The
Pixel C starts at $499 for the 32GB flavor and $599 for the 64GB
variant. The Bluetooth keyboard is available separately for $149,
bringing the cost of the top-end model to ~$750. That’s not quite Surface 4 Pro territory (Microsoft’s tablet starts at $899), but it’s not far off, either.
Google’s
first in-house tablet takes a number of design cues from Microsoft’s
Surface, including its premium construction and attachable keyboard.
Everyone loves the hardware design — the all-aluminum body and screen
quality are praised by The Verge, Wired, Ars Technica, Engadget, and Cnet,
though Engadget thought the device was a “tad hefty,” at 1.13 lbs,
compared to the iPad Air 2 at less than a pound. It might not sound like
much, but even ounces matter when you hold a device in one hand.
Display
quality is high, without necessarily being a stand-out feature. Ars
Technica notes that the 2560×1800 resolution on a 10.2-inch panel has a
308 PPI, well above the roughly 265 PPI you find on a Surface or iPad.
Color and sharpness were reported as appropriate for a device in this
price range, but Ars had major problem with their device’s touchscreen,
noting that it often failed to register both single and multi-touch
gestures. Scrolling was unreliable and the device sometimes forgot that
its keyboard was attached.
One
thing that stuck out when reading the various reviews is that each site
ran into some unique problems in addition to general issues. Engadget
lavished praise on the Pixel-C’s performance in both benchmarks and
everyday tasks and had no issues with the touchscreen. TheVerge,
however, noted that the keyboard’s Bluetooth connection was prone to
dropping out, as did Ars. The Verge also saw odd performance overall,
writing:
Something is amiss with performance on the Pixel C.
There are inexcusable pauses and latency, especially when launching and
switching apps. My hunch is that the Android team still hasn’t figured
out how to take real advantage of all that power out of Nvidia’s silicon
(the Nexus 9 seemed to similarly underutilize its processor). Whatever
the reason, it’s a miss. A bad one.
Cnet, like Engadget,
explicitly praises the Pixel C’s performance and appears to be the only
publication that had no performance issues or other errata. The fact
that four different publications found three different problems suggests
some significant quality control issues with the hardware. Battery
life, however, is uniformally excellent.
Software
No one
seems particularly happy with the Pixel C’s software. Google built a
10.2-inch panel that can only display one application at a time. Pixel C
runs Marshmallow, but as Ars points out, it makes no attempt to field
applications that are actually designed for a large-screen tablet. As a
result, most apps waste huge amounts of screen space displaying
stretched phone apps rather than native Pixel C apps.
Wired
writes that Android “is terrific smartphone software, but not at all
well-suited to tablets.” The Verge agrees, noting that the Pixel C’s
1:√2 aspect ratio is identical to a standard sheet of A4 paper and begs
for a split-screen view option that’s entirely missing from the device.
Ars
doesn’t think Google’s poor treatment of Android tablets is an
accident. The company has shown it can adapt applications to
smartphones, cars, and televisions, yet most Android apps on tablets are
poorly optimized. The complete lack of multi-tasking on a tablet with a
top-end price of $750 only underscores the point.
Worth your time and money?
Ars
thinks that Android’s tablet ecosystem is so bad, “no Android tablet is
worth your time,” but notes the specific issues they encountered with
the Pixel C make it impossible to recommend no matter what. Wired thinks
the Pixel C actually makes the case for Chrome OS as opposed to
Android, and hopes Google makes every Android engineer use one, so
they’ll stop ignoring tablets.
The
Verge doesn’t recommend the device either, mostly due to Android’s
failure to take advantage of the Pixel C’s capabilities. Engadget was a
bit kinder, simply calling the new tablet “tough to recommend.” Only
Cnet floated the phrase “iPad killer.”
Based on the early
coverage, we’d say give this one a pass. There are better Android
tablets at cheaper prices without the troubling quality control issues.
12/09/2015
Google’s Pixel C review roundup: Gorgeous hardware, half-baked software
Google’s Pixel C tablet is the first Android tablet built in-house by Google
and the only consumer product to date to feature Nvidia’s latest
Maxwell-based Tegra SoC, the Tegra X1. With performance chops like that,
you’d expect the device to ship with glowing recommendations, but if
early reviews are any indication, the Pixel C needed more time to bake.
Image by Ars Technica. Original caption: 4.6 million pixels. The most beautiful 10-inch tablet display ever created. It can display one tweet
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