Google Pixel C 102 Tablet - 64gb Review

The Pixel C probably isn't the tablet you think it is. When it was announced a few months back alongside Google's new Nexus phones, it was presented with its optional keyboard connected and positioned not as a tablet, but equally a convertible (in fact, that'southward what the C stands for.) Only while the hardware admittedly delivers in this respect, the software is nonetheless more smartphone than tablet. Does the Pixel C vest on your desk-bound this holiday flavour? Roll on downward for our full Google Pixel C review!

Video Review · Hardware & Keyboard · Software · Operation

Pros/Cons · Pricing/Availability · Decision

Google Pixel C Review Video

Index

Hardware & Keyboard

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If yous're someone who puts hardware in a higher place all, close this review at present – and get guild a Pixel C. The design is classic and refined, minimal without beingness dull. Information technology'south made almost entirely of aluminum, with precision-cutting ports for the twin stereo speakers, ability and volume keys and the unmarried USB Type C port. There'southward not a spiral hole or misaligned seam in sight, the entire casing begetting a smooth, refined industrial design. That pattern is unmarred by any silkscreened logos or other traditional branding, the but nod to its Google origins existence the sparse LED stripe on the top border of the back panel. By default that stripe glows with the company's rainbow colors when the tablet is powered on; when information technology's off, a double-tap of a knuckle will wake it to display the electric current battery charge in yellow.

On the flip side, the display is a large one at 10.2 inches, but the Pixel C'southward 7mm profile makes it feel like a much smaller tablet; with its screen-to-bezel ratio, it faintly resembles an oversized BlackBerry PlayBook. The panel itself is LTPS (low temperature poly-silicon) with a maximum effulgence of 500 nit and an sRGB color gamut. It comes packing a resolution of 2560 x 1800 (307ppi) – about the same as Google's Nexus 10 from three years agone but still sharper than either Apple's iPad family or Microsoft's Surface line. If you lot want to nitpick there's certainly room to do it: there's color shifting on the screen when viewing information technology even slightly off-eye, and every bit we discovered on the most recent Pocketnow Weekly podcast, not everyone'south a fan of the always-on LED. Simply these are very minor complaints and they're certainly not shared past everyone. In terms of industrial blueprint and fit and finish, this is one of the very best tablets you tin can find on Android.

That infrequent hardware work is mirrored in the Pixel C'southward keyboard, an optional accessory that comes with a $149 premium. While that'south no modest amount of dough, it's actually a few bucks cheaper than comparable attachments for the iPad Pro and Surface Pro 4 – and more importantly, the Pixel C'due south keyboard has them both vanquish for sheer coolness. Why? Magnets.

Those magnets are embedded, they're directional, and they're no joke. Bring the Pixel C anywhere close to the keyboard'south attachment hinge and the two will slap together with an authoritativefwack. The magnets are potent enough to continue the two halves together no matter how you carry the Pixel C, strong enough to keep the tablet firmly in place fifty-fifty equally you swing the hinge through its full range of motility between 100 and 135 degrees. Like most convertibles, the Pixel C is a bit top-heavy for lap work simply it's workable in a pinch, and on a tabular array or a desk it's very solid.

The typing experience is neat. Similar really, actually great. With a central pitch of 18.8mm and cardinal travel of 1.4mm, there'southward non much of a learning bend even if you lot're used to a wider notebook: nosotros adapted from a MacBook Pro in less than a day. Android also supports near common keyboard shortcuts, from re-create-paste (Ctrl+X, C, V), to bold italic and underline (Ctrl+B, I, U), to undo (Ctrl+Z) to tab shuffling in Chrome (Ctrl+T), making the feel even more than akin to using a "real" reckoner. The keyboard talks to the Pixel C via Bluetooth, and the tablet can tell when the accessory is attached and when information technology isn't; when it senses the keyboard has been disconnected, information technology automatically deploys the virtual keyboard if yous're working within a text field. On our retail unit (which we purchased from the Google Store) the connection has been flawless and changing modes has been nearly instantaneous. Google claims the keyboard'due south embedded 0.v Wh power prison cell will ability information technology for up to two months, but you'll probably never have to put that to the test: it automatically charges via induction when you "shut" the convertible by flipping the keyboard over. This is a very smart product.

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Of course in that location are some downsides. The keyboard lacks some of the toggles we've grown used to on other convertibles, similar volume and runway-skipping controls for media, or a brightness selector for the display. Symbols have been moved to a virtual keyboard to save room, and some stalwarts like the em-dash have been sacrificed in the transition. Also, as sturdy as the keyboard's swivel is, it can't help the tablet from wobbling a little when you lot have to tap the screen, equally you ofttimes exercise considering at that place's no trackpad in sight. And most damning of all: there's no backlight on this keyboard. If y'all want to type in the dark on this $149 accessory, you need to exist content with spill lighting from the display. That's pretty weak.

Index

Software

The Pixel C ships with Android Marshmallow, which is an excellent smartphone operating organization. On a 10-inch display optimized for landscape though, it sometimes feels like it's stretching to cover the whole canvas, with interface elements like hamburger menus banished to the extreme corners of the screen. One time you go used to that and you lot start getting comfy with the keyboard, y'all might start to experience like you've got a real productivity beast on your hands. That's how Google is positioning the Pixel C, as a new mode to play and exist productive on i device. And to a express extent it succeeds: you tin piece of work on a certificate or spreadsheet in Docs, for example, while listening to Spotify in the background and taking the occasional YouTube or Netflix break. That's how we wrote the script for the video review in a higher place, and information technology was a largely enjoyable experience.

