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Google Nexus 9 |OT| Looks like an iPad, must be an iPad!

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ashylarry

Member
Well I'm now at 4% remaining and looks like I will just about reach 5 hours again. Wasn't using chrome but dolphin browser this time. But again it looks like the browser is sucking more juice than the screen. 49% dolphin and 20% screen.

Yeah mine is about the same. I'm currently torn between returning it to the store and waiting for an update in case it's really a software bug.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
Didn't test out my battery w/ chrome last night. Spent the whole night unlocking bootloader, rooting and resetting up my tablet and apps and shit. I'll try to tonight. Chrome would have to be really borked though to draw so much compared to my playing some games which I haven't noticed in what little time I've spent drain the battery too fast.
 

TxdoHawk

Member
I gotta think there's a software issue related to the browsers sucking down so much juice. It comes off highly abnormal, I don't remember Chrome ever using anywhere near that much juice when I had Android handsets. Screen has always been my number one battery hog by far.
 

pestul

Member
Hmm, Dolphin doesn't use much power at all on my 4.4.4 Nexus 7 (2013). Hopefully these Lollipop battery bugs aren't too long lived.
 
So I was able to end up getting the Nexus 9 with $100 off using the best buy tablet trade in promotion this week and had about 30 dollars worth of gift cards. I had already canceled my amazon Nexus 9 order and ordered a galaxy tab s 8.4 for $330. Nexus 9 ended up about 50 dollars cheaper. So now I am debating whether to keep my Nexus 9 or the galaxy tab. I have used the Nexus 9 for a 2 days now and I like it but I have a few concerns. I do notice some light bleed on the sides, its not huge and its only noticeable when the screen is completely black. Also the 11gb of space it comes with is also concerning. Also I think I would like a slightly smaller tablet and with a 16:9 ratio. From what I saw in store the Tab has the better screen, has a microsd, the size issue is up in the air because after using the tab I could go back the other way...So anyone have any other input why I should stay with the Nexus vs the Tab?
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
So I was able to end up getting the Nexus 9 with $100 off using the best buy tablet trade in promotion this week and had about 30 dollars worth of gift cards. I had already canceled my amazon Nexus 9 order and ordered a galaxy tab s 8.4 for $330. Nexus 9 ended up about 50 dollars cheaper. So now I am debating whether to keep my Nexus 9 or the galaxy tab. I have used the Nexus 9 for a 2 days now and I like it but I have a few concerns. I do notice some light bleed on the sides, its not huge and its only noticeable when the screen is completely black. Also the 11gb of space it comes with is also concerning. Also I think I would like a slightly smaller tablet and with a 16:9 ratio. From what I saw in store the Tab has the better screen, has a microsd, the size issue is up in the air because after using the tab I could go back the other way...So anyone have any other input why I should stay with the Nexus vs the Tab?

I'd say stock Android is the biggest reason to choose the N9, unless you are comfortable and OK with unlocking, rooting and installing custom ROMs on your Tab. That or if you don't particularly have preference between Stock Android and Touch Wiz.

I definitely miss the portability of my N7, since I could fit it in my back pocket, but I really like the bigger screen a lot and I'm warming up to 4:3 a lot.
 

ukas

Member
So I was able to end up getting the Nexus 9 with $100 off using the best buy tablet trade in promotion this week and had about 30 dollars worth of gift cards. I had already canceled my amazon Nexus 9 order and ordered a galaxy tab s 8.4 for $330. Nexus 9 ended up about 50 dollars cheaper. So now I am debating whether to keep my Nexus 9 or the galaxy tab. I have used the Nexus 9 for a 2 days now and I like it but I have a few concerns. I do notice some light bleed on the sides, its not huge and its only noticeable when the screen is completely black. Also the 11gb of space it comes with is also concerning. Also I think I would like a slightly smaller tablet and with a 16:9 ratio. From what I saw in store the Tab has the better screen, has a microsd, the size issue is up in the air because after using the tab I could go back the other way...So anyone have any other input why I should stay with the Nexus vs the Tab?

