after, after some stations And the Startedgoogle Back to tablets, but with a smart home touch. The company first teased the upcoming Pixel Tablet at I/O this year, saying the device will launch in 2023. Although that release window is at least several months away, Google has been eager to share more details at its launch event. devices today.
Rose Yao, Google’s vice president of product management, said during the keynote that the company is considering the tablet as part of its Pixel family of products, and that it doesn’t feel complete without a “big screen device.” This might be confusing if you remember a file ominous pixel slate And the Pixelbookwhich were Pixel-branded “big-screen” devices.
Like other Pixel devices, the tablet will serve as a canvas for Google’s own expression of Android. And as the company already hinted at this year’s developer conference, the tablet will be powered by the same Tensor G2 chip found in flagship phones. Since this is still just an inconvenience, the company still keeps details like screen size, resolution, RAM, and more.
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The Google he is However, willing to share more about the design of the Pixel Tablet. It looks similar to older phones like the Pixel 3, with a rounded rectangular shape and a matte glass back. In fact, Yao said the company had developed a new “nano-ceramic coating” that she said was inspired by the “feel of porcelain.”
In an interview with Engadget, Yao said the best way to think about this finish is to imagine painting on a Le Creuset Dutch oven. She said the Pixel Tablet’s coating should be similarly durable and premium, and that it essentially includes small ceramic shards on the device’s frame, which is made from recycled aluminum. This creates what she said is a “smooth, matte finish” with a “strong feel” that will ease what her team believes is a pain point for the tablets: “They’re really big, rather slippery devices.”
The Pixel Tablet will also run on Android, complete with Material You customization and big-screen-compatible features like split screen and stylus support. When I asked for more information about stylus support, Yao said “we’ll talk about more next year,” though she added that “you can use a third-party stylus.”
The fact that the Pixel Tablet is powered by Tensor, which Yao said is the first time Google has brought its own processor into a different type of product other than a phone, allows for a few different things.
“I have a lot of stories I want to share about what that means,” Yao said. But it can’t at the moment, along with hinting at speech recognition, video calling, photo editing, and image processing as areas to look for.
I also yelled for the assistant, which will be able to “work seamlessly between tablet and phone” thanks to Tensor. But not only that, Google wants you to think of its tablet as a place for an assistant who’s always listening, just as you do with the Nest speaker. Yao said her team noticed how people use the tablets and learned that “tablets are household objects.” According to her, most tablets are at home 80 percent of the time and are only active for a small portion of the time.
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Another thing Yao said was that although tablets tend to stay in people’s homes, “they don’t really have a home at home.” They are often left in drawers or by charging ports, and can be forgotten or obstructed. To create a “really useful 24/7” tablet that would “combine the best of Pixel and home,” Yao said her team made a charging speaker base.
Not only does the base charge the device, but Yao said it “opens up a lot of new experiences and makes the tablet useful all the time.” Her favorite feature is the picture frame, which is similar to the one on the Nest Hub smart display. But the Pixel Tablet also has front and back cameras, which makes it useful for video calling.
Yao said the angle is “really perfect for me,” although based on the photos Google has shown so far, it looks like the camera might shoot at an unflattering upward angle. I also confirmed that the base won’t allow for adjustable angles, so if you don’t like the placement, you probably won’t be able to change it.
“I really think it’s one of the most versatile tablets on the market,” Yao said, adding, “We will talk more next year.” While Google hasn’t shared information like screen size and pricing, we’ll likely find out more sooner than the launch.
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