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The problem comes when you try to push the Pixel C any further into that convertible territory. For i affair, the perennial problem of some apps non beingness optimized for tablets is still very much alive: Instagram and Snapchat, for example, still force you to rotate the device to portrait, which is an awkward experience if yous're using the keyboard. And streaming music in the background is about as close every bit you tin can become to any kind of heavy multitasking. Because there's no native separate-screen back up, you're forced to hop between your active apps any fourth dimension you want to get out the film y'all're watching to reply a Hangout, say … or flit away from that long article you're reading to cheque your Twitter feed. And thank you to Marshmallow's pretty-but-sluggish transition animations, such bill of fare flipping quickly starts to experience like wading through molasses. (Yeah, you can use a third party solution like TinyApps to run some overlays, but that's a kludgy solution.) There are occasional stumbles, too: once, while juggling a couple Hangouts with Chrome, Spotify closed itself, abruptly ending our groundwork music streaming. On some other occasion, it was Pocket Casts that gave upwardly, forcing united states of america to hop back in and reload the app to resume our groundwork audio. That's the very definition of "working and playing on the same device," something the Pixel C was designed to excel at – then you can understand why the device has taken some heat from early on reviewers.

Just in some respects, the Pixel C has gotten a raw deal. Fifty-fifty the vaunted iPad has some of the same problems with a lack of optimized tablet apps (the aforementioned Instagram and Snapchat behave the same style on iOS). Microsoft's Surface Pro line tin can do much more than the Pixel C, sure – just at a significantly college cost. And an out-of-the-box update seems to have vanquished many of the problems we saw on pre-release hardware: the sluggish software and keyboard connection issues are nowhere to exist found on our retail unit. When you actually apply the Pixel C, hold it in your hands and type on its keyboard, it's easier to understand why it'southward priced the way it is.

Operation

The Pixel C handles everyday tasks quite well on its Tegra X1 processor (backed up by 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM), with the occasional sluggishness due mostly to Marshmallow's aforementioned transition animations. Graphics are handled by a 256-core Maxwell GPU that handles games from Cobblestone 8 to Galaxy on Fire to Sparkle 2 toSim Urban center simply fine. Too, the sound from the stereo speakers is plenty loud, if lacking in bass.

The experience isn't perfect. Some games but don't like to run on this hardware:ARC:Redux reliably crashes on startup, while other titles like Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacyrun with graphics so corrupted that they're unplayable. These are the verbal same bug nosotros encountered during our fourth dimension with the (likewise Tegra-powered) Nexus 9 last twelvemonth … then is this a CPU problem? GPU? A software outcome? It'due south tough to say. Absolutely these are pretty obscure titles –we sometimes take a hard fourth dimension getting ARC: Redux to run on Snapdragon silicon as well, andSky Gamblersseems to be edging toward abandonware– merely we thought it worth mentioning nonetheless.

Bombardment life probably won't be a problem for all merely the meanest road warriors. Nosotros put the screws to the Pixel C with a twenty-four hours of heavy word processing in Google Docs –we're talking severalhours here– followed by an hour of streaming a podcast in Pocket Casts at max volume, and closing the day with about two hours of vacation shopping across the Amazon and eBay apps and the Chrome browser. All that was washed with the keyboard fastened and in active use over its Bluetooth connection, with intermittent emailing all mean solar day long. Even with such heavy use, it took united states of america 13 hours to go the fully-charged 34.2 Wh battery downward to fifteen%. You'll still want to charge it every dark if you're a power user, but more moderate folks should exist able to squeeze two or fifty-fifty three days out of the Pixel C.

Oh, and the cameras. Equally usual, there's not much to say here. The 2MP front-facing sensor is admittedly zilch special, but it gets the job done for video calling. Similarly, the 8MP primary camera is fine for what it is: a quick means of scanning a document or snapping a noisy, grainy shot of something that you should really be photographing with your phone instead.

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Index

Pros

+ Best Android tablet hardware on the market
+ Outstanding keyboard accessory
+ Beautiful display
+ To a higher place-average endurance

Cons

– Software still non fully optimized for tablet employ after v years
– Besides expensive relative to the competition
– Speakers could be ameliorate

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Pricing and Availability

The Pixel C is available for purchase in the Google Store. At $499 for the 32GB model and $599 for the 64GB version, with the Pixel C Keyboard accessory offered at the same $149, it ain't inexpensive – and that plus the lackluster first moving ridge of reviews might take something to practise with the fact that there seem to be plenty in stock.

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Decision

In our view, the Pixel C's lukewarm reception has been due largely to Google'due south failure to gear up proper expectations for this production. With its keyboard attached and Google Docs loaded upwardly on the screen, the Pixel C looks like an iPad Pro/Surface Pro competitor – simply it'southward not. It lacks the multiscreen capabilities of the former and the full-PC operating system of the latter, which becomes apparent the moment you power it on.

Sadly, that positioning failure has diminished what the Pixel C is. Namely, it's the most cute Android tablet y'all tin can purchase right at present, with one of the best portable keyboards we've ever tested – and information technology's almost sure to introduce multiscreen support with an Android update next year. In the absenteeism of a proper sequel to the same Nexus 9 and 10 tablets, that makes the Pixel C a pretty solid product in our eyes … fifty-fifty if its current land doesn't quite alive upwards to its lofty toll tag.

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Source: https://pocketnow.com/google-pixel-c-review

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