Google's New Pixel Tablet Is a $500 Slate For the Home (theverge.com) 81
Google has announced the Pixel Tablet after teasing it during last year's Google I/O conference. The Verge reports: The Pixel Tablet is designed from the ground up to be good at what people typically use tablets for: watching video or playing games in the comfort of their own home. It is not, however, making any statements about the future of computing. The looks of the Pixel Tablet are relatively generic. It has an 11-inch, 16:10, 2560 x 1600 pixel LCD display, even bezels all around, and a matte back. It comes in three colors: white, dark green, and light pink, with the dark green model featuring a black bezel. Though it looks like plastic from a distance, the Pixel Tablet has an aluminum frame with a nanotexture coating, not unlike what Google did with the Pixel 5 smartphone.
Bundled in the box with the Pixel Tablet is a magnetic speaker dock. This serves multiple purposes and is meant to prevent the dreaded "dead tablet in a drawer" syndrome: it's a place to store the Pixel Tablet when it's not in use; it charges the battery; and it has a louder, fuller speaker better suited for communal listening than the speakers that are built into the tablet. If you're playing music or watching a video on the tablet when you put it on the dock, it will seamlessly transfer the audio to the dock's speaker. Pull the tablet off the dock while something is playing, and it will instantly switch to the tablet's speakers.
When mounted on the speaker dock, the Pixel Tablet looks an awful lot like the Nest Hub Max, a $250 smart display that Google released back in 2019. But make no mistake, the Pixel Tablet is an Android tablet and not a smart display -- it runs completely different software and has different capabilities compared to the Nest Hub. That said, when the tablet is docked on the speaker, it can show a slideshow of images from your Google Photos albums just like the Nest Hub. It 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. The lock screen won't show any personal information like notifications -- for that, you'll have to unlock the tablet to access the accounts that are set up on it. The $499 slab is available for preorder starting today, and will begin shipping on June 20th.
Bundled in the box with the Pixel Tablet is a magnetic speaker dock. This serves multiple purposes and is meant to prevent the dreaded "dead tablet in a drawer" syndrome: it's a place to store the Pixel Tablet when it's not in use; it charges the battery; and it has a louder, fuller speaker better suited for communal listening than the speakers that are built into the tablet. If you're playing music or watching a video on the tablet when you put it on the dock, it will seamlessly transfer the audio to the dock's speaker. Pull the tablet off the dock while something is playing, and it will instantly switch to the tablet's speakers.
When mounted on the speaker dock, the Pixel Tablet looks an awful lot like the Nest Hub Max, a $250 smart display that Google released back in 2019. But make no mistake, the Pixel Tablet is an Android tablet and not a smart display -- it runs completely different software and has different capabilities compared to the Nest Hub. That said, when the tablet is docked on the speaker, it can show a slideshow of images from your Google Photos albums just like the Nest Hub. It 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. The lock screen won't show any personal information like notifications -- for that, you'll have to unlock the tablet to access the accounts that are set up on it. The $499 slab is available for preorder starting today, and will begin shipping on June 20th.
Three pixel stories on the home page? (Score:1, Troll)
Re:Three pixel stories on the home page? (Score:5, Informative)
Inconceivable that a tech news site could actually cover, you know, tech news?
You know there was a big Google tech event today, right?
"but will it fold?" (Score:1)
A tech news site, a website actually dedicated to bringing technology news? Yes. slashdot, owned by too-lame-to-name slashdot? No.
And, you know, even then a "tech news site" could just as well cover that "big google tech event" in one article and give a good overview of the high points. If not in lieu of all the slashvertisements, then at least first so the readership knows what's coming.
And that's not what's happening here. This is just fawning. Journalism isn't hard you if put some effort in it and foc
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Re: Three pixel stories on the home page? (Score:1)
Re: Three pixel stories on the home page? (Score:2)
Alphabet pinkie-swears they're not monitoring your porn consumption habits on these devices.
A 16:10 ratio display? (Score:3)
I just want the monitor.
