I have yet to find any Android tablet that I love more than the Pixel Tablet

It’s been two years (and a few days) since Google released the Pixel Tablet, and I’ve been using it since that very first day. At the time, I thought Google’s approach to an Android tablet was pretty weird but intriguing. Always-on, always ready, not really a Nest Hub, nor as powerful as the best Android tablets — it felt like a bit of a Frankenstein product that would only win the hearts of a small niche of users.

I was part of that niche, and two years later, I still am. I still love the Pixel Tablet and use it every day in various ways. I’ve looked at the dozens of Samsung Galaxy Tabs, OnePlus Pads, and Xiaomi Pads that have been announced since then (as well as the Apple iPads, obviously), and nothing comes close to the Pixel Tablet for me. Here’s why.

I’ve had many Android tablets over the years, and regardless of whether or not I liked them, I invariably ran into a situation where I wanted to use that tablet and found its battery completely depleted. By the time I plugged it in and waited for enough charge to have trickled through, I’d already moved on and decided to use my phone or computer instead, and the tablet was left lingering on the charger for a few hours before I remembered why it was there.

The Pixel Tablet changed that for me. It’s always charged. That charging speaker dock idea is absolutely genius because any time I think I may want to use the tablet, it’s ready. I don’t have to pause and wonder if it’s charged or miss out on an excellent situation to use it because the battery’s dead. I just reach out, grab it, unlock, and done. By comparison, my iPad Mini is dead or nearly dead about one time out of five when I reach for it, making me less likely to actually want to use it.

I can’t overstate the importance of this for someone as single-device oriented as me, who has trouble keeping more than one phone updated and in use. It’s the difference between actually using said tablet versus letting it linger in a drawer or gather dust on a stand.

I take a lot of photos, and by “a lot,” I mean several thousand every year. Travel adventures, events, gatherings, concerts, food, silly moments, they’re all part of my life and my story. The Chromecast and Nest Hubs spoiled me by bringing those pics and beloved moments into my everyday life, and in the most random and amazing way. Instead of having photos disappear, never to be seen again in my phone’s digital photo roll, they appear at the most unexpected moments on the screens around my house, reminding me of friends I’ve missed, family members I haven’t spoken to recently, fun moments I’ve lived, lovely places I’ve been, and a lot of other personal stories.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve picked up the phone, taken a pic of the photo shown on my Nest Hub’s or Chromecast’s screen, and shared it with the person it features to remind them of that moment and strike up a conversation. It’s one of those intangible features I can’t put a price on.

And the Pixel Tablet fits right into that same category. Showing my photo albums when docked was the first setting I enabled, and I enjoy it all day long when I’m sitting at my desk working. A quick glance and, oh, there’s my husband in Lisbon pointing at a sign that says “We love ceviche,” or there’s the stunning sunset I caught in Den Hague, or there’s the big red inflatable heart on the stage of Eurovision 2022. All of them are pockets of joy interspersed in my long work days.

It’s sad that no other tablet offers this. I’ll take this over any faster processor, brighter display, or larger battery, no questions asked, because it makes the tablet more useful when it’s not in use (which, for me, is 95% of the time). Black displays when idle are my mortal enemy now.

After briefly dabbling with it in my kitchen as a Nest Hub replacement, I realized that the Pixel Tablet was better placed in my office, at my desk, right next to my iMac, and that’s where it’s been for the past 23 months.

Most of the time, it’s idle and showing nice photos, but sometimes, it becomes my working companion. See, I have a Walking Pad A1 Pro ($599 on Amazon) below my Ikea Idasen sit-stand desk, and I switch between working while sitting and chilling or while walking and listening to music. In that second setup, I turn on the Pixel Tablet and tap on the app pair I’ve created of Spotify and KS Fit (the Walking Pad’s app). That way, I can see and control my music while also keeping an eye on my current walk’s stats.

Sure, other tablets could do this too, but a) they would only play music through their own tinny speaker unless I actively paired them to an external speaker, and b) they would need to be plugged in and on a stand to avoid draining the battery by keeping the display on continuously. The Pixel Tablet evades those problems natively, and it’s quickly become part of my daily routine because of it.

I’ve seen tablet cases come and go, official, unofficial, known brands, no-name brands, all of it. But none — literally, none — is as good as the official case for the Pixel Tablet. I waxed lyrical about it in 2023, and everything I said still stands true today. It is the simplest yet most efficient and versatile design I’ve ever seen for a tablet, ever.

That single hook is the reason why. It guides the tablet’s magnetic pins when docked, works as a stand at any angle and on any surface (hard or soft), and serves as a carrying handle around the house. Because of that case, I can quickly grab the Pixel Tablet away from its dock and set it up in front of me at my desk or carry it to my couch and plop it in my lap. Best of all, it never covers the screen, so I don’t have to fuss with a flip cover every.single.time.I.want.to.use.the.darned.thing.

Every other tablet deserves a case as good as this, and if you think your folding-twisting leather-plastic-TPU case comes even close, I’m sorry to tell you you’re wrong. You have to use the official Pixel Tablet ($79 at Google Store) case to understand how nothing else compares.

This one isn’t a Pixel Tablet-only feature, but it’s worth mentioning because it has made my own experience better over the last two years. See, if you’ve only used Android on a small phone-sized screen, then you’re missing out on the best Android experience around: tablets and large screens. After Google completely neglected these form factors for a few years and pretended they didn’t exist, Android is delightful to use on a tablet today.

Some of the most core Android features, like multitasking, picture-in-picture, and landscape mode, make more sense on a larger screen. These are features I thought I would use every day on my 6.8-inch Pixel 9 Pro XL, but even that display is too tiny to comfortably handle two apps on top of each other in portrait mode or an app plus a keyboard in landscape mode. By comparison, these features shine on a large display like the one on the Pixel Tablet.

The underlying operating system has been progressively optimized for the large screen, as are most third-party apps now. The ones that aren’t can still be blown up to fill the entire display without looking like a pixelated mess (looking at you, iPadOS!). Gboard splits up to make two-handed use easy, Chrome can show two tabs at the same time, the app taskbar can be pinned or removed, app pairs work wonderfully when you have two apps that always go together, and the lockscreen can be used to display widgets or smart home controls. Plus, Google keeps improving keyboard shortcuts and mouse controls so that when I connect Bluetooth peripherals, I have an experience as good as when I’m using my fingers. And cross-device notifications are now automatically dismissed so that I don’t get flooded with 200 pings and dings from apps I’ve already checked on my phone each time I pick up my Pixel Tablet.

When you put all of these together with the always-on and always-ready aspect, the photo frame when idle and active dashboard when in use, and the ease of grabbing and carrying, the Pixel Tablet is still perfect for me in 2025. Those features are so unique that there’s no competitor out there I could switch to. Plus, honestly, there’s nothing I would need to change or improve from the current tablet, besides maybe making the dock an independent smart speaker.

I don’t need a faster processor, higher-resolution or high-refresh rate display, nor do I need an S Pen or a better camera; I just want a capable Pixel Tablet 2 or 3 at some point in 2026, after Google stops updating the current tablet with new Android releases — that’s all I ask for.