Over the years Google has made some really good hardware, most notable and famous are Pixel series of Chromebooks. Alongside with them, Chromecast is also impressive for the small design and almost perfect functionality for the price.
This is not the same about Pixel C.
A Really Promising idea
Pixel C starts with a really impressive idea, a Google-made tablet focused for productivity. That is what a lot of Die-hard Android users want. It has a great aluminium body and a really bright display.
Granted that it is slightly thicker than Apple’s iPad, it holds the charm with its great looks and gorgeous screen.
The keyboard is excellent too. Rather than going with a mechanical hinge like Microsoft Surface, it relays on some really strong magnets to connect the keyboard with the tablet. It charges wirelessly so you don’t need to plug it ever, not to mention that it connects with Pixel C via Bluetooth which helps in keeping it completely wireless.
Image: Google
Build quality is great and it matches the sturdiness that you expect with a $500 tablet. Keyboard costs an additional $150 but it is worth it and it has good key travel.
Despite having some great looks and features, feels like a too rushed product.
Failing on the software front
Google has made some excellent piece of software too, Google Chrome is one of the best examples, but Pixel C runs on Google’s Android.
This is where the problems show up.
Pixel has a really beautiful screen. The screen ratio is 1: Square root 2, which is good for web browsing and working on documents. With this screen ratio, a user can run two app side by side at once without losing the core functionality of the app.
Sadly, you can not run two apps at once, at least not side by side. With the almost perfect 10.2″ display that runs on 2560 by 1800 screen resolution, it sucks that the $500 tablet can not snap two apps on the screen. Even Apple has that available in iOS 9.
Microsoft has been doing this with Windows for desktops and even with Windows RT.
Early developer builds had the functionality of running two apps simultaneously, but it was dropped with the final builds of Android marshmallow.
Google has kept the OS almost stock, one of the most notable customization is done with the navigation and app switcher. The back soft touch control along with the touch key for home screen stays at the left bottom side of the screen whereas, unlike other tablets android phones, the task switcher stays on the bottom right side o the screen.
Lack of Tablet-y Apps
Google Android app store is huge, with more than a million apps made for android phones over these years.
However, the number of apps made specifically for tablets are really low. Most of the app looks like a stretched version of the Phone app. Some apps scale well but right now Google can’t compete with a large number of Tablet optimised apps made for Apple iPad.
We could wait, you could wait
The convertible tablet market is right now on fire. Microsoft is doing some great work with Surface tablet and even with Surface Book, Apple has recently released an iPad Pro with a keyboard aimed at professional users and now android has its flagship too. Lack of optimization of app and OS are really a deal breaker for many people.
Rather than jumping off the cliff with Pixel C google could talks sometime in customizing the OS for Pixel C or make ist available for all android devices by adding it in OS itself.
It is not impossible, Samsung has been doing it for many recent years.
I am sure that multi-window support will make its way on Android soon, But I don’t really thing that Creating a premium and low featured tablet was necessary for Google.
Pixel C is an expensive piece of hardware and it has its own limitations by Now, taking a looks at Pixel Chromebooks by Google, it won’t be too surprising for me if it could not turn itself to a tablet with large market share.
What do you think about Pixel C? Do you agree that Google rushed with the release date? Share with us in the comments below
