Google Pixel Slate review: Not quite the finished article

Not too long ago, if you’d asked me to pay more than £1,000 for a Chrome OS laptop I’d have laughed in your face. Today, however, with Chrome OS having developed into a surprisingly powerful operating system, 2-in-1 laptop products like the Pixel Slate deserve to be taken much more seriously.

Even if you’re a fairly demanding user, it’s perfectly possible to live and work 24/7 with a Chrome OS device. Now that the specification and design of such devices is at least a match for the leading Windows and MacOS alternatives – as proved by the Pixelbook last year and the Pixel Slate today – it’s now a simple question of which platform you prefer.

So is it worth splashing out on the Pixel Slate? Or should you simply stick with a MacBook Pro or Huawei Matebook X Pro?

Google Pixel Slate review: What you need to know

The answer to that question depends on a number of different factors but the hardware on offer here is at least a match for the best the Windows 10, MacOS, iOS and Android crew can muster.

Just like the 12.9-inch Apple iPad Pro, the Microsoft Surface Pro 6 and the 12in Samsung Galaxy Book, the Pixel Slate is designed to be used primarily as a 2-in-1 laptop. It comes in two parts: a tablet and a detachable keyboard case, which you have to purchase separately.

Hardware-wise, the Pixel Slate is impressive. It has a 12.3in, 3,000 x 2,000 touchscreen display, which supports the use of a pressure-sensitive stylus – again, an optional extra – allowing you to sketch and take notes on-screen. It also comes in a series of different configurations with processors ranging from the relatively underpowered Intel Celeron 3965Y right up to an 8th gen Intel Core i7-8500Y.

Google Pixel Slate review: Price and competition

The range of different specifications means the cost of the Pixel Slate varies considerably depending on the model you choose. I was sent the £969 Pixel Slate for this review, which includes an eighth generation Intel Core i5-8200Y processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Add the £189 Pixel Slate Keyboard and the price rises to £1,158 inc VAT. The Pixelbook Pen is another £99, bumping the cost to £1,257. That’s only £10 less expensive than the cheapest 12.9in Apple iPad Pro, although the Pixel Slate does at least come with double the storage.

To put this into further context, this model is also nearly £60 more expensive than the new MacBook Air and around £150 pricier than the equivalent Microsoft Surface Pro 6. Note, though, that rather like Apple has with its MacBook Air, the Pixel Slate employs Intel’s Y-series processors, which are nowhere near as quick as the U-series Core i5 in the Surface Pro 6.

You don’t necessarily have to pay this much for the Pixel Slate, however. There are three other configurations that start at £549. I’ve popped the full breakdown is in the table below, but do bear in mind you need to add £189 to the price for the full 2-in-1 package.

Google Pixel Slate review: Design and key features

Physically, the Pixel Slate is closer to this year’s 12.9in iPad Pro or the Samsung Galaxy Book than Microsoft’s Surface Pro 6. Detach the tablet part from the keyboard and it’s just that: a pure slate. It’s very slim, at 7mm from front to back, and it weighs a feather-light 700g.

It’s a little heavier and thicker than the iPad Pro despite its slightly smaller display, but it’s just as nicely put together as Apple’s tablet. The glass on the front is luxurious-feeling Gorilla Glass 5, and the anodised aluminium chassis tapers to a delicate curve on every edge. Suffice to say, it looks very handsome in Midnight Blue.

Inevitably, the slender profile means that physical connectivity is limited, but Google has provided a pair of Type-C USB 3 ports. There is one on each short edge, both of which can be used to charge the Pixel Slate. Unlike the iPad Pro, you can also use either port to attach external storage and transfer files to and fro, hook up a mouse or touchpad, and mirror or extend your desktop using an external monitor. Indeed, multi-monitor support extends to two 60Hz 4K external monitors, so you can use the Slate as a full-on desktop workstation if you wish.

Otherwise, the Pixel Slate is fairly meagre when it comes to physical features. With the tablet held in landscape orientation, you’ll find a volume rocker on the left edge, and a power button with integrated fingerprint reader on the top edge towards the left corner. There are 8-megapixel cameras at the front (f/1.8) and rear (f/1.9) and front-facing stereo speakers flanking the display to the left and right.

The Pixel Slate is designed, of course, to be used mainly on a desk attached to its folio keyboard case, which attaches magnetically to the tablet’s spine. This, however, is a bit of a mixed bag.

To prop up the screen, the rear cover folds into a Toblerone shape with a small flap that folds back to snap firmly against the rear. You can choose any angle you like for the screen by sliding that flap up and down, although you can’t push it back further than around 45 degrees.

Still, that should be enough for most purposes and in day-to-day use, I’ve found the keyboard great to type on. The circular keys might look odd but I prefer them to the keys on the iPad Pro and I found I was up to my normal typing speed in no time at all. The touchpad below the keyboard works well, too. It’s responsive to gestures, has a positive click action and feels lovely under the finger.

Where the Pixel Slate falls short is as a device for work on the move. When propped on your lap, it simply doesn’t feel as stable as a regular laptop or even the new iPad Pro – especially in tight spaces. This is due to a couple of factors: first, the sheer length of the thing, which threatens to tip the tablet off the end your lap. Second, the centimetre-wide strip of over-flexible material that sits between the keyboard and the tablet, which causes the keyboard to flop around disconcertingly.

