[HN Gopher] Pixel Tablet
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Pixel Tablet
Author : abawany
Score : 48 points
Date : 2023-05-11 21:12 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (store.google.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (store.google.com)
| brucezepplin wrote:
| so is this an echo show competitor or Samsung S8 / iPad Air?
| sergiotapia wrote:
| Missed the mother's day window badly! I would have easily picked
| this up at Target for my wife. With the dock? No brainer, 100%
| cop.
| wedn3sday wrote:
| People enjoy gifts outside of prescribed gift giving holidays!
| lapetitejort wrote:
| I have one of the original Nest Hubs in my bedroom. Just as a
| dynamic photo frame it has justified its existence. One of the
| killer features is zero cameras anywhere on the body. I can
| imagine buying one tablet with several docks throughout the
| house, but the cameras on the front and back are no-gos for
| certain rooms. They need to sell attachment that will physically
| block the cameras in order for the tablet to dock. None of the
| cases look to have optional camera blockers.
| afruitpie wrote:
| It's nice to see key accessories (in this case, the dock) and an
| acceptable amount of storage included by default.
|
| I've always held off on impulse buying an iPad because my cart
| total starts creeping towards MacBook prices once accessories and
| storage are added.
| Someone wrote:
| > I've always held off on impulse buying an iPad because my
| cart total starts creeping towards MacBook prices once
| accessories and storage are added.
|
| I have that, too, but also think it's a bit irrational. It
| shouldn't be surprising that a tablet that is about as powerful
| as a laptop costs about the same as a laptop (iPad loses on
| connectivity, but is less voluminous, making it harder to give
| it high battery live)
| goosedragons wrote:
| Even the base iPad can get pricey. Apple's prices for iPad
| keyboards are nuts. $250 for a keyboard and trackpad! It's
| over half the price of the tablet. I thought Microsoft's
| prices for type covers was high when they launched the
| Surface but they look like a steal at $130 these days.
| gjsman-1000 wrote:
| The charging dock being a speaker is a nice gimmick. However, at
| $499... that's not the price Google needs in my mind, and it
| reminds me about the Pixel Watch; too little, too late.
|
| You can get a basic iPad for $329, an iPad mini for $399, or a
| modern iPad for $449. The ecosystem of apps on Android is hardly
| tablet-optimized, and there's no option to add a keyboard or
| pencil later. Also, if you learn how to use an iPad, there's no
| risk of it being killed after the 1st generation (looking at you
| Pixel Slate - if you bought that thing, it's been five years
| waiting for this replacement).
|
| Software support is another issue, with the average iPad getting
| at least 6 years of full upgrades followed by 1-2 years of just
| security updates; while the Pixel tablet promises only three new
| Android versions and 2 years of security updates afterwards.
| Considering my 5-year-old iPad is still widely used here, I think
| that lifecycle may be too short.
| Alupis wrote:
| The specs feel... underwhelming?
|
| 12 hours battery life? My Pixel 7 Pro gets a claimed 2+ days.
|
| 8GB RAM? Even if it's mostly unused, my Pixel 7 Pro has 12GB.
|
| The display has a nice resolution, but the bezel around it is
| huge.
|
| My Galaxy Tab S6 from 2019 has the same or better specs... and is
| thinner to boot.
|
| It kind of feels like this was a tablet that should have arrived
| a few years ago.
| izacus wrote:
| It's also like half the price of your Pixel 7 pro.
| Alupis wrote:
| Considering Google has no other "flagship" tablet offering,
| the pricing or positioning is not stellar. This in-lines this
| brand new _Pixel_ device with ho-hum disposable tablets.
| dabernathy89 wrote:
| Bezels are actually pretty useful on tablets because of how
| they're held. But I agree in general the specs are just a tad
| underwhelming. The display is LCD as well, which is a bummer.
| xnx wrote:
| LCD is probably a necessity to prevent burn-in since the
| screen will always/frequently be on in docked mode.
| jsnell wrote:
| > 12 hours battery life? My Pixel 7 Pro gets a claimed 2+ days.
|
| That's 12 hours of screen on, displaying video. I assume that's
| not what you're doing on the phone when getting 2 days of
| batter life?
