Google finally confirmed the existence of its new tablet and announced the new Nexus 9. A day later, Apple countered the device with its own pride – a refreshed iPad Air.

It seems like Google has outdone itself, evident in the Nexus 9 specs and features, but how does it fare when compared with Apple's new tablet? Below is the comparison between HTC Nexus 9 and iPad Air 2.

Design

iPad Air 2 is the thinnest tablet in the market to date, although it has the same form factor and aluminum casing. The Nexus 9 has the recognizable design of HTC devices as it sports the same design seen in HTC One and HTC One M8 – aluminum-finished with BoomSound speakers.

Screen Display

The new HTC Nexus 9 and iPad Air 2 tablets almost have the same screens. The Nexus 9 sports an 8.9-inch, 2048 x 1536 resolution display with a density of 287 ppi. Meanwhile, iPad Air 2 has lower ppi despite having a bigger screen. Apple's tablet is equipped with a 9.7-inch display and delivers 2048 x 1536 resolution at 264 ppi.

Processor

The new HTC Nexus 9 is powered by a dual-core Nvidia Tegra K1 that has 64-bit architecture paired with 2 GB of RAM. iPad Air 2, on the other hand, is equipped with a dual-core 64-bit A8X processor with built-in motion co-processor for video graphics. Apple tablet's processor is paired with an estimated 1 GB of RAM.

Operating system

Apple's full-fledged tablet comes with iOS 8, which heralds new features such as Apple Pay and iHealth. HTC-Google Nexus 9, on the other hand, runs with the new Android 5.0 Lollipop, which is claimed as the biggest Android update yet.

Camera

The two tablets have similar shooters. The Nexus 9 has an 8 MP primary camera at the back and a 1.6 MP front-facing camera. iPad Air 2 sports an 8 MP back camera and 1.5 MP front-facing camera. Thus, everything boils down to the camera software supporting these shooters.

Battery

The Nexus 9 is backed up by 6,700 mAh battery, which is nothing compared to iPad's 8,827 mAh battery.