While this holiday season is expected to be an all-out tablet retail war with Apple, Microsoft, and Google all releasing new devices around the same time, users concerned with display quality might want to consider waiting a little longer. Google's new 10.1-inch tablet, the Nexus 10, will have the highest pixel density of any tablet on the market, and will be released in the first half of 2013, according to CNET.
Many sources are reporting Google's Nexus 10 tablet will have a 2,560x1,600 pixel density, which CNET says will "push the display manufacturing tech envelope." That high of a pixel density would place the Nexus 10 at the top of the heap with a higher count than Amazon's 8.9-inch display Kindle Fire HD and Apple's 9.7-inch display iPad 3. It's also higher than the rumored screen specs we've been seeing for Microsoft's 10.1-inch Surface tablets.
"By stuffing that density into a 10-inch screen, the PPI jumps to just shy of 300," says CNET.
Google Nexus 10 Features
Google's tablet will sport a 10.1-inch screen, with a pixel density that is higher than Apple's iPad 3, said Richard Shim, an analyst at NPD DisplaySearch.
The display will be 2,560x1,600 and will have a PPI of about 299, Shim added, confirming CNET's purported specs. If this is to be believed, Google have definitely made it a point to best the iPad's 264 PPI on Apple's 9.7-inch 2,048x1,536 Retina display.
"It's going to be a high-end device," said Shim. A stark contrast to Google's other rumored, lower-end tablet, the $199 Nexus 7, and upcoming $99 tablet.
While the Nexus 10's features certainly impress, perhaps the most intriguing part of all of this is Google's partnership with South Korean tech giant Samsung. Google will partner with Samsung for the tablet, and co-brand the Nexus 10 with the company, as well, according to Shim.
Google is also partnered right now with Asus for its hugely popular Nexus 7 tablet.
If the report is accurate, a co-branded tablet from Samsung and Google would flesh out the company's already beneficial relationship. The companies already co-branded the Galaxy Nexus Samsung smartphone together.
Shim described his information about the 10.1-inch Nexus tablet as "supply chain indications," which typically indicates a high likelihood that the product will come to fruition, according to Shim.
Shim also confirmed that Google will start production on a $99 tablet in December.
The importance of the Nexus 10 in Google's future couldn't be understated. The company is clearly positioning itself to steal more of Apple's shares of the tablet market, which have dropped by 29 percent just in the last year, according to Pew Research Center.
"The Android-Apple platform fight is the defining fight in the industry today," Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in a recent interview.
Schmidt said Google had "seen" surveys indicating that four Android devices sold for every Apple device. He says that it's plausible that within one year there will be a billion devices running on Android.
Now is the time to strike if the company wants maintain its reputation as a tech innovator.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is in the process of building 10 million iPad Minis, which many sources, including Fortune, are speculating the company will release on Nov. 2. Japanese Apple blog Macotakara, similarly claims that production of the iPad mini is well underway in Brazil, according to "reliable sources" it spoke to.
Apple will unveil the hotly anticipated device on Oct. 23, All Things D reported Oct. 12.
According to All Things D, who cited "people familiar with Apple's plans," Apple will hold a press event on Tuesday, Oct. 23 to unveil the iPad Mini, two days before Microsoft unveils Windows 8 and its first tablet, the Surface at an event Oct. 25. A location for the Apple event hasn't been confirmed yet, but the blog speculates that the event will be held at Apple's Cupertino campus since the company already held a big press event in San Francisco for the iPhone 5 unveiling.