| indigomm wrote:
| US Price: $499 UK Price: PS599
|
| I get that technology companies don't just directly convert USD
| at the appropriate exchange rate, but this is ridiculous.
| Especially as the conversion rate they used on the Pixel Fold is
| 1 USD = 1 GBP.
| gamblor956 wrote:
| The UK price is VAT inclusive. (Advertised prices in the UK
| must generally include tax.)
|
| The US price is pre-tax (since there are several thousand sales
| tax rates that could apply, based on customer location).
| medo-bear wrote:
| one reason might be is that in the US taxes usually arent
| included in the price advertised
| advisedwang wrote:
| Some reasons, not all of which are applicable to this exact
| situation:
|
| * Differences in tariffs and taxes.
|
| * Differences in what deal they can make with local
| distributors.
|
| * Cover cost of different consumer protections/warranty
| requirements etc.
|
| * They think the market will sell enough units at the higher
| price to make it more profitable than a lower price.
| beojan wrote:
| Back when it was $2 = PS1 prices seemed to be converted at a 1
| - 1 rate (and VAT was 17.5% then). This seems to be a long
| standing problem.
| indigomm wrote:
| The 1:1 at least had some rationale given UK VAT and greater
| expenses. But this is 50% more expensive ($499 is PS399 at
| current rates). And why use different rates for the Fold than
| the Tablet?
| donalhunt wrote:
| At least it's available in the UK. Ireland (home to Google's
| EMEA HQ) gets... The Pixel 7a.
| rektide wrote:
| Has anyone tried loading the Chromecast app onto an existing
| phone or tablet? It looks like there's just an android app that
| runs but it probably isn't quite as simple as that, but I also
| haven't tried.
|
| That you can cast to this seems like such a basic & obvious step.
| taeric wrote:
| I confess when I was getting a tablet for the family, I was
| expecting I could find one in the google store. Shockingly, there
| were no options at the time. And, I now confess that I'm not
| clear I would want to go with their option at this time. I can't
| bring myself to think this will have a good lifecycle of support.
| :(
| reaperducer wrote:
| _I can 't bring myself to think this will have a good lifecycle
| of support._
|
| Fool me once, shame on you.
|
| Fool me 73 times, shame on me.
| ozten wrote:
| I don't consider buying premium Electronics from Google. I look
| to them for free and cheap products and services.
|
| I can't imagine these working in 2 years nor would I want to deal
| with their customer service.
| summerlight wrote:
| The spec seems a bit underwhelming, but this experiment seems to
| try paving the road to merging home devices, tablets and set top
| boxes (yeah, it has Chromecast built-in) into one form factor.
| The narrative itself seems plausible, let's see how it plays out.
| abudabi123 wrote:
| Does it make more sense to place a camera at each corner of the
| device for two cameras at anytime to feed the A.I. chip stereo
| vision? The single camera midpoint on the longer side forces a
| double think before docking the device like early USB plug.
| Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
| Well, better late than never.
|
| Many, many years ago when Android 2 was all the rage, Motorola
| has shipped Xoom tablet with Android 3. That Android version
| turned out to be a dead end, and the whole line of tablets went
| nowhere. Next Google's attempt at tablets was Nexus 7 device,
| which was actually great, esp 2013 version that still lays around
| somewhere in my office and sees occasional use. But then, Google
| kind of forgot tablets exist and ignored the category completely.
| It was left for Samsung and some obscure manufacturers making
| devices, running apps that are usually not really adapted to
| tablets. So maybe it is finally time to have nice tablets on
| Android with stock OS, and maybe a special category for apps
| adapted to tablets in Google Play.
| gjsman-1000 wrote:
| Well, there was the Pixel C in 2015. It was Android based and
| went nowhere.
|
| Then there was the Pixel Slate in 2018. It was Chrome OS based,
| and also went nowhere. If you bought a Pixel Slate, a new
| Google tablet has been five years in the making.
|
| Except that the Pixel Tablet isn't really a replacement. It's
| back to Android, and this time, no keyboard or pen options in
| sight.
