Today Google has officially announced the newest devices in the Nexus line, just one day before Apple's October event. Both devices have been rumored for some time now, and this is the first time in a while that we've seen Google introduce a new smartphone and tablet at the same time. The first device in the announcement is the Nexus 6, made by Motorola. The second is the Nexus 9 tablet made by HTC. To give an overview of how both devices look on paper, I've put together their specifications in a chart below.

  Nexus 6 Nexus 9
SoC 2.7GHz Snapdragon 805 (APQ8084) with 4 x Krait 450 + Adreno 420 at 600MHz 2.3GHz 64-bit dual core Tegra K1 Denver SoC
RAM/NAND 3GB LPDDR3 + 32/64GB NAND 2GB LPDDR3 + 16/32GB NAND
Display 5.96" 2560x1440 AMOLED 8.9" 2048x1536 IPS LCD
Network 2G / 3G / 4G LTE WiFi only or 2G / 3G / 4G LTE SKU
Dimensions 82.98 x 159.26 x 10.06mm, 184g 153.68 x 228.25 x 7.95mm, 425g WiFi, 436g LTE
Camera 13MP Rear Facing with F/2.0 aperture and OIS, 2MP FFC
4K video recording
8MP Rear Facing with F/2.4 aperture, 1.6MP FFC
Battery 3220 mAh (12.236 Whr) 6700 mAh (25.46 Whr)
OS Android 5.0 Lollipop Android 5.0 Lollipop
Connectivity 802.11a/b/g/n/ac + BT 4.1, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, NFC 802.11a/b/g/n/ac + BT 4.1, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, NFC
SIM Size NanoSIM NanoSIM on LTE SKU

The Nexus 6 features a similar appearance to Motorola's other devices like the Moto X and Moto G. The plastic back is surrounded by a contoured aluminum frame that curves downward at the top where the 3.5mm headphone jack is located. On the back is Google's traditional Nexus logo, accompanied by an indented motorola logo and a centered rear-facing camera. The front is dominated by a large 5.96" display with a pixel density of 493ppi, and stereo speakers on the top and bottom bezels.

In terms of its specifications, the Nexus 6 is competitive with all the current Android flagship devices. It packs Qualcomm's latest silicon, a hefty battery, and a high resolution display. However, those premium specs are accompanied by a premium price of $649 outright which is significantly more than the $349 that the Nexus 5 is priced at. The Nexus 5 has been given a new web page along with the other Nexus devices which suggests it isn't going disappear with the launch of this newer, more expensive smartphone.

The next announcement was the Nexus 9 made by HTC. This is the first tablet from HTC since the days of Android Gingerbread and Honeycomb where HTC announced they were exiting the tablet market. With its soft touch back, the Nexus 9 is similar in its design to the Nexus 5. Unlike the Nexus 5 which was an entirely plastic construction, the sides of the Nexus 9 are made of brushed metal.

The front of the device is similar to the Nexus 7 with its asymmetrical bezels. The shape of the device is a departure from any tablet Google has produced before, with a 2048x1536 4:3 display like Apple's iPad. Both the 8.9" display size and 4:3 aspect ratio make the Nexus 9 a significantly larger device than the Nexus 7.

The SoC is the biggest point of interest with the Nexus 9. It will be the first device to ship with Nvidia's Project Denver architecture. This is a custom 64-bit ARMv8 architecture designed by Nvidia, a significant departure from the standard ARM cores used in previous Tegra chips. We covered the details about Tegra K1 Denver previously and you can read that over to get a more in-depth look at NVIDIA's new chip.

Along with the new device announcements comes the official name for the next version of Android. Android L is now Android 5.0 Lollipop, and it will ship on the new Nexus 6 and Nexus 9. Lollipop comes with Google's new Material Design and Google's new ART runtime, and will be rolling out to existing compatible Nexus and Google Play Edition devices in the coming weeks.

The Nexus 9 will be available for pre-order on October 17th starting at $399 for 16GB, while the Nexus 6 will be available sometime in late October at $649 for 32GB.

Source: Google Blog

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  • testbug00 - Friday, October 17, 2014 - link

    phones are generally speaking more used than tablets as they are a "required" device and also have higher ASP at the high end.

    If the Tablet was $650 I have no doubit would have more RAM and storage than the phone... Screen rez, I don't know, as, if they want to keep 4:3 ratio hard to get more resolution.
  • Pepsi90919 - Thursday, October 16, 2014 - link

    It's Motorola, not motorola. It's AnandTech, not Anandtech. It's EDT, not EST. Please improve the lazy copy editing.
  • Mikemk - Thursday, October 16, 2014 - link

    Did anyone else notice that the Nexus 9 has worse specs than the 2 year old Nexus 10?
  • kron123456789 - Thursday, October 16, 2014 - link

    Well, SoC is definetely much better.
  • docbones - Thursday, October 16, 2014 - link

    Why is the 9 so much more then the Shield? Seems like the Shield at over $200 cheaper is the better deal for the LTE version.
  • TheJian - Thursday, October 16, 2014 - link

    I think it's $300 cheaper if you sign with ATT for shield tablet LTE (they had some deal for $100 off that NV was advertising on their blogs). So perhaps even worse than you're saying. Without specs being much higher, I don't get it (meaning more ram, more storage etc, great soc, but then the specs fell off a cliff).

    Like I said I hope NV releases a few more sizes and 20nm versions in them soon. I would be buying it with gaming as a major concern (on top of my PC gaming, just more games on another platform and possibly some fun out of the house), so google seems to have blown that part of my purchase. NV gets that part right and will likely always stream from the PC on NV devices also.
  • AlucardX - Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - link

    a 6" cell phone..? :(

    Where can we go for a new high performing ~4.7" screen?
  • falc0ne - Thursday, October 23, 2014 - link

    Hey, maybe it's just me but..Lollipop? Come on...same names just shouldn't be used. I understand what they are trying to do, something that sounds both quirky and funny but this is not the case...this just sounds dumb. Kitkat was much better and also lime pie...but they changed it...bad idea..

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