The Google Pixel Slate it announced today will run Chrome OS, which has matured enough over the past few years to work better on tablets. This won’t be the first Chrome OS tablet, but it will be the first one that can legitimately attempt to compete with the iPad Pro and the Surface Pro. The Pixel Slate starts at $599, runs up to $1,699, and asks you to pay extra for a keyboard. It’s more expensive than most tablets because it essentially has the guts of a computer, including an Intel processor. Pegging where exactly the Pixel Slate fits in the computer market is difficult because the computer market is rapidly changing. Laptops are becoming tablets and tablets are becoming laptops, and we’re seeing companies try to make nearly everything in between. We’re entering a period of experimentation with big-screened devices and it’s going to mean we’ll see a lot of devices like the Pixel Slate soon. Stuff that doesn’t slot nicely into pre-existing categories, but nevertheless could be a signal of what computers are going to look and act like going forward. Despite its success on phones, it has been clear for some time that Android can’t really compete on tablets. So Google considers the Pixel Slate a fresh start, the beginning of the next big push for Chrome OS where it will be more than a platform used in schools and by enthusiasts. It signals that Google is finally getting serious about taking on both Windows and the iPad.
the Pixel Slate feels like any normal — albeit big — tablet. And as with any tablet, the focal point is the screen. It’s a 12.3-inch panel surrounded by fairly slim bezels, with an easy-to-remember resolution of 2000 x 3000 pixels. In my short time with it, I found it to be bright, crisp, and have excellent viewing angles. than Apple-esque move, Google has chosen to brand the screen technology it’s using, calling it a “Molecular Display.” That branding is less of a mouthful than the term for what lights up the pixels: low-temperature polycrystalline silicon, or LTPS. It’s still an LCD but has some advantages over traditional TFT LCDs — most notably with battery life. It’s supposedly much more power efficient than other LCDs. Google claims it helps the device achieve “up to ten hours of use” between charges. As a physical thing, the Pixel Slate looks and feels almost like a giant Pixel phone. Every Google-made tablet before this has either felt cheap (the Nexus tablets) or prototype-y (the Pixel-C). Google’s relatively young hardware division is still developing its hardware design voice, but the Pixel Slate feels of a kind with its phones — even more so than last year’s Pixelbook. The Gorilla Glass 5 on the front is curved very slightly at the edges to blend down into the rest of the body of the tablet, just as it is on the Pixel 2 XL. It is also flanked on the left and right by two front-facing stereo speakers which get very loud and sound much better than your average laptop. It’s hard to pin down why, but the Pixel Slate feels much smaller than it ought to given its 12.3-inch screen size. Ergonomically, it’s just nice and easy to hold thanks to the rounded edges and corners. Google says it spent a lot of time making sure that its center of balance is precisely in the middle of the device, making it easier to hold. It weighs 1.6 pounds, which is in the same ballpark as the 12.9-inch iPad Pro — but it’s not as wide or tall. It comes in just one color, a “midnight blue” anodized aluminum that, unfortunately, picks up fingerprints rather easily. There are two 8-megapixel cameras, and Google claims the front-facing camera is optimized for both low light and video calling. In fact, the front-facing camera appears to have better specs than the rear camera. As you look around the edges of the Pixel Slate, you’ll find good news, bad news, and very bad news. The good news first: there are two USB-C ports, one on either side, capable of fast charging and 4K video output. You’ll also find a custom keyboard connector and two microphones. The power button has a fingerprint scanner on it for faster login, too.
