GoKawiilTaylor Kerns / Android Authority
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After a three-year run, it looks like the Pixel Tablet has reached the end of the line. The tablet is still set to receive software updates through 2028, but last week we spotted that Google is no longer selling it. Today, there’s no sign of the Pixel Tablet on the Google Store, and links that used to point to the tablet-smart display combo device now redirect to the store landing page.
Google ending sales of its only currently supported tablet before introducing a replacement might seem a little strange, but I’m almost surprised the Pixel Tablet lasted as long as it did. I love the idea of the Pixel Tablet, but the device we got had some fundamental flaws that ultimately made it an unappealing buy.
Here’s where I think Google went wrong with the Pixel Tablet.
What would you want from Google's next tablet device? 20 votes A regular, no-frills Android tablet. 45 % Another tablet-smart display combo. 25 % A Googlebook with a detachable keyboard. 15 % Nothing — Google should give up on tablets. 15 %
It was a middle-of-the-road tablet
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
The concept behind the Pixel Tablet resonates with me. For a lot of people, tablets are tertiary devices; we might reach for them once in a while when we want to do something too big for a phone, but not big enough to grab a laptop or sit down at a desktop computer. As such, they can sit unused for days or even weeks at a time, and when I finally have a reason to pick up a tablet, its battery is often drained. The Pixel Tablet’s bundled dock theoretically solves both parts of the problem by keeping the tablet charged and enabling it to function as a smart display, giving it something to do when it otherwise would’ve sat idle.
But to me, the overall experience never felt worth the $500 Google was charging for it. Even in 2023, the tablet itself seemed dated, with a design that looked and felt more in line with the Pixel 5 than the same year’s Pixel 8. Teardowns revealed that the inside of the tablet wasn’t any more considered than the outside; there’s a bunch of empty space in the Pixel Tablet’s body, implying Google had initially intended the device to be more compact than what we ended up with.
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