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pixel c

Google opted not to release a new Nexus tablet in 2015, but the Android loyalists out there are not left without a tablet option. There's the Pixel C, which is the first non-Chrome Os device in the Pixel product line. It's a foreign productivity-oriented tablet from Google that feels both more capable than by tablets, just also sorely defective in some respects. I've spent some time with the Pixel C, trying to use it for actual piece of work. Hither's how it went.

What information technology's proficient at

If you want a tablet with superior build quality, the Pixel C is it. Even compared with an iPad, the Pixel C feels like an incredible slice of hardware. The aluminum frame is a picayune heavy, but the construction, buttons, and speaker grilles are great. On the rear of the tablet is a cool little extra that y'all might recognize from the Pixel Chromebooks — a light bar. It glows while the tablet is on with the Google logo colors. Notwithstanding, information technology can besides requite bombardment status data without waking up the tablet. Merely tap on it twice and it lights up with colors (green, orange, cerise) and 1-4 lights to show the bombardment level.

Within this tablet is a Tegra X1 system-on-a-scrap (SoC). That's an octa-cadre 64-bit ARM chip, the latest from Nvidia with a powerful Maxwell-based GPU. The Pixel C is incredibly fast — probably the fastest Android device I've always laid hands on. It loads apps instantly and multitasking is lightning fast. That's a downfall of many Android devices that are otherwise acceptably fast. Gaming and full general app use are splendid on the Pixel C.

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The 10.two-inch display is likewise but fantastic in every fashion. It's a sharp 2560×1800 LCD with a square screen ratio of 1:ane.414 (or √2 as Google likes to say). The square screen ratio makes a lot of sense to me on a tablet, specially one equally large as the Pixel C. This way y'all tin comfortably use information technology in portrait orientation. The viewing angles are perfect and it gets incredibly bright.

There are things to similar nearly the stock build of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow on this tablet, but it's not all good. I'll become to the not-so-good stuff in the next department. Android 6.0 is a generally nifty upgrade to the Android platform. The permission organisation is more than granular, allowing y'all to disable access to your data if you don't trust an app. Information technology makes better use of battery life by suspending unused apps and keeping the device asleep when it's not in utilise. The Pixel C gets insane standby battery life. I'g talking iPad levels of standby, which used to be an impossible dream for Android users.

What it's not so good at

And then, the Pixel C is good compared with other Android tablets in a lot of ways, but the approach to this device from a product perspective feels like a mismatch. Android was supposed to have true multi-window support ages agone, but for unknown reasons information technology yet hasn't been finished. So, what we have here is a productivity-oriented device that can simply run one app at a time.

The Pixel C jumps between apps apace, but it's not the aforementioned as beingness able to accept more than one thing on the screen at the same time. In that location are times that this isn't the worst matter — if you're just using the tablet to work on a text document, it can actually keep y'all on-task. I've managed to go some work done on the Pixel C, but only when I was just putting words on the page. If at any bespeak I needed to do research or open a chat client, my workflow was completely interrupted.

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I take to wonder why Google chose to button the Pixel C with a keyboard dock. This accessory is bachelor for a whopping $150 on pinnacle of the $500 base price of the Pixel C. Information technology connects to the tablet with magnets (and Bluetooth), and actually charges inductively from the tablet's battery. It's a neat trick, but the cardinal layout is a little weird, and the switches are wobbly. The real problem with this accessory is that Android'south hardware peripheral back up is lacking. You're constantly going back and forth between borer the screen and typing on the keyboard, as there'south no trackpad. Shortcuts are basically nonexistent likewise.

The app situation is also a problem for the Pixel C, but that'due south not entirely the fault of this device in item. All Android tablets are cursed with a lack of properly optimized tablet apps. Android itself does back up universal apps, simply most developers don't have the fourth dimension to craft these interfaces. It's less of an issue with smaller tablets that are almost phone-sized. The Pixel C is huge, though. It really exacerbates the poor layout of many apps. Some apps don't rotate to landscape mode either, so you have to take the tablet out of the dock to apply them.

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Even some of Google'due south apps are a joke on tablets. Take a expect at Hangouts, for example. It's only a stretched phone UI. They aren't all bad. Gmail works wonderfully on the Pixel C with a handy multi-pane interface. This is something that would exist less annoying if there was multi-window back up, only bravado all the apps upwards to total screen isn't a expert experience.

The Franken-tablet

It's known at this point that the Pixel C was originally intended to exist a Chrome OS device. The board (lawmaking named Ryu) was being developed for Chrome Os in early-mid 2015. And then in that location was a brief time when Google planned to release it as a dual-boot device. This "franken-board" arroyo was eventually deemed besides circuitous for such a tight timeline, and the hardware was switched over to pure Android.

This scatterbrained development process really shows in the final product. Emphasizing productivity on a device without true multitasking isn't a skillful approach, and the keyboard dock is hugely overpriced when you consider that. Yous're paying $150 for an interesting accompaniment that won't get a lot of employ. Chrome OS doesn't take games and apps like Android does, but information technology'southward significantly better at productivity with true multitasking, proper keyboard/mouse support, and an interface optimized for getting work done.

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Make no fault, the Pixel C is the best Android tablet y'all tin buy, but I'm not sure it makes sense to get a $500 tablet at all right now. These devices are much improve at content consumption, and you can exercise all that same stuff on a much less expensive tablet. Just slapping a $150 keyboard accompaniment on an Android tablet does not instantly turn it into a productivity device. Information technology all makes me wish the Pixel C had been the Chrome OS device information technology was originally envisioned to be.