What the what?! My question was simple, very simple. Is a Nexus 9 tablet that is defect free still considered to be overpriced and/or non-premium? All it took was a simple yes or no response. I thought it was pretty straight forward.
However, I'll gladly answer your question. Yes I would pay $100 less if I'm getting more value for my money compared to the leading brand. I'm not naive enough to just hope I don't get a defect with anything I buy, I accept that the possibility is there. There will always be a good possibility of encountering a defect (this should be obvious when a manufacture provides a factory warranty for their product(s)). I have enough common sense to realize that anything that is mass produced (electronics in particular) will have a good chance of being defective, regardless of who makes it. I'm even aware that the first production run/lot of a mass produced product will incur a higher percentage of defects until the manufacturing process either matures or is modified to reduce the amount of defects. Sans a recall or production-halt being issued, I will make an informed decision based on the severity of the reported issues.
So again, is a Nexus 9 tablet without defects considered overpriced or not?
I will answer, yes it is.
We all know there will be possible defective products out there, but with quality control (which is something you paid for!) it should be minimal.
Apple of course has defective iPad Air 2 units out there, but they set aside a number of tablet for easy warranty exchanges, you even could exchange iPhones 6 and 6+ when they were first launched. When I tried to exchange my N9, no such luck. When other people on this forum contacted HTC about light bleed on their N9s they were told to send it in for repair and wait weeks to get it back. Great warranty, isn't it? But guess what you paid for premium quality control and warranty service that you didn't receive, even with your pristine N9.
Then, why always excuse everything on a "first production run"? Were is the evidence that there have been changes? That people get some pristine N9?
When you first bring out a new model, you try to get the production as perfect as you can, with the good/best representations going to reviewers, for marketing purposes. Skewed? Yes but a lot is dependent on that. What did reviewers get? Squishy backs, light bleed etc. Not a good start.
So why is the N9 overpriced/not premium even if
you get one that is perfect? How do you even know it is perfect? You paid for good quality control, which is clearly missing when squishy backs and bad light bleed were evident on a lot of units. What else did they miss? Great/premium warranty/service, which is missing when you have to send your unit back and have to wait for it to be repaired. Aluminum might be cheap compared to other metals, but what is plastic if not even cheaper? HTC used an aluminum frame with plastic back to cut costs to stay just below Apple pricing, plain and simple. There is no wireless charging in the N9. Charging times are pretty long. Battery life adequate but not outstanding. Are the slowdowns that many people experience due to software bugs and/or hardware problems like inadequate/cheap NANDs?
Amazon and BestBuy had to absorb probably a good amount of money by taking back N9s or exchanging them, which they then had to sell cheaper as open boxes. And then we compare only MSRPs. You can get, even as recently as the beginning of January, the iPad Air 2 16 GB for $399 at Microcenter. Bigger screen, better built quality, better warranty, faster. And in the holiday season, there were plenty of opportunities to pick up an iPad Air 2 cheaper than the N9 16GB or the 64GB version for $20 more. Where were the N9 sales?
Now true, Amazon dropped the price for the N9 16GB to $349 but I'm not convinced that is enough.
I had/have several Nexus devices in the past, N5, N7 2012 and 2013 which were all great or had shortcomings that could be overlooked because of the pricing.
The title of this thread is "Nexus 9 overhyped flop".
So lets look at the evidence.
Wasn't it called an iPad Air killer? It is a little faster in single core benchmarks but falls short in multi core. Graphic benchmarks are good but not enough to beat the Air 2 in general. To sum it up, it is close but does fall short. But I would say that overhype is small.
"HTC will build the N9 which is known for great built quality". I purchased the N9 at BestBuy the day is came out, without prior reviews, because of the "HTC built quality", premium price but with premium quality to match. And that's where the overhype really was. Mine had a super squishy back, like many if not all reviewers. I liked the feel of the material a lot but what are you touching when you hold the tablet each single time? Move on to the worst offense, the light bleed, like all the review units out there. Mine was evident at all times, with brightness set to ~40%. In the corners but also when watching a movie, the rows/columns adjacent to the border were noticeably brighter even in bright scenes, really distracting. And I compared the screen to my N7s, the N5, my wife's iPad Air 1, all set to maximum brightness, and it wasn't even a contest. My "premium" tablet fell short of the "cheap" tablets, it wasn't even close.
So I tried to exchange it but guess what, they would have to order a new one as all BestBuy had received was 2 units, a 16GB one and a 32GB one. Other stores also didn't have any. At that point I decided to return my unit, as I had paid for a premium device without receiving any of the premium benefits.
I have kept an eye out for a decent price drop that would warrant the risk of playing the Nexus 9 lottery but the $50 drop at Amazon is not enough for me as I seriously doubt that there have been real improvements in the production runs. The N9 received pretty bad press from even the Android fan sites like AndroidCentral, and it was well deserved. It is nearly impossible to erase that negative perception that's out there now, clearly not without great cost, and I don't think HTC is willing to do so.
Which brings us to the "flop" part. We will never know for sure, as Google doesn't release any sales numbers for their Nexus devices but the fact that Amazon dropped the price by $50 couple with the fact that there are plenty of Amazon warehouse deals available are probably good indications that the N9 isn't selling too well.
I don't mind that the current crop of Nexus devices received a big price bump, but the quality (including quality control and warranty) has to match the premium price, and it didn't for the N9.