• avant-hier
Transcription
00:00All right, let's talk about Google's Pixel Tablet.
00:04I've only had this device for a week, but I really like it.
00:07And I'm going to focus this conversation on its main feature.
00:10It's the whole magnetic dock.
00:12So when they first announced this thing last year,
00:14and they showed that you could have a tablet,
00:16and when you're done with it for the day, you could connect it up to the dock,
00:19I was like, oh my God, this is amazing, right?
00:22Because it does three things.
00:23Number one, it gives you a way better audio system, right?
00:26Like the tablet speakers are mediocre at best,
00:28and then you plug it up to a larger speaker system,
00:31good stuff happens to the audio, right?
00:33Two, you also have this home hub feature,
00:36like when it's just sitting there on your table or desk, kitchen counter,
00:39it's an actual hub.
00:40But three, and this is the thing that got me super excited,
00:44it's charged, like it's just always charged and ready to go.
00:48So I am a dad with two kids,
00:50and my wife and I, every time we want to get a tablet in use,
00:53we pull it up, and it's invariably just drained,
00:55because my kids are stupid and they just never charge the damn thing.
00:58So I thought this would be the perfect solution to it, right?
01:02Okay, so let's start here with the magnetic dock itself.
01:05So the removal and connection of this dock is a lot more finicky than expected.
01:11I've gotten used to it at this point because I've done it so many times,
01:14but one thing's for sure,
01:16the ads that Google was showing about how you can remove this thing,
01:19I think are fudged in some way.
01:22So they show these people just removing the device with ease.
01:25They just pick up the device and go, but it's not quite that way.
01:28You have to kind of snap it out a bit with some leverage and then pull it away.
01:32And then same with reconnecting it.
01:34You kind of have to align it, it's not the easiest thing.
01:36Once you do it a half dozen times, you'll get used to it.
01:39But I bring this up because when it comes to families with kids,
01:42like getting my three-year-old to learn all this was not easy.
01:45It's way easier for them to learn to plug up USB-C cable.
01:48I'm convinced that the people in the ads were using these docks
01:51were just bolted right into the table just for the ad.
01:54And in terms of charging time, when it's plugged up to the dock,
01:56it's a very slow charge.
01:58It's like four and a half hours to charge it up from zero.
02:00It's, well, to be expected because it's a tablet.
02:02If it's USB-C, it's like two and a half hours.
02:05But one thing I noticed that was kind of strange is that
02:07even with this magnetic dock,
02:09I don't feel like my charging habits really changed.
02:13Like normally when I finish using a tablet,
02:15I'll just be like, okay, I think I'm done.
02:17And you just put it down on the coffee table or the couch or whatever.
02:19I don't actively think, hey, you know, in a day or two,
02:22I'm going to be using this thing.
02:23So I should bring it over to the charger and plug it up.
02:25I think that's why me and my kids as well,
02:27it's what's always drained out.
02:29With this dock, you still have to actively go,
02:31okay, I'm going to go bring it up to the thing and place it on here.
02:34Like that's just not how I've ever used tablets.
02:37Your mileage may vary depending on how mindful you are about this stuff.
02:40But I thought that this would just immediately solve that charging issue.
02:43And it didn't really, but maybe it can be learned.
02:47Now in terms of the case that you can purchase from it.
02:49So Google has a case for their Pixel tablet.
02:54And it's a nice silicone case that is soft touch and everything.
02:58But on the back is this strange looking oval ring.
03:02And when I pulled this out of the box,
03:03my editor was like, this thing looks like it belongs in a bathroom somewhere.
03:07Like hang a towel off it or something like that.
03:10It's not the most sightly thing, but there's utility to this oval ring.
03:13So when you have the tablet in,
03:17this ring serves as almost like a guide.
03:21So that when you place it on, it just like lines up nicely.
03:24I don't know, it does help with the kind of alignment of it.
03:27But the other thing is that when you have it off the dock,
03:31it has unlimited positions.
03:33You can go like basically flat and just like any kind of angle of tilt for the user.
03:37So I like that.
03:39It's a very useful oval ring on the back.
03:42Now in terms of the dock,
03:43this dock does not have any utility when the tablet is not connected to it.
03:47Like it has a speaker in there and it's got power, right?
03:51But there's no ability to connect to it over Bluetooth.
03:54Like there's no SOC inside here or mics.
03:56So, well, it is Google.
03:58There could be tons of microphones in here.
04:00Who knows?
04:01But there's no utility to it, which is a bit of a shame.
04:04But when you attach it up,
04:05the audio goes from the somewhat tinny speakers of the tablet
04:08to the much richer sounding speakers of the dock.
04:11It's got way better mid frequencies and lower frequencies.
04:13And it's all automatic.
04:14You don't have to do any button touching or anything like that.
04:16It's just instant.
04:28When I made a few video calls on the Pixel tablet,
04:30it seemed like the mics weren't picking up my voice as cleanly as they were on the Nest Hub Max.
04:35Like this is something I use pretty regularly
04:37and it just, it might be the positioning of the mics.
04:40Like these are facing forward and maybe it's just able to capture it differently.
04:44These are facing the top.
04:46So it could be something that's software related.
04:48I'm not entirely sure.
04:49But everyone I tried this on were like,
04:50yeah, this one doesn't sound as good as this one.
04:53Now the battery life seemed really good.
04:55I was able to play games, watch shows,
04:57and it's easily like an 8-10 hour battery life on this thing.
04:59I do think it's nice that they automatically capped the charge limit to 90%
05:03when it's being charged on the dock.
05:05It's just designed to preserve the battery health.
05:07Like by not letting it go to full charge every time,
05:09it just makes the battery last longer in terms of like the durability of the battery.
05:13I imagine that you could go even lower though.
05:15Like if they, it's all doable in software,
05:17but I feel like if they let the user drop it down to like 70%,
05:19it would just be even better for people that just leave it on the dock all the time.
05:23In terms of the profile, this is something I really like about this device.
05:26You can have up to 8 profiles on one device.
05:29iPads can't do that.
05:30Like I don't even have an iPad that I'm logged into anymore
05:32because you just have, if my kids are using it, they have access to everything.
05:35Once my daughter was 2, she opened up my Twitter and was like spamming the screen.
05:38She was watching the heart animations.
05:40She was like, this is awesome.
05:41Except I liked like all these random posts, probably some of them controversial.
05:44And with different profiles, you don't have that problem.
05:48It's really useful.
05:49So for people that have families or just other people you share your device with,
05:53a tablet is one of those like super family-friendly devices.
05:57Profiles, super important.
06:01Yeah, so overall, I think this thing is like, I love it.
06:04I think it's such a useful device.
06:06Obviously, having it as a home hub, if you have Google Home and you control devices like it,
06:10it's really cool.
06:11But yeah, I will say that the connectivity of it,
06:15it's good and it adds a lot of functionality to this device.
06:18But there is a bit of a learning curve, especially for younger children.
06:21Okay, there you have it.
06:23The Google Pixel tablet.
06:25Actually, one other thing, it doesn't come with a charging cable.
06:27Well, it comes with the barrel plug that plugs up to the speaker dock,
06:32but there's no USB-C in the box.
06:35That's all.