Google's Surface competitor -- the 10.2 inch Pixel C Android tablet -- is going on sale
today, starting at $499 for the 32 GB version and an extra $149 for the keyboard.
I spent the last couple of days with it as my main machine to find out if it's any good.
Google’s Pixel brand used to only stand for high-end Chromebooks, but in September,
Google surprised us all with the Pixel C – a high-end Android tablet with an optional bluetooth
keyboard.
If you think that sounds a little bit like Microsoft’s surface tablet -- or Apple's
iPad Pro, you’re not alone.
It's impossible not to compare the C with them.
First impressions: the Pixel C with its aluminium shell is a high-end machine.
With the keyboard attached, it looks as if somebody shrunk a Pixel laptop down to tablet
size – down to the light strip on top of the tablet and the plastic nubs on the bottom
of the keyboard.
The build is really solid.
That does means the tablet/keyboard combo has a bit of heft, though.
At half a kilo, It’s not heavy by any means, but you won't forget that you’re carrying
it with you.
The keyboard doesn’t come standard with the tablet, so let’s look at the tablet
first.
The first thing you’ll notice when you start up the C is the screen.
It’s a 10-inch 2560x1800 resolution screen that’s simply gorgeous.
It’s also one of the brightest screens I’ve seen on a tablet.
It’s actually so bright, it’ll probably hurt your eyes when you look at it with the
brightness cranked up all the way.
Google says it still managed to keep energy consumption really low.
The screen has a bit of an unusual aspect ratio.
One to the square root of two -- that's the same as the European A4 paper size.
Especially in landscape mode, that feels like a really good ratio for browsing the web and
working on documents.
As for performance, nobody is going to call the C slow.
With its Nvidia Tegra K1 and 3GB of Ram, everything works just as smoothly as you would expect
it to.
Just like all of Google’s newest devices, the C uses a USB Type C port for charging.
Google says the battery should last a good 10 hours and while we haven't done any formal
tests yet, that number does sound about right.
The C comes with the latest version of Android Marshmallow and it’s pretty much a standard
build.
The only major difference I noticed is that the home and back button are on the bottom
left side, with the task switcher on the right.
To see how Google likes to go a bit overboard with the Pixel line, just look at the four
microphones it built into the tablet -- all of that just to make sure that it can hear
your OK Google commands.
What about the keyboard?
It’s small but after a few days of using it, it’s grown on me.
The keys are a bit shallower than I’d like, but it’s quite usable.
Google kept the most often used keys at a regular size.
That means your enter and tab keys are really small now, but otherwise you probably won’t
notice much of a difference in daily use.
What’s really cool is how you attach the keyboard to the tablet.
There is no hinge on the tablet – everything is held together with magnets and a stiff
hinge on the keyboard.
And those magnets are strong and they are both in the keyboard and the tablet.
Indeed, you could easily stick the C on a metal board.The keyboard and tablet connect
over bluetooth, so there are no connectors.
It charges inductively from your tablet when the two are attached.
That means you never have to worry about charging the keyboard.
I have to admit, it’s also pretty satisfying to break the combo over your knee to disconnect
tablet and keyboard.
But how much sense does the tablet/keyboard combo make?
More than I first expected.
I used the C as my main machine over the last few days and was able to pretty much do everything
I needed to to do my work.
What’s missing for me is a split-screen view in Android and that's a shame, given
that the screen would be perfect for that.
At one point, this feature actually existed in the Marshmallow beta, but it didn’t make
it into the final release.
Is there a market for the C?
I think it'll be a small one.