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For basic office work, web browsing and media consumption the Pixel Slate’s screen is excellent. The “all new Molecular Display” is a 12.3-inch LCD panel with an impressive 3000 x 2000 resolution. The size and dimensions are large and sharp enough to make movie-watching and multiple window office work comfortable on the device. If you’re a regular consumer who’s fully embedded in Google’s application and services ecosystem, and are looking for an all-in-one convertible that works equally well as a tablet and laptop, the Pixel Slate is a great device. The display, beset on both sides by booming (yet still tinny) speakers, uses new technology that Google calls its ‘Molecular Display.’ This tech employs low-temperature polymer crystals that move electrons faster than standard displays, which is what allows the display to produce such a high pixel density compared to other screens of similar dimensions. On the design front, I welcome the Pixel Slate’s two USB-C connections. These sit along the top and bottom edges of the device and mean that, unlike the iPad Pro, you can have a peripheral plugged in while the Slate is charging – a bonus if you plan to use the device for word processing or basic office work. The tablet mode tweaks the UI to look more like Android. Pop off the keyboard and the UI will change to display all the installed apps in a grid format, which makes it easier to navigate using just touch inputs.
That starting price gets you an unnamed Intel Celeron processor powering that 12.3-inch ‘Molecular’ touchscreen at a 3,000 x 2,000-pixel resolution. That’s paired with 4GB of memory and a 32GB solid-state drive. The design is wonderfully mobile and, coupled with the tablet section’s super-light 0.7kg weight, means the Pixel Slate can 100% be used as a standalone tablet. Having lugged the Slate around London in my satchel, where it had more than a few accidental encounters with the sides of tables and a tube turnstile, I can also personally attest to the tablet’s build quality. While that much storage may feel like overkill on the cloud-based Chrome OS, you can't save by getting a Slate with a Core i5 processor with 64GB of storage, as that much space is only available in the Core m3 version. If you're looking to use this as your main machine, I would not recommend relying on the Core m3 CPU, unless your needs are minimal to moderate.I found a pair of odd, annoying issues when listening to music on the Pixel Slate with Bluetooth headphones and use it with a Bluetooth keyboard. First of all, my music kept dying. Specifically, the connection to my headphones -- first with my Apple AirPods and then with the Bose QuietComfort 35 -- just dropped. Sometimes I'd have to manually re-pair the connection, and once, the connection fixed itself after a moment. I've reached out to Google to see if there's a fix and will update this review when one becomes available. The Pixel Slate gets pretty bright, emitting up to 337 nits, which beats the 316-nit premium laptop average and comes close to the 350-nit Galaxy Book 2. We found brighter screens in the Surface Pro 6 (408 nits), iPad Pro (484 nits), and Pixelbook (421 nits). The Pixel Slate's brightness is strong enough for decent viewing angles, as I saw colors stay strong, and not darken, when viewed at 35 degrees to the left and right. As a final nail in the coffin, if you want to take advantage of freeware such as Blender and GIMP, you’ll have to manually install the Linux versions using the beta mode in Chrome OS. This isn’t as easy as it sounds and will be a feat beyond most average buyers. Even if you do manage the install, the apps are buggy. The i5 version I tested blitzed through everyday tasks, and outside of a few Android games that failed to work, offered a seamless tablet-laptop experience. The only issue is its high upfront cost, which puts it in the same space as the more developed Surface Pro and iPad Pro. battery life has been excellent. i can't tell you exactly how many hours i've used it since it's off and on for multiple days but it can probalby go at least 2 days for me before charges. i made sure to set all the sleep modes on and to not use wifi when in sleep. i lose about 2-3% battery overnight in sleep mode (about 9-10 hours from when i turn it off at night to when i grab it the next day - i also let it sleep naturally, i don't turn it off via the button or power down).
