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Google has made its long awaited return to Tablets. And it comes just a few years after Google said it was giving up on tablets. Google has made some of the best, but also some of the worst tablets, in the past decade or so. Many of us loved the Nexus 7 tablets that were made by ASUS. But then, Google’s own Pixel C tablet was one many of us want to forget. So where does the Pixel Tablet fall?
With the Pixel Tablet, Google decided to change approaches. While most companies making tablets are looking to make them a “laptop replacement”, Google on the other hand isn’t trying to do that. Instead, the Pixel Tablet comes with a speaker dock that allows it to turn into a smart display, just don’t tell Google that. Google keeps telling us that it is not a smart display replacement, even though it is basically almost one.
So the real question here is, whether that is enough to get customers to buy one over a Galaxy Tab or an iPad? Let’s find out in our full review.
Google Pixel Tablet review: Hardware
When Google first teased the Pixel Tablet about a year ago, many of us though that it looked like a cheap tablet. Due to the backing looking like it was made of plastic. It’s not actually plastic. Instead, it is made of premium quality aluminum that does have a nice nano-ceramic coating. Which does feel really great in the hand, though I feel like most of us will keep it in a case anyways, to protect the tablet.
We have the Hazel model here which looks and feels really nice in the hand. Somehow, Google has managed to keep the Pixel Tablet fairly lightweight. Now it’s not the most lightweight tablet on the market, but for its size, it does feel very light. This is one you can hold in your hands for hours on end without it becoming super heavy in the hand. Unlike some other tablets on the market these days.
On the back, it’s a pretty clean design. Basically only having the Google logo in the center, with pins below it for the speaker dock. And the camera is in the corner. On the left side, you’ll find the power button/fingerprint reader, along with the volume rocker. The bottom houses the USB-C port, along with a couple of speakers on each side. And that’s it. It’s a pretty clean design, which is honestly really impressive for Google here.
And with the speaker dock, you’ll probably never use that USB-C port. In my time testing out the Pixel Tablet, I can say I used it twice. And I probably won’t use it again, because I just slap it on the dock to charge when needed.
The speaker dock is small but powerful
When Google announced the Pixel Tablet, quite a few of us were relieved to see that the dock was included in the box. Now the dock can be purchased by itself for $130, which really brings down the price of the tablet to a technicial price of around $370. Which does make it easier to forgive some shortcomings.
But the speaker dock is really powerful. Without changing the volume, you can immediately hear the difference of the speakers on the Pixel Tablet versus the speaker dock. It’s louder and full of more bass. Which given that it has more space, that makes a ton of sense. We’ll talk more about the dock in the software section, as it is a big part of the software here.
With the Pixel Tablet, Google is hoping that everyone will dock it when it is not in use. This is because the majority of us only use a tablet for a few hours a day, and then it sits idle on a table, desk or somewhere else. So Google is wanting to train us to remember to put it on the dock when we’re done with it. Making battery life less of a problem. It makes sense, but will it catch on, is another thing.
Pixel Tablet Case
Along with the Hazel Pixel Tablet, Google also sent over a Porcelain colored Pixel Tablet Case. This is the soft-touch TPU case that has the built-in stand. Now, I’ll be honest here, I’m not a huge fan of the design of this case. Having that big metal ring on the back so it can dock without removing the case, is not my favorite thing. But I do think it’s the most functional way to do this.
On my iPad Air, I have the Nomad Leather Folio case. Which is great, because it folds on the back to give me a nice stand. Making it easy to watch movies in bed, on a plane, and really anywhere. But, it’s only available at one angle. With the Pixel Tablet Case, that metal ring is strong enough to be used in almost any position. And, it’s not in the way when you go to dock the tablet. Unlike the Folio case for my iPad Air, which covers the front of the tablet.
The ring on the back does also make it a little easier to hold onto the tablet, since it is a fairly large tablet, coming in at about 11-inches.
There’s really only two issues I have with this case, and they are things I can kind of work around. One is the power button. That power button is the fingerprint sensor, so it’s pretty important, and it can sometimes be tough to use, with the case on. The other thing is, this is a soft-touch plastic case. And that means it attracts everything. And in this porcelain color, you definitely see all the dirt, dust, and pet hair on it. On top of that, it’s pretty tough to get off of the case.
But it is a good, and not too expensive case. It is $79, which for many, might seem like a lot, but if we compare it to Apple and Samsung. Apple charges $79 for it, and Samsung charges at least $79 for a similar case. It’s actual Book Cover case is $199. So it fits right in with the competition.
