Google Pixel Tablet review: It’s all about the dock

Image credits: Brian Heater

No need to sugarcoat it, the history of Android tablets is approximate. There are some exceptions. Samsung, for example, has managed to carve out a good market for itself in the space, thanks to great hardware and heavy Android customization. The Galaxy maker ranks second firmly behind Apple — accounting for a quarter of all shipments in the first quarter of 2023, per idc.

Things fall quickly from there. Huawei is actually in third place with about 7% of the market. This isn’t surprising based on the quality of the hardware, but the company’s highly publicized conflicts with the US government have left it in a bind. They’ve also pushed the company away from its reliance on Android for its HarmonyOS home product.

Lenovo is the other major Android tablet maker in the top five; Amazon is in fifth place, but Fire OS doesn’t really qualify by most metrics. The company excels in good and innovative hardware, while its tablets are divided into three operating systems: Android, Windows and Chrome.

We’re not going to talk about why the operating system has a hard time handling tablets the same way it does cell phones — but we can definitely say that it’s not for lack of trying. After initial hesitation about device makers switching the mobile operating system into a larger form factor, Google began trying its hand at Android tablets just over a decade ago.

In 2012, the company partnered with Asus on the Nexus 7 and Samsung for the Nexus 10. The HTC-built Nexus 9 arrived in 2014. The Pixel C was released the following year, amid a shift to first-party hardware after years of partnerships. The Pixel Slate arrived in 2018, with the shift to Chrome as the OS of choice for Google’s tablets. Like its predecessors, it did not last long.

When the Pixel Tablet was first released in 2022, one major question loomed above the rest: Why should this time be different? In addition to the standard adoption issues, Google’s approach to the tablet category has been defined by extreme indecision, above all else. Adoption of consumer electronics is often slow, requiring commitment. Over the years, one had the unwavering sense that the Google hardware team was throwing up their hands in frustration after each subsequent swing.

Image credits: Brian Heater

When the Pixel Tablet was revealed in full at I/O, the answer seemed to be: This time it’s going to be different because the method is different. The sidewalk is the thing. Make no mistake. The dock is what makes the Pixel Tablet so interesting. In fact, I’m more inclined to refer to it as a Nest Home with a detachable display than a Pixel Tablet with a dock — though I’m sure Google wouldn’t be thrilled with that particular designation.

To be fair, when the Home Hub initially launched, I wrote, “From a design standpoint, the product is best described as a 7-inch tablet resting atop a speaker at an angle of ~25 to 30 degrees.” More than any other smart display on the market at the time, Google resembles a small tablet grafted onto a speaker dock. I can’t be the only one who for a moment felt compelled to see if I could remove it.

The Pixel Tablet is a clear logical extension of that design. Whether it is a tablet or a smart screen first, it is ultimately in the eyes of the user. What I will say is that Google made a wise decision to group the two together. Indeed, at the moment, the tablet can only be purchased as a single package. Perhaps at some point down the road, users will want to purchase the tablet separately, but it’s currently hard to get excited about the device as a standalone device.

It is a solid piece of hardware. The hardware feels premium enough, and it’s better than the standard iPad on multiple accounts. The screen size is 10.95 inches with a resolution of 2650 x 1600 – versus the 10.9-inch screen of the 10th generation iPad, 2360 x 1640 (the Pixel has a slightly higher pixel density). Its battery is rated at 12 hours, versus the iPad’s 10. It comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, to 4GB and 64GB for the iPad respectively. The front and rear cameras are both eight megapixels, down from 12 megapixels on the iPad.

Image credits: Brian Heater

In many ways, the Pixel Tablet is better understood as Google’s equivalent of the entry-level iPad. It’s a utilitarian, flash-free device that does the things you need a tablet to do. It’s a product that Google would hypothetically have started making a decade or so ago, rather than slobber in its approach to space and let hardware partners like Samsung, Huawei, and Lenovo eat lunch.