| taeric wrote:
| Holy crap, I can only assume someone has done the Monty
| Python skit of the castle that kept falling into the swamp
| with Google devices. It was basically impossible for me not
| to hear that voice in the second paragraph here. :D
| donalhunt wrote:
| The Pixel C got launched and then more or less ignored. There
| was a startup / auth big that more or less killed the device
| off. I ended up getting a full refund for mine. :(
| goosedragons wrote:
| It says it supports USI styli but not prioritizing it for the
| price they are asking seems like a bad move in 2023.
| hbn wrote:
| Google has no long-term strategy for tablets. Best I can
| tell, every few years some product owners get together to
| once again do Google's Big Push For Tablets For Real This
| Time We Swear and the initiative goes until they get their
| promotions and then it's forgotten until the next round a few
| years later.
|
| If you buy this tablet and like it, don't expect a successor.
| They'll release something completely unrelated in a few
| years, it might be running Chrome OS, it might have a
| keyboard accessory, it might have a pen accessory, it might
| have absolutely abysmal performance[1]. It's a complete grab
| bag.
|
| And this applies to basically all Google products and
| services.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOh6d_r63Bw
| donalhunt wrote:
| I bought many secondhand Nexus 7 2013 devices for peanuts
| (EUR100-120 iirc). They were great devices and there was even a
| version that would take a SIM card so you could use it on the
| go without WiFi (no calls though) which was a game changer at
| the time.
|
| Was always disappointed that they didn't stick with the form
| factor but with more RAM / storage / better CPU.
| Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
| I think this form-factor didn't stick because it was
| undermined by smartphones growing bigger and bigger,
| eventually becoming phablets, which usually have 6"+ screen
| sizes.
| stefan_ wrote:
| Uhm wasn't the Nexus 7 the tablet that literally bricked itself
| within a year by the storage degrading to floppy speed?
| ollien wrote:
| The 1st gen Nexus 7, yes
|
| https://www.anandtech.com/show/7185/android-43-update-
| brings...
| maxfurman wrote:
| That's the 2012 model. Easy mistake
| berkle4455 wrote:
| is android usable these days or is it still "usable" in the way
| linux desktops are?
| Alupis wrote:
| Considering the number of Android devices in the world, I'd say
| it's clearly the most usable smartphone OS available.
| clhodapp wrote:
| It is "usable" in the way that Windows desktops are.
| corn13read2 wrote:
| The tablet that only google could make... The $500 LCD tablet
| that only google would try to sell.
| candiddevmike wrote:
| No pen/stylus?
| izacus wrote:
| Supports stylus (USI2 standard like Chromebooks) based on spec
| sheet. No first party one or a dock space though.
| CobaltFire wrote:
| No mention of it supporting Google's Kids Space out of the box,
| which is the ONE killer feature the Android tablets have over iOS
| in my house.
|
| We are currently using throwaway Fire Tablets with Amazon's
| version but would migrate to the actual Google version if we
| could with a reasonably good device. We'd even sooner swap to iOS
| but they don't seem to want to support that use case.
|
| Note: Son is non verbal and autistic, so tablets are learning,
| play, and communication for him. Kids space helps him navigate.
| wslh wrote:
| Does it run ChromeOS Flex? [1]?
|
| [1] https://chromeenterprise.google/os/chromeosflex/
| skybrian wrote:
| A Google Nest Hub Max is $229. This seems like the upgrade pick
| at $499, which lets you use it as a tablet, too.
|
| My use case is video calls for an elderly relative. I wonder if
| it would work as simply (once set up), or whether it would
| complicate things.
| dabernathy89 wrote:
| Android tablets generally feel overpriced right now for what they
| offer compared to Apple's ecosystem. There's one exception:
| Lenovo's last gen pro tablet got a small refresh. It's the
| "Lenovo P11 Pro Gen 2" and it's absurdly affordable compared to
| the competition right now (~$270). It's got a 120hz OLED display,
| great general-purpose performance (my previous tablet experience
| was Samsung's budget S6 Lite, which was a little sluggish and had
| a worse display.). I'm super happy with my purchase so far.
|
| Downside: the compatible pen Precision Pen 3 seems to be
| unavailable right now.