Google Pixel Tablet review: Display
This display is actually really impressive. I have an iPad Air, which retails for $599, and the Pixel Tablet for $499. I honestly did not expect the Pixel Tablet to have a better display than the iPad Air.
The display is basically the same size as my iPad Air. Both are 10.95-inch displays at a 16:10 aspect ratio. But the Pixel Tablet’s display seems to be more responsive, with better color reproduction, and all around it just looks better. Whether I’m watching YouTube on it, using it as a photo frame and listening to Spotify, or actually interacting with it on Twitter and Instagram, it just screams premium.
With a tablet, the brightness isn’t that big of a deal, as you’re less likely to take it outside, but at 500 nits of brightness, I would like it to get a bit brighter in some circumstances. But for most things, it does get plenty bright.
This is a 2560×1600 resolution display, giving you about 276 pixels per inch here. That’s going to make it super tough to find individual pixels on this display. Making the video watching experience even better.
Google Pixel Tablet review: Performance
Happy to report that the performance on the Pixel Tablet is actually really good. In reviewing Pixels since the move to Tensor, I’ve been pretty unhappy with the performance. It seems to be pretty sluggish, and battery life is also typically pretty poor. It was really evident on the Pixel 7a that I reviewed last month. But somehow, on the Pixel Tablet, it’s the opposite.
It’s tough to say whether Google made some changes to the Tensor G2 chipset on the Tablet, or maybe its due to a different group of apps being installed on the Tablet, or something else. But it feels much more snappy than my Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 7a.
Along with that Tensor G2 processor, it also has 8GB of RAM included. While some tablets do come with more, most in this price range are closer to 6GB. So this is a good move by Google. And it does help to keep apps in memory a bit more than on the Pixel 7 Pro.
Google Pixel Tablet review: Battery life and portability
With the Pixel Tablet, Google wants us to use the tablet, and put it on the dock when we’re done with it, so it’s fully charged and ready to go once we want to use it again. So how well does that work? Well, quite well. Now, I have been keeping the dock on my desk in the basement, and using the tablet upstairs at night to watch Netflix and YouTube – basically what my iPad Air does currently. And it works quite well. Charges during the day, and then discharges in the evening into the night.
But what if you’re traveling and aren’t taking the dock with you, how well does the battery last? Over the weekend I used it for streaming, browsing Twitter and Instagram, as well as some TikTok, and was quite happy with it lasting the full weekend and about 7 hours of screen on time. With still having about 45% left. That’s pretty good for a tablet.
Try not to compare this battery life to the Pixel 7 Pro or even the Pixel 7a, because it’s not a phone. Phones have to use battery for other things like finding a mobile signal, and cellular standby. Plus they typically have more apps on-board, versus a tablet.
In the gallery above, you’ll see a few battery cycles, including one where I was in a Google Meet meeting for about two hours. And it hilariously used 75% of the battery (that was used, around 39%). That’s pretty common for Google Meet though, on a tablet.
This doesn’t charge super fast, limited to 15W over the USB-C port or via the dock. But that’s plenty fast for a tablet. Since it’s something you’re likely keeping longer than a couple of years, this is a good move to protect the battery. When you dock it, the dock will only charge the tablet to 90%. That is to keep the battery in tip-top shape. But if you go into Settings and tap on Battery, you can opt to have charge to full for that particular charging session. After that, it’ll go back to charging to 90% the next time you dock it.
Google Pixel Tablet review: Software
The software on the Pixel Tablet is Android 13, it doesn’t have support for the Android 14 beta just yet. But it will get updated to Android 14, as well as Android 15 and 16. Google has promised three Android updates, and four years of security updates.
We have reviewed the software on Android 13 quite a few times already, so what we’re mostly going to focus on here is going to be the tablet-optimized part of the system. And how Google has changed Android to take better advantage of this larger display.
After it introduced Android 12 back in 2022, it then started development on Android 12L. It was a feature drop update that was bringing in some new features to make Android take better advantage of larger screens on foldables and tablets. And a lot of those features are available here too.
First off, on the home screen. The home screen has a Google search bar on the left of the dock. This is not removable, at least not without installing a third-party launcher. There’s still room for six apps to the right of the search bar. And of course, another six per row above the dock.
When you jump into the recents screen, you’ll see the currently active app front-and-center. With the usual options below for screenshot, select and split screen. There’s also a floating dock below it with the apps from your dock, as well as a button to bring up the app drawer. Now to the left of the currently active app, you’ll find your more recent apps that you can easily switch to.
To enter split screen, just tap on the “Split” option from the recents menu. It’ll select that app and then have you select another. So you could do like TikTok and Twitter in split screen. Now you can tap the bar in the center to swap the apps, or drag the bar to adjust how much screen each app uses up.