If you want a smaller 16:9 tablet you might want to take a look at the Shield Tablet. It's got and SD card slot, HDMI out, Nvidia streaming, K1 32-bit, stylus, and some other stuff I'm probably forgetting.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
Weird I've yet to see Miscellaneous pop up in my battery history yet. Wonder if it's a phone thing and not a tablet thing. Though I'm not sure how that would work.
 

kinn

Member

JordanKZ

Member
The "Miscellaneous" battery section is basically discharge that the operating system cannot account for. For the Nexus 5, that happens to be insane WiFi drain. The Nexus 9 doesn't even list WiFi for me in my battery drain, but if you add up the battery use, it doesn't even get close to 100%.

Unless they changed the way in which battery percentage use is calculated, it stands to reason that the WiFi is drawing all that power.

I'm going to run a test tomorrow hopefully, play 2 hour video from local content and see what the battery drain is, then do the same with WIFi. WiFi will obviously take more, but not to the significance we're seeing at the moment. It's borderline insane. A 6700mah battery should not deplete within 4 hours on the lowest possible brightness setting. When it's sat doing nothing, the Nexus 9 has phenomenal endurance (I saw a 1% drop in 7 hours overnight).
 

LQX

Member
If this was causing the battery drain on the nexus 9, wouldnt this show up as Miscellaneous? And this bug affects all devices or just the nexus 5?

Hope this gets sorted. I think the nexus 9 is a decent device. I've also got the Sony Z3 Compact Tablet. But if they fix the battery issues with the 9 I might stick with it.

How is it in comparison? Which do you like better?
 

kinn

Member
The "Miscellaneous" battery section is basically discharge that the operating system cannot account for. For the Nexus 5, that happens to be insane WiFi drain. The Nexus 9 doesn't even list WiFi for me in my battery drain, but if you add up the battery use, it doesn't even get close to 100%.

Unless they changed the way in which battery percentage use is calculated, it stands to reason that the WiFi is drawing all that power.

I'm going to run a test tomorrow hopefully, play 2 hour video from local content and see what the battery drain is, then do the same with WIFi. WiFi will obviously take more, but not to the significance we're seeing at the moment. It's borderline insane. A 6700mah battery should not deplete within 4 hours on the lowest possible brightness setting. When it's sat doing nothing, the Nexus 9 has phenomenal endurance (I saw a 1% drop in 7 hours overnight).

Cool. Looking forward to your findings. And agreed about its standby time. It's good in that department. Just crazy how Google can let something like this pass through testing.
 

kinn

Member
How is it in comparison? Which do you like better?

IMHO the Z3 looks great. Build quality is great with nothing to fault it so far. It's so thin and light. Currently had 3 and a half hours of SoT and it's at 61%. So battery life seems good so far. It's of course smaller than the 9 although it's not too bad at the moment. Gonna need more time with it to see if I can live with a smaller screen. It's got double tap to wake the screen feature and haptic feedback also.

The Nexus is good in its own way. The size is great and I like it's screen except for the edge light bleed issue. The screen isn't flush with the edges though. It's a little sunk which I don't like.

I'm going to return the nexus and see how things pan out with regard to a fix for the battery life issue. I've got about 30 days to decide if I want to return the Z3 or not. So hopefully before then if the battery life issues can be sorted I might get another nexus 9. Hopefully with less edge light bleed issues.
 
So glad I ordered from Newegg.

They didn't get a shipment on time, so they had to delay fulfilling all preorders. They don't know when they're getting a new shipment. I complained via their support chat, and they apologized and gave me a $5 gift card. Then, they sent out an email to everybody who preordered through them that Google hadn't sent any inventory so they couldn't fulfill any preorders. As compensation they're giving everybody who preordered a $25 gift card.

So I got $30 worth of gift card money and I didn't have to pay any tax, so that's another $32 saved. Plus, since it's been delayed about two weeks, I might be able to dodge some of the build quality problems that will pop up in early batches.

