56
tablet operating system but this version
0:59
of android 5.0 running on this very high
1:02
powered nexus tablet really makes me
1:05
realize what i'm missing this thing is
1:07
just lightning fast i mean you can see
1:09
here i'll open an app and it opens right
1:11
up it's done it's ready to roll and in
1:13
terms of specs well let's see so i got
1:17
them all written down here because
1:18
there's a lot so it runs at qx ga
1:22
resolution where they come up with these
1:25
acronyms i have absolutely no idea but
1:27
that means it's double hd so this is
1:30
running at 2048
1:33
by 1536 pixels
1:35
now you'll remember
1:37
that hdtv is 1080p which means that it's
1:40
1080 pixels so this is basically
1:44
double hd which means that things like
1:46
photos and video look beautiful on it
1:49
it's also running an nvidia tegra k1
1:53
processor at 2.3 gigahertz and that's
1:56
really where the performance and speed
1:57
comes from and nvidia also is not um
2:01
without its experience with doing video
2:04
and it certainly has powered a lot of
2:06
display cards on pcs for a long time
2:09
let's see has a 1.6 megapixel forward
2:12
facing camera for those ever important
2:15
selfies and an 8 megapixel rear facing
2:18
camera
2:19
for everything else that you would take
2:21
a photo of
2:23
it's an actually an 8.9 inch display i
2:26
think that's important disclosure uh
2:28
when we're talking about it being a
2:30
nexus 9
2:32
so technically it's not exactly 9 inches
2:35
but you know
2:36
we'll cut them slack for that point one
2:38
inch difference on the diagonal
2:41
and it comes it weighs in at a little
2:43
less than a pound it's 0.96 pounds
2:46
now to be fair
2:48
it is heavier and thicker than my
2:51
experiences with the ipad now i haven't
2:53
weighed them against each other directly
2:56
but it feels substantial so
2:59
the good news is that it's really fast
3:02
and so i think that it's really worth it
3:04
and it's less expensive than an ipad and
3:07
that's nice too and it's running android
3:10
which means that you have access to a
3:11
whole different world a whole different
3:13
ecosystem but speaking of ecosystems one
3:16
of the problems is that the ipad is such
3:19
a dominant tablet that there are tons of
3:22
companies making tons of great covers
3:25
and keyboards and screen protectors and
3:28
all sorts of stuff there's a whole world
3:30
of accessories out there when you get
3:32
into these other brands like the htc
3:34
nexus there's not so much out there so
3:38
when htc came out with their smart cover
3:40
i said well i got to get one of these
3:42
and you can see it's one of these where
3:44
it has the different folds so you can do
3:46
it different ways to get it to stand up
3:48
and such and that's really cool
3:50
unfortunately the nexus design team or
3:54
the perhaps htc cover design team
3:57
whatever didn't really study the
4:00
ipad cover well enough because this
4:03
actually drives me crazy and you can see
4:05
the problem here if you look real close
4:08
because the cover bends
4:11
it works with a magnet but it it doesn't
4:13
actually stick back
4:15
and you can reverse it you can go either
4:17
way which is nice then you get some nice
4:20
colors
4:21
but in one orientation everything's nice
4:23
and snug and all the corners are snug on
4:26
the screen but you turn it the other way
4:29
and you get this sort of wobbly effect
4:32
even more bizarre is that there's no
4:34
hinge so it's really just sort of like a
4:36
face cover which means when you go to
4:38
open it
4:40
you have to have this sort of tricky
4:42
maneuver to get it to not fall off
4:45
so
4:46
i really like the tablet it's 399 for 16
4:50
gig and 479 for 32 gig you can go check
4:53
it out at amazon.com and they have tons
4:55
and tons of super positive reviews
4:57
but the cover 45 bucks for the htc nexus
5:02
9 smart cover
5:05
i think they need another generation of
5:06
this i don't think they got this one
5:08
right so this is dave taylor saying the
5:11
cover
5:12
not so much but the tablet this is a
5:14
keeper the google htc nexus 9. i say
5:19
before you go buy an ipad check this one
5:21
out
5:38
you
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