[Nexus 9 General] jsgiv:
I'm in the same boat as a lot of posters here..

I had the nexus 9 for several days and *really* wanted it to work.. Yet came away from the experience rather devastated ...

To put it bluntly - the N9 has sooooo much potential as a direct/updated competitor to all other tablets out there - yet it is the combination of all the minor nitpicks about the hardware that ultimately lead many (myself included) to return the unit and select other options .. At least temporarily until either a viable alternative becomes available or until the various hardware issues are resolved with the N9 ...

Why? I want a new tablet.. I want a smaller tablet than the iPad Air... The N9 fits the bill perfectly from a size perspective...

Software:

Quite simply - Lollipop is a dream... It blows me away on how well it works and how seamless it is... There is so much potential here once the right manufacturer actually delivers a quality tablet that lives up to the software being presented...

Hardware:

I bought the N9 full well knowing that there were some issues with the hardware... I figured I could live with them since I was fairly well informed (or so I thought)

Light bleed? Check.. Though it was contained to 2 spots on my unit in places that I really didn't have any problems with this particular issue... Overall aside from these areas my screen was fairly uniform and not patchy like others here have reported.

Overheating? Check... Mind you - this was experienced while using a browser only.. Not a game or any other software that should tax the system.

Depending on the site I visited I would experience a spike in heat on the back of the unit near the camera where I commonly rest my hand holding the unit.. So I tried flipping it or holding it differently to adjust....

Build quality issues? Check - buttons were mushy, slight (minimal) push in the middle (I purchased the white 32gb version). Again.. Something I knew going in and willingly to work around and live with ... For some this was the biggest issue.. I thought that in general it was passable...

Screen Time? (Sorta) check .. Admittedly I haven't had it long enough to determine if the SoT would extend past the 5-6 hour mark I was experiencing (most likely will with future updates)...

What finally killed it for me was after last night draining the battery down to 10%, and leaving it to charge all night (I kid you not - 10+ hours) - it was only up to 78% charged with an estimated 2+ hours left to full charge... I could've lived with everything else and have been irritated- but if I can't charge the damn thing in a reasonable amount of time to use it ... Then what's the point ?

Never mind some of the other nitpicks that arose during this time I wasn't aware of (miracast, etc)...

Which leads me to where I am today.. Going out and buying an iPad mini 2 for less than half the price of the N9 today on special Black Friday deals... At least for the time being...

EVERY hardware issue noted above isn't prevalent at all with the iPad (same resolution, no light bleed, no overheating, significant bump in battery performance (I've run 3+ hours full screen on time browsing and installing software and only dropped 16% as I type this), and it charged a full 12% in a quick 30 minute charge while I grabbed something to eat while it updated to the latest OS...

Worst thing about it? It's running iOS ... :P

It's functional and gets the job done.. But I can't stand how limiting it is compared to my android phone...

Ultimately the issues with the N9 render the device too painful to use and enjoy the experience of lollipop..

Which leads me to your question... Yes - I will continue to monitor these boards in the hopes that one day soon all of these issues are either finally addressed with the N9 ( or most of them ) - or within the next few months a viable alternative is made available to the market (Nokia???) that yields a truly distinct and positive experience with the advent of lollipop. As soon as that happens.. I'll either sell the iPad or pass it down to my kid and switch immediately... As the software experience of lollipop was fantastic in the short time I had with it (not available on my phone yet)....

I sincerely hope others don't run into the same issues that I did ...