Google and HTC's coalition resulted in both companies rolling out the flagship tablet belonging to the Nexus brand, the Nexus 9, while Apple's efforts allowed the tech giant to release the successor of its iPad Air slate, the iPad Air 2. Both tablets are large-screened mobile powerhouses when it comes to hardware specifications and features, but which slate will overcome the other?
For starters, the Nexus 9 features an NVIDIA Tegra K1 chipset containing a 64 bit Denver CPU while the iPad Air 2's A8X chipset runs a 64-bit tri-core 1.5 GHz processor. In terms of performance, NVIDIA's chip cannot overcome the A8X, as indicated by the GFXBench OpenGL ES 2.0 and 3.0 benchmarks. Even though both devices feature the same amount of memory (2 GB), the iPad Air 2's less resource-intensive iOS 8.1 platform coupled with the processor's own prowess is sufficient enough to thwart the Tegra K1, despite the latter having been the fastest chip running on Android devices in 2014.
Both the Nexus 9 and the iPad Air 2 are void of a microSD slot, with the iPad Air 2 being sold in the 16, 64 and 128 GB capacity variants, while the Nexus 9 is only available in the 16 and 32 GB models. The iPad Air 2 also possesses a larger screen size (9.7 inches) compared to the Nexus 9 (8.9 inches), even though both devices render the same resolution (2048 x 1536 pixels). The iPad Air 2 features a smaller battery capacity than its predecessor with a 7340 mAh pack, but it still exceeds the 6700 mAh battery present inside the Nexus 9.
The Nexus 9 and iPad Air 2 both feature an LTE variant but the price tag of the base model of both tablets carry a difference of $100. The Nexus 9 (16 GB, WiFi only) is currently retailing for $399 while the iPad Air 2 carries a price tag of $499 (16 GB, WiFi only).
In terms of raw processing power, the iPad Air 2 is the clear winner, but it is Google's slate that features the more pocket-friendly solution.