But, then, Google in the past always seemed to have a turbulent relationship with the idea of ​​first-party hardware. I preferred to let the existing hardware companies do the heavy lifting. When it released its own hardware, it generally lacked a following. But some major things happened in the meantime:

1. Google bought Nest for $3.2 billion in 2014, and it spent the following years building its smart home offering, including several Home Hub devices.
2. The company went to scorched earth in the Pixel division, bought a portion of the HTC IP and rebuilt it from the ground up.
3. The company developed Android L, a kind of operating system for larger screens — not unlike iPadOS

The latter is, in some ways, the most important. The company wasn’t entirely clear on the messaging when it dropped in late 2021 (as evidenced by the apparent confusion in this post by my exceptionally rational colleague, Frederick). Android 12L was introduced in part to embrace the growing interest around foldable devices. It also gives developers an original way to bring Android to a tablet. It was quickly adopted by companies such as Samsung, Lenovo, and Microsoft.

It brings some key features, such as a split screen multitasking that can be accessed through the taskbar. With that enabled, you can easily drag and drop media from Google Photos into the apps.
Offering new software features has long been a mainstay of Google’s consumer hardware operation, and there’s no reason to think the Pixel Tablet isn’t a direct result of that philosophy.

Image credits: Brian Heater

But coming out with a good — if wildly unexceptional — tablet in 2023 isn’t going to be a magic bullet that finally reverses a decade of trying to establish yourself in the category. On the other hand, the tablet/smart display/home hub combo is a compelling proposition. The same goes for the price. Offering the Pixel Tablet on its own for $499 was also a hard sell. Unless you’re Samsung, you need to price your system more aggressively than Apple (the standard iPad starts at $449). On the other hand, the addition of the Soundbar dock and Nest Home Hub functionality significantly sweetens the deal.

Suddenly you’ve got a device that straddles Google’s two consumer hardware cores (Pixel, Nest) very well. Google is not the first to try this, of course. Amazon is probably the best example, with Fire docks that double as Echo devices courtesy of FireOS’ “Show Mode.” The Google equivalent is Hub Mode.

By default, the system displays a rotating gallery of wallpapers. Once connected to the rest of your smart home devices, you can access a panel focused on monitoring and controlling lights, thermostats, and the like. All of this can be done without unlocking the device, though more sensitive things like security cameras still require unlocking.

Image credits: Google

Hub Mode automatically launches when you dock the system, magnetically locking it into place so the charging pins line up (the system can also be charged via USB-C when the dock isn’t within reach). You’ll see a brief animation letting you know it’s working as planned. If you’re playing music on the tablet, the song is then transmitted to the dock’s speakers, which are much more intense than what you get with the tablet. As with the Nest Hub, it’s a great way to watch quick things like YouTube videos.

I certainly wouldn’t make it my primary movie-watching or music-listening device, but I’ve always found Nest hubs a great companion to better smart speakers like the Google Home Max (RIP?). It is a great control over the visual media of the music while it is playing. You can use it with a variety of services, including Spotify and Apple Music.

Image credits: Brian Heater

That’s one of the nice things about using an Android tablet against a smart screen: access to a huge app library. That means the docked tablet also serves as a handy little teleconferencing device for things like Google Meet and Zoom. The front camera and speakers are more than enough to get the job done.

When it comes to launching a new tablet in 2023, Google had a very difficult task ahead of them. It’s a very mature class with well-established players. Like a lot of smartphones, tablets have improved so much that they’re getting a little boring, frankly. Convertibles made a somewhat compelling case for continued creativity, but the panels themselves fell into a similarly iterative spec race. For the first time, Google has realized the task. Any new device that will be introduced should be more than just a tablet. The Pixel isn’t the first tablet to feature smart home docking functionality, but it’s the first where that functionality feels more like an afterthought.

The Pixel tablet isn’t going to set the world on fire, but in some ways, Google has done the impossible: It made an interesting entry-level benchmark slate in our master’s year, 2023.