It's a win-win for me.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
Currently coming up on 3 hours of SoT with nothing but Chrome usage, heavy browsing almost the entire time on GAF, started at 84% now at 55%. Screen brightness somewhere a little under 1/3, though auto adjust is on as well. Chrome is showing up at like 2% with Screen at 15%. Seems pretty solid to me.

rnzAa1r.jpg

4p7aPvN.jpg

AwtTo8k.jpg
 

Divvy

Canadians burned my passport
I got mine today and I gotta say, those people who say the build quality is poor are full of shit. If no one had told me about the squishy back, I would never have noticed on my own. The power button could be a bit more prominent, but aside from that, the build quality is just fine.
I don't like the screen unlocking sound though. Sounds like I'm opening a can of Pringles
 
I'm really happy with mine. I'm now fully onboard the 4:3 train. Not had battery problems. There's a little backlight at the edge but only if I go looking for it.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
After I posted my battery info I stayed on my tablet browsing GAF and playing a game for another three hours. As well as playing a few short YouTube vids. Went from 54% to 19%.
 

Stasis

Member
Just got mine. The squishy back isn't annoying to me. I wouldn't have noticed for a while by using it normally. I noticed by turning it around and pressing down on the middle.

Light bleed is immediately noticeable on initial set-up when the screen is black. Along the top and both bottom corners pretty much. I'll have to see if it bothers me during regular use this weekend.

It's already getting much hotter than I'm used to and I'm not doing anything remotely strenous. I don't know how hot it'll get or if it will bother me, especially when in a case, bit it's noticeable.

And yes, the power/volume buttons are mediocre. That's all I have on it for now. It's not disappointing yet, but it's certainly not iPad level premium feel. This is my first android tablet, though I'm an android fan. I have an iPad mini because it was the best tablet for the money at the time, I was hoping to be rid of apple and iTunes in buying this. We'll see.
 

Argyle

Member
Got mine a few days ago...

Can't say I am loving it right now. I've been experiencing lots of what seem to be memory management problems (frequent tab reloading, stuttery audio playback when switching apps, even had Play Music get dumped out while it was playing music). It's fast except when it gets chuggy, and I've had it lock up entirely once so far.

Also the battery life seems kinda bad (~5 hrs screen on time and it seems to charge really slowly... In fact basically not at all while in use)...

Anyone else having problems? Not sure if my tablet is defective...
 

Phoenix

Member
Got mine a few days ago...

Can't say I am loving it right now. I've been experiencing lots of what seem to be memory management problems (frequent tab reloading, stuttery audio playback when switching apps, even had Play Music get dumped out while it was playing music). It's fast except when it gets chuggy, and I've had it lock up entirely once so far.

Anyone else having problems? Not sure if my tablet is defective...

You may be having issues with Android 5.x itself. Right now if it far from bug free and I've experienced glitches, slowdowns, audio playback dropping out/stuttering, etc. I don't the issue is with the hardware. I think this is entirely an issue with software.
 

Argyle

Member
You may be having issues with Android 5.x itself. Right now if it far from bug free and I've experienced glitches, slowdowns, audio playback dropping out/stuttering, etc. I don't the issue is with the hardware. I think this is entirely an issue with software.

Yeah, I can totally believe this. I'm glad it's not just me, hopefully they will have a software update soon to fix a lot of these problems.
 

Aiii

So not worth it
Yeah, I can totally believe this. I'm glad it's not just me, hopefully they will have a software update soon to fix a lot of these problems.

I'm sure they will, the good thing about Nexus devices at least is that you don't have to wait months to get an actual update to your device.

So far I haven't had many problems with slowdowns, but did have one or two stutters shifting between apps. I also have this weird thing where the keyboard in Chrome (I use stock keyboard's gesture typing) stops showing the words in my edit boxes, but I can keep typing and when I scroll so the edit window is out of view and back in or wait a minute, the text appears. Not sure what that is about.

The woes of an early adopter.
 

ukas

Member
I'm sure they will, the good thing about Nexus devices at least is that you don't have to wait months to get an actual update to your device.

So far I haven't had many problems with slowdowns, but did have one or two stutters shifting between apps. I also have this weird thing where the keyboard in Chrome (I use stock keyboard's gesture typing) stops showing the words in my edit boxes, but I can keep typing and when I scroll so the edit window is out of view and back in or wait a minute, the text appears. Not sure what that is about.

The woes of an early adopter.

