Google Pixel Tablet review: the worst Pixel I’ve ever used

Our Google Pixel Tablet review was written by me (Joe Maring) and originally published on June 20, 2023, after testing the Pixel Tablet for two weeks. It was updated in December with the “six months later” section you’ll find below.

I haven’t been a fan of the Pixel Tablet’s drab appearance since Google first announced it in 2022. However, I’ve come around to actually liking many of the design decisions that Google made.

The Pixel Tablet has an aluminum frame, but you wouldn’t know that when you pick it up, as the tablet is covered in a “nano-ceramic coating.” It gives the Pixel Tablet a soft, welcoming texture that feels great to hold — all while still providing the rigidity and durability of the aluminum enclosure hiding beneath it.

I’ve also been happy with the fingerprint sensor, which is embedded into the power button on the top frame of the Pixel Tablet. It was easy to set up,  is very fast, and has worked reliably for me during my entire review period.

I also think the colors for the Pixel Tablet, while decidedly bland, are perfectly fine. My model is the Hazel color, and it’s the only one with a black bezel around the display. The Porcelain and Rose colors both come with a white bezel. I like that Google gives you a choice here, and for a device that’s going to spend much of its time propped up on your kitchen counter or end table, I think the muted colors work quite well.

We’ll dive into the Pixel Tablet more in a minute, but it’s only half of the equation here. Every Pixel Tablet also comes with its own charging dock in the box. The idea is that whenever you aren’t actively using the Pixel Tablet as, well, a tablet, you place it on the charging dock. This does a few things: Your Pixel Tablet charges whenever it’s on the dock, it uses the dock’s much better speaker, and it gets a special smart home-focused interface.

My favorite thing about the charging dock is how it sounds. There’s only a single 43.5mm full-range speaker inside, but it sounds great to my ears. It gets very loud, audio has a good amount of depth to it, and it’s worked well for everything from YouTube TV to Apple Music. Especially considering that it’s something that’s bundled with the Pixel Tablet at no extra cost, there’s not much to complain about.

However, that praise only applies to the audio quality. Elsewhere, the charging dock disappoints.

The Pixel Tablet locks onto the charging dock using magnets, and in my testing, those magnets are extremely weak. Multiple times when I’ve pressed the volume rocker or power button on the Pixel Tablet while docked, the tablet completely falls off and onto my kitchen counter. I’ve lost track of how many times the Pixel Tablet has plopped off its charging dock just because I wanted to adjust the volume.

The other issue is that the charging dock is rendered useless whenever the Pixel Tablet isn’t attached to it. The dock on its own doesn’t support voice commands, can’t be used as a Chromecast target to send audio to, and doesn’t even function as a Bluetooth speaker. There’s a nice-sounding speaker system in the charging dock that I’d love to use more often, but if the Pixel Tablet isn’t attached to it, there’s nothing I can do with it. Instead, it’s just a hunk of plastic and fabric taking up space in my kitchen.

Moving back to the Pixel Tablet itself, the screen and audio experience are equally puzzling.

The Pixel Tablet has an 11-inch LCD display with a 2560 x 1600 resolution and 500 nits of brightness. For the most part, the display looks very good. Colors look very nice, everything is plenty sharp, and I’ve had no issues with how bright the screen gets. It’s likely not the best choice for outdoor use, but when using the Pixel Tablet indoors and in brightly-lit rooms, I’ve never had trouble seeing what’s on the screen.

I won’t spend too much time on the cameras, as there’s nothing here that really demands too much of your attention. The Pixel Tablet uses an 8MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture for both the front and rear-facing cameras. Both cameras are also fixed-focus ones, meaning there’s no autofocus capability for either one.

You’ll likely use the front-facing camera the most, and it’s perfectly adequate. It’s certainly not the best I’ve ever seen, but it’s also not the worst. If you need to take a quick selfie or hop on a Google Meet call, it’s more than capable.

The rear camera is equally fine. If you need to scan a document or take a photo and don’t have anything else at your disposal, it’ll get the job done. But with no autofocus, poor lowlight performance, and noisy detail, it’s not a camera you’ll want to rely on for anything serious.

