The Google Nexus 9 Review
by Joshua Ho & Ryan Smith on February 4, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- HTC
- Project Denver
- Android
- Mobile
- NVIDIA
- Nexus 9
- Lollipop
- Android 5.0
WiFi Performance
On most tablets, WiFi performance is perhaps one of the most crucial parts of the experience as WiFi is often the primary method of connectivity. Without working WiFi, a tablet is basically useless as the only alternative is either cellular (which is quite rare on most tablets) or Ethernet over USB-OTG, which destroys most of the value of a mobile device.
In the case of the Nexus 9, we see that HTC has fitted this device with a BCM4354 WiFi module to enable two spatial stream 802.11ac. Interestingly, there is some evidence to suggest that HTC has also adopted Cypress Semiconductor’s CapSense controller to enable antenna tuning for the WiFi antennas. However, it’s probable that this solution is only for HTC devices without a Qualcomm Gobi modem as we’ve seen the use of the QFE15xx antenna tuner in previous HTC products. In order to test how the Nexus 9’s WiFi solution performs, we turn to iperf on Android to test throughput across the network, and utilize Asus’ RT-AC68U router to ensure that the device under test will be able to reach maximum performance.
The Nexus 9's WiFi solution performs about as well as one might expect from a BCM4354 solution. For the most part I haven't noticed any reception issues, even when touching/detuning the WiFi antennas.
GNSS
While most of the GNSS solutions that we’ve looked at this year use Qualcomm’s GPSOne/IZat due to the presence of a Qualcomm Gobi Modem, the same isn’t true for the Nexus 9. Instead, Broadcom’s BCM4752 is used here. While this shouldn’t have a massive impact on the speed with which first lock is acquired, in practice Qualcomm’s solution is noticeably faster here as the modem can often provide data to make for a hot fix. At any rate, the Nexus 9 does perform acceptably in this regard. I don’t see any major issues with location performance, although it does seem that the GPS tends to report lower accuracy levels than the Qualcomm solutions that I'm used to. Other than this, the GNSS solution is quite usable.
Misc
While we don't have a proper audio quality test yet, it's clear that the audio codec used is the same Realtek RT5677 codec that we saw in the SHIELD Tablet. Outside of the code, we also see an RT5506 2.55V amp on the 3.5mm jack, along with two NXP TFA9895 amps on the speakers, which are quite good due to their front-facing placement. In practice I don't really see much issue with loudness or quality here, as the speakers can get even louder than the M8 in some situations. We also see a Broadcom BCM2079x NFC chip, which means HCE is fully supported out of the box. Interestingly, the VCM controller is exposed to the OS and is said to be a Texas Instruments DRV201 chip.
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techcrazy - Friday, February 6, 2015 - link
Best Nexus 9 review i read. Excellent work anandtech team.RobilarOCN - Friday, February 6, 2015 - link
How does the Tab S fall short of the Nexus 9? I've owned both. Video playback battery life overwhelmingly supports the Tab S, it has a far superior screen (AMOLED...), It has a micro SD slot, it has the ability to connect to HDMI via MHL adapter. The only way the Nexus 9 can output video as it has no available adapter and no onboard MHL support is via 3rd party such as the Chromecast. The 16GB Nexus 9 and 16GB Tab S 8.4 are in the same price range but of course you can expand the memory on the Tab S via a micro SD card. The 32GB Nexus 9 sits in the same price range as the Tab S 10.1 and again the 10.1 can have cheap memory added to it.The only places the Nexus 9 wins is if you want a 4:3 format (and in that case the first gen IPad Air 64GB is cheaper and a better device) or if you absolutely have to have Lollipop which will eventually get to the Tab S.
UtilityMax - Sunday, February 8, 2015 - link
In my opinion Tab S will be eventually remembered as a flop. Yes, it has a great wide screen and good battery life for video playback. So it's great for watching videos, which is why I bought one (and would buy it again). Unfortunately, videos is the only thing that Tab S does truly well. The Tab S forums on the web are filled with discussions about "lag" and why Chrome can be so slow. For a flagship tablet, the CPU/GPU performance scores could have been a little better, and the standby as well as web browsing battery life could be A LOT better. The other day I was stuck in a library for hours with this tablet and came to realization that I am not sure if this thing can last for 5 hours of web browsing on a full battery charge, which is horrendous. I have a Samsung laptop with a quad core i7 CPU and 17 inch screen that could work longer on a battery charge.Basically, this tablet gives you a great screen, SD card slot, good build quality, and not much else. I am still glad I got a 10.5 Tab S on a sale for $400. However, I don't think it's really worth the "regular" price of +500 dollars.
Impulses - Monday, February 9, 2015 - link
5 hours? Yikes... My Atom netbook from half a decade ago could manage that...UtilityMax - Sunday, February 15, 2015 - link
But amazingly, the Tab S 10.5 can play a 720p video for something like 10 hours on a full charge. Go figure.mkozakewich - Friday, February 6, 2015 - link
Those NVidia charts obviously show the IPC measured in a 'ratio'. They're not going to tell us what exact IPC they get.So yeah, the highest it goes is less than 2.0, which means their IPC for optimized code isn't quite double the performance of regular ARM stuff. I'd suppose the regular code could get up to 3 IPC, which means the optimized stuff could get up to 6 IPC (out of the maximum 7). It seems to check out.
I'd have expected you not to throw caution to the wind when reading first-party benchmark slides.
flamingspartan3 - Friday, February 6, 2015 - link
The Nexus 7 2013 is still competitive in many of these benchmarks. It's remarkable how great the device is even after almost two years.UtilityMax - Sunday, February 8, 2015 - link
The criticism that there aren't enough apps for the big screen is somewhat misplaced. I suspect that web browsing, videos, ebooks, and productivity apps are the prime applications for the large screen tablets. Why bother with the facebook app, when you can just login into facebook from chrome, and with the biggish screen have access to the full facebook web site?Impulses - Monday, February 9, 2015 - link
Chrome alone probably accounts for like 80% of my tablet use (and I've had an Android tablet since the OG TF) seems that's not necessarily the norm tho...Jumangi - Monday, February 9, 2015 - link
Then why pay for a device with such high end components like the K1 SoC if your just gonna use the browser? Maybe this is what some do because the android marketplace is so limited for large tablet apps but doesn't mean its ok.