It seems that HTC and Google are having some issues with their latest Nexus tablet, the Nexus 9. The issues that we are seeing involve problems that relate directly to build quality; back-light bleeding around the edges of the Nexus 9 display has been reported, as well as possible software glitches with a very annoying clicking noise apparent when using the touchscreen interface.

The issues that Andrzej demonstrates in the video below cannot be considered to isolated cases. Although the problems are probably not universal, there is plenty activity online to suggest that the problems are actually pretty widespread and producing plenty of miffed customers.

We managed to get our hands on one of the first devices to arrive on the market, catch our man Andrzej demonstrate the issues in this short video below:

The issue of the repeated clicking sound is one that is certainly going to cause annoyance. When you interact with the touchscreen you will several clicks in a row. They kind of sound like static but are actually very uniform which would suggest perhaps a software or firmware glitch.

We have also seen plenty of people complain about light bleeding around the edge of the display too. This is something we ave experienced on much cheaper tablet devices in the past but it comes as a big surprise to see it becoming an issue on a tablet from a reputable hardware vendor like HTC, especially when the Nexus 9 costs in the region of $500. One possible cause of back-light ‘bleed’ as you see in the case below, is is simply poor insulation of the back-light inside the device. Each back-light in am LCD panel uses a back-light to produce the pixels colors, but occasionally the light itself, if poorly insulated can mean that the white light is detectable around the edge of the display.

It’s very possible that clicking audio issue can and will be solved with a update to Android 5, if in fact it is a software-based issue. Indeed it seems that Google has already resolved an apparent battery life issue with Lollipop, and it is acceptable for teething problems to be ironed out after launch, especially when you are talking about a whole new OS.

The back-light bleeding issue however is something that cannot be solved except by a full RMA or replacement device. This is very bad news for HTC who we have to hold responsible in this case. The Taiwan-based manufacturer was doubtless pinning a lot of hopes on the Nexus 9 being able to help them finally claim some market share in today’s super competitive tablet market. These specifically hardware-based issues are not going to help, that’s for sure.

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