Announced today, the Google Pixel Tablet arrives in select markets with a $499 price tag. Pre-orders begin today with availability expected in June. The 11-inch Android slate is bundled with a Charging Speaker Dock. ($129 separately), turning the device into a smart home hub. Google has also improved the Google Home experience with an updated user interface. All in all, this sounds great. And for some, this might be a better home hub than the prior Google Nest Hub products.
Digging into the details, however, I feel a little let down. Google took a half-step forward here when it could have taken a full one when it comes to the smart home.
Right off the bat, I struggle with the device itself. Or rather, I feel as though the device is struggling because it doesn’t know what it wants to be. Yes, it’s a tablet. Yes, there’s a charging dock with larger speakers for improved sound quality. Google says to expect four times the bass when using the tablet on the dock. So it’s a smart home display at times and it’s a family shared tablet at others. Ok.
Is the Pixel Tablet a better tablet than other Android slates though? Given the 2560 x 1600 high-resolution display and Tensor G2 processor inside I’d say, maybe.
There are other high-end Android tablets on the market that are more than adequate for everyday tasks on Android. The 11-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 costs more at $629.99 but uses a fast 120 Hz panel and supports digital writing with a Samsung S-Pen. The Google Pixel Tablet has a traditional LCD screen that works with an optional USI stylus. Samsung’s tablet is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, which is certainly capable silicon.
Regardless of hardware and capabilities, I’d have to test the Pixel Tablet to see how it compares to other Android tablets. For now, I’d say it appears at least comparable to other available Android tablet options.
But wait, you say: This is a smart home display and hub! Well, yes… and no, in my opinion. I say that for a few reasons.
On a briefing call with Google last week, the company said that based on its research, people leave tablets around the home, away from their charging cables. The idea of the Charging Speaker Dock is essentially to solve the problem of home-based tablets not having a charge when someone wants to use them.
Yes the dock will fix that problem provided the Pixel Tablet is returned to the dock for charging after usage. In my house, that’s how we charge our devices, only we don’t dock them, we plug them in. A dock would be nice for us, but it’s not necessary. However, I know some people will appreciate the simplicity of a docking charger.
The Charging Speaker Dock also, as the name implies, has louder speakers than the tablet itself. So you’ll get better sound from content or the Google Assistant when the tablet is docked. You’ll also get the new Google Home interface which is redesigned for what looks to be an improved experience.
Here is where I feel that Google didn’t push this product far enough though because I see several missing opportunities.
The smart home Hub Mode is only available when the Pixel Tablet is in the Charging Speaker Dock, for starters. That’s a shame because it sounds quite useful from Google’s description:
“When it’s in Hub Mode, tap the Google Home icon to access all of your compatible smart home devices so you can view your video doorbell feed, adjust your thermostat or turn on the living room lights. You’ll see the same devices in your “Favorites” tab in the Google Home app that’s available for anyone to use starting today.”
Note the first phrase: “When it’s in Hub Mode.” Why does the Pixel Tablet need a second piece of hardware to be in Hub Mode? Why have one smart home experience when away from the dock and another when charging in the dock?
Keep in mind as well that the Google Home app improvements won’t be exclusive to the Pixel Tablet. Google says, “Alongside the new Pixel Tablet, we will be rolling out a more optimized version of the Google Home app for tablets. With improvements across all five tabs, other highly used screens across the app and support for landscape and portrait orientations, users will be able to seamlessly navigate their smart home while on their tablet.”
Next is more of a semantics issue although it again points to the confusion of what the devices are.for. The Pixel Tablet is “the first tablet with Chromecast built-in, so you can cast videos or music from your phone to the tablet when it’s in Hub Mode” according to Google.
Technically, that sounds correct. I don’t know of another Android tablet that works as a Chromecast receiver. Does it really matter though if the tablet is must be docked to start receiving casted content?
While it makes sense that you might want to stream content from a phone to docked tablet with larger display, it seems a little disingenuous to call this “the first tablet with Chromecast built in” if docking of the tablet is required for startup. And, every Google Home smart display is also a Chromecast receiver. So there’s nothing really new here from the user experience perspective.
Finally, let’s talk about smart home specific radios and features in both the Pixel Tablet and Charging Speaker Dock. The Pixel Tablet doesn’t use Project Soli or but the specs show an ultra wideband radio “for ranging.” So the gesture-based UI I’d like to see isn’t coming to the smart home today.
I can live with that. However, the Charging Speaker Dock only does the two things that its name implied: charges the tablet and offers better sound. It’s not a “smart” dock by any means. Without the tablet it just sits there; it’s not even a Google Assistant speaker.
So there isn’t a Thread radio inside, which I think is a missed opportunity. More so when you consider that the dock will likely always be plugged into an outlet. It’s the perfect type of device to be a full-fledged Thread Border Router for the Matter standard. The dock could have also been a mesh networking access point for the Google Nest Wi-Fi Pro system. It’s not.
