The Google Pixel Tablet is coming this summer

At its I/O 2022 event, Google announced that the Pixel Tablet would be coming in 2023. Almost a year to the day later, at this year’s conference, Google was ready to pin it to a specific date: it’s coming on 20 June and is available to preorder today.

Available in either Porcelain or Hazel colour schemes, the Pixel Tablet is rather cunningly a 2-in-1 device – but not as a quasi laptop as you might expect. Instead, it comes bundled with a dock which doubles up as both a charger and a speaker, effectively turning it into a Google Assistant-powered Nest Hub.

As well as giving you better sound and music with four times the bass of the Pixel Tablet’s speaker when docked, this makes it a great first step towards a smart home. You have the power to view a Nest Hello doorbell feed, adjust the Nest Thermostat and turn lights on and off with the power of your voice. When docked, anyone on the same Wi-Fi network can cast the likes of Netflix and Disney Plus to its 11in screen, since it’s the first tablet with Chromecast built-in.

This isn’t entirely original. Certain Amazon Fire tablets could moonlight as Echo Show devices with the right optional hardware. But the more limited specs made it a somewhat uneven experience, and with more premium components, the Pixel Tablet experience should be a whole lot smoother.

The device uses the same Tensor G2 processor as found in the Pixel 7, backed by 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, with the option to double this to 256GB if you pay extra. The 11in display has a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600, and Google is planning to let users take full advantage of this large canvas with apps specifically built for split-screen multitasking.

In fact, Google namechecked a few apps as being specifically optimised for the large screen, including WhatsApp, Spotify and Disney Plus. To make productivity-focused apps more usable, Google says the Pixel Tablet is compatible with any Bluetooth keyboard and USI 2.0 stylus standards. Alternatively, can use your voice to type, which Google claims to be nearly three times faster than using an on-screen keyboard.

The Pixel Tablet is available to preorder today, and will be on store shelves on 20 June. While its £599 price tag makes it nearly as expensive as the 2022 iPad Air, Google will hope that bundling the charging speaker dock will make it the more appealing proposition.

If you want additional flexibility, you can buy additional docks to dot around the house for £139 each. Look out for a full review from us soon.