- Messages
- 1,918
- Name
- Mark
- Edit My Images
- Yes
we've had an ipad in our house for around a year now (it's officially my daughters) but i wanted something for myself that's mine that i could put my own stuff on.
i hummed and hawed about what to get: we have an ipad with a few apps and i have an android phone with a few apps so i've got a foot in both ecosystems and the price of apple and android tablets is pretty much even.
whilst in terms of usability apple have done a lot right with the ipad, i'd describe myself as a power user, i like to customise and tweak settings and so i find the interface and ios frustrating to use, for example the safari browser is ok, but to me the twin url/search boxes seem an arcane relic from when browsers were stupid and it feels really clumsy and of course due to platform limitations other browsers like chrome which i use on the desktop don't perform as well as the stock browser on the ipad (it's quite laggy)
all of the apps i use regularly are available on both platforms (with the exception of a s/nes and sega md emulator i have on my phone) so neither tablet ecosystem had an massive advantage over the other for me - i'd use it for browsing, reading and the odd game.
but given we already have an ipad, for £320 quid i decided to the nexus 10 a go.
well, it's different. it feels different. i've got used to how the ipad works, but what's strange is that whilst i wouldn't disagree with anyone who says the ipad looks better than the nexus 10, the rubberised back of the nexus is much more comfortable to hold for long periods and portrait ratio is really nice for reading books because the shape of the screen is more like the shape of your average book page - you therefore fit more on.
the thing which i also noticed is that whilst i remember reading a lot about device fragmentation on android over time this actually has turned out to be a great strength of the platform- i used to have an ipod touch until i dropped it and of course purchased a few iphone games. when i play these on the ipad they look terrible - i play games which i've purchased from my phone and they look beautiful on the nexus, even the original angry birds looks amazing, one app works on any screen size because android developers seem to have always had to cope with different screen resolutions - a few apps have special 'HD' versions, but for me the apps i purchased for my phone look great on the tablet with no scaling or letterboxing.
if you like playing games, there is quite a bit more choice on the ipad, especially arcade games and kids games (although to be fair most of the games my little girl plays are crippled advert laden crap) and downloading the odd esoteric puzzler is something that you'll have more success doing on the ipad.
i suppose what i am saying is that if you are in the market for a tablet, i was pleasantly surprised by the android experience, it's not for everyone but going back to the ipad2 from the nexus 10 feels like going back in time in some respects - that horrible browser, digging into the settings to change simple things like wifi, aeroplane mode and brightness and the clunky notification bar... oh and i miss the youtube app.
any of you guys got the nexus 10? how are you finding it?
