Why is Google making a Pixel Tablet Pro?

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All signs point to Google releasing not one, but two Android tablets in 2023. The question is, why is Google making a Pixel Tablet Pro?

For over a decade, Google and other device makers have been trying to make Android tablets truly competitive with Apple’s iPad. Whether or not these efforts have been successful is up for debate, but Google itself has long since retreated from the Android tablet space. Even the 2015 Pixel C tablet was originally supposed to run on ChromeOS instead of Android, making the Nexus 9 Google’s newest tablet targeting Android.

In some ways, Google’s use of ChromeOS as its best tablet experience made a lot of sense. After all, Chromebooks can run Android apps, and there’s a full desktop experience out of the box once you click on the keyboard and mouse. The Pixelbook demonstrated this better than any other device to date, but the same can’t be said for Google’s newest tablet, the 2018 Pixel Slate.

Where the Pixelbook brought an excellent balance between laptop and tablet and was judged against other laptops/Chromebooks, the Pixel Slate was a tablet first, comparing itself to the iPad and even Android tablets. Without going into too much detail, you can read more about that saga in our previous coverage, the short version being that the Pixel Slate failed to be a productive laptop and wasn’t a compelling tablet compared to a cheaper iPad.

This failure even led Google to cancel two other tablet projects that were in the works. Despite this failure, the work Google did to make ChromeOS tablets great eventually paved the way for the amazing tablets available today like the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet series.

Fast forward to 2022 and Google has a lot of new insights into what a tablet can be and the role it plays in everyday life. On the one hand, Google has noticed that Android tablets often go a significant amount of time idle. To give the home tablet new purpose while it’s idle (and keep it charged and ready to go) the Google Pixel Tablet can be placed on a dock, turning it into a smart display like the Nest Hub.

This vision makes perfect sense for a more affordable iteration of the Pixel Tablet, aimed at simple entertainment and smart home control. However, that doesn’t tally with the existence of a high-end “Pixel Tablet Pro,” which we’ve seen numerous signs of Google’s readiness, with new evidence appearing regularly.

From the “Pro” designation, we believe Google is once again looking to create a tablet that’s ready for the productivity of a normal workday. This brings us to Google’s second strategy for the future of Android tablets. Earlier this year, Rich Miner, CTO of Tablets at Google, shared a vision of Android tablets running entirely new apps and experiences made possible by using a stylus.

If tablets are really going to become this new device for people to be creative and productive, what new apps would benefit people who could be doing stylus-enabled things out of the gate? What does this mean for the mobility you have with a tablet that you don’t even have with a laptop?

Rich miner

To that end, Google has told us that the Pixel Tablet will support USI (Universal Stylus Initiative) styluses, making it the first Android device to do so. Essentially, you’ll be able to buy any USI stylus or use one you may already own from a different device rather than requiring an expensive Google-branded accessory and using it with your Pixel Tablet, offering precision and pressure sensitivity.

More precise details about the tablet’s stylus support have yet to leak, but USI pen compatibility is a good fit for a productivity-focused Pixel Tablet Pro, especially if Google and third-party apps are updated to use it well. Conversely, skipping stylus support is one way Google could keep costs down for the mainstream Pixel Tablet model.

Meanwhile, through Google’s many Android apps and even Android itself, the company has also made efforts to make the operating system more keyboard-friendly. Google Docs and other Workspace apps have gained useful keyboard shortcuts, while the latest Android Beta release included an upcoming feature that makes it easier to open a particular app with just the keyboard. Better yet, last week we even saw tangible progress on Android’s long-awaited “desktop” mode.

As my colleague Abner Li reported in October, Google has been vocal in delivering a good productivity experience for the Pixel Tablet by working with internal and third-party developers.

Between the keyboard and/or stylus accessories and boosted core specs that a “Pro” device typically offers, the Pixel Tablet Pro is uniquely positioned to serve as the flagship of where Google wants to bring Android to the big screen. size. The only question is whether this vision will be realized in time for early adopters of Google’s next device or if other tablet makers like Lenovo and Samsung will be the ones to take advantage of it.

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