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Pixel C Review!

2015-12-21
what's up guys lon here from Android Authority and several tablets this year have made an attempt to become more than just a tablet and Google's latest creation is one of them despite running Android can actually be a viable alternative to a laptop or computer let's find out what the picks will see so if you couldn't already tell the pixel C looks a lot like the Chromebook pixel that's because it was designed by the pixel team and if you pair it with the optional keyboard it literally looks like a miniature Chromebook pixel when you boil it all down I guess you could say that this is just another ordinary Android tablet and technically it is but it's one extremely beautiful looking tablet it's got that iconic minimalistic pixel design from the brushed aluminum build all the way down to the multicolored LED light bar on the back just like the Chromebook pixel you can use the light bar to check the battery status by knocking on it it's not the lightest tablet in the world but it feels absolutely solid every inch of this tablet feels very well put together and it just screams high quality the power and volume keys which are also made of metal are very clicky tactile and easy to press then you have the dual speakers on opposing sides of the tablet that are very beautifully machined right into the frame you've also got these standard 3.5 millimeter headphone jack on the upper right side and just like the Chromebook pixel the pixel C utilizes the new USB type-c standard for charging and syncing if you want to get the most out of the pics we'll see you'll have to spring for the additional keyboard the keyboard attaches by some very strong magnets and you can angle the tablet as you see fit it does not however close like a laptop in order to close it you have to break it apart and then put the tablet face down on the keyboard and to open it up again you have to slide the tablet away from the keyboard if you want to use the pixel C as a tablet without detaching the keyboard entirely you can hook it onto the back of the tablet but this does make the pixel C quite heavy and thick and a little cumbersome to use if you're holding it for more than just a few minutes the keyboard isn't a full size keyboard but it's actually pretty easy to type on the keys are spacious with a very good amount of travel and there's decent separation between the keys that they're easy to find and identify by feel even though it connects via bluetooth you can only type on it when the keyboard is magnetically attached to the tablet along the hinge which is great for preventing any unwanted keystrokes the coolest thing about this keyboard though is that it gets its power from the tablet when you close it all up it begins to charge wirelessly so you're not having to deal with any additional cables just to charge the keyboard if there was a downside of this keyboard it's the fact that it's literally just a keyboard you won't find any Android shortcut keys or a trackpad so the majority of your interaction is still going to be through touch and that kind of makes the experience feel a little bit disjointed and aside from the physical typing you're not really getting any extra value or functionality out of this keyboard on the front of the pics we'll see is a ten point two inch display and just like the rest of the tablet it's absolutely top-notch it's an LCD display with a resolution of 2560 by 1800 and it looks fantastic it's super sharp and easy to read colors are vibrant and saturated without being overly so and it gets bright enough that you'd use the tablet outdoors if you wanted the large screen is great for web browsing watching YouTube or the occasional movie and gaming which is always a lot of fun on such a large screen it also features an aspect ratio of the square root of two which gives you plenty of width for consuming content in both portrait and landscape orientation inside it's being powered by a Tegra x1 chip with three gigs of RAM which is plenty of power for any tablet especially one running a stock Android experience swiping and scrolling through the UI or various applications like the web browser is very smooth and it performs like an absolute champ when playing graphically demanding games or quickly jumping back and forth between applications the only time this tablet ever stuttered or slowed down was when using the keyboard sometimes the key presses would lag behind by several strokes and this happened most frequently in Google Docs the pics we'll see is where I originally started writing this review but eventually had to move on to another machine that didn't have troubles keeping up with my typing the pixel C comes in either 32 or 64 gigs of storage but there's no option to expand so what you see is what you get but I would imagine these two storage capacities will be more than enough for most users dual speakers on the pixel see while not front-facing still sound amazing they're super loud and the audio is crisp and clean that you'll never feel the need to plug in a pair of headphones it really makes things like YouTube movies games and streaming audio a much better experience on a tablet and the speakers are positioned well enough that you don't have to worry about muffling them with your hands now I'm not the lightest user when it comes to tablets but battery life on the pixel C has been solid ranging anywhere between 12 to 15 hours on a single charge I mostly play games and watch YouTube on tablets so I can burn through the battery life pretty easily but the pixel C can make it through a full day on heavy usage with no problems at all if your usage is anything like mine you'll most likely be charging it every night but I have no doubt that lighter users can squeeze a good several days out of it before having to recharge tablet cameras have never really been much to write home about and that isn't changing anytime soon with the pixel C the software is the standard Google camera with all the usual modes that you might expect like lens blur panorama and photosphere but taking photos on a tablet is still an awkward experience especially in public you probably won't be taking too many photos with it but you totally can if you have to it's got a 2.1 megapixel camera on the front which is serviceable for the occasional tablet selfie and video chats and the eight megapixel camera on the rear is nothing special but can get the job done if you're in a pinch daylight photos are decent looking as expected but once you get into low-light situations the photos begin to fall apart with a lot of noise and very little detail again the photos are serviceable if it's the only camera you have but it's nothing to get overly excited about the pics we'll see is being marketed as a product that can be a lot of fun but also great for productivity at the same time it's running Android 6.0 marshmallow so you're getting all of Google's latest and greatest features like doze user-defined app permissions and now on tap the experience is as pure as you can get but there are a few minor differences on the pixel seed that you won't find on Nexus devices first off the placement of the notification shade is contingent on where you swipe down on the display and the Android soft keys have been split to the bottom left and right corners of the screen which most likely done to prevent you from having to reach over the top of the keyboard to press them otherwise this is the same stock Android experience that you come to know and love from Nexus devices it is definitely possible to be productive on the Android OS you can crunch out emails right at Word documents and create spreadsheets but without split-screen multitasking it's not exactly easy to do two things at once if you only have to work on one task at a time it's not a big deal but constantly jumping back and forth between apps can start to feel cumbersome when you're trying to work on multiple projects at a time the biggest problem that Android still faces is a lot of applications aren't optimized for tablet use many apps like Instagram and snapchat or just blown up versions of the phone app and apps that don't support landscape orientation can be awkward to use when you have the pixel C paired up with the keyboard Android is a great operating system as a whole and marshmallow is the best version of Android we've seen from Google today but it still has a long ways to go before it can become an OS built for hardcore productivity the pixel C starts off at $4.99 for the 32 gigabyte version and goes up an extra hundred dollars for double the storage if you offer the keyboard that will cost you an additional 150 bucks it can get pretty expensive rather quickly but depending on how much you value the beautiful pixel Hardware you might find it to be worth the cost so the final verdict here is the pixel C is awesome as a tablet it is hands-down the most beautiful and well-built Android tablet on the market and it's a lot of fun to use especially for things like gaming and the occasional movie however the fact that it's running Android instead of something like Chrome OS doesn't make the most ideal productivity device it isn't offering much more functionality than what you would get from another Android tablet with an added keyboard sure you can crunch some emails and Word documents but you're not going to be able multitask like you would on a computer or laptop or even do something as hardcore as editing video with rumors of Android and having things like split-screen multitasking maybe in the future the pics we'll see could totally be that productivity machine that Google wants to be but it isn't quite there yet as always thank you guys so much for watching this video if you did enjoy please give it a thumbs up down below we definitely appreciate it and also subscribe to the channel which is also down below if you haven't already and click the links over here on the side if you want to see 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