Nexus 10 first impressions

It’s significantly lighter than the first gen iPad. The screen is fantastic. Unlike the original ‘iPad with retina display’, there’s no visible wobble when you scroll sideways.

The back is firm, with a pleasing rubbery texture, and the edges are rounded enough not to cut into your hands. The glass is Gorilla Glass, so I’m thinking I won’t need any kind of case or protector other than a soft carry case for when I take it out of the house.

No proprietary charger cable, just a standard Micro USB, which (of course) also acts as a data cable should you wish to transfer files. I haven’t tried taking mine apart, but people who have say that no special tools are required, there’s no gluing-in of critical components, and it seems to have been designed to be easy to service. (Of course, this begs the question: if Samsung can make a tablet that’s thinner and lighter than the iPad and still servicable, why can’t Apple make servicable iPads and MacBooks any more?)

Sound quality via headphones is adequate, better than the Galaxy Nexus.

Initially WiFi was flaky. However, an OS update appeared, and since then it’s been fine. So if you buy a Nexus 10, don’t try updating and installing all your apps until you get the Android 4.2 update.

Lack of an expansion slot is a downer. I shelled out for the 32GB, and would suggest that you do the same, especially if you want to watch movies or play games on it.

File transfer is MTP, like the Galaxy Nexus. However, only a new simplified set of directories shows up. For some reason the Kindle’s storage directory didn’t initially show.

I investigated switching to ePub for ebooks, as it’s a more standard format, and the Google Play book reader is nicer than Amazon’s Kindle reader. Unfortunately, Google’s reader doesn’t allow sideloading. I tried Aldiko, but it crashed on the first ePub book I tried it on. So for now, Kindle and Amazon’s formats still seem to be the best option.