Following the launch on Tuesday, Google today hosted an extensive Q&A session that addressed many questions about the Pixel Tablet.
No Face Unlock or Nest Cam
The Pixel Tablet does not have Face Unlock as the front-facing camera lacks DPAF (dual-pixel autofocus):
It will unfortunately be tough for Pixel Tablet given the specs of the front camera, but we’ve seen the fingerprint sensor (integrated into power button) work really well for our users.
Similarly, unlike the Nest Hub Max, that front lens cannot act as a Nest Cam “due to the narrower width of the front camera and because the tablet wouldn’t always be on the dock.”
We have no plans at this time. As mentioned in another comment, this one was debated a bit within the team, but ultimately we decided that due to the narrower width of the front camera and because the tablet wouldn’t always be on the dock, we would not pursue this use case at launch.
Google did mention that the “camera software under the hood is engineered by the same team that develops the camera goodness in our phones.”
Nest Doorbell alerts are coming soon
Viewing who’s at the front door when someone rings the doorbell is coming soon to the Pixel Tablet! We showcased the feature in our blog post about the home panel.
More Hub Mode features coming
We focused on the most loved features of Nest Hub for our initial launch: Photo Frame, smart home control, Chromecast built-in, and hands-free help with the Assistant. But this is only the beginning– stay tuned for more!
Lack of cellular model
Pixel Tablet is focused on a great tablet experience in the home, where tablets are used the most (though they’re great on the go too, from airplanes to coffee shops with wifi).
More Pixel Tablet accessories are coming
Presumably, through the Made for Google certification program, users can expect more accessories:
We’re working to increase the choices of covers you’ll have available over time. Stay tuned!
On launching in more countries
One of the more interesting responses was about how Google determines what countries to launch in. It comes down to customer support.
We’d love to have Pixel Tablet in more countries, but we have to do it when we know we can fully support customers in the country. Ensuring robust language support, supporting a returns and exchanges program, and partnering with in-market retailers are just some of the examples of what we need to do to ensure great support for our users. We strive to have as many products in as many countries as possible, and hope to get to yours soon.
Google working with ‘top apps’ on tablet optimizations, more coming
We’re partnering with many of the top apps on Android to optimize their apps for large screens! Examples of some top apps that work great on the Pixel tablet include Whatsapp, Candy Crush Soda Saga, Peloton, Disney+, and more. We’re continuing to work with more third party apps and look forward to seeing more updates from them.
The apps we announced for optimization were only the beginning, and we’ll be working with more over time.
On how seamless audio transfer works
We had to solve some pretty challenging technical problems to get the experience right, from developing new acoustic echo cancellation algorithms that synchronize the clocks across the tablet and dock, to developing new technology to ensure audio moves seamlessly between devices.
Give Adaptive Brightness a few days to learn
Regarding brightness, I’d suggest you leave adaptive on a few more days. Pixel devices use machine learning to adapt to your brightness preferences over time as you continue to use it. Once you dock it, adaptive brightness falls back to a default level suited to the ambient brightness level.
On Pixel Slate lineage
Asked how the company approached the Pixel Tablet compared to the Pixel Slate, Google’s answer suggests that the ChromeOS device did not have a unique enough differentiator.
For this device, we learned a number of lessons from Pixel Slate. Importantly, we wanted to build a tablet that offered our users something unique. Most tablets stay in the home and are used in the home. So we are designing tablets to exist in that space and to integrate seamlessly with the rest of the Google hardware and Android ecosystem. We also thought about how the Pixel portfolio of devices work together – Pixel phones, Pixel Watch, Pixel Buds – it wasn’t complete without a tablet. So we built a tablet that completes the family and is uniquely Google.
On European pricing
Google argues that the Pixel Tablet is “competitively priced” in Europe. The $499 128GB model costs €679 in France. For comparison, a $449 10th-gen iPad is €589.
Our prices in European countries are inclusive of sales tax, while our prices in the US aren’t. We believe we’re competitively priced in Europe relative to comparable tablets in this category, but we’re always looking for ways to improve and appreciate the feedback!
We can’t get into the details of how we price our products, but we strive to price them as competitively as possible relative to other products in the category. There are occasionally taxes we have to take into account as well– as mentioned in another answer, our prices in the European region are inclusive of sales tax, while our prices in the US aren’t. We believe we’re competitively priced in Europe relative to comparable tablets in this category.
UWB
As the company previously told us, UWB will be enabled at a later date. This will presumably let you tap to transfer media playing on your phone to the tablet. There’s currently a toggle in Settings.
It will be used for future features that allow the tablet to communicate with other UWB-enabled devices, like Pixel 7 Pro. We don’t have any news to share now, but stay tuned for updates :)
Miscellaneous
- The company says it’s “dedicated to the continued improvement of Google Assistant,” which was “definitely top of mind” during the development process.
- To round out this Q&A, the Pixel Tablet will get Feature Drops. Overall, Google was surprisingly thorough in answering common criticisms.
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