Honestly I haven't had any issues with slowdown yet.
 

kinn

Member
Just wish Google would atleast comment on the current issues surrounding the nexus 9. A bit of reassurance that they are aware of the problems and that they are looking into it.
 

Stasis

Member
Ive been playing with mine for a full 24 hours, so here's a small update...

I love Android 5.0. Its fantastic. There is no way I'm going back to iOS now, at least not in its current state/version. I think in the coming months as they iron out kinks and more devices get the upgrade we'll see a lot of praise given to the innovation found here. Truly a leap forward.

As to the device itself: I'm on the fence. I love the size and the feel of it, though its certainly less premium than an iPad. Its not bad at all. I wish I had the origami case on it. I do prefer the back material to the metal found on the iPad. It just feels good in my hand. I have the white version which is a kind of very pale gray/off-white and doesn't attract fingerprint smudges. I'm glad I made that choice, but that will be moot when its wrapped up anyway.

I've had screen flicker a few times, always when on very low brightness. Adjusting it up slightly makes it stop. The battery didn't drain too quickly on first use and is doing alright now as well, but it didnt last nearly as long as claimed. What's disconcerting is how long it takes to charge. In the time a mini took to get from 20% to full, the 9 went from 0% to 33%. Wtf? Its awful. If these things are software related I'll be keeping the device. I wish a statement would be issued about this, though, because I'm very limited in the time I have to send it back to Google otherwise. Being in Canada makes that a bit more tricky as well.

Lightbleed hasn't bothered me. I've played a few games, watched some TV via Plex... its a non-issue for me personally. As is the "loose" backing. Feels like its in a sleeve but I really have to tap it with a finger to notice. Its not noticeable during regular use. Probably won't be able to feel it at all in a case. Speakers are good, much better than anything Apple. Very fun. I can't compare to the M8 so in my case its simply a strong improvement over what I had. Everything is relative.

I'm happy overall right now. I'll give it a few more days before I decide. Hopefully there will be news or an update addressing battery/flicker issues. It does get hot in the top right corner but its not too much. More than I was used to, but easy to handle. Doesn't bother me. Not uncomfortable.
 
So I called HTC because my unit has light bleeding and has an issue where I leave it charging over night (8 hrs) and it will only be 75% charged. They are going to have me send it in and get it repaired. I figure this is better then going through best buy because 1 best buy doesn't have any units so they have to order one anyways and 2 it guarantees that I get a perfect unit. Right?
 

sant

Member
I am not sure what to do. I love lollipop but I am having the usual issues with performance, light bleed, corner getting hot etc. I also get about 5 hours of screen time. I have never owned an iOS device before but I am seriously considering returning it and getting an iPad.
 
I just ripped off Best Buy...

So Newegg sent me $25 and $5 after they couldn't honor my preorder, so I cancelled with them and wanted to use the $100 Best Buy offer. Thing is, I wanted to trade in my 2012 Nexus 7 that's in pretty bad shape. Normally they would only give me $9 for it, and the offer specifically states only selected tablets count for the offer. So I showed up, and they started the trade in, and they couldn't get the offer to work. They didn't know what tablets counted, so they clicked that link on the trade in center page, but the link was broken. They called corporate and were put on hold, and just said "fuck it" and honored the offer.

So far I like it, but I've had a few apps that crash as soon as you launch them and I'm still not fully sold on 4:3 being good for my uses (reading, comics, and videos).
 

Argyle

Member
So a new OTA is rolling out for the Nexus 9 which updates to LRX21Q.

If you got your device last week you should have been updated to LRX21L but at least in my case the LRX21L OTA that was downloaded and installed during setup did not update the recovery image, causing the LRX21Q OTA to fail :(

You can fix this by downloading the LRX21Q factory image here (https://dl.google.com/dl/android/aosp/volantis-lrx21q-factory-10521789.tgz) and either flash the whole thing from fastboot (this didn't work for me for some reason, it complained about failing to allocate memory and then it claimed there was no system.img) or just flash the recovery from the factory image, then adb sideload the OTA from recovery (which is here: http://android.clients.google.com/p...gned-volantis-LRX21Q-from-LRX21L.e0ce5d82.zip)

It's still booting after the update but...yeah. Hopefully this fixes some of the problems.

