Google teased its upcoming Pixel Tablet at its Made by Google event, offering a change in direction for what the device can do.
Google made a significant change to the tablet design by including a charging speaker dock that transforms the Pixel Tablet into a smart home hub. When it’s docked, it acts more as a Google Nest hub, where users can listen to music or watch TV with the speakers, control smart home devices, and even display a curated slideshow from Google Photos.
Of course, the hub charges the Pixel Tablet and is easily docked and undocked with its magnetic attachment points. When you need to head out, you can just yank the tablet from the dock and take it with you for more traditional, portable uses.
Powered by G2 — Google is planning to power the upcoming Pixel Tablet with its new Tensor G2 chip. Beyond the processor, Google hasn’t revealed any other official specs yet, but there are rumors that the tablet will only have 4GB of RAM and up to 256GB of internal storage. The Pixel Tablet will obviously run Android OS, but will also have split screen capabilities and stylus support.
Google’s updated design for its Pixel Tablet is a smart move that emphasizes a more dynamic use cases. Rose Yao, vice president of product management at Google, said during the event that tablets are left at home 80 percent of the time. If people are almost exclusively using them at home, why not give the tablet extra capabilities as a smart home hub.
Pro model coming? — The Pixel Tablet definitely took a backseat to the launch of the Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, and Pixel Watch during the event, but Google did say it’s expecting to release the tablets in 2023. We already knew that since Google originally announced that it was working on a new Pixel tablet at its I/O event in May. But now with more info, the Pixel Tablet is looking like a pretty solid addition to any smart home. Of course, we’re still holding out hope that Google is also working on a pro variant of the Pixel Tablet, but we haven’t heard anything official just yet.
