Google has officially returned to the world of tablets after it stopped a year ago. The company announced at its developer conference that its “Pixel Tablet” tablet computer will be available for $ 499 for pre-order starting from May 10, with shipping to begin. On the 20th of next June.
Google’s history with tablets has been pretty bad, with the only real success it had with the Nexus 7, a small, cheap tablet that was popular when it came out in 2012.
Subsequent years saw the company experiment with many ideas about touchscreen laptops and launch new tablets with either Android or ChromeOS, but none of them recaptured the success of the Nexus 7 experience. Rather, it came to an official announcement from Google not to make new tablets after 2019.
But this has obviously changed because Google has once again launched a tablet that is designed to be good for people’s usual uses such as watching videos or playing games comfortably.
Simple design.
The Pixel Tablet has an 11-inch LCD screen, with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, 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 nano-coating, unlike what Google did with the Pixel 5 smartphone.
In the box with the Pixel Tablet comes a magnetic speaker unit, which performs several functions, including storing the Pixel Tablet when not in use; It can also be used as a stand during business or family meetings.
When affixed to the speaker unit, the Pixel tablet looks like the Nest Hub Max, the $250 smart display Google released in 2019. But that’s only in general terms, as the Pixel is an Android tablet. Android is not a smart screen, it runs a completely different program and has different capabilities compared to Nest Hub.
However, when you hold the tablet to the speaker, it can display a slideshow of photos from your Google Photo albums just like the Nest Hub.
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 hands-free Google Assistant queries.
Good specification.
The Pixel Tablet contains the Tensor G2 processor, which is also found in the new Pixel Fold, Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, which were released last year. It is paired with 8 GB of RAM and 128 or 256 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’re not carrying a speaker unit. It is only available on a Wi-Fi only system; There are no 5G or LTE options.
The tablet is decorated with 4 speakers, 3 microphones for video calls, and two cameras, an 8-megapixel rear camera in the upper-right corner of the tablet, and in the front, another 8-megapixel camera in the middle of the upper frame when you hold the tablet in landscape orientation. A fingerprint scanner is integrated into the power button to support biometric login and authentication.
It is noted that the keyboard or screen pen is missing from the list of accessories made by Google, as this is not the tablet that you buy to replace the laptop computer, 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 extensions, so you will have to buy them from other companies.
The Pixel Tablet runs on Android-13 and will be updated to Android-14 later this year. Google said more than 50 of its apps have been updated to support the larger Pixel Tablet screen.
But while you can split the screen between two apps at the same time, the Pixel Tablet doesn’t have many of the productivity features found on competing devices.
Samsung, Apple, and even OnePlus are doing a lot more to make their tablets more convenient for getting work done than Google’s devices are at the moment.
Is it suitable for purchase?
Pixel Tablet is a tablet designed for the simple tasks that tablet devices do today. It is not likely that the Pixel Tablet will replace competing computers or even tablets in the field of getting things done.
But it is a suitable 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 tied down by a large device.
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