Google Pixel C was the best Android tablet ever created

Android tablets, no matter what company makes them, have continually struggled to be relevant alongside the iPad’s dominance. And the history of Google with tablets, Android, and Chrome OS alike is even harsher – it’s often argued that it all went downhill after the second Nexus 7. But I’ll always remember a different tablet, the Google Pixel C, as the best Android tablet of history made.

But the funniest thing about Pixel C is that I only Have these positive feelings about it when paired with your metal keyboard accessory, which, at the time, cost you $ 150 over the $ 500 tablet. Without it, the Pixel C is quite forgettable and even boring. That’s because the keyboard, and that’s only The Metal Keyboard – It’s an exceptional piece of hardware design, and the way it came together was pure perfection. And deserves more praise.

The marked “metal slab” isn’t particularly unique, but it was a great upgrade to the Nexus 9 and other Android tablets of the time, and perhaps, unsurprisingly, this design will continue to feel modern in 2020. The flat edges, the Smooth back, perfectly perforated stereo speaker slots and simple buttons are still great. And the multi-colored LED light bar on the back is just a fantastic touch. And it gives you one of the best features never place a tablet: double tap the back while sleeping, and the light bar shows you the battery level. It’s the little things.

The tablet’s design still feels modern, and even some of the specs are kept today.

That design was also packed with solid specs and features. Sure the Tegra X1 processor is old, and 3 GB of RAM are not enough today. But the 34.2 Wh (approximately 9200 mAh) battery with 15W USB-C charging is still good, there’s a headphone jack and stereo speakers, and a couple of usable cameras. The display bezels are hilariously large by today’s standards, but the 10.2-inch 2560×1800 panel really does look great (albeit a bit dark) and it was early in the game to go to a very “high landscape aspect ratio. “instead of the old school 16:10 look.

But using the Pixel C as a tablet did not live up to the potential of all that hardware. Even the exquisite hardware design can’t take it away from the fact that you’re trying to use a 10-inch tablet running Android, and that means big issues with app compatibility and an interface that just doesn’t seem like it’s using the Size screen. Yes, things have improved a bit in the latter category with Android 10 tablets, but the former is still a problem today: Android apps are still bad on big tablets.

But that’s what made the keyboard accessory so amazing. He took a regular Android tablet and turned it into an amazing little Android laptop. The keyboard, made with the same great minimalist metal aesthetic, attaches to the tablet with incredibly strong magnets that immediately suck it in with what seems like three times the force required. The hinge mechanism for adjusting the angle of the screen is contained on the keyboard, not the tablet, and is tight and infinitely adjustable. This design only works because the keyboard is Bluetooth, it doesn’t use a pogo pin connector, and it pairs and connects immediately every time you click on the magnets.

The metal keyboard accessory turned a regular tablet into an amazing mini laptop with tons of capacity.

That big screen with large bezels and a high aspect ratio ended up having the benefit of making the keyboard accessory much bigger. So even with the complicated hinge and magnet area, there is still plenty of room to have full-size keys with good space, as well as a almost Complete set of keys. There is enough weight on the keyboard base that the tablet doesn’t feel too heavy, even when typing on your lap. And there’s even a little pad on the bottom for the screen to rest on and doubles as a pseudo palm rest.

In typical critical trope style, I wrote most of this piece in the Pixel C. And damn, it still feels great today. It’s a little mushy and arguably it could take even fewer key trips and still be usable, but that comes from someone who writes on a MacBook Pro every day. In addition to the missing dedicated keys in parentheses, I don’t have a problem typing thousands of words into this keyboard case, and I’ve written countless CA articles on this while traveling over the years. Very few tablet keyboards offer that level of comfort and ease of use.

This tablet and keyboard are so incredibly over-designed that you wish Google would re-launch it.

And when you’re done working on the Pixel C, the keyboard immediately turns into a protective cover, again using very strong magnets to vacuum the display upside down over the keyboard. You don’t need to have a part of the keyboard that wraps around the tablet, or connects in any other way, just drop it and it will be completely contained like a laptop. The tablet even wirelessly charges the keyboard while closed, so you’ll never think about power – it just works. And when you’re ready to use it again, the Google-sanctioned method of removing the tablet upside down with a twist of the top is always very clever, if a little puzzling at first.

Many of these great design elements and features would later be replicated on many other tablets, and of course you can find a much better overall experience today on the Galaxy Tab S6 and iPad Pro. But there is something about the Pixel C’s appearance that still seems more desirable than those. And there certainly are still some aspects of how the keyboard and tablet interact that haven’t replicated since; I’m dying to use it again today if only some of the Pixel C’s specs were revamped.

It’s so amazing that even now, almost five years after launch, I still want to choose and use the Pixel C. The keyboard is still just as good at typing, the software is surprisingly fast, and while Android 8.1 feels old at this point There are still many things I love to do. It’s a great little “weekend computer” for browsing, checking social media, checking lots of emails, and writing occasionally.

Sadly, the Pixel C’s life came to an end pretty quickly for a device so beloved by those who had it. After receiving two major software updates, the Pixel C was fully discontinued just two years after its release. And now, almost five years after launch, nothing sums up the Pixel C better than what our own Phil Nickinson wrote in our original review in 2015:

When reviewing a device it’s easy to get distracted by what the product might have been, or what it was supposed to have been, rather than what it really is. And that distraction is even more apparent when it comes to Google Pixel C, a beautiful but heavy 10-inch Android tablet that is almost certainly still not living up to its full potential.

The Pixel C’s design was packed with potential. However, he never realized it, neither in the two years it was available, nor in subsequent years. And like many Google hardware products, few people had a chance to use a Pixel C. He never received a model update, and his spiritual successor, the Pixel Slate, was a total disaster. At the time, as I still do today, I felt the Pixel C deserved a simple upgrade with new components to give this hardware design more time to shine.

I would like absolutely Buy this exact tablet again if it only updated in a few small areas, with zero design changes. It would live easily if it simply had a 2020 spec sheet, and it would obviously benefit from a touch of modernization with a brighter display, a fingerprint sensor, and maybe some chassis lighting. But it wouldn’t be picky: the Pixel C wasn’t perfect before, and yet it was still my favorite tablet. And it would be my favorite tablet again if it were relaunched today.