Gear Review: Google Pixel C

(soft gentle music)

This whole tablets are for work thing

is really starting to catch on.

First Microsoft had the Surface

then lots of other Windows manufacturers

started making similar two in one laptop-tablet hybrids.

Then Apple made the iPad Pro

and now Google has the Pixel C.

The Pixel C isn't huge like the iPad Pro or the Surface.

It's actually a fairly normal looking tablet.

A really good one actually.

Super high res, ten point two inch screen,

super fast and video processor,

aluminum body, good speakers, the latest version of Android.

It's handsome and rugged and its screen has this unique

route two aspect ratio that makes it much more usable

in either orientation.

As a tablet it's great.

It'll last a few days.

It's light and thin and sturdy.

It does all the tablet things an Android should do.

Truthfully the iPad's better for the same price,

but this one's good too.

But Google imagines the Pixel C as something more,

a productive tablet.

A tablet you can do work on.

That's why in addition to the 500 dollar Pixel C,

Google's also make a 150 dollar keyboard attachment

that uses bluetooth and a really clever magnet

to turn the tablet into something like a laptop.

But even with the attachment,

the Pixel C isn't a work device.

It's partly the hardware's fault.

The keyboard layout takes some getting used to

and just isn't big enough to really be comfortable.

The screen's also not big enough to do real intense work,

much less two things at once.

This is more like a low end entry level kind of computer.

But the real problem is Android,

which isn't a very good tablet operating system.

Very few of the apps are optimized for the big screen

or even for working in landscape mode.

The OS itself looks strange on the big screen.

Having Google Now accessible from anywhere is handy,

especially since you can just say, Okay Google,

and jump straight to search.

But otherwise there's not much here for tablets.

There is hope though.

The Pixel C's made by the same team

that made the Chromebook Pixel

and that team's job has always been

to make amazing hardware, almost as a tease

for Google's software developers.

Look how good this could be, it says,

if only the software were good enough.

The Chromebook nailed it.

It proved Chrome OS can be a formidable laptop

for getting work done.

Now Google's trying to do the same thing with tablets,

to prove that they can be portable, easy, fun

and crazy productive.

Google made a good tablet,

but what a good tablet is is changing

and it requires good software for work and for fun.

Android is not good tablet software, not yet anyway.

Maybe now that they have good hardware

they'll start working on that.

(soft gentle music)