At a Glance
Our Verdict
Which of these tablets is best for you is very much dependent on your individual needs. At £169.99 the Fire HD 10 is by far the cheapest, but the reason why is clear when you compare its specification against the other three tablets here, plus Consider the fact you can’t install apps from Google Play. Technically speaking the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet is the best tablet in our round-up – it’s the fastest, it has the best screen, excellent audio, some great extras such as a waterproof chassis and PS4 Remote Play, and more. It’s also by far the most expensive. If money’s no issue then great, go for the Sony. But Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S2 9.7in is an incredibly close second-best that’s available for much less money at around £320 (putting it in direct competition with the iPad Air, but we’d go for the Tab S2 over Apple’s tablet every time). It also boasts a fingerprint scanner, a brilliant screen and very strong performance. We can’t ignore the Nexus 9 for the sheer value it offers – an outstanding deal at £225. Although it lacks a microSD card slot and has the smallest screen here, it is a very nice screen and the Nexus 9 is also very nicely designed and offers decent performance. Plus, you get the plain Android experience Google intended, and will always be first to receive software updates.
Best Prices Today: Google Nexus 9
Best large-screen Android tablet: Price & UK availability
All four large-screen Android tablets are available to buy in the UK today.
Most expensive of the four is Sony’s 32GB Xperia Z4 Tablet. It has an RRP of £499 direct from Sony , but shop around and you should find it a little bit cheaper. Read our full Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet review .
Best large-screen Android tablet: Build & design
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 is the thinnest and lightest tablet of our line-up, just 5.6mm thick and weighing 389g. Sony matches that weight with its 6.1mm Xperia Z4 Tablet (although the 4G version weighs in at 393g). The Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet is also waterproof. Also see: 100 funny things to ask S Voice
All four are pretty slim, however, with the 7.7mm Fire weighing 432g, and the 7.95mm Nexus 9 weighing 425g (436g for the 4G model).
The screen is a key difference in each of these tablets, with the Kindle HD 10 and Sony Xperia Z4 Tablets offering the largest screen area at 10.1in on the diagonal, the Nexus 9 the smallest at 8.9in and the Samsung second-smallest at 9.7in. See all tablet reviews .
In terms of resolution, the Fire HD is the weakest, with its HD resolution of 1280×800 resulting in a pixel density of 149ppi. That’s half what you get with the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet, which has the highest-resolution panel here – a true Quad-HD 2K screen with 2560×1600 pixels and a density of 299ppi.
Samsung and Nexus tablets both offer a 2048×1536 ‘2K’ resolution, which falls short of true Quad-HD but their smaller screens mean pixels are stretched over a smaller area and the difference is less notable. For example, the 288ppi pixel density of the Nexus is very close to the 299ppi of the Sony, and even at the Samsung’s lower 264ppi we’re not convinced you’d be able to tell the difference, particularly given the differing screen tech.
For what it’s worth, none of these tablets offer what we call a ‘Retina’ resolution of 326ppi, which Apple says (and which we don’t believe) is the point at which the human eye is no longer able to pick out individual pixels.
Best large-screen Android tablet: Core hardware & performance
The Samsung and Sony tablets are each fitted with 3GB of RAM and an octa-core processor – the 1.9/1.3GHz Exynos 5433 in the Samsung, and the 2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 in the Sony. These processors are closely matched in performance, with the Sony’s Snapdragon taking the slight edge. It integrates Adreno 430 graphics, while the Exynos has the ARM Mali-T760MP16.
This is smaller than average for a large-screen Android tablet, however, with the Sony offering a 6000mAh battery and the Nexus a class-leading 6700mAh, with which it promises 9.5 hours life. Also see: Best kids tablets 2015 .
Best large-screen Android tablet: Connectivity & extra features
Connectivity options are pretty standard here. All four tablets support dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1 (Bluetooth 4.0 LE for the Fire HD 10). They all support GPS. And 4G is an option for all these tablets.
For extra-secure logins, only the Samsung features a fingerprint scanner. The Sony also has an extra trick up its sleeve with support for PS4 Remote Play.
For audio the Sony stands out with support for high-res audio and stereo speakers. The HTC-made Nexus 9 will also prove a strong contender in this scenario with front-facing stereo speakers.
Best large-screen Android tablet: Cameras
This may seem like a strange thing to compare on large-screen Android tablets, and few people will want to use their tablet to take photos when they can much more easily whip out their smaller and more capable phone or dedicated camera for the job. Still, if they fit them, we’ll compare their specifications.
For this reason front-facing cameras are arguably more important than those at the back, used for video chat over Skype and similar services. Sony stands out in this regard with its 5.1Mp webcam. The Samsung is second-best with 2.1Mp; next is the Nexus with 1.6Mp; and last comes the Fire HD 10 with a VGA (0.3Mp) camera.
Best large-screen Android tablet: Software
The remaining three Android tablets each run out of the box or can be upgraded to Android Lollipop. An update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow should be available to the Nexus 9 – and, as a Nexus device, it will always be first to get Google updates, and benefits from a plain OS that is exactly as Google intended. Sony and Samsung each put their own stamp on the Android software.
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Specs
Google Nexus 9: Specs
- Android 5.0 Lollipop
- 8.9in IPS LCD (2048 x 1536)
- nVidia Tegra K1 2.3GHz 64-bit
- 2GB RAM
- 16/32GB storage
- 11ac dual-band Wi-Fi (2×2 MIMO)
- Bluetooth 4.1
- NFC
- GPS
- optional 4G LTE
- HTC BoomSound stereo speakers
- 8Mp rear camera with LED flash
- 1.6Mp front camera
- 6700mAh battery
- 7.95mm
- 425g
- Black,white,sand
Best Prices Today: Google Nexus 9
Author: Marie Black, Global Director of Content Operations, Foundry
Marie is Global Director of Content Operations at Foundry. A Journalism graduate from the London College of Printing, she’s worked in tech media for 20 years. These days she is focused on refining editorial processes and workflows, and on our evergreen, transactional and custom content strategy.
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