My thoughts on the Google Pixel Tablet
After 10 years of use, the time has come to replace my Surface Pro 3. Over time, it has become slower and slower, no matter how many times I reset or clean-install Windows. About a year ago, the internal Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card started to work intermittently, so I replaced it with a cheap Wi-Fi USB dongle, taking advantage of the built-in USB A port. And in the last six weeks, the screen has started to delaminate from the tablet body. This is why I decided to get the Pixel tablet; a PC tablet was unnecessary for my use case.
I purchased the Pixel Tablet + speaker dock during Google’s annual Black Friday sale for $439 before tax. I wanted the 128GB version with the dock, but Google only offered the 256GB version with the dock during the sale, which is more than I need. I use the tablet on my bedroom side table as a screen to consume media and the occasional web browsing session, so I won’t be filling it with games, photos, or videos.
I believe an Android tablet is better for my video-streaming use case. Most streaming services do not have an app for the Windows store. My only option on the Surface tablet was to stream via a browser, which was a poor experience, with significant buffering and straight-up generic ‘something went wrong’ errors. Every streaming service has an app for Android (and Apple if that’s your flavor), which works much better than via a browser; I have had no streaming issues in the week I have owned the Pixel Tablet.
The Pixel’s sound is significantly improved over the Surface, especially when docked. The speaker dock has a much better bass response, although it could have been better in the mids and high frequencies; maybe adding a tweeter would have created a better overall sound. The Pixel Tablet itself has better sound than the Surface, with two ‘holes’ on each side where the sound comes from, and when putting my ear up to each speaker hole, the lower set of speakers has a lower frequency, while the upper set of speaker holes cover the higher frequencies. I don’t know what’s inside the tablet or dock regarding physical speakers, as I have obviously not pulled the tablet or dock apart; all the above is subjective.
The screen is fine, not anything amazing; this is one area where the decade-old Surface Pro 3 screen appears better and gets brighter. According to the specs, the screen size is 10.95 inches, an inch smaller than the Surface tablet. The Pixel has more pixels, with a resolution of 2560×1600, compared to the Surface’s 2160×1440; both have a 60hz refresh rate and a 16:10 aspect ratio. I would prefer a 16:9 ratio for my use case as no media is presented in 16:10; a 16:9 screen would allow content to fill the screen without black bars, but the same is true of the Surface Pro 3, so it’s a minor gripe, comparing like for like.
I like the docking mode. When set up appropriately, when not in active use, it will display a dock screensaver, which I have set up to display the time and weather with a graphical representation of the weather. However, when the lights are out at night, it becomes a black screen with a white clock display.
I hate the fingerprint reader setup, and I feel it’s unnecessary. It makes sense on the phone, as you are more likely to misplace a phone than a tablet, and security is more important. Also, the implementation on Pixel phones is better, either under the screen or on the back of the device. Maybe I would like it better if the Pixel Tablet fingerprint reader was on the back instead of the top of the bezel.
This is more than likely a YouTube app issue, but sometimes, when consuming a video in full screen and an advert is inserted, the video gets pulled out of full-screen mode, which means, in addition to skipping the advert, I have to make an extra screen touch to get back to full screen. This was never an issue on the Surface tablet using the browser version of YouTube. As I write this, this has me thinking maybe I should stop using the YouTube app and use the built-in Chrome browser to consume YouTube.
The bottom line for me is that if my Surface Pro tablet was not on its last legs, would I have bought the Pixel Tablet? No, but as a replacement, it’s fine. It does what I need it to do, which is all that matters, and hopefully, it will last another decade before I have to replace it, even if updates stop after 3 years.