The Pixel Tablet was a disaster. Why do I still use mine every day?

Unless Google has any surprise announcements hidden up its sleeves, the company should be done with new product launches for the rest of the year. And what a year Google had.

Although 2026 may not have been the most exciting year for Google/Pixel hardware, it was still a darn good one. The Pixel 10a is far and away the best Android phone you can buy for $500. The Pixel 11 Pro easily stands out as my favorite Android flagship of the year, and the Pixel Tag just looks so adorable.

However, there’s one Pixel gadget we’re almost certainly not seeing before the year is up, and it’s the one I want the most: a new Pixel Tablet. The Pixel Tablet was kind of a train wreck and a device Google clearly wants to move on from. But I still use mine all the time, and I’m dying for a sequel we may never get.

I still use my Pixel Tablet every day, and I love it

Like many people, I didn’t particularly love (or even like) the Pixel Tablet when it was first released in 2023. But I gave the Pixel Tablet another chance just about a year ago to see if I would feel any differently about it, and as it turns out, I did. While the Pixel Tablet is still far from perfect, it’s such a unique and clever device that fits into my life better than any other smart display or Android tablet.

My Pixel Tablet lives on my kitchen counter where I use it every single day. When I’m making dinner, I can open my favorite recipe app (ReciMe) to easily follow recipes while I cook. When I’m doing dishes or cleaning the kitchen, I can pop on a YouTube video or podcast from Pocket Casts for background noise. I can display ongoing timers in a split-screen view with ReciMe, quickly respond to Google Messages and Telegram texts, and have Google Home and Google Calendar just a couple of taps away.

None of these are revolutionary tasks for an Android tablet, but most of this simply wasn’t possible on the Amazon Echo Show I was using previously. Even if I had a Google smart display like the Nest Hub Max, I’d still need to dig out my Android phone to do a lot of these things. Having a fully-fledged Android tablet in the kitchen (or any room) really does add so much more functionality than what you get from a “normal” smart display.

As obvious as it may sound, that really is the magic of the Pixel Tablet. It performs all of the usual smart display functions (most important of all, displaying various memories from Google Photos), but the ability to use an Android app vs. one designed for a smart display OS, have split-screen multitasking, and run any application that I can on my Android phone provides an unmatched level of utility — to the point where it’s impossible for me to go back to a more traditional smart display.

This was the pitch all along for the Pixel Tablet, and it should have catapulted it to great success. But as we know, that didn’t happen — and Google has no one to blame but itself.

The Pixel Tablet’s display isn’t very good, thanks to a choppy 60Hz refresh rate. The Tensor G2 chipset isn’t powerful, the Pixel Tablet’s battery life disappoints, and the software at launch was pretty terrible — riddled with bugs and confusing UX choices. Slap a $500 starting price on it, and it’s easy to see why the Pixel Tablet ultimately failed. While the idea behind it is extremely sound, Google botched the execution in one too many ways.

The time is right for a new Pixel Tablet

I really do believe that much of this could have been avoided had Google released the Pixel Tablet a couple of years later. When the Pixel Tablet launched in 2023, Google was still fairly early in its Tensor era of Pixel hardware. The Tensor G2 was the latest Tensor silicon at the time and was notorious for its lackluster performance, bad battery efficiency, and poor thermal management. A Pixel Tablet with a more modern Tensor chipset inside — even the older Tensor G5 — would solve so many issues.

Google’s Pixel software is also in a much better place today for large-screen devices. The addition of lock screen widgets in 2024 made the Pixel Tablet even better at showing lots of information at once with just a tap. App bubbles have been an excellent new way to multitask alongside the usual split-screen setup. And while I don’t use it all the time, Tap to Cast is such a fun and smart feature to have whenever I’m using a Pixel phone.

Just imagine what a new Pixel Tablet released today might look like. Give this theoretical new Pixel Tablet a 120Hz display. Equip it with a Tensor G5 or Tensor G6. Google could upgrade the speaker dock with improved audio. Heck, maybe even find a way to add Pixelsnap magnets to this new Pixel Tablet. Combine it with all of the various software improvements that already exist on the OG Pixel Tablet — plus a few new ones Google could support with modern Tensor silicon — and a 2026 Pixel Tablet sounds kind of perfect.

A new Pixel Tablet would also help Google’s renewed smart home ambitions. The Google Home Speaker is a fine smart speaker, but it needs other new Google smart home gadgets to coexist with. There’s evidence that Google is working on a “Google Home Display,” which is exciting, but why not also supplement it with a Pixel Tablet 2 or Google Home Tablet?

Hoping for a future we may never get

The tech is now there for a smart display/Android tablet hybrid to really work — Google just needs to build it. The only problem? The company doesn’t seem interested in doing so.

As I was writing this article, Android Authority discovered that Google had quietly removed the “Tablets” section from its Google Store website. Additionally, the Pixel Tablet product page now redirects to the main Google Store homepage. In other words, the chances of the Pixel Tablet sequel I want so badly have never looked slimmer. Even so, I still think Google needs to give this form factor another shot.

There’s a future out there where a modern Pixel Tablet could be an incredible addition to the Pixel family, and I really hope we get to see that future become reality.