The Pixel Tablet is half of what it could have been
I’m not surprised; I’m just disappointed.
As expected, Google launched the Pixel Tablet at its Google I/O developer conference yesterday. It’s an 11-inch Android tablet with a “charging speaker dock,” and when it’s on the dock, it looks and functions like a Nest Hub Max, Google’s top-of-the-line smart display. Google kept saying the Pixel Tablet was “like” a smart display, while insisting that it isn’t one.
The thing is, when the tablet is docked in Hub mode, it certainly seems like a smart display. The tablet acts like a digital photo frame. You can talk to Google Assistant. You can use it as a smart home controller. You can Chromecast audio and video to it. Those are all things the Nest Hub does. The dock, which comes with the tablet,...