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Google Nexus 10 bests iPad's screen, coming November 13 for $399 (hands-on)

Google's new Nexus 10 tablet goes head-to-head with the fourth-generation iPad in screen specs.

Eric Franklin Former Editorial Director
Eric Franklin led the CNET Tech team as Editorial Director. A 20-plus-year industry veteran, Eric began his tech journey testing computers in the CNET Labs. When not at work he can usually be found at the gym, chauffeuring his kids around town, or absorbing every motivational book he can get his hands on.
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Eric Franklin
2 min read

The 2,560x1,600-pixel-resolution display of the Nexus 10 is definitely impressive. Most impressive. Eric Franklin/CNET

Google has introduced its Nexus 10 tablet. The Nexus 10 features a 10.1-inch PLS (plane-to-line switching) panel with 2,560x1,600-pixel resolution, displaying 299 pixels per inch (ppi). This announcement comes not a week after Apple unveiled its fourth-generation iPad, which has a lower 2,048x1,536-pixel-resolution, 264ppi screen.

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The screen itself is definitely impressive, with an extremely high level of sharpness. Fonts for app icons look incredibly sharp and fine. Hopefully Google app developers will update their actual icon assets soon to match.

You'll be able to get a Nexus 10 starting November 13 in two memory configurations: $399 for 16GB and $499 for 32GB. The tablet will be available in the Google Play store.

Incredibly sharp fonts. Hopefully app developers will update the icons to be just as impressive before the November 13 release. Eric Franklin/CNET

Design and features
The Nexus 10 is manufactured by Samsung and houses the company's new 1.7GHz dual-core Exynos 5250 processor, with ARM's Mali-T604 GPU. The tablet also ships with the Android 4.2 OS, and includes 2GB of RAM, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC (near-field communication), Micro-USB, Micro-HDMI, a 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 5-megapixel back camera with LED flash. The Nexus 10 will not include a microSD slot.

At 1.33 pounds, the tablet definitely feels light for a 10-incher. The majority of the casing has a soft, rubbery plastic feel. It's not metal, but it doesn't feel cheap, either and I actually like its grippy texture. There's also a strip that runs the width of the tablet near the top edge that looks and feels like a refinement of the Nexus 7's back texture.

Here you can get a sense of the grippy soft plastic and the texture strip along the top. Eric Franklin/CNET

The tablet will support Miracast wireless displays, which allows you to wirelessly stream content from your tablet to your HDTV. Also, through Android 4.2, the Nexus 10 supports multiple user profiles, and Google says to expect up to 9 hours of video battery life, which is about typical for a full-size tablet, but lower than what I've seen with the iPad (March 2012 version). Of course, once I get a Nexus 10 into my hands I'll be sure to put its battery through its paces.

First thoughts
So far, I like what I'm seeing here, especially from a specs perspective. I'm really interested in pitting it against the Transformer Infinity and the fourth-generation iPad in a N.O.V.A. 3/Riptide GP/GLBenchmark testing extravaganza! Hopefully, I'll get the chance soon.