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Google Nexus 9 vs Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4: 2 Affordable Tablets in Close Competition

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4, left, versus the Nexus 9, right | SAMSUNG/GOOGLE

The Google Nexus 9 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 are two of the most affordable tablets in the market. Here is how they compare against each other.

Design

The Nexus 9 is larger, thicker and heavier than the Galaxy Tab S 8.4. The Google tablet is made from plastic but has a metal band running along its edge, its only premium element.

The Galaxy Tab S 8.4, on the other hand, is made entirely from plastic. Its back panel has rows of dimples which allow for easy handling. Comparing their colors, the Nexus 9 comes in three choices: white, black, or sand. The Galaxy Tab S 8.4 comes in either bronze or white.

Display

The display on the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 is slightly smaller than the Nexus 9. Its Super AMOLED screen measures 8.4 inches and has a resolution of 1600 x 2560 pixels and a density of 359 pixels per inch. As for the Nexus 9, it has an IPS LCD screen measuring 8.9 inches with a resolution of 1536 x 2048 pixels and a density of 281 pixels per inch.

Specs

The specs on the Nexus 9 consist of an Nvidia Tegra K1 chipset, a dual-core Denver CPU clocked at 2.3 GHz and a Kepler DX1 GPU. It falls short of its competitor, which has an Exynos 5 Octa 5420 chipset, along with an octa-core CPU with four Cortex-A15 cores clocked at 1.9 GHz and four Cortex-A7 cores clocked at 1.3 GHz, and a Mali-T628 MP6 GPU.

Memory

The Nexus 9 does not have a memory slot while the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 has one that allows for the addition of up to 128 GB of external storage. As for RAM, all models of the Nexus 9 have 2 GB while the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 has 3 GB.

Price

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and the Nexus 9 both have a retail price tag of $400.