Google’s quirky hybrid slate is part tablet and part smart display, but is it the best of both worlds? Find out in this Pixel Tablet review.
Google Pixel TabletGoogle Pixel TabletGoogle Pixel Tablet review: At a glance
What is it? The Google Pixel Tablet is the first Android-based tablet from the search giant since 2015’s Pixel C. It comes with a bundled Charging Speaker Dock, which transforms it into a smart display with an improved speaker and Nest Hub-like features. The Pixel Tablet is powered by custom Tensor G2 silicon, has a 10.95-inch LCD display, front and rear 8MP cameras, and a 7,020mAh battery.
What is the price? The Google Pixel Tablet is available from $499 in the US for the base model with 128GB storage, or $599 for the 256GB storage variant. It is priced at £599 in the UK and €679 in selected European markets.
Where can you buy it? You can buy the Pixel Tablet from the Google Store, Amazon, Best Buy, and other major retailers.
How did we test it? I tested the Google Pixel Tablet for two weeks. The review unit was purchased by Android Authority.
Is it worth it? The Google Pixel Tablet’s unique feature set fills a very particular niche. For those that want an authentic Nest Hub experience, the Pixel Tablet isn’t quite there yet, nor is it entirely on the level of other Android tablets in its price range when taken spec-for-spec. But if you’re on a strict $500 budget and in the market for a basic smart display and a simple-to-use, reasonably-sized Android tablet, then the Pixel Tablet is an easy recommendation. Should you buy the Google Pixel Tablet?
As tablets have become larger and more powerful, the leading examples have all crept closer and closer toward the realm of laptops in terms of design and functionality. The Google Pixel Tablet bucks that trend entirely.
Let’s start with the Pixel Tablet’s obvious differentiator: the dock. As an avid tablet user, I’m confident in telling you immediately that it’s the only real reason you might want to part with just shy of $500 to buy the Pixel Tablet. That’s not to say the rest of the deal isn’t pretty good, more so that all of its best bits arise from its hybrid nature as both a portable slate and a pseudo-Google Nest smart display.
Undocked, the Pixel Tablet is just that: everything you’d expect from a Pixel phone (mostly), but larger. But when attached to the pill-shaped face of the Charging Speaker Dock, the Pixel Tablet swaps its already decent quad speakers for the dock’s 43.5mm full-range speaker — the same one found in the regular Google Nest Hub. The audio can fully fill a room and offers decent clarity, though it’s noticeably less punchy than the Nest Hub Max with its dual-tweeter setup.
The tablet is held on the dock by fairly strong magnets. It’ll come loose if you shake it — and sometimes when you press the volume keys — but the grip is tight enough that it won’t come loose even if you bump the edge with quite a bit of force. Aligning the magnets isn’t quite as effortless as Google’s demos led me to believe, but with some practice you’ll find the sweet spot. The princely official case ($79 at Google Store) really helps here as the metal stand acts as a makeshift target for the connection when closed, and while it is expensive, it’s hard to deny it’s the best Pixel Tablet case you can buy. Case or no case, I’ve found the easiest way to detach the tablet from the dock safely is to hold both sides between your thumb and index fingers and use your little and ring fingers to push the back outward from the base.
So far so good for the Nest Hub/tablet idea, but here’s the first issue I and many others have with the setup: when the tablet is separated, the Charging Speaker Dock may have power, but it is a completely dead brick. No Google Assistant, no Bluetooth audio, no Cast. Nothing. Worse still, while you get a dock included with the tablet, putting a second dock on another floor or in another room will set you back a whopping $129. I can’t in all good conscience recommend anyone does this unless Google issues a firmware update to make them do something without a tablet attached, especially when a Nest Hub or Nest Audio can be picked up for less (with change).
Not that you’d know the docked Pixel Tablet wasn’t a Nest Hub in the first place at a quick glance. The overall soft-touch aluminum, pastel-shaded aesthetic is distinctly Google, and while the screen is overall roughly the same size as the larger Nest Hub Max, the thinner, black bezels and sharper screen are a vast improvement over Google’s smart displays. Those bezels aren’t exactly small for a tablet, but they ensure you can hold the tablet in portrait or landscape without ghost touches on the actual display, all without sacrificing too much screen real estate.
I traditionally err toward larger-screen tablets (the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is essentially my home’s portable TV), but the Pixel Tablet’s LCD panel is plenty roomy for all intended purposes, though the slender aspect ratio isn’t as suited to reading books or scrolling social media in portrait orientation — this is a media-centric tablet, without a doubt.
