Google Pixel Tablet Review: A Tablet And Smart Home Hub All-In-One

Pixel Tablet Performance And Battery Life

The Google Tensor G2 chipset is now the younger sibling to the recently announced G3 that powers the latest Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro smartphones. The G2 is a second-generation processor designed for the Pixel range of products and is manufactured using a 5-nanometer process technology. It has 8-cores with 2-cores Arm Cortex-X1s at 2850MHz, 2 cores Cortex-A78 at 2350MHz, and 4 cores Cortex-A55 at 1800MHz. The company says it is 60% faster and more powerful than its first-generation Tensor SoC.

While working with the Pixel tablet, it quickly opened apps, and we did not experience any issues with various every day tasks. Gameplay on the Pixel Tablet was acceptable as we played a bit of the popular Genshin Impact 3rd Anniversary mobile game, and the display's 2560 x 1600 resolution provided nice visuals and crisp renderings.

The fingerprint sensor was easy to set up and quickly opened the tablet to the home screen. Two or three times, the sensor did not recognize fingerprints on the first touch, but reapplying a finger to the sensor a second time worked fine.

All test results for the Google Pixel Tablet were performed running Android 14 and the tablet's stock settings.

GeekBench is a cross-platform benchmark that simulates real-world workloads in image processing and particle physics calculation scenarios. While GeekBench is not always a particularly informative benchmark, it can be helpful as a relative data point.

The Google Pixel Tablet faired better than the OnePlus Pad we tested in May of this year. The Pixel scored a multi-core result of 3790, while the OnePlus Pad came in with a score of 3176. The single-core test produced similar results between the two tablets, with the Pixel coming out ahead with a score of 1458 and the OnePlus garnering a score of 1061.

PCMark for Android is a suite of tests if you want to benchmark a wide range of tasks and lighter-duty, everyday productivity tasks, such as email and web browsing. In this test, the Pixel Tablet, with a Work 3.0 total score of 10721, was able to edge out the OnePlus Pad once again, which had a total score of 10654.

As Ryan Whitwam pointed out in his review of the OnePlus Pad, sometimes consistent performance can be more important than scoring high in a single benchmark. The Google Pixel Tablet performed well during our time with it, and I never had any instances where I felt the tablet was underpowered for the task at hand.


Regarding battery life, the Google Pixel Tablet is no slouch. We were able to pull 978 minutes (16 hours and 18 minutes) out of the battery during testing, using PCMark for Android's battery test. We also booted up a YouTube video at 1080p at just over 50 percent brightness, and then let the battery drain completely from 100 percent. In this scenario the Pixel Tablet lasted a little over 18 hours before tapping out.

Google Pixel Tablet: Our Conclusions And Take-Aways

The tablet market seems to be growing again. As such, with so many current options, deciding which tablet is right for you can be difficult. The Google Pixel Tablet fits in its own niche of sorts thanks to its accessories and software. It is as portable as any other tablet, but can also double as a smart home hub for your entire household. 

In terms of its performance, the Google Pixel Tablet holds its own. Whether watching a favorite show while preparing lunch for the kids, checking email, browsing the web for the best deal, or making a video call to mom, the Google Pixel Tablet delivers.

We do hope Google plans on releasing more accessories made for the Pixel Tablet, however. While you can find plenty of third-party accessories, such as keyboards, having more Made By Google options would be preferable. Perhaps Google will release its own stylus and keyboard case in the near future?

As mentioned earlier, the back of the device has a plasticy feel, though it's in fact made of lightweight aluminum. While this may seem concerning to some as far as durability goes, we never really had any issues with scratches or damage to the tablet itself. The matte finish on the back of the device also guards against annoying fingerprints, that sometimes marr other tablets.

This tablet is not, however, made for more intensive compute tasks such as graphics design or high-end photo/video editing. But then again, this device isn't targeted at those use cases. A Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 or an iPad Pro perhaps would be more suited for those applications, but they're also about double the price. The Google Pixel Tablet is intended for everyday family use, while also being able to remain unthethered for long periods, with great battery life when needed.

While not a deal breaker, it would have been nice to have a microSD card slot to add additional storage to the Google Pixel Tablet. One could easily see the need to plug in a microSD card with a library of movies and games stored on it while traveling, for example.

The Google Pixel Tablet with its included Charging Speaker Dock is a solid deal at $499 for the 128GB variant ($599 for the 256GB) and it has earned the HotHardware Recommended Seal of Approval.