Google is desperate to sell Pixel Tablets, pushing ads via notifications

soulfirethewolf@lemdro.id to Android@lemdro.id – 176 points –
androidpolice.com

I found this, I'm wanting to get a pixel tablet in about a week or so. Title just got me wondering a bit, though it's probably just a little bit sensationalized

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Pixel tablets are not priced as if Google is "desperate to sell Pixel Tablets".

I think the author is confusing "marketing team motivation" for "desperation" just because they got a push notification.

Yeah, I looked up the price because I've been thinking of replacing the basic tablet I bought a couple of years ago.

The Pixel tablet is six times the price. Desperate my ass.

What's even stranger is just how much of that cost is for just the base/speaker unit. It's $130 on its own. And, unless I'm misremembering, it doesn't even function as a bluetooth speaker, so it's effectively only usable by the tablet. Just bizarre choices, IMO.

I'll get one when the fire sale starts.

I got a Stadia Controller and a Chromecast Ultra for free, just because a family member subscribed to YT Premium.

I got Stadia and Chromecast Ultra for free because they shutdown Stadia and refunded what I paid. 😔

Cut the price down to $249 and maybe I'll bite.

I was hoping this would come out like a Nexus price-wise and was very disappointed when it came out.

I want to buy one, but I don't think it's worth the current price

Make an iPad Mini competitor with stylus support.

I don't need a tablet as big as my laptop, but with less features.

I bought the Xoom and the Nexus 10, and got my wife a Nexus 7

Google abandoned all within an extremely short timeframe. The Nexus 10 suffered the worst, getting an awful ui regression a few months after it came out

I have seen no evidence Google will do any better this time

Nexus 7 was such a great tablet. I came across it in the Drawer of Old Things, long since broken but kept around regardless. It's hilarious how it's only slightly bigger than some phones. I can even stuff it into my pocket.

For the Nexus 7, you might want to download its LineageOS build before it's lost to time:

It's on Android 11, a huge jump from its last official build on Android 6.0.1.

And to be fair, this is the reason to get a Google device.

You know already that all Android manufacturers are assholes and will use planned obsolescence to make you buy a new device, including Google. You can plan accordingly by getting one that can be easily flashed and flashed back to stock in case of problems. That leaves you with one single Android manufacturer: Google.

And with this in mind, a device that lasted from Android 4.3 (2012) to Android 11 (2021), or 9 years... that's pretty damn good.

I personally like the pixel tablet for it's grapheneos support

Wait until black Friday. If Google is desperate, they'll offer a good deal at that time.

Ngl, the Pixel Tablet bundled with the speaker (which I really don't care for) feels like Xbox One with the Kinect.

I have a Pixel Tablet and I really only used the speaker to charge it, but I'm probably going to stop because the base is becoming very flakey with my experience. The speaker randomly loses power and I'll have to unplug and plug it back in about a dozen times before it'll start getting power again and this problem started a week after getting it. The charger is not damaged in any way which leads me to think it's probably defective.

I think the speaker stand is a good product for the google nest users out there, but it should have maybe been a separate option or something.

I think it'd be nice if they offered an option without the base for $400 especially since the hub experience on it as it is currently isn't very good. All hub mode does currently is turn it into a glorified digital picture frame with the home controls button in the bottom corner and the Google Home experience isn't as good as a Nest Hub.

As it is right now, I wouldn't consider the Pixel Tablet as a replacement for the Nest Hub.

Out of curiosity what makes the nest hub better/what features does Google home lack?

I initially hoped it would have a hub specific interface that looks similar to the Nest Hub. Instead though, the dock basically puts it into screensaver mode and the home icon pulls up the basic Google Home like if you were to tap the quick settings icon.

As a tablet, it's decent but I wouldn't get it if you're mostly planning to use it with Google Home as I think the current experience is disappointing.

Agreed. It seems like the "Hub" mode is just a fancy screensaver which is a placeholder for something more.

I do like the tablet but the "hub mode" is nothing more than a fancy charger with a speaker. I have to keep a Nest Mini next to it for my smart home things to work in that room when I take the tablet to another part of the house.

I'm personally hoping that you can use the hub mode with custom screensavers. Then I think that might actually be useful to me

I had this ad earlier today. Not impressed.

Google is making the same mistakes with the watch, fold, and tablet that they originally made when they rebranded the Nexus to the Pixel. Thinking just making it expensive and the customers will just buy it because reasons.

They seem to have come off of that delusion with most of the phones.

They have not provided a reason to buy their expensive, but middle of the road hardware, when cheaper and competitive options already exist from Samsung and Apple in these segments.

Unless someone just dislikes Apple or Samsungs offering what would make the Google offering stand out?

I think, kind of just that. I personally do not want a Samsung device because I really don't like their bloatware nor how they try to build an entire ecosystem on top of Android, and I've been already trying to move away from iPad because of the limits of iPadOS.

Google's devices just strike out to me as being everything I want really. Minimal bloat, a nice hardware design, a bootloader that's unlockable, an acceptable quality camera, and a predictable hardware support cycle. Yeah, there's definitely improvements that need to be done, but so far, but the Android tablet market is already pretty limited so Google just feels like a safe bet to me.