Essentially, the dock does one thing for the smart home and that’s to show the Hub Mode interface when the Pixel Tablet is attached. Again, others might be OK with that.
For me, it’s a disappointment because it really doesn’t make for a compelling argument to replace any older Google Home smart displays. Had the dock been “smarter” with either Thread support or being an additional Wi-Fi mesh access point, I’d feel differently.
Unfortunately, the Pixel Tablet is little more than Google’s new tablet with its own silicon inside. And while the Charging Speaker Dock doesn’t over advertise its capabilities in its name, it doesn’t wow me with what it does.
Instead, it makes me question what Google is trying to achieve here other than slick marketing to push hardware upgrades. Unless you want a family-based tablet and a place to dock it, I don’t see much that’s compelling for the smart home.
All in all, it appears to me that Google is playing it a little too safe and conservative, particularly from a smart home perspective. And given that the Matter standard needs more device support to really shine, that’s a shame. Now isn’t the time to play it safe with hardware in the home. Now is the time to push the new standards and experiences forward. That’s not really what I see from these new Google products. Hopefully, taking them for a review will show me something to change my mind.
So wait, the Google Tablet Dock isn’t even a Google Speaker? So if someone in my house hold takes the tablet off….I can’t say “Ok Google Play Music” because the tablet is needed? If so…this dock is USELESS….
Exactly the points I have been raising – and it makes me question, how on earth they have arrived the figure of $129 for the dock (yes I know one comes free with the tablet). It doesn’t have any network capability, which means it could never be a border router. It can never be a smart speaker. It’s not just that the functionality hasn’t been enabled yet – it lacks the hardware completely.
So $129 for a magnetic charger and a speaker?
The Nest Audio costs less than this and I’m pretty certain will still outperform the speaker in this dock.
Google went completely Apple on this IO. The pricing, the lack of content that try to look innovative. The pixel fold, nobody will pay that when Samsung does it for half the price.
Actually Apple tablet pricing is now ok. Google just went bananas…
In my opinion, your complaints feel mostly semantic, assuming the worst out of not-specifically-elaborated-details. Like the issue of hub mode or non-hub most? Do you even have a nest hub max? I would hate to have to utilize the hub mode UI when trying to use it as a tablet. The hub UI is designed to be largely simple for anyone to see and navigate without knowing then UI ins and outs.
You say the dock for a tablet to remain charged is a non-issue to you. You’re a tech blogger. Likely in tech savvy home reviewing tech products. So yea, you have a place for these devices to be charged regularly.
Most people are not in this situation. They want devices that work, they haven’t organized a “charging station” that’s out in the open, or protocols with their family. Some people want these things, but want them hidden.
I could speak to the exact opposite of your complaints here. I have a nest hub max. Love it. My favorite feature is that it’s a device which has a nearly solitary existence in my kitchen dedicated to being a timer, home control, music player, and video chat device. The continuous framing is also an incredible feature for me being far from family and enjoying video chat at the dinner table. My biggest issue has been the lack of portability. I’m on a call but my kid leaves to do something, I want to follow, but I’m tied to the power cord or I have to drop call and switch to my phone. I told highly multiple times that their next person of the nest hub needs a battery for ease with that.
As for tablets… I have a galaxy tab a from about 2016. For a good couple years I got use from it for many things. Generally just to provide me with a larger screen. After a couple years it was only really useful for watching content. It turned to be put aside, except for long trips away, or for flights. It lived in that drawer, described at IO with my wife’s now 3 year old iPad mini.
I’m not going to assume everyone is me, but Google has done their research. I’m sure they know their market.
I wanted a new hub, that was quicker and portable. I also wanted a tablet that was typically available and ready to go.
My only true gripe is that google still clings to Chromecast protocol. If I’m on the road somewhere or in the middle of nowhere, if I want to cast to this device, I have to use one device to create a hotspot, connect the pixel tab to that network. And connect another device to that network to cast to it…
So that’s me. Family oriented user.
Jeff, that’s totally fair. And I do understand your viewpoint. In the case you outlined, the Pixel Tablet looks like it would work well. I don’t think it’s just “tech bloggers” that have their devices charged all or most of the time, but who knows. Google says it has research suggesting most tablets don’t have a charge when they’re ready to be used; I have no research on this, of course. I don’t have a Nest Hub Max but do have a few smaller Nest Hubs. I really don’t need them to be portable because I already have a tablet with continuous framing. Not everyone does, of course. I didn’t say that nobody should purchase the Pixel Tablet; for some, like yourself, it makes sense. For our general audience, which is more tech savvy and not new to smart homes, the Pixel Tablet doesn’t really push the envelope when it could have. I think that’s the big takeaway here. Cheers!