This layout can be vastly upgraded from here. There are Intel Core m3 and Y-series and even Core i5 processors available as well. Storage tops out at 256GB and memory can go as high as up 16GB on some configurations. i hooked up a usb hub and connected it to my 32 inch desk monitor via hdmi and display was fantastic. The i5 model sped through every task I threw at it. Multi-tab Chrome web ran smoothly, even with two windows open side-by-side. Android gaming apps played chug- and stutter-free, and basic photo editing in PhotoShop Express worked fine – although the rear of the tablet did become noticeably warm with prolonged use. Everything else about the tablet remains, including a fingerprint sensor embedded into the power button, two USB-C 3.1 ports and two 8-megapixel cameras. Comparing this starting option to the lowest-end iPad Pro (12.9-inch), the Pixel Slate comes in 200 bills lower, but with half the storage and what’s likely to be a much weaker processor. Since tablets seem to be the next frontier for Chrome OS, I assume that Google will be asking app developers to consider this in the future, but its own team needs to get the memo, as the YouTube Android app on Chrome OS has all of those same problems, plus an awkward issue where I kept finding a slight white hue brightening the screen, because it had been 'selected' in the UI, which was hard to stop. Google Pixel Slate Bluetooth troublePower users and creatives will run into trouble, though. The full-fat versions of popular creative suites such as Adobe Photoshop aren’t available on Chrome OS. To make matters worse, key mobile first suites that work on iOS – Procreate and Affinity Designer, for example – are also missing. In many ways the Pixel Slate delivers on this promise, including top-notch hardware and intelligently presented software. If you mainly use Google’s suite of apps then the i5, or even M, configuration of the Pixel Slate makes for an excellent tablet and basic laptop replacement. The speaker setup is another key inclusion that differentiates the Pixel Slate from other Chrome OS and Windows tablets. On its front, you’ll see twin dual-speakers that Google claims are “custom-tuned to deliver industry-leading audio”. Using the tablet to watch Netflix in bed, I can confirm that there’s truth to this claim. Some users have reported sluggish, stuttery performance in tablet mode, and it appears that Google will fix this issue in Chrome OS 75. Google Pixel Slate keyboard
i was doing research for quite a while - at least 2 months - looking for an upgrade. i was strongly looking at the pixelbook go but w/o the 2 in 1 form factor, i was hesitant b/c i wanted a tablet or a small footprint in bed. i didn't want a clamshell. This remains the case with the Pixel Slate, which offers fantastic battery life when compared to the Surface Pro, but falls slightly behind the iPad Pro for stamina. I’m also a big fan of the optional folio keyboard, which is better than that of the iPad Pro’s in nearly every way. Right now, I'd say that the Pixel Slate feels like a device for the adventurous types who love Android and Chrome, and are OK with some first-gen bugs. Once those issues are cleared, though, Google's got an excellent 2-in-1 on its hands. What we’re more excited about are the Chrome OS optimizations that Google has made exclusively for Pixel Slate. Features like a night light for blue light reduction, split screening apps and a ‘do not disturb’ feature help bring Chrome OS to parity with Windows 10 and macOS computers.Sadly, benchmark suites are few and far between on Chrome OS. The only semi-reliable one I could use was the Android version of Geekbench 4, which is heavily CPU-focused. Cross-platform benchmarks are also never wholly reliable. Nevertheless, the score achieved by the Pixel Slate was pretty impressive, and on a par with most competing Android tablets at the same price. At first glance, the display is simply popping in color and contrast, but even 400 nits of brightness isn’t enough to counter the glare produced by a glossy panel under sunlight. The display’s pixel density of 293 pixels per inch (ppi) downright trounces the 12.9-inch iPad Pro’s of 264. Pressure sensitivity is fine for basic doodling in the preinstalled Sketch and Paint apps, although it did suffer the occasional hiccup in Adobe’s Creative Suite. Here, the Slate was unable to read the angle of input as well as the iPad does with the Apple Pencil. The Google Pixel Slate lasts for a reliably long amount of time. Specifically, the Pixel Slate lasted 9 hours and 51 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery Test (web browsing at 150 nits), a time that beats the 8:13 average by more than 1.5 hours. The Surface Pro 6 (9:20) fell half an hour short, while the iPad Pro (13:14) and Galaxy Book 2 (10:41) made it longer. The Pixel Slate also outlasted the Pixelbook (7:43), which was tested at a less-demanding 100 nits rate. Google Pixel Slate webcam The “great for regular people, not so hot for creatives” trend continues with the Pixel Slate’s software.
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