Google has officially returned to the world of tablets after its hiatus a year ago, as the company announced at its developers conference that its tablet "Pixel Tablet" will be available for $ 499 for pre-order starting May 10, and shipping will begin on June 20.
Google's history with tablets has been hugely bad, with the only real success it has had with the Nexus 7, a small, inexpensive tablet that was loved when it came out in 7.
Subsequent years saw the company experiment with a lot of ideas about touch laptops, and the launch of new tablets with either Android or ChromeOS, but none of them regained the success of the Nexus 7 experiment. It even came to an official announcement from Google not to make new tablets after 2019.
But this has clearly changed because Google has once again launched a tablet that is designed to be good for people's usual uses such as watching video or playing games comfortably.
Simple design
Pixel Tablet has an 11-inch LCD screen, with a resolution of 2560 × 1600p, with a matte background.
The device comes in 3 colors: white, dark green, and light pink. Although it looks like it's made of plastic, the Pixel Tablet has an aluminum frame with a nanocoating, unlike what Google did with the Pixel 5 smartphone.
It comes in the box with a pixel tablet and a magnetic speaker unit, which performs several tasks, including storing the pixel of the tablet when not in use; it can also be used as a stand during business or family meetings.
When installed on the speaker module, the Pixel tablet looks like the Nest Hub Max, a $250 smart display released by Google in 2019. Pixel is an Android tablet rather than a smart screen, and runs a completely different program and has different capabilities compared to NestHub.
However, when the tablet is installed on the speakerphone, it can slide photos from your Google Photo Albums just like NestHub.
The device also has a quick access button to the Google Home app so you can control smart home devices, and it can accept voice commands from a distance for Google Assistant queries hands-free.
Good specifications
The Pixel tablet has a Tensor G2 processor that is also found in the new Pixel Fold and Pixel 2 and Pro7 released last year. It is associated with 7 GB of RAM and 7 or 8 GB of storage.
Google says the battery provides up to 12 hours of video streaming between charges, and there's a USB-C port for wired charging if you don't have a speaker unit. It is only available with a Wi-Fi system only; there are no 5G or LTE options.
The tablet is adorned with 4 speakers, 3 microphones for video calls, and two cameras, one rear 8 megapixel in the upper right corner of the tablet, and on the front, another 8-megapixel camera is located in the middle of the top bezel when you hold the tablet in a landscape orientation. The fingerprint scanner is integrated into the power button to support login and biometric authentication.
Note that the keyboard or stylus is missing from the list of accessories made by Google, this is not the tablet you buy to replace the laptop, and you can of course pair a Bluetooth keyboard with the device and use "USI 2.0" pens, but Google does not produce any of these accessories so you will have to buy them from other companies.
Pixel tablet runs Android-13 and will be updated to Android-14 later this year. Google said more than 50 of its own apps have been updated to support the tablet's larger pixel screen.
But while you can split the screen between two apps at the same time, Pixel Tablet doesn't have many productivity features found in competing hardware.
Samsung, Apple, and even OnePlus are doing a lot to make their tablets more convenient to get the job done than Google is doing right now.
Is it suitable for purchase?
Pixel Tablet is a tablet designed for the simple tasks that tablets do right now. A Pixel tablet is unlikely to replace competing computers or tablets in task fulfillment.
But it's a convenient device if you just want to watch the latest episode of your favorite series while sitting on your couch, or enjoy your favorite game at home without being restricted to a large device.