If a rabbit out of a hat. It was quite a
surprise that Google during the press event where they announced the new Nexus
phones, also came with a tablet. In addition, it turned out to be not just a
tablet, but one with an attachable keyboard. However, the most striking was the
name and the design he called Pixel C and looks a bit like a Chromebook Pixel.
After the release came out a possible
explanation, which sounds very logical. Google wanted a version of Chrome OS
for touch screens and developed the Pixel C device as before. When those plans
were in the refrigerator, would Google Chrome OS and Android create a device
under the name Frank Board. That plan did not make it, but the machine was
already as good as finished and therefore there slammed Google Android and
announced it.
'Slammed Google Android on their' sounds
disrespectful, but there are reasons to believe that it was something like
this. Functions that last tablet from Google, the Nexus 9 of HTC in 2014, had
since its release, lacking the Pixel C. That applies, for example the 'OK
Google "to be able to call the device when the display is off. This is
particularly crazy because Google has built four microphones, just to shout
from the other side of the room.
So it is a bit of a crazy thing, but also an
innovative tablet. The way the keyboard and the tablet stuck together, we have
not seen before. In this review we discuss Google's first tablet in the pixel
line.
Keyboard
The keyboard is a special thing. Bluetooth
keyboards are obviously nothing new and for a few bucks you buy online an
ramplankje for the tablet. You would need to deposit 150 euros in this tablet
for Google's keyboard? Yes, because it's really a two-unit and it is also an
excellent keyboard.
To begin with, the system seems ingenious to
sit together. It requires a manual and some getting used to, but it is clear
how it works. Above the keys is a valve which can in various orientations and
Google holds together the whole with fairly strong magnets.
Design
The tablet has a solid design and the housing
is made entirely of aluminum. There is no slack in the housing and no creaks,
giving the impression that it is a solid device. Google has kept striking
design sleek, unadorned or frills.
There is a speaker on each side of the
tablet. That sounds pretty good if you just want to turn on a movie. In many
cases, you must then move your hands, because if you quickly want to watch a
movie on the tablet, the location of the speakers is a logical place to grab
him.
About gripping speaking, it is a pretty tough
tablet for a copy of about 10 ". The tablet itself weighs just over 500
grams, the keyboard weighs nearly 400 grams. This is to bring something lighter
than a laptop, but certainly heavier than many tablets.
The USB-C port is on the left side. Unlike
the Chromebook Pixel, the tablet is only one USB port c. On the right is a
3.5mm jack for headsets and that's it.
On the back is the "light bar",
which indicates to use briefly the colors of Google. Nice detail: with a double
tap on the back gives the light bar on the state of the battery. It takes some
getting used to read; from about 65 percent, he seems to indicate that it is
full, while if the battery around 20 percent is still quite positive two late
defrauding the four dashes. It therefore seems that it is not a linear scale,
but it is nevertheless a good indication.
Screen
The screen has a diagonal of 10.2 "and,
as the Chromebook Pixel, an aspect ratio of approximately 1.41: 1, or √2: 1
This is a different ratio for a tablet Many tablets like the iPad.. Apple and
Samsung Tab S2, have 4: 3 screens, many other tablets have 16: 9 screens,
Microsoft has its Surface tablets a 3: 2 ratio selected On paper it is normal,
A4 pages and.. A3'tjes have the same ratio as the Pixel C.
The resolution is 2560x1800 pixels, the 1.41:
1 version of 2560x1600 and 2560x1440 pixels. Both are common resolutions. This
leads to 308 pixels per inch, which is a tablet on the high side, but not
insanely high. Recent iPad minis for example, 326 pixels per inch. It is a
great screen in daily use. The screen is sharp enough to discern any pixels at
a normal distance and text looks sharp. The screen ratio is pleasant to work on,
but for watching video, of course, it is less ideal.
Maxwell GPU
The pixel C is what you call a special soc
aboard. The Tegra X1 is the most powerful mobile soc Nvidia and the
manufacturer refers to him as' mobile super chip. With such a roaring marketing
term so what you expect and these expectations seem to come largely from.
X1 has the Tegra processor cores that are
familiar enough. It is a octacore based on ARM's big.Little design, with four
Cortex A57- and four Cortex A53 cores. When the GPU is really interesting,
because the X1 has a Maxwell GPU onboard, with 256 Cuda cores, and that include
support for DirectX12.0 and OpenGL ES 4.5, OpenGL ES alongside 3.1. Now that
sounds impressive, but when you realize that the Titan X has 3072 CUDA cores,
then you realize that in this tablet no high-end graphics card resides. It also
expects one and a tablet, this is a more than decent soc.
Battery
Pixels C Battery life is what you'd call
impressive. The pixel C is not the thinnest tablet, but Google has a 9000mAh
battery tucked. That is the average capacity of three Android smartphones or
iPhones five and it shows. Who an entire evening watching movie on the tablet,
given with great difficulty perhaps a third of the battery empty. That is in
daily use a relief. It lasts so long, it's easy for you to start working all
day and probably do you still have some left. Thanks to the optimization of Android
6.0 with App Doze and Standby, allowing the tablet apps restricted when the
user leaves behind him for more than an hour, the standby time is also fine.
In our browsing test, there is virtually no
difference between the pixel C and the iPad Pro. Both come to just under 10
hours, which is more than the other tablets in this comparison. Here we should
note that the iPad Pro is much larger and has a bigger battery.
Software
The tablet runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow,
the same Android version as the recent Nexus devices that Google released
together with LG and Huawei. As said, in a parallel universe may be just Chrome
OS.
So what Google has done to adapt Android to
the big screen? Surprisingly little: in the distant past Google tried with 3.0
Honeycomb - who is still running? - To pull the interface for tablets that of
smartphones, but with Android 4.x came back to it. The interface is largely the
same. At the bottom is the on-screen bar with buttons, with 'back' and 'home'
sit on the left, and the multitask button on the right. The notification bar is
at the top and is about as wide as on smartphones. It does not matter where you
swipe down, it works everywhere.
Google is working on a split screen mode and
it must be said: the tablet requires. It is an ideal tablet for example, to
chat together and work on a document, but now you have to change all the time
between apps. Google does have a built-alt-tab feature, so you only need the
keyboard to switch between apps. With alt-tab users will see the regular menu
to switch between apps, while a blue glow indicates which app you select will.
Once again press the Tab key and select the app behind it.
The menu to switch between apps shoot thus a
bit short. It works, but there could easily eight thumbnails in two rows of
four fit on the display and therefore would have a better overview.
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