Google Nexus 10 review: Android's most promising iPad alternative
The good: The Nexus 10 has a beautifully sharp screen. It's light, durable, and has the fastest processor of any Android tablet. Photo Sphere is an incredibly cool concept. Google's content ecosystem is only getting better.
The bad: The included charger isn't fast enough to power the battery while playing a game; even while idle, it charges painfully slowly. There's no storage expansion option, and apps that take full advantage of the screen are currently few and far between. Navigating isn't quite as seamless as on the Nexus 7.
The bottom line: The Nexus 10's superior design and swift performance make it one of the best Android tablets to date. We expect post-launch updates from Google to make it even better.
It's the first question anyone asks when they're interested in a tablet: "Is it as good as the current iPad? For the Google Nexus 10, the overall answer is "no." The iPad is still the best tablet experience one can have thanks to its still unmatched performance and robust app and media ecosystem.
That said, if you have no interest in owning an Apple product anyway, but are still in the market for a premium tablet, the Nexus 10 should be at or near the top of your list. The choice isn't as cut and dry as it should be, unfortunately. Your other go-to Android option -- the Transformer Infinity -- still has a better back camera, a brighter screen, expandable storage, and comes with a power adapter that's actually proficient at charging the tablet.
The Nexus 10's stock charger uses its Micro-USB port to charge and -- as it turns out -- that's not the most efficient way to charge a high-end tablet. Overnight charging will be fine, but if you ever need to charge in a hurry, you'll probably want to pick up Google's magnetic Pogo charger that it'll soon be announcing. You know, since already forking over at least $400 wasn't enough.
So why is the Nexus 10 potentially the best Android tablet? Its screen is gorgeous and the sharpest around compared with any tablet, and it is the most comfortable 10-inch tablet to hold in your hand with a durability that ensures you won't immediate blow a gasket if your kids drop it. Furthermore, it's the first tablet to run Android 4.2, which brings with it great new features -- Photo Sphere, which lets you capture a three-dimensional model of a real-world space, is one of the coolest I've ever experienced on a tablet.
For most, the iPad is still the tablet of choice, but for those looking for an alternative to Apple's much more constrained OS, Google provides what's arguably the best one yet. Like the Nexus 7 before it, the Nexus 10 marks a significant step toward a much more competitive tablet market, and its design heralds a new paradigm from which all other tablets should consider cribbing ASAP.
Just for the record, in the 7-inch tablet space, it's the Nexus 7, not the iPad Mini, that currently reigns as the best small tablet.
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