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Re:A 16:10 ratio display? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not 100% surprising that outfits with an 'ecosystem' to consider would really you rather not reduce their pet device to a dumb output for a different computer; especially if they have some sort of software-level screen mirroring/'casting'/similar continuity behavior; but it's downright weird how, even in mystery ODM land, there appear to be no "why not reuse the tooling and half the components to produce a monitor variant?" products that run parallel to a tablet design but swap out the full system board for a dumber video in/panel driver board.
It's even weirder given that purpose-built portable monitors exist; and some of them are actually pretty expensive for what's often a worse panel than you'd get in a cheap tablet; which seems like an opportunity that someone who already has a tablet design available and has no particular love for the OS they are shoving in there might try to take advantage of.
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Same with lapdocks (a laptop shaped screen / keyboard combo); for a while there was a real hype around these things, the idea being that people would plug their powerful smart phones into them. And I still want one, I often work on the sofa in the living room, I need a powerful computer, and I’d prefer it not to be a gaming laptop that tries to me
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Re: A 16:10 ratio display? (Score:2)
Dude there's tons of them. Here's a touch screen even
https://www.amazon.com/Touchsc... [amazon.com]
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Huawei sells a 3:2 ratio display at 28" but it's damn expensive and difficult to buy in the USA.
https://consumer.huawei.com/en... [huawei.com]
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It's due to size. All the 16:10 displays are for laptops and tablets. Nobody wants a monitor that small for a desktop. Desktop size monitors use panels from TVs, which are all 16:9.
Ultrawide monitors exist, because there is demand for them. For whatever reason the manufacturers don't seem to think that there is enough demand for 16:10 desktop size panels. Someone needs to come up with a cool sounding name for them, like "ultrawide" did for those monitors. Most consumers don't really know what 16:9 is, but t
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Well, "they" used to make 16:10 in a decent size.
I have 2 of these Samsung 226BW [newegg.com] 22" purchased in 2007. Had to replace the power board on one last year. They still work great, but I've been looking for something with a little higher resolution lately. They're 1680x1050 max.
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I too have an old 1920x1200 pixel monitor. I recall it being expensive. My guess would be that as they moved to 1440p and 4k, they didn't keep producing 16:10 panels due to low demand. They didn't sell enough of the 1200p ones to justify making them.
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No audio jack (Score:4, Informative)
No audio jack,no card slot, 6 GB ram, fuck them.
Re: No audio jack (Score:2)
+1000
Re:No audio jack (Score:5, Interesting)
It has 8GB RAM. I think it looks good. It comes in 128GB and 256GB versions and I don't think I'd need more storage on my tablet than I do on my phone, where I take all my pictures and videos.
Android Tablets are dire and have been for years. New tablets from major manufacturers are still launching with slow CPUs, 2GB RAM, mono speakers.
This thing has tensor G2, 8GB RAM, quad speakers, a loud speaker base, enough storage for me anyway. It's one of he first nice tablets I've seen since the Nexus 7 in 2013. Most manufacturers since have just built cheap crap, and this isn't even that expensive.
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Yep, seems like finally somebody thought it reasonable to put something reasonably recent into a tablet. The only thing that bums me out is the display. Chinese $250 tablets can do AMOLED along with somewhat sane specs for media use [xda-developers.com], but google for some reason can't?
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Yeah, I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e, and was considering replacing it with a Pixel, but the LCD display is a rather big "meh".
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The RAM is fine. Not having a card slot or audio jack isn't. It makes the effective lifespan of the device shorter by reducing the number of things I can do with it in its old age. Maybe it's fine with you, but one thing or the other is going to disqualify it for a lot of people.
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I think your estimate of "a lot" is rather off. Phones have shown that the vast majority of customers don't care about either of those things If you simply MUST have wired headphones, use a USB-C adapter (it sounds like this supports the passive pinout adapter rather than needing an active USB-C audio device).
What can you do with an old Android tablet that has a microSD slot that you cannot do with one that doesn't (but still has 256G of flash)? Back when I had phones with a slot and put a card in it, I ten
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I've ended up buying a couple bluetooth receivers instead, although it's one more thing to recharge.
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They stick out so far you can't put your phone in your pocket
Is your phone sideways in your pocket? The headphone cord sticks out a lot further I'd imagine...