|
| [edit: looks like the price has gone back up to $399 in most
| places. I'd still consider it a good alternative at that price,
| but if you can pick it up on sale at under $300 it's a no-
| brainer]
| rektide wrote:
| Notably rocking a MediaTek Kompanio 1300T. I feel like for a
| while Qualcomm was the obly company making chips we see in most
| tablets.
|
| I really hope we see competition open up again; it'd be great
| for Samsung to get their feed under them, for some new parties
| to show, and it'll be exciting if AMD gets below their new Z1's
| 9W TDP & starts competing too.
|
| This is a great tablet, bought one for mom & then a couple
| months latter for me. Alas mine got lost in the mail! Boo.
| bilalq wrote:
| I wish the price was slightly lower so this could be no-brainer,
| but I'm a fan. The speaker dock seems like a gimmick at a glance,
| but I think it's compelling. It gives the device a definitive
| home at rest, and bi-modal utility. This is the kind of thing
| that fits super nicely in the kitchen.
| eitally wrote:
| As far as I'm concerned, the only real market for this is as an
| upgraded Nest Hub hardware. It's not really competitive as a
| tablet (go to Samsung or Apple for that), but it doesn't really
| do anything differentiated, either.
|
| If it is indeed the next gen of what would have been the Nest Hub
| Max, then this is what the first gen of that product should have
| been. The detachable tablet is a great idea, as is building a
| speaker into the base. It would be compelling if the MSRP was
| $349 or so, but not $499. For that amount, I could just buy two
| Nest Hub Maxes, or a quite nice iPad (or nice Samsung Android
| tablet).
| crazygringo wrote:
| > _The included charging dock is also a speaker._
|
| I've gotta say, charging docks are a killer feature for me and I
| don't understand why Apple doesn't do the same.
|
| There used to be the Logitech Base [1] that I still use with the
| previous-gen (9th) iPad, but the smart connector in the newest
| iPad (10th gen) is no longer compatible with it, as the angle of
| the edge changed.
|
| It's been years since I plugged in my phone or AirPods -- I only
| wirelessly charge. The idea that we should still be plugging in
| tablets with Lightning or USB-C is bizarre to me. A charging dock
| is the way to go, and it's so unexpected to me that Google
| realizes this while Apple doesn't. It's actually the only reason
| I haven't upgraded my iPad.
|
| [1] https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/ipad-
| accessories/bas...
| ablyveiled wrote:
| Wireless charging kills batteries faster -- that's why I
| personally avoid it.
| itsyaboi wrote:
| How so?
| rubatuga wrote:
| Mostly the extra heat degrades the battery chemistry
| pazimzadeh wrote:
| Can you expand on this because I've noticed that my iPhone 13
| mini's battery life has been quickly getting worse, and I use
| the magsafe charging a lot.
| radicaldreamer wrote:
| It's the heat generated with wireless charging which kills
| the battery, not the charging speed
| bryanlarsen wrote:
| Wireless is usually a lot slower than plugging it in, so i
| suspect it'd be better on batteries rather than worse.
|
| But the best way to save your batteries is to not charge to
| 100%.
| RandomThrow321 wrote:
| Do you have a source? I thought this has been thoroughly
| debunked.
| RandomThrow321 wrote:
| I'm not going to get a Pixel Tablet, but I really do like the
| idea of a charging dock speaker.
| gnicholas wrote:
| > _Easily control your home with the Google Home app._
|
| Except the Nest gear, including home security system, that we've
| just announced we're disabling.
| brucezepplin wrote:
| So is this competing with Echo Show or Samsung S8 / iPad Air? I
| just cam't understand why they would go with the former?
| vkdelta wrote:
| What's with google in last few weeks? Tons of AI and a couple of
| new pixel devices! Are they really pulling everything in their
| arsenal in a short window to keep Wall Street happy?
| zwily wrote:
| Google IO is this week.
| giantrobot wrote:
| It's Google I/O this week. They're packing a bunch of
| announcements into a single big hype event that's ostensibly
| for developers. Apple does the same with WWDC and Microsoft
| with their BUILD events (is it still called that?).
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(page generated 2023-05-11 23:00 UTC)