Google also has a number of widgets that do support tablets. Like the Google TV widget is a lot larger and offers more information here. Google Calendar also has a widget that shows your entire calendar for the month. Though Google Calendar still hasn’t launched its Material You widgets just yet.
Many apps aren’t tablet-optimized
Now, before the Pixel Tablet, I had already known that there weren’t many tablet-optimized apps, but this really put things in perspective. Apps like Twitter and Instagram just show up as a phone app in the center of the screen in landscape. And you can tap to bring it to the left or right. It’s okay in landscape, but this really tells me that you should only use it in split screen in landscape. Now in portrait mode, they are stretched out, so you just have a massive tweet across your screen.
Some Google apps are optimized for tablets, but many are not. Like YouTube Music. It’s not optimized, so instead, you’re getting a super stretched out app. But in a music app, I don’t think that’s as big of a deal, since it’s just a scrolling list of music, playlists and more anyways. Spotify and Apple Music are better optimized however.
The important apps, though, like Gmail and Chrome are optimized for tablets. Which is really good to see. And those are apps you’ll likely use more than some of the others, but not as much as a streaming app.
Pixel Tablet dock is a great addition
So the dock for the Pixel Tablet is a really great addition to this tablet. And I wish more tablets would add this hardware to their tablet. But the software is also really good. There’s a new software section inside the Settings app for the Hub. Right below the “Network & Internet”, there’s a new “Hub Mode” available.
Within the Hub Mode Settings, you’ll be able to adjust what screen saver it shows. This includes art gallery, full screen clock, weather and the weather frog. There’s also Google Photos available. So you can choose photos and/or albums to show on the screensaver. I’ve used it to show an auto-updating album of my dog. Which is really cool to have here.
There’s also options to show At a Glance things like reminders, alerts and more from the Google Assistant. There’s more settings for Cast, Google Assistant, the Lock Screen and much more. And at the bottom, you can find the option for software updates for the dock.
Chromecast built-in is such a clutch feature
When the Pixel Tablet was announced, the feature I was looking forward to more than the dock was, Chromecast. Chromecast is a feature that Google developed well over a decade ago, and it still works so seamlessly. And it’s surprising that it never made it into a tablet before now. But basically, with the Pixel Tablet, you can Cast virtually anything from another device to your tablet.
What I tend to use it for, is casting YouTube and Disney+ to the Tablet. Even though I could simply open the app and do it on the tablet itself. It’s nice to know, I don’t need to.
Casting works just as you’d expect it to on the Pixel Tablet. Just tap on the Cast button, and choose your Pixel Tablet, and it’s ready to go. That’s how Cast has always been meant to work, so this should come as no surprise, really.
It’s not a feature that a tablet needs to have, but if you plan to use it for streaming, or as a second display on a desk, it can be super useful. And it really doesn’t cost a company like Google, anything to add it into the tablet. Hopefully we see this come to more and more tablets.
Google Pixel Tablet review: Camera
Google didn’t focus a lot on the cameras of the Pixel Tablet, and honestly, they shouldn’t. The company doesn’t want to talk people into using a tablet to take photos at a soccer game. On a tablet, the front-facing camera is more important, in my opinion. That’s the camera you are going to use for video calls with Google Meet, Zoom and others. And that camera is pretty good. I’ve used it for a few Google Meet video calls, and it looked pretty good. Obviously, users could tell it wasn’t my 4K Razer Kiyo Pro webcam, but it wasn’t a potato cam like most laptops have.
The rear camera is also a 8-megapixel sensor, and it takes okay pictures. Obviously, the Pixel 7 Pro is going to take better photos. The only real advantage the Pixel Tablet has is the fact that it does have that huge display to use for the viewfinder, which can be really nice to have.
Just please don’t use the Pixel Tablet as your camera. Use it for video calls, and maybe the occasional picture.
Should you buy the Google Pixel Tablet?
It’s easy to say that the Pixel Tablet is also a smart display, but according to Google, it is not a Nest Hub replacement. A key reason for that is because it does not have Thread or Matter support in the dock. So, if you are thinking of buying this tablet, buy it for the tablet and as a secondary smart display or smart home hub. As a tablet, it’s a really impressive product, and will only get better with more updates.
You should buy the Google Pixel Tablet if:
- You want a good Android tablet.
- You are heavily invested in the Google or smart home ecosystem.
- You like the idea of having a smart display that you can take with you.
You shouldn’t buy the Google Pixel Tablet if:
- You want the most powerful Android-powered tablet.
- You want a tablet that can replace your laptop.