The Nexus 10: The Silent Giant

The Nexus 10: The Silent Giant

When most people think of the Nexus line, they think of two devices: the Nexus 4 and the Nexus 7. When I bring up the Nexus 10 in conversation, I usually get questioning looks of confusion. As well as the Nexus did in sales, and as great as a device it is, it hasn’t made as big waves as its smaller companions. There are two major reasons that the Nexus 10 is less notable despite being well worth the money: niche and minor device limitations.

When the Nexus 7 came out, it offered consumers something they had never had: a beautiful, powerful tablet at only 7”. On the other hand, the Nexus 10 had a considerable market to go up against as far as similar tablets go. The iPad, Surface RT and Pro, Note 10.1, and Galaxy Tab were all contenders for consumers’ dollars. Although the price was $200 dollars less than the iPad, the Nexus 10 couldn’t compete as well as the 7 because Apple held such a grasp on the market. Also, without any fancy Note features that many tablet users desire, the Nexus’s plain Android couldn’t cater to a large portion of the Android Tablet buyers. The Nexus 10 was a big fish in an unfortunately big pond. That’s not to say it’s not a great device—with the best 10” screen at 300 ppi, next-day updates, a blazing processor, stereo speakers, and great graphics—it just had a lot of good competition unlike its smaller sibling.

Since most potential buyers compared the Nexus 10 to the iPad, there were a few places where it came up short. If you find yourself frequently on the go and away from Wi-Fi, the iPad was your only choice since the Nexus 10 has no 3G/4G capabilities. Also, if you had a need for enormous amounts of storage, say, 64 GB or 128 GB, you would have to give the 16/32 GB Nexus 10 a skip. If you planned on using a stylus or removable storage, you would have to buy one of Samsung’s other offerings, such as the Galaxy Note 10.1. Although these are small issues, they are issues nonetheless, and that’s why the Nexus 10 didn’t break any sales records.

All things considered, I think the Nexus tablet is a great choice for a 10” Android device. Unfortunately, the market didn’t. Here’s to hoping Google fixes these small issues and releases a great tablet next week!