Which tablet device is worth the purchase? We compare the iPad Air 2 against the Nexus 9 to see which device is the better buy.
In terms of design and display, the iPad Air 2 has an aluminum body that feels sturdier and the device has a thickness of only 6.1 mm, being 2.8 mm thinner than it rival. The device is large measuring 240×169.5 mm and weighs 437 grams (WiFi) or 44 grams (3G/LTE). The Nexus 9 has matte plastic on its back and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on its front panel, but it lacks the fingerprint sensor from its rival. On the other hand, the Apple tablet has scratch-resistant glass across its surface.
The iPad Air 2's display measures 9.7 inches (LED-backlit IPS LCD), with a resolution of 1536x2048 pixels and 264ppi, while the Nexus 9 is fitted with a 8.9 inches IPS LCD display which supports the same resolution, but offers a higher pixel density of 281ppi. Both tablets have the same color temperature of 7000K and they both tend to accentuate blue more than red.
In terms of hardware and OS, the iPad Air 2’s triple core 1.5GHz Apple A8X chipset based on 64-bit architecture, and which couples with 2GB of RAM. The Nexus 9 has also 2GB of RAM, but its power comes from a dual core 2.3 GHz Denver Nvidia Tegra K1 processor. The major drawback of these devices is the inability to add a microSD card, to obtain a bigger internal memory.The Nexus 9 comes in two variants of 16 and 32GB, while the iPad Air 2 offers variants of 16, 64 and 128GB. The Google device runs on Android v5.0 (Lollipop) and the Apple device has iOS 8.1 installed on it.
The Air 2 has a 7340 mAh battery which achieves 10 hours of multimedia usage, while the Nexus 9 has a 6700 mAh battery with 30 minutes lower lifetime.
Both tablets have 8MP primary cameras with similar features such as autofocus, touch focus, face detection, but it seems that the Air 2 lacks LED flash. Somehow, it manages to take better pictures than the Nexus 9, because it offers livelier colors and not over-exposed photos. As for the front cameras, the Nexus 9 has a 1.6MP one and the Air 2 sports a 12MP secondary shooter.
The Nexus 9 16GB cost $506 while the 32GB version cost $633. The iPad Air 2 16GB is worth $499, while the 64GB is at $599, and 128GB version is at $699.
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