Google - Pixel Tablet - 11" Android Tablet - 128GB - WiFi - Hazel

This device works really well for me. I mainly use it for school and the battery life is great. Transferring my data from my pixel phone to the pixel tablet was a breeze.

I’m a tablet fan, personally. When I am at home I rarely, if ever, utilize my phone for anything other than actual calls. I often will be consuming media or news on my TV and pick up my tablet to research a fact or look up an actor in a movie or show that I’m watching. I prefer the larger format of not only the screen but the device itself. The first table I ever bought was a Google Nexus 7 and I STILL was able to use it until I traded it in this year to Best Buy. This shows that when Google is serious about a device, they can make something that can be useful for years if you treat it right. And the latest Pixel Tablet shows this same pedigree in its build quality, I really enjoy picking it up and using it. I’m just worried that Google isn’t quite sure how to market it properly. But I’ll get into that in a minute… Setup on Google Pixel devices just gets more impressive every time I set up a new device. Since I have a Google account, I was able to get all my services set up merely by logging in and I was able to use my last tablet’s backup (a Samsung) to get all my necessary apps installed. I let it sit for a couple of minutes (and a few reboots) and when I got back to it, everything was “just there” – ready to go. It even brought over all my data as well; something that in the case of my Smart Home apps would have been a nightmare to recreate from scratch. (I even had the option of connecting directly to my old tablet during setup, but I opted for using my cloud backups.) Aesthetically speaking, it feels good in the hands. I find it strange, but this is one of the first tablets that I felt as comfortable using in landscape as in portrait. A lot of that is due to Android’s tablet tweaks that take advantage of landscape mode. It comes with more than enough storage for me at 128 gigs, but if I was a gamer I’d probably opt for the 256 GB variant. I can’t speak to gaming performance, but for everyday use and content consumption, I found the UI and app quite snappy with little to no lag. The screen is sharp and fairly contrasty and although it is an LCD screen, I found the brightness to be pretty adaptable to various lighting conditions. The other thing I found quite impressive was the fingerprint sensor, which works surprisingly well once you do the initial setup. Overall, it’s a really good tablet – which is what it should be. It’s not an iPad, nor does it need to be compared to one as I feel the target users are in two completely different classes. But I’m not sure if Google knows how to market the device properly, given their recent unbundling of the tablet from the dock. For some reason, Google decided to lower the price by unbundling it from the dock and selling it separately, but in my opinion the dock is what really makes the Pixel Tablet a standout from other devices in this form factor. I immediately bought a dock when I tested this because as much as I love the tablet, the dock was what made it a must have for me. I’ve always kept my tablets on a side table next to my couch because that’s where I use it the most. It’s always been a pain point for me that I’d have to plug and unplug my tablet and that the only way I could put it on the table was to lay it flat, which took up too much space. With the dock, not only is it easier to charge but it also keeps the tablet upright, with the additional virtue as serving as sort of a smart speaker like my Nest hubs. And there’s a really satisfying grab of the magnets when you attach to the dock. They should be lowering the price of the dock significantly to encourage purchasing more than one. I would definitely buy another dock to put in my bedroom or office so I could move the tablet with me and feel like they could offer them at a lower price given the basic construction; it is after all just a charger, speaker, and some magnets. All of the smarts are in the tablet itself. Also, if they are going to pitch the tablet as a ‘part time’ smart speaker then they need to mirror more features from the Nest hub. At the VERY LEAST, it should really support Nest Doorbell on screen announcements! That it still doesn’t support this after a year of being out there is puzzling; especially since the tablet itself is a Chromecast target device! Despite these small shortcomings, I love this tablet and its form factor. But I would highly recommend also buying the dock to get the most out of it. If you use your tablet like I do, I think you’ll be much happier with the combination of the two.

This is my introduction to the tablet market, having always favored laptops. However, I am not unfamiliar with them as my wife has had a couple of generations of IPads, probably for 10 years or better. So, I've seen her use it to phone my daughter & grandkids, play games, stream her soap opera, and as somewhat of a photo hobbyist, take, store & edit photos. Out of the box, the Pixel has a solid, well built feel to it, not dissimilar to the Apple. On to setup; which I thought was relatively painless; Wifi connection was excellent, the only discomfort I had was with registering an identifying fingerprint. The Pixel uses a thin strip of a reader on its edge; it consistently was telling me to "clean the reader." Took about 10 minutes of sliding my finger left/right, up/down & sideways to get the image registered. What did impress me was when it asked if I wanted to transfer information. I have a Samsung Galaxy S20, I connected it, approved authorization, and within 10 minutes I had a clone of my phone on the tablet. The tablet includes Google TV, I quickly added Netflix, Amazon & Apple TV. Image quality is excellent, my wife did note that it was superior to her IPad, so I'm expecting to have the Pixel disappear regularly! As I knew I was receiving this unit minus the docking pad, I immediately ordered one. Luckily, Best Buy had it on sale, it was delivered 2 days later. For me, this is the whole appeal appeal of the Pixel. Just about every aspect of it is improved with the dock, whether streaming, listening to music, making a call, gaming, etc. The magnetic catch is fabulous, really makes the tablet secure. I can't see why you wouldn't want it, unless your tablet is only for "on the go" use. I have 7 or 8 security cameras in & around the house, the split screen function works well if I need to keep my eye on more than 1 location at a time. I can have all of them on the screen at once with discernible resolution, which my wife's IPad didn't accomplish well. There was one issue that I found was somewhat of an annoyance; to adjust the sound level you had to go to settings, then adjust the volume control slider. I just wanted to find a way to put a sound icon on the main screen, similar to what you get in the Windows task bar, but was unable to accomplish this. I suppose I could use voice recognition to do this, but that adds a bit of a delay. Overall though, I'm very happy with the Pixel; the only thing I'd repeat is that the dock really adds to the experience, and would recommend the entire package.