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I own a couple of the google usb-c audio adapters, and they constantly disconnect on a little jiggle and stop the whole playback. Super irritating. The headphone jack is such a nice, standard cheap solution for this situation, leaving it off a playback device like a tablet is crazy.
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It has Bluetooth and a USB-C port. If you really want to use wired headphones you can use an in-line DAC. Google will sell you one for $12:
https://store.google.com/us/pr... [google.com]
Or you can use any Bluetooth receiver dongle with a 3.5mm output. Amazon has tons of them.
I know we all love 3.5mm ports. I love 3.5mm ports. But that doesn't make every new device crap on the sole basis they don't have one, especially when there's easy workarounds.
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Which means a shitty $150 tablet from $(BIG_NAME) is better than this tablet despite it's poorer performance, crappier screen, and lower memory. Because those tablets have a headphone jack.
Sure, if you're okay with crappy stereo.
My Bluetooth earbuds support spatial audio, simulating full ATMOS audio with head position tracking. It's so good I sometimes find myself almost turning to check out that sudden sound behind me. Headphone jacks are limited to analog-only stereo audio and are going to fall further and further behind state of the art headphone audio.
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Why would you need a microSD slot in a friggin tablet?
Overpriced much? (Score:2)
Product for people that always have to have it, even when it makes no sense.
Re: Overpriced much? (Score:2)
Overpriced for you? Yes. Overpriced for anybody else on the planet? How would you know?
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By looking at the existing market and what this thing is supposed to do? The extremely popular 11" ipad is $100 less. Here for your hundred bucks you get a dock and a crappy tablet OS.
Re: Overpriced much? (Score:2)
Sure. But for many iPad is a no go for a variety of legitimate reasons.
I probably have a somewhat unusual position: I'm both an iPad guy and a Mac guy. You might think I'd dread Android competition but the reality is iPads have grown more useful to me because they're competing. For example: I've been able to hook up sd cards, a mouse, ethernet, an extra monitor, and even got a proper file browser all because of that battle.
Is it worth it to me, hell no. But I bet my opposite exists that is thrilled ove
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If you have to ask, you are too stupid to understand the answer. This one is obvious. Just apparently not to you.
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Heh. Gatekeeping over an Android tablet. Elite.
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Nope. Just pointing out that a stupid question is a stupid question.
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Heh! That wasn't how you phrased it.
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Well, you may just have not understood my answer. Whether you did not care enough or have some mental limitation there, I cannot tell.
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Yep, it's totally my fault your elaboration didn't cover the words you used.
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It's the cost-benefit analysis that perplexes me more than the absolute price. Presumably everyone buying these already has a TV and/or computer with a bigger screen, and a smartphone.
I've seen 2 use cases in the wild: Kids using them as a game platform on airplanes. And a woman that still lived with her mom, and mom didn't want her smoking inside, so she would take the tablet to the back yard to watch YouTube while smoking.
Children must make up a good chunk of the market, and people who think like children
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I could save any videos or music that I come across during my daily browsing to play on the dock with the big speakers that's stationed in the kitchen while I make dinner.
There, now you have 3 use cases.
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Your phone isn't capable of that?
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I really only use my phone for making phone calls and taking pictures. Browsing I do on my tablet, because I like the bigger screen.
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I am a dad and the kids I see, all of them use smart phones, not tablets.
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My tablet will occasionally end up in the kitchen, so I can watch stuff while coo
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I have a Samsung tablet, and I use it a lot more around the house than my phone. It's a lot more convenient form-factor that a phone (has a stand in the case, bigger screen is easier to see at a glance, both mean for example I can look at stuff while eating or such), and much better than a notebook computer for casual consumption (a notebook is better for more involved stuff, but lots of things don't need a keyboard/touchpad, making that a big bulk in the way). Battery life of a tablet (even at 4 years, whe
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Very presumptuous of you to believe that you are the sole arbiter of what this sort of device is for.
