Google teased an upcoming Pixel tablet during its I/O 2022 event, something that’ll join Android 13 in revitalizing the Android tablet market.
Google revealed quite a few upcoming devices at the start of its annual I/O developers’ conference. Some, like the Pixel 6a and Pixel Buds Pro, were totally expected given the company’s usual cadence. It was rather surprising, however, that Google also teased not only the Pixel 7 but, more importantly, the Pixel Watch. What was completely unexpected, however, was the revelation that Google does indeed have a new tablet in the works, the first Pixel tablet in a long time. There were, of course, rumors, leaks, and even concepts of what this new «Pixel Slate» would look like, but it remains to be seen if it will live up to expectations. What’s more significant, however, is the confirmation that Google is finally putting a heavy focus on tablets after years of making slates feel like second-class Android citizens. Much like Apple, Google didn’t pay tablets too much attention when they first came out. In fact, the very first hardware from the likes of Samsung was seen simply as gigantic Android phones. Samsung had to bend over backward with TouchWiz to support large displays, taking its custom UX further away from vanilla Android.
