You have plenty of options right now if you’re an Android user looking for a decent Android tablet. Whether it’s a basic Amazon Kindle Fire, an affordable OnePlus Pad high-end tablet, or a Galaxy Tab S flagship from Samsung. But the Pixel Tablet that will be unveiled at I/O 2023 this week might be just what you need. And that’s thanks to an early listing on Amazon Japan that reveals all of the tablet’s secrets.
This isn’t the first time Amazon mistakenly listed an unreleased Pixel product. It happened with the Pixel Watch and Pixel 7, so the Pixel Tablet reveal isn’t a surprise. This time, it’s Amazon Japan (via Reddit and 9to5Google) with the accidental listing that has now been deleted.
The listing revealed everything about the Pixel Tablet, from design to specs to price and release date.
In terms of design, the Pixel Tablet looks just like an iPad or most Android tablets. It’s got a 10.95-inch display with symmetrical bezels, and a focus on landscape use, considering the 8-megapixel selfie camera placement.
The Pixel Tablet should feature powerful specs, including an LCD screen with 2560 x 1600 resolution, 500 nits of brightness, and stylus support. If there’s one display feature I’d like to see on more tablets, that’s a screen similar to the impressive panel of the TCL NXTPAPER 11 model. The Pixel Tablet won’t have a paper-like screen, however.
Google relies on the Tensor G2 that powers the Pixel 7 phone for the Pixel Table. It’s paired with 8GB of LDDR5 RAM and 128GB or 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage.
Add USB-C, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, UWB connectivity, and a 27 Wh battery, and you get an idea of what sort of device the Pixel Tablet should be.
We’re not looking at an iPad killer here, as Google is far from that. But I think the Pixel Tablet is a high-end device that will offer a great Android experience. This is Google’s new Android vision for tablets.
Apple has been making iPads for more than 10 years, yet Google is still playing catch-up in terms of software. Android 14, now in beta, makes a big deal about tablets and foldables.
That’s understandable, considering that Google is finally giving big-screen Android devices another go. The Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet will hopefully offer better Android tablet experiences, which will be available first from Google devices before other Android tablets.
That’s actually the reason why the Pixel Tablet might be a better option than any of the alternatives available from Android vendors right now. These companies have to come up with user interfaces of their own to take advantage of the larger canvas. Whereas the Pixel Tablet would get faster Android updates that feature support for larger displays, like Android 14. Google’s latest Android OS should be available this summer, soon after the Pixel Tablet’s in-store release.
Also, now that Google is pushing its own big-screen devices, more Android developers might focus on optimizing apps for larger screens.
In terms of price and release date, the Amazon Japan leak tells us the Pixel Tablet should cost around $590 for the 128GB version. That’s the price in Japan, so we expect a different figure in the US. A charging speaker dock will apparently be included in the package.