I have a TV in my bedroom, but it's always in the wrong place, and it's too bright. If I'm not on call, I don't take my smartphone to the bedroom. Heresy, I know, but I get more sleep that way, as I'm not up until all hours madly checking my face/snap/twit/tok(s). For that matter, when I *am* on-call, the phone still stays in the other end of the house, but it's fully charged and the notification is a bit
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This thing... I like the speaker dock, that seems genuinely nice. I could picture myself using this as a second screen on my desk, propped up on that dock. And you need the dock speaker, because apparently this thing doesn't have a headphone jack. But for $500 I could do better. There are a lot of available options in that p
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This. When I replaced my Nexus 7 there were not many good choices at the $200 price point. I went with a Samsung and still wish for a Nexus upgrade.
Order now! (Score:4, Funny)
Before they kill it!
Slate? Slab? (Score:2)
Why are the words 'slate' and 'slab' used like they're somehow more descriptive of the product, like I wouldn't know what a 'tablet' is without these identifiers?
Indeed, I think the nomenclature is pretty established now: they're tablets. That's what everyone calls them. I get that you're going to run into semantic satiation pretty quick if the only word you use is 'tablet', but I don't think either of those other words makes any sense.
Re: Slate? Slab? (Score:3)
I don't know if anyone interprets it this way, but to me a slate should include a stylus. The term was used back in the day for the non-digital version used in schools. It continued to be used in the age of archaic tablet devices during the period before modern touch interfaces. It fell out of use around the same time styluses did. I guess I just assumed the reason was that we no longer used them like old school slates.
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The lack of a pen does seem like a bit of an oversight, although often the pens are ridiculously priced and over-spec'ed. I suppose if the software supports handwriting input you can just use a cheap passive stylus. For writing it doesn't need 4096 pressure levels or extra buttons.
Re: Slate? Slab? (Score:2)
TIL about active styluses (styli?). I always thought they were just pointed tips with the proper conductivity.
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The Register [theregister.com] has called the iPad a "fondleslab" approximately forever, so there's that...
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Well, since it's a fairly large tablet, their choices were "slate" or "suppository".
Processor specs (Score:2)
Processor is a Google Tensor G2. Wikipedia says it has 8 cores:
2 × Cortex-X1 @ 2.85 GHz
2 × Cortex-A78 @ 2.35 GHz
4 × Cortex-A55 @ 1.8 GHz
(The Cortex-X1 is a high-performance variant of the A78.)
Those 4 fast cores have quite a lot of power.
The GPU is a Mali G710, which was ARM’s top-of-the-line only 2 years ago.
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The GPU is a Mali G710, which was ARMâ(TM)s top-of-the-line only 2 years ago.
Mali is great because there are OSS drivers, but Mali is also bad because it is always slower than the competition. Maybe Immortalis will turn that around, although I'm only seeing claims of about a 15% improvement in performance which I don't think does that.
When can I use it as a tombstone? (Score:2)
on the Google Graveyard for my failed projects because Google decides to ditch the underlying API's after a few years?
That's nice dear (Score:2)
Would pay $700 for a 7-inch (Score:2)
I would never buy an 11-inch tablet.
But I would pay top dollar for a powerful, up-to-date (Google only; no OEMs to wait on for updates) tablet.
I fucking hate giant tablets. I want something I can comfortably hold in one hand above my face while I read in bed. 7-inch is a perfect size for my use case, and anything bigger is completely worthless.
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If you want to be effective you're going to have to provide a link to where he supported slavery or something, this is two comments that you've posted like this in this discussion and I'm pretty sure you're just a nutter now
heh (Score:1)
Oh look, the troll account I responded to is a sockpuppet of someone with modpoints.
It's sad that anyone's life can be so empty that they would find that to be a good use of their time.
You knew I was a snake when you let me in (Score:1)
I can't even imagine buying the actual hardware from the capture-everything data-hoovers. They decided to Be Evil, and trust is lost.
I want this, but from Apple (Score:1)
GrapheneOS? (Score:2)
I hope the GrapheneOS guys make a release for it. When these fail to make money, just like the Amazon spyware boxes, maybe I can get a couple of them on firesale to use as home automation dashboards.
The charging stand is a key positive (Score:2)
Smaller option... (Score:2)
I sure do wish that they were offering a 7" - 8" version of this tablet. 10 years later and no Android tablet has done a good job of replacing the Nexus 7 2013.