Google Nexus 10 review
The Nexus 7 proved Google can design good hardware, but can it take on the iPad? — Tablets are in a funny phase. For years, Google and Microsoft were content to sit back while hardware partners used their software to make tablets.
Context & Ripple Effects
The Nexus 10 lands five months after the Nexus 7's summer launch, which reviewers had already framed as proof Google can design good hardware — the Engadget review called it the best $200 tablet available at the time. The question this review answers is whether that formula survives scaling up to a 10-inch device priced against Apple's iPad rather than against budget e-readers.
First-order effects
- Google moves its Nexus program into the premium large-tablet tier for the first time, putting a first-party Android device directly against the iPad on price and specs rather than ceding that segment to Samsung and other partners.
- The launch rides the same news cycle as the Nexus 4 — AnandTech's performance preview of both devices appeared the same day, and the story was picked up by AnandTech, Engadget, NYT Bits, TechCrunch and others, making it one of the widest-covered hardware events of the season.
Second-order effects
- Samsung, Asus and other Android tablet makers now compete with the company whose OS they license — the very dynamic The Verge flags by noting Google spent years letting hardware partners build tablets with its software.
- Apple faces a credible Android alternative at the screen size where the iPad had faced little pressure, forcing comparison reviews to treat Android as a peer at the high end rather than only at the $200 entry point.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, platform owners stop being pure licensors: Google designs the reference hardware that defines each Android tier, and Microsoft — which the review notes sat back alongside Google for years while partners built tablets — faces the same pull toward first-party devices.
- Review-driven purchasing consolidates around a small set of flagship reference devices per OS generation, shrinking the differentiation space available to second-tier tablet manufacturers.
The trend: Platform owners are shifting from licensing their software to hardware partners toward building their own reference devices, with Google's Nexus line moving upmarket from the Nexus 7 into direct competition with the iPad.