Google first announced the new Pixel Slate tablet early last month during its big Pixel 3 press conference in New York City. At the time, the Pixel Slate looked like a great addition to Google’s Chrome OS lineup, offering users a high-end tablet to complement the Pixelbook notebook PC.
Google first announced the new Pixel Slate tablet early last month during its big Pixel 3 press conference in New York City. At the time, the Pixel Slate looked like a great addition to Google’s Chrome OS lineup, offering users a high-end tablet to complement the Pixelbook notebook PC. As anyone who has ever used a Pixelbook can confirm, it’s by far the best Chromebook on the planet. While the bulk of the Chromebook models out there look to offer decent specs at bargain-basement prices, the Chromebook is a premium option for people who want more power. This is especially important these days, since so many children go through the education system using Chromebooks provided by their schools. What happens when they get older and they want more power out of the platform they’ve grown to love. The Pixelbook happens, that’s what.
Following Google’s Pixel Slate unveiling nearly two months ago, the company has been quiet about its new Chrome OS tablet. That silence was broken on Tuesday morning, however, when Google announced release details and pricing for its exciting new tablet lineup.
The Pixel Slate is a perfect fit for Google’s Pixel product lineup. Where smartphones and laptops are concerned, the Pixel lineup consists of premium products that offer flagship performance at flagship prices. The company’s Pixel 3 series phones costs as much as $1,000, while the Pixelbook laptop has a retail price that starts at $999 and climbs as high as nearly $2,000. Now, Google has a premium tablet to complement the rest of its premium products.
While tablets with traditional mobile operating systems like Android can be priced as low as $50, Google’s new Pixel Slate starts at $599. That’s still $200 less than the entry-level 2018 iPad Pro model, but it’s a hefty chunk of change. With the Pixel Slate, $599 gets you 4GB of RAM, a 32GB SSD, and an Intel Celeron processor.
Bumping the same chipset up to 8GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD adds $100 to the price tag, and another $100 gets you the same RAM and storage but with a faster 8th-generation Intel Core m3 processor. Then there are two high-end Pixel Slate builds, 8GB RAM/128GB SSD with an 8th-generation Intel Core i5 processor for $999, and 16GB RAM/256GB SSD with an 8th-generation Intel Core i7 processor for $1,599.
The Core i7 build is the most powerful Chrome OS device on the planet. Apple doesn’t yet offer a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Intel’s 8th-generation Core i7 processor, but a similar build with Intel’s Core i5 costs more than $2,000.
Google sent me the Intel Core i5 powered version of the Pixel Slate to review, which isn’t the top-of-the-line model but still provides more than enough power to get a feel for what the Pixel Slate can do. Unfortunately, review units were delayed until last week, and Black Friday week happens to be one of BGR’s busiest weeks of the year. As a result, I haven’t had much time to spend testing the Pixel Slate. I have spent enough time with it to whip up an abridged review though, so I’ll run through the most important things you need to know if you’re considering the Pixel Slate.
