Nexus 9 Hands-on

Google recently announced the Nexus 9 and the Nexus 6, two of the first devices that will highlight its brand new Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system. The Nexus 9 will start to ship on Nov. 3, not too long from now, and pre-orders are available now. Should you pick one up? We had a chance to check one out first hand to get some first impressions.

It’s quite a stellar device. The screen is incredibly sharp — 2560 x  1536-pixel resolution — and measures 8.9-inches across. That’s bigger than other Nexus tablets, like the Nexus 7, but we like where Google is headed here. Android’s new Material Design, where visible, looks fantastic. And that added resolution should make text nice and sharp when you’re reading books, watching movies and more.

HTC built the device and even included a few of its flagship features, like BoomSound speakers. We couldn’t test them during our brief hands-on, but they should provide great forward-facing sound. We also love that HTC added a bit of a metallic border running around the device, which feels solid, though the black model we tested had a soft rubber back that recalls the Nexus 4.

We were mainly blown away by how light and thin the Nexus 9 is, despite the power it packs under its hood thanks to the Tegra K1 processor, which we already know performs admirably. We’ll bring you a bunch more coverage once we have a final unit in, but here’s our first look with a video and some pictures that we grabbed during a very brief visit with the tablet this morning.