Specs at a glance: Google/Samsung Nexus 10 Screen 2560×1600 10.055" (300 ppi) PLS touchscreen OS Android 4.2 "Jelly Bean" CPU 1.7GHz Samsung Exynos 5 Dual RAM 2GB GPU ARM Mali-T604 Storage 16 or 32GB NAND flash Networking 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC Ports Micro USB, Micro HDMI, headphones, docking connector Size 10.39" x 6.99" x 0.35" (263.9 x 177.6 x 8.9 mm) Weight 1.33 lbs (603 g) Battery 9000 mAh Starting price $399 ($499 for 32GB) Price as reviewed $399 Sensor Ambient light sensor, GPS, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Compass, Barometer Other perks Power adapter

One of the reasons we liked the Nexus 7 so much was that it felt like a 7-inch tablet done right. Neither the form factor nor the $199 price point were new—Samsung, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and others were all pushing 7-inch Android tablets—but the ASUS-Google joint was the first whose hardware, software, and price came together to make a convincing case for a smaller tablet.

The Google-backed, Samsung-developed Nexus 10 has no such luxury—not only is the 10-inch tablet market Apple's bread and butter, but competition from new Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets as well as other Android tablets is so stiff (and the signal-to-noise ratio is so low) that it's hard to stand out from the crowd. Further complicating matters is the fact that going all the way back to the Motorola Xoom, 10-inch Android tablets have had trouble gaining a foothold in the market, creating a dearth of tablet apps that is more noticeable on a 10-inch screen than a 7-inch screen.

The Nexus 10 is the first 10-inch tablet to bear Google's Nexus branding, and as such it has its work cut out for it: not only does it need to be a shining example of what a big Android tablet should be, it needs to convince developers and potential buyers alike that Android can offer as good an experience on a larger screen as its competitors can. Does it succeed, or is this just another 10-inch Android tablet that doesn't live up to its promise?

Body and build quality

The Nexus 10 is a very black tablet. That’s not a good thing or a bad thing, it just lacks the silver highlights of something like the Nexus 7, the Galaxy Note 10.1, or the full-size iPad (though the black iPhone 5, black iPod touch, and black iPad mini are all similarly jet-black throughout). The all-black slab measures 10.39" x 6.99" x 0.35" and weighs 1.33 pounds—as a widescreen tablet it's taller and narrower than the full-size iPad, but it's also slightly thinner and lighter. For reference, the fourth-generation iPad is 0.37" thick and weighs 1.44 pounds.

That weight difference might not sound like much, but it does make the Nexus 10 a bit easier to hold for long stretches, depending on how you're holding it: if you've got it in landscape mode with your hand at the bottom of the tablet in the middle or if you've got it in both hands, the Nexus 10's lighter weight does in fact make it easier to hold. Holding it in portrait mode or one-handed by its left or right edge, however, does feel a bit lopsided, a common issue with widescreen tablets.

If you've ever handled an iOS or Android tablet before, the available ports and buttons and their layout shouldn't throw you for a loop. If you're holding the tablet in landscape mode with the webcam at the top of the screen: the tablet's left edge houses its headphone jack and Micro USB port, which is used for both data and charging; the power button and volume rocker are on its top edge; a Micro HDMI port is on the right edge; and a dock connector with six contacts and a small indentation for some sort of retention mechanism is on the bottom edge.

We aren't aware of any accessories that will be using the dock connector (and the same holds true of the Nexus 7's four contact dock connector, months after its introduction), but that doesn't mean it won't ever be used. Sadly, the Nexus 10 lacks any sort of SD card slot, micro or otherwise; its 16GB or 32GB of internal storage is all you get. Finally, the tablet also includes a white notification LED in the screen's bezel that will gently pulse if the tablet needs something; I ended up disabling this because the tablet seemed to be blinking at me constantly, but your mileage may vary.

The Nexus 10 also features front-facing stereo speakers that run down the edges of the screen, similar to (but taller than) the front-facing speakers on the Galaxy Note 10.1. The volume is roughly comparable to that produced by the rear-facing speakers on the newest iPads and the Nexus 7, but the sound quality is noticeably better (if still not great), and front-facing speakers are more difficult to block or muffle with your hands no matter how you're holding the tablet.

I have to admit, after spending a week or so with the Galaxy Note 10.1 a few months back, I wasn’t terribly excited to hear that Samsung would also be handling the construction of the Nexus 10. At $499, the Note 10.1 costs as much as high-end 10-inch tablets like the iPad and the Surface RT, but was made of overly flexible, chintzy plastic and used a decidedly mid-range 1280x800 screen.

The Nexus 10’s body is also mostly plastic, but otherwise thankfully shares little in common with its non-Nexus cousin, which had a plastic back that was so flexible that you could feel the tablet's internals through it if you pressed hard enough. The Nexus 10's light but sturdy injection-molded plastic body isn't quite as solid as the aluminum back of the iPad, but there's much less bending and flexing, and as noted the reduction in weight compared to the iPad does make it nicer to hold for extended periods of time. In short, the Nexus 10 is an example of plastic at its best, and its solid construction is the very antithesis of the Galaxy Note 10.1.

One thing that is sorely missed from the Nexus 7 is its lightly textured back, which gave you something to grip when you were using the tablet. The Nexus 10 also has a grippy, textured back, but it feels smooth and rubbery and altogether less comfortable than the Nexus 7. It also picks up smudges and fingerprints very easily, and once they’re there, they can be difficult to get out. A separate strip across the top of the tablet’s back has a texture similar (but not identical) to that of the Nexus 7.

I do find that I actually prefer the textured plastic back of the Nexus 10 to the aluminum back used by the iPads—the latter gets pretty cold to the touch in November in New Jersey, and the tablet is only too happy to transfer that coldness straight to your hands. The Nexus 10 is a bit more hospitable when pulling it out of a bag that’s been outside.

This Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 share a sort of visual kinship despite the fact that the tablets are manufactured by completely different companies—the texturing and large Nexus logos on the back, the liberal use of black, the stock Android installations, and even the tablets' identical boot screens all reinforce this notion. There are small inconsistencies—the differences in texturing is one, similar-but-incompatible dock connectors is another—but the two tablets have enough in common to be unmistakably related to one another.

Dat screen: 4 million pixels and counting

The real star of the show here is the Nexus 10’s crisp 2560x1600 screen (a crisp screen similarly stole the spotlight earlier this year when the iPad got its first Retina Display). When we first wrote about the new Samsung Exynos 5 chip that the tablet is using, we noted that its ARM Mali-T604 graphics processor had been developed with the pixel-pushing power and memory bandwidth to drive high-resolution displays, and that's just what Samsung and Google are using it for here. Text in particular is extremely crisp, and unlike Apple's iPhone, iPad, and Mac Retina displays, Android apps should be able to take advantage of this without modification. Icons and images that haven't been optimized for high-resolution displays are still going to look a bit blurry, though.

Listing image by Andrew Cunningham