I'll wait a couple generations and then buy one for GrapheneOS.

My Pixel 6 issues (originally bluetooth, which now (mostly) finally works, but now overheating and a factory reset to fix background networking just dying) turned me off pretty hard. I ended up getting another Android tablet instead and it, thankfully, has mostly been great.

I'm still really on the fence about sticking with Google devices for my phone. It's even push me to consider going back to Apple, which I really don't want to do. I'd rather stick with Android, but I also don't want bloatwere and/or spyware (in addition to what using Google apps already gets me).

Im in the same boat, I like my pixel 6 pro, but less about device issues, I've had my fair share of them. To me google has left me pretty sour, and as someone who has been a huge android and was a fan of Google services. I just can't give a company my money when they cancel and sell off the services that I loved.

Pretty sure I'll be buying my first iPhone if I like the looks of the new 15.

The problem is that Galaxy Tab S is far superior and lasts a heck of a long time.

Google should have done what they did with Wear and worked with Samsung to provide a seamless tablet interface instead of try to do their own tablet.

The far cheaper Galaxy Tab A series is a near equivalent competitor for where Google is positioning its tablet (an at-home media device, rather than a highly-performant professional device), and for a lot of people, trading the considerably lower price for no docking station and some older specs is worthwhile.

Google need to either make the docking capability a lot more appealing, or reduce the price significantly because at the moment it sits squarely in the home entertainment sphere, but with a price tag creeping up to match professional-tier devices - why would someone pay the premium for what is effectively an ebook and Youtube device?

The problem with the Galaxy Tab A series is that Samsung cheaps out on their SOCs, to the point where they're unusably slow for even simple web browsing and watching YouTube.

The average person buys one because they're cheap, then thinks all Android tablets suck because of how awful Samsung's A series tablets have been for years and goes and buys an iPad.

I can definitely confirm that. My grandma owns a Galaxy tab A7 lite and it is so slow. And I can't get it to go any faster no matter what I do. I have no idea how she tolerates that thing, though she does mainly use it just for Facebook, as well as a few solitaire games, including one that hasn't been updated since like 2017.

I just installed GalliumOS on some old chrome books I had laying around. It's worked flawlessly. I think the battery life is even better.

I wonder how it would do on on a tablet.

I don't recommend galliumos anymore, it is an abandoned project and hasn't seen development since 2021.

If your Chromebook is compatible you can flash a full ROM bios and convert your Chromebook to a normal laptop and run full Linux or depending on the device windows 10/11.

https://mrchromebox.tech/#devices

Mrchromebox's firmware is such a game changer for making Chromebooks usefully.

To add on to what you said, you can also install OSX onto Intel based Chromebooks. Not that I find this useful, I just like being able to say I did it to see if it was possible.

I got a Lenovo M9 a couple months ago. It's not a powerhouse, but for streaming services/playing local video files it's amazing. Add in reading books and comics, it's a damn steal. Battery life is good, small size, and the folio cover is perfect for taking around the house. $150 without the cover is a great deal. I definitely recommend the folio case too. It slated for Android 13 this quarter as well.

We got a Lenovo duet 5 chromebook and it is great. Runs android apps, but is also a full chromebook with the option of a surface style kb and mouse.

Oh the Android apps part is great. Best of both worlds kind of thing. Have you tried anything with Linux programs that can be loaded onto it as well? (Or maybe that's only some ChromeOS products)

Yup. I bought a similar one specifically for comics and manga that I picked up from Humble Bundle, but it also runs all my boardgames well too. Lenovo's tablets are a bit anemic power-wise but you can't beat the price and they're perfect as a bed-side media machine.

Agreed. For such a cheap price, I think it hits a good spot.I regret a little not getting their gaming tablet - I didn't know it even existed during my research. Better specs in a similar form factor. But it wasn't enough regret to return or anything.

I would have thought it was selling pretty well, I know the android tablet market is a small niche but it seems like a strong contender, particularly for the google nest users out there?

I suspect they intended to release it earlier, when the home office and video chat boom was still going on but missed the mark and now have more stock than they wanted.

All the bad press about school and local governments across the country complaining that their Pixel Tablets bought during the pandemic are not running out of supported update lifecycle, and will be considered bricks, wasting Billions of dollars, have got to have Google shitting bricks themselves. Literal own goal in the pursuit of greed.

Um....

These just came out like 2 months ago. Are you talking about the old nexus 7, which is 11 years old? Or maybe the most recent releases in 2014?

Anybody who bought one of those in 2020 was a moron and deserved to have them die "unexpectedly".

They are referring to Chromebooks, which have a published end of life cycle because the OS is built around specific boards and then rebranded around those features to partners.

Very different beast than the Android-based Pixel Tablet.

What press? A competent school district would expect to operate the hardware for 2 or 3 years at most. And those tablets were nothing more than $200 Chromebooks with a touchscreen. Compared to textbook pricing they came out ahead.