Google Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 Performance Preview
Earlier this week Google announced two new flagship Nexus devices: the Nexus 4 smartphone and the Nexus 10 tablet. We received review samples of both earlier this week, and while we're hard at work at full reviews of the devices we couldn't help …
Context & Ripple Effects
The two devices land at the end of a rumor arc that began with BGR's June 2011 Nexus 4G exclusive promising a 720p display and LTE, and crystallized just last week when Engadget's Nexus 10 leak outed the tablet's Exynos 5250 silicon and 2,560 x 1,600 panel before Google could. AnandTech now has review samples of both in hand, publishing early benchmark numbers ahead of full reviews.
The story is travelling well beyond enthusiast sites: NYT Bits is interviewing Google's Android director on Nexus strategy while The Verge and Engadget run their own reviews, and the devices ship as the launch vehicles for Android 4.2 with its new security system, Photo Sphere, multi-user support, and reworked tablet UI.
First-order effects
- Buyers deciding between the Nexus 4, the Nexus 10, and incumbent flagships get AnandTech's independent performance data before full verdicts land, shortening the usual spec-sheet-only window right after launch.
- Android 4.2 debuts on Google-controlled reference hardware rather than through partners first, making these two devices the de facto baseline every other manufacturer's 4.2 builds get measured against.
Second-order effects
- Apple faces a direct high-resolution Android tablet challenger — reviewers are explicitly framing the Nexus 10 as an iPad competitor, forcing the comparison onto display specs and price rather than ecosystem claims alone.
- Samsung, whose Exynos 5250 powers the leaked-and-now-launched Nexus 10, deepens its role as Google's silicon supplier even as the two companies compete directly in smartphones and tablets.
Third-order effects
- After the Nexus 7 demonstrated Google could design good hardware itself, a phone-plus-tablet flagship pair points toward the Nexus program becoming Google's standing mechanism for setting the annual Android reference design — a structural shift from the earlier era when, per the coverage, Google and Microsoft sat back while hardware partners built tablets on their software.
The trend: Android is consolidating around Google-designed Nexus reference hardware as the definitive showcase for each OS release, pulling platform definition in-house from its manufacturing partners.