Edit: bonus links...

Tutorial for flashing factory images: http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/1...riants-of-nexus-7-2012-and-2013-and-nexus-10/
Another workaround for the problem I had, didn't see this until now: http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/1...-0-factory-images-heres-how-to-get-around-it/
adb sideload tutorial here: http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/1...e-nexus-7-now-manual-download-link-available/

2nd edit: This seems to suck a lot less. I haven't seen it stutter yet, and I haven't heard audio skipping when listening to music...anyone else try the new update?
 
I absolutely love this tablet. I take back everything bad I've said about 4:3, its clearly the superior choice on a tablet.

Edit: Also the OTA I downloaded during setup put me on LRX21Q, I've had a few stutters here and there but nothing major. Also, I'm at 28% battery with 5 hr screen on time.
 

Aiii

So not worth it
Flashing the update was a frigging chore, it took me 3 hours just to get it on there :D I even had to revert to the previous version with an old image, then had to restore to factory settings, and had to reflash the update, before I finally got it going.

But at last, I'm up to date, I earned this update dammit!
 
I installed the WWE app to watch the network on.
It just keeps crashing after the classification video is played.

Could this be to do with it being 5.0 and the app not fully supporting it yet?
I'm seriously considering sending it back because of this.
 

Aiii

So not worth it
WWE have updated their app a total of 1 time since the Network launch, when they got their new logo. The playback has been broken on the ART runtime ever since the launch. Supposedly there's an update coming before the end of December that will bring Instant Queue and Resume Play functionality, so I would assume they fix it then.

I would certainly not return the Nexus 9 because WWE can't be arsed to fix their shit, though, but that's just me.
 
WWE have updated their app a total of 1 time since the Network launch, when they got their new logo. The playback has been broken on the ART runtime ever since the launch. Supposedly there's an update coming before the end of December that will bring Instant Queue and Resume Play functionality, so I would assume they fix it then.

I would certainly not return the Nexus 9 because WWE can't be arsed to fix their shit, though, but that's just me.

Okay I think I will keep in then.
This is my first android tablet and I really like it but its very disapointing that apps dont just work automatically
 

sca2511

Member
They look really good. Some pics from my shitty phone camera:



I'm using Perfect Viewer. Text is unreadable and colors are off due to phone camera, it looks really nice in person.
Thanks for the pictures. Looks to be much better than my N7 '12, but that's to be expected.
I remember there being some chart that shows which aspect ratio better fits a comic page. I don't remember if it pointed at 16:9 or 4:3 as more favorable though.
 
I installed the WWE app to watch the network on.
It just keeps crashing after the classification video is played.

Could this be to do with it being 5.0 and the app not fully supporting it yet?
I'm seriously considering sending it back because of this.

The app does not work with the ART runtime. Happened to me on my G3.
 

Aiii

So not worth it
Battery life is so good now in the new update, normally while I was at work and the thing was sitting in standby it would use about 11% over ten hours, today it used only 2%.

Been using it pretty much continually since 7PM (12AM now), doing my usual, some apps, browsing, video and Chromecast streaming, normally I'd be around 25% now and it sits at 55% at the moment.

Overheating also gone now, still gets warm though, but nothing out of the ordinary and just at the camera spot.

Glad I didn't overreact to the few problems, then again I am used to being an Early Adoptor and shitty first day software just comes with the territory. Very satisfied with the update, Google did well to patch so quickly, shame it couldn't have launched like this, reviews would have been more positive for sure.
 
12.5 hours off of the charger, 6.5 hrs screen on time watching YouTube, browsing the web and playing 14px and I'm at 13%. Battery's telling me it has another 2 hrs in it. This is an acceptable battery life.
 

LQX

Member
Amazon has the Nexus 9 16GB for $349

Amazon

If anything that should have been the launch price considering how shoddy the the tablet seems but I'm surprised it did not sell out already. I don't think it is selling well and we might see some great deals on it come Black Friday.
 

vwnut13

Member
I tried to play with a Nexus 9 at Best Buy, but it set off the alarm and none of them employees knew how to shut it off.
 
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