OK — let’s talk software. The Google Pixel Tablet ships with Android 13 (and is now running Android 14) and is promised three years of OS upgrades and at least five years of security updates. This is the same Pixel software you’ve come to expect from Pixel smartphones, though it’s been optimized for the Pixel Tablet’s larger display.

This is seen throughout the operating system. The notification panel shows your Quick Settings on the left and notifications on the right. Many Google apps are also optimized for the bigger display, rearranging buttons and using multicolumn layouts. These optimizations are great! Apps like Google Calendar, Google Photos, Google Maps, and Google Home do a great job of using the full display and feeling like they were actually made for a tablet. Even some third-party apps, like 1Password and Microsoft Teams, look great on the Pixel Tablet.

I also love Google’s approach to multitasking. Whenever you’re in an app, a small swipe up from the bottom of the screen displays a taskbar showing the apps from your home screen dock and an app drawer shortcut. This makes it dead simple to run apps in split-screen mode.

Using Google Chrome and want to scroll through Twitter at the same time? Bring up the taskbar, press and hold the Twitter app, and move it to the left or right of your screen. Just like that, you’re running Chrome and Twitter simultaneously. Apps automatically share the screen 50/50, or you can use the bar in the middle to make it a 75/25 split. I wish there was more freedom in how much you can resize apps in split-screen mode, but the current implementation is smooth and easy to use. Plus, if you go home after running apps in split-screen, that split-screen setup will be saved in your recent apps menu like any other application. Google really nailed it here.

There’s still a looming problem, though, and that’s third-party apps.

“But Joe, didn’t you say that third-party apps look good?” I did! But that’s only true for some third-party apps. If an application hasn’t been optimized for tablets, it displays in a tiny window surrounded by a black background. You can move the app to the left, right, or center, but there’s no way to make an unoptimized app use the entire screen. If you open an app like Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Duolingo, Chewy, Target, or Day One, you have to look at it as this small window.

These aren’t random, unknown apps! We’re talking about some of the better-known mobile apps, and they all look terrible on the Pixel Tablet. It’s an ugly reminder that — even with all of the work Google’s done on its own apps — there’s still a lot of work to be done before Android really feels great on a big screen like this.

Accessories are an important factor for any tablet, and this is an area where the Pixel Tablet feels oddly incomplete.

The only first-party accessory Google has for the Pixel Tablet is a $79 case. To Google’s credit, it is a very nice case! The silicone on the outside feels rigid and durable, and the raised edges around the display should offer good protection in the event of a drop.

The best aspect is the metal ring on the back, which you can position at any angle to prop up the Pixel Tablet on a flat surface. The stand also moves all the way to the top of the tablet, meaning you could hang it on a nail/hook if you have one around your house. The stand is super sturdy, feels excellent to move, and has a perfect cutout so you can still put the Pixel Tablet on its charging dock even with the case. While the $79 price tag is a lot to swallow, this is one of the best cases I’ve seen from Google in years.

The Google Pixel Tablet is available now and starts at $499 for the model with 128GB of storage. If you want to upgrade to the 256GB model, you’ll pay $599.

While the Pixel Tablet comes with a charging dock included in the box, you can buy additional ones for $129 each if you’d like.

So that’s the Google Pixel Tablet. I firmly believe that the idea behind the Pixel Tablet is a good one. As someone who has multiple smart displays scattered throughout my apartment, the concept of a smart display that also doubles as a tablet is one that gets me excited.

Google gave that concept a fair shot, but its execution with the Google Pixel Tablet completely misses the mark. There’s not one single deal breaker that immediately stands out, but it’s a perfect case of a death by a thousand cuts. The oddly placed speakers that ruin the tablet’s audio quality. The 60Hz display that looks slow and outdated. The poorly designed charging dock that could have been so much more. The wonky software experience that makes the Pixel Tablet infuriating to use at times.

If you want an Android tablet for about the same price, you’re far better off with the OnePlus Pad or Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2. Both have much better displays, longer battery life, more interesting designs, and better first-party accessories — not to mention, they’re both cheaper than the Pixel Tablet. Hell, you could buy the Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 plus a Google Nest Hub and still spend less than what you’d pay for a Pixel Tablet. And in doing so, you’d get a better Android tablet and a better smart display than what the Pixel Tablet is capable of.