Google Pixel C
The shape is unusual, but it's a solid and speedy tablet, with strong battery life and plenty of built-in storage
While some tablets copy the design of the iPad, Google’s own-brand Pixel C confidently strikes out in a different direction. Its unique landscape format adopts the same 1.4:1 aspect ratio as a sheet of A4, and it’s ornamented with a fancy rainbow LED on the back that doubles as a charge indicator. There are no physical controls (aside from power and volume buttons), but Android’s standard virtual buttons are helpfully consigned to the corners of the display for easy thumbing.
At 10.2in across the diagonal, the screen is slightly larger than the iPad’s. And while its maximum brightness of 451cd/m2 is lower, its excellent 1,550:1 contrast ratio is far better. Colours looks particularly lovely, with a rich, vivid appearance.
The Pixel C also boasts a very high resolution of 2,560 x 1,800, yielding a pixel density of 308ppi. It doesn’t actually look any sharper than the iPad, though: Retina pixels are already smaller than the eye can resolve, so there’s nothing to be gained by shrinking them further.
Performance is more or less as good as you could ask from an Android tablet. The Pixel C doesn’t quite match the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3, with single- and multi-core Geekbench results of 1,426 and 3,047 respectively, versus the Samsung’s 1,751 and 4,208. However, there are few Android apps where the difference will be noticeable. Gaming performance is up to scratch, too: despite the superhigh-res screen, the Pixel breezed through the Manhattan benchmark at an average of 30fps.
One last notable strength of the Pixel C is battery life, thanks to a huge 9,000mAh battery that let us enjoy 14hrs 33mins of video on a single charge. Inevitably that adds a little to the weight – at 520g the Pixel C is heavier than most other tablets in its class – but it’s still lighter than a typical laptop, and a nicely balanced weight distribution means it’s comfortable to hold.
In all, the Pixel C is a very agreeable tablet, and one that can grow with your needs thanks to a large 64GB storage allocation, and an optional £119 iPad Pro-style keyboard. The only real question mark hovers over the price: officially the Pixel C costs £479, but Google sold it for £404 during the summer. At that price it’s a tempting proposition, offering the premium feel of the Asus ZenPad without compromising on performance and battery life. If it goes back up to £479, though, we’re into luxury territory, at which point your head might well be turned by the thinner, lighter Galaxy Tab S3.