The last Google tablet released was the Nexus 9 way back in 2014 with its software support ending in the fall of 2016. Since then, Google and others have left the Android tablet market. Now, however, Google has reentered the fray with the new Pixel Tablet.
This new tablet starts at $499, which places it in-between the iPad ($449) and the iPad Air ($599) with its G2 CPU (2022) roughly equating to the A13 (2019). However, the price is really inflated by the included dock which can be purchased separately for $129. As a result, it isn’t a premium device, but it does things that Apple has yet to do at all or on some of their models.
From a hardware perspective, the Pixel Tablet has the front-facing camera on the landscape orientation. The 10th generation iPad does the same, but the Air and Pro do not (major bummer). From a software perspective, the charging dock makes the device turn into a home hub and improves the speakers. With iOS 17, Apple is allowing this for phones, but not for iPads (in addition to not selling a hub-like dock for the iPads). Perhaps this will come later on in the 17.x cycle, but from history, it is likely to come next year as the iPad is always one year behind in feature parity. The Pixel Tablet also supports multiple users whereas iPadOS will not unless you are using a managed Apple ID via Apple Business Manager (ABM) or Apple School Manager (ASM). As a result, this tablet is much more flexible, and therefore, useful than an iPad for everyday use cases.
Now, from Apple’s perspective, they would rather you purchase a device for each user, but that is expensive and inconvenient. Part of me also wonders as to why the iPad doesn’t have the hub-like features is to prevent competition with a future HomePod product with a screen (just how like MacBooks could have a touch screen, but then a majority of users wouldn’t buy an iPad).
Overall, it’s a neat device that should, hopefully, drive more competition in the Android tablet space and influence the direction of iPadOS to become more useful.
Hopefully, this doesn’t end up in the Google Graveyard.