We'll compare the Google Nexus 10 to the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 - hardware specs like cameras, storage, screen size, resolution, battery life, and others, along with special features (like Mayday), release dates, availability and price.
One of the best ways to see how incredibly stacked a new device is with features and hardware is to compare it against the previous year's top devices. The Google Nexus 10 tablet, made by South Korean manufacturer Samsung, was a top device through this year, but it now has some heavy competition from a somewhat unlikely source: Amazon's new Kindle Fire HD, called the Kindle Fire HDX. For the sake of comparisons, we'll be using the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9-inch model to stack up against the Google Nexus 10.
Screen and Size
The Google Nexus 10 was released in November of 2012 with a 10.1-inch Super PlS TFT touchscreen display. One of the most vivid on the market, it had a resolution of 2560 x 1600p, giving you about 300 pixels per inch on the large tablet.
Compared to that, the old Kindle Fire HD, contemporary with the Google Nexus 10, fell short, with 800 x 1280p resolution on its 7-inch model. This year though, the new Kindle Fire HDX 8.9-inch screen matches the Google Nexus 10, with the same resolution and a denser pixel count, at 339 ppi, owing to its slightly smaller screen.
For that monster Google display, the Nexus 10 had to be pretty big in 2012. It had dimensions of 263.9 x 177.6 x 8.9 mm and was over a pound heavy, at 603 grams. The Kindle Fire HDX is much smaller and slimmer, with 231 x 158 x 7.8 mm dimensions and under a pound heavy - only 384 grams at its heaviest.
Power (Processor and Battery)
The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 comes with a still-unspecified battery, but Amazon promises it will give you up to 12 hours of battery with 17 hours of reading time (before the HDX display's pixel count melts your eyes off). Compared to that, the Google Nexus 10's gargantuan 9000 mAh battery comes up short, only giving you 9 hours of mixed use.
The Nexus 10 featured the Samsung Exynos 5250 chip, with a dual-core 1.7GHz Cortex-A15 processor and a Mali GPU, along with 2GB of RAM. While that was zippy a year ago, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset in the Kindle Fire HDX, clocked at 2.2GHz with Adreno 330 graphics and 2GB of RAM, simply out-powers the Google Nexus 10 with its sheer newness: The Snapdragon 800 chipset is just entering the market on top devices right now.
Other Hardware (Storage, Camera, Etc.)
The Google Nexus 10 was not bereft of nice features, including stereo speakers, WiFi, an HDMI port, NFC, Bluetooth, and a 5-megapixel primary camera with LED flash, which could also record full 1080p video (along with a 1.9-megapixel secondary camera).
But the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 comes with a lot of the same things: stereo speakers, WiFi, and Bluetooth, to start. While it lacks an HDMI port and NFC, the newer Kindle Fire HDX benefits from having an LTE model that will a get high-speed connection outside of WiFi zones. The Google Nexus 10 never had cellular capability, much less LTE. And the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 has an 8-megapixel camera, along with a secondary.
The other advantage that the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 has is 24/7 live video help support at the touch of the "Mayday" button (if you need such a thing). This is Amazon's attempt at a "killer app" for its new tablets, and, it could be useful if you're not technically handy (or just need someone to bother all the time with concierge-service requests).
Neither tablet offers a microSD storage slot, so whatever size you get is what you're going to have going forward. The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 comes with up to 64GB of storage, meaning you're probably not going to top if off too quickly if you've got the bank for it. The Google Nexus 10 has a top storage capability of 32GB.
Release Date and Price
At this point, one of the biggest features of the Google Nexus 10 (besides the fact that it's a Google product, so it runs the most up-to-date Jelly Bean OS out there, Android 4.3) is that the Google Nexus 10 2 is expected soon. That means that Google will likely drop the price of the older tablet to clear its stocks before the new tablet arrives (which is expected in November).
Google did this with the Nexus 4 already, dropping the price up to $100. Right now, though the Google Nexus 10 costs about $400 for the 16GB version, and $500 for the 32GB version. Of course, we don't know when Google might drop the price on the current Nexus 10, but those tablets have been available for about a year.
You'll spend less, but still close to that price for the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9-inch model at 16GB, which Amazon is selling for $379. That will start shipping on November 7, with the 4G model shipping on December 10 for $479. The 64GB version of the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 with LTE can cost up to $594, a hefty investment, but one that will probably be future proof for quite a while.