After more than a year of teasing, Google has launched its Pixel Tablet. We tested this unique tablet, which comes with a charging dock that effectively turns it into a Google Nest. Should you buy it? Here's our full review.
For the past year or two, Google has been launching a steady stream of new products. After the Pixel Watch and the Pixel Fold, here comes the Pixel Tablet. This is Google's first tablet since 2018, the Pixel Slate. Since it was never released in France, we can go back as far as the Google Pixel C in 2015.
This Pixel Tablet is therefore a small event in itself. It adopts the Pixel Experience, the interface that makes the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro so special, and adds a charging dock with speaker to convince. So, is this the iPad of Android? We tell you in this test.
Design
The Pixel Tablet has a plastic shell. This is far from the level of finish of an iPad. However, this doesn't prevent the shell from being pleasant to the touch, with a smooth, but not slippery, surface and rounded edges that hug the palm of the hand.
Let's get down to the nitty-gritty. The tablet incorporates a fingerprint sensor at the lock button, located on the left when the tablet is held vertically and at the top when docked. The button is very close to the corner, but more importantly, it slopes slightly towards the back of the tablet. As a result, it's sometimes a little hard to reach.
In the same vein, when the tablet is docked, I found that pressing the volume buttons, located next to the lock button, was sometimes a little more complex than it could have been. By this I mean that when I press the volume buttons, the tablet tends to disconnect from the dock for half a second. As a result, the sound switches to the tablet's speakers for a while, then back to the dock. I eventually got the hang of it by placing my thumb in such a way as to create a lever and prevent me from pressing the button too hard, but it's by no means a model of ergonomics. Worse still, on some occasions, I've knocked the tablet out of its dock by simply touching the volume control.
To return to an element that may have attracted a lot of criticism, yes, the Pixel Tablet has fairly wide borders, but in use, these are quickly forgotten. What's more, they allow you to hold the tablet securely, without putting your fat fingers on the screen when you want to. While we're on the subject of holding the tablet, it weighs in at almost 500g, so it's a little uncomfortable to carry it around for too long, or to hold it down while watching a film.
The dock
The Pixel Tablet comes with a charging dock that doubles as a speaker. Connection is via four pins on the back of the tablet. No problem to dock it, the tablet magnetizes easily just by approaching it and feels well anchored. I even had fun playing in the cloud on Xbox Game Pass and had no fear of the tablet slipping. Sitting facing the tablet, I found the screen tilt angle excellent.
More subjectively, I found it rather elegant with its fabric covering. It sits quite comfortably on a bedside or coffee table. Beware, however, that the cable is a little short. It's also not very thick, so beware if you have cats who like to play with cables.
Screen
Overall, I found the Pixel Tablet's screen very convincing. Admittedly, it's an LCD panel, which is generally considered to be inferior to Oled technology. But once I came face to face with this panel, the vibrancy of the colors and the contrasts, I found that it coped very well and that the overall experience was very pleasant. My main complaint is the presence of numerous reflections. As for fluidity, while 60 Hz may seem low on paper, I never felt a lack of it. The Pixel Experience animations help to smooth things over.
On the other hand, 16:10 is a double-edged sword. You're comfortable watching videos, but as soon as you're reading in vertical format, everything seems squashed. You get the feeling that the interface is really only designed for horizontal use.
We tested the screen with Portrait Displays' CalMAN Ultimate software. Brightness appears a little low (which partly explains the reflections) at 514 cd/m². Color accuracy, measured by the average delta E, which should be as low as possible, is excellent at 2.82. Color temperature is a little blue at 6873K, when the ideal target is 6500K. In terms of the quantity of colors displayed, let's just say that it's not bad without being staggering. The sRGB space is 119% guaranteed, and 80% of the more demanding DCI-P3 space is covered. The contrast ratio is 1744:1.
Software
On the software side, the Pixel Experience (Android 13) is on deck. It's more or less the same interface as on the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. We gave it an 8/10 in our full review.
While it may be criticized here and there for a few ergonomic issues and settings that are a little hard to find for novice users, we have to admit that it's one of the best interfaces on the market. Firstly, for the fluidity of its animations and the level of customization offered. After all, since Android 12, it's the Pixel Experience that lets you colorize app icons according to the screen background.
The Pixel Tablet also incorporates a host of Pixel-specific features, such as Unblur, which corrects the blur on an old photo, the Magic Eraser, which automatically erases a distracting detail from a photo, and En Écoute, which acts like a permanent Shazam.
Of course, some elements are specific to the tablet interface. Many applications feature a split display, such as YouTube Music, which displays the track on the left and the playlist on the right. There's also the taskbar, very discreet and not necessarily ultra-useful, but which has the merit of existing.
Battery
The 27 Wh battery seems to be put to the test quite a bit in standby mode. It was not unusual for the tablet to go from 90% to around 55% overnight. At other times, I found that it lasted all weekend, losing just 20%. That's still a lot, and if you're the kind of person who leaves his tablet lying around, it's likely to have to go through the charging process.
In use, I also found that battery life could drop quite quickly. Reading on a news app, I lost 5% in 1 hour of reading. Similarly, when listening to music on YouTube Music, I was at 42% at 4:03pm. At 6 p.m. I was at around 35%. A far cry from an energy-efficient tablet.
Fortunately, the tablet shouldn't spend too much time away from its dock where it's recharged. But don't be in too much of a hurry. On average, the tablet recharges by 10% in 15-minute increments.
0 Comments