The latter, by the way, is the source of another problem I have with the design of the Pixel Slate Keyboard: when it’s closed, the keyboard part doesn’t stay firmly in place; it slips around and leaves one with the feeling that the tablet is about to fall out and crash to the floor, even when it probably isn’t. It’s a small thing – but small things are important when you’re paying this much for what Google is touting as a laptop replacement device.

Google Pixel Slate review: Display, Pen and audio

I have no such issues with the quality of the 12.3in “Molecular Display”, though, because it’s superb. It has a resolution of 3,000 x 2,000 pixels, giving a crisp pixel density of 293ppi and it uses LTPS technology, ensuring perfect viewing angles and balanced colours.

A measured contrast ratio of 867:1 ensures images have impressive dynamism while a peak brightness of 432cd/m2 ensures the Slate is usable in most conditions, even outdoors in full daylight. This is a great machine for working outside in the garden.

Touch responsiveness is good, too, and the Pixelbook Pen works beautifully, albeit with a touch of lag. It’s pressure sensitive to 1,024 levels and is able to sense tilt so you can shade or draw without having to select a different tool. There’s also a lovely sense of friction between the nib and the screen.

It’s disappointing that there’s nowhere to store the stylus on the tablet or the keyboard case, but I have no qualms with how the Pixelbook Pen works – and crucially it’s pretty easy to find apps that support it properly. In fact, the only thing I don’t like is related to software. Google Keep has great potential to work as a primary note-taking app on the Pixel Slate, and not least because Google recognises your handwriting automatically and makes your notes searchable. The problem is that its palm rejection just isn’t effective enough. Attempt to take notes while resting your palm on the screen, and it all too frequently skips around as you try to write. For me, it ruined the entire experience.

I am a big fan of the Pixel Slate’s front-facing stereo speakers, though. They go loud and they’re surprisingly full-bodied. The sound quality is good enough that you’re not instantly reaching for your headphones when you want to watch a YouTube video or listen to the radio. Here, the Pixel Slate is more than a match for the iPad Pro and while it’s disappointing Google has chosen not to include a 3.5mm headphone jack, there is an adapter included in the box.

Google Pixel Slate review: Performance and battery life

Performance depends entirely on which Slate you choose to purchase and how hard you push it, but the Core i5 I have had on test for a week or so has so far acquitted itself fairly well. It can struggle if you load it up with tens of tabs and lots of big Google Sheets, but while there has been the odd moment of slowdown, it is by no means a regular occurrence.

The benchmarks tell us that it’s not as capable as the equivalent 12.9in iPad Pro, though. It lags behind Apple’s A12X Bionic processor for raw CPU performance, and the Intel UHD Graphics 615 proved significantly slower in our usual GFXBench tests.

And, yes, that does matter, because it’s possible to run some quite demanding applications these days with Chrome OS devices, including Android games and Linux desktop apps. The fact that you can run these things is impressive in its own way, but that the Slate doesn’t run everything as smoothly as the iPad Pro 12.9in is a tad disappointing.

The battery life is better but not as good as I’d expect given the Y-series CPU. It lasted 8hrs 48mins in our video rundown test. That’s longer than the Surface Pro 6 and the Huawei Matebook X Pro but it’s an hour-and-a-half shorter-lived than the 12.9-inch Apple iPad Pro (2018).

Google Pixel Slate review: Software

Here’s the big question, though. Is Chrome OS mature enough to make a practical alternative to an iPad or even the Windows-based Surface Pro 6?

Initially, I must say, I was optimistic. The ability to run browser applications properly alongside Android apps gives the Pixel Slate the sort of flexibility you don’t get from an iPad Pro. It’s even possible to install and run Linux apps like The Gimp and LibreOffice. Just enable the Linux option in the menu – it runs in a virtual machine – fire up the terminal, and you can install software right from the command line using apt-get, just as you can with, say, Ubuntu.

Add seamless multiple monitor support and a file system that lets you easily transfer files to and fro without having to go via the cloud, and the Pixel Slate has instant and significant advantage over the iPad Pro. Indeed, as I write this review, I’ve been using the Pixel Slate for work for nearly a week without ever having to resort to my regular laptop. There have been frustrations but, in general, it has worked very well. There’s no way I could have done that with an iPad.

Google’s touchscreen optimisations for Chrome OS work nicely, too, and having Google Assistant a quick key tap away is surprisingly useful. The microphones are sensitive enough that you only have to mutter “OK Google” under your breath for it to register.

In reality, though, you don’t have to use the Pixel Slate for very long before you start butting up against irritating flaws. I had problems with bugs in the Netflix Android app and web player. The BBC iPlayer app refused to play video in Full HD, although the web player was absolutely fine. I encountered palm rejection issues in Google Keep, and also a problem where the onscreen keyboard refused to appear when I tapped editable text areas without the keyboard attached.

I could go on, but I’m going to stop there. The simple fact is that, for a product that goes head-to-head on price with the iPad Pro and is more expensive than the equivalent Surface Pro 6, the Pixel Slate simply isn’t polished enough. That, for me, would be enough to send me on my way with my £1,300 before even considering things like how nice the keyboard and screen are, or how good the stylus and speakers might be.

Google Pixel Slate review: Verdict

There are elements of the Google Pixel Slate I absolutely love. The keyboard is fabulous to type on, the Pen works perfectly most of the time, and the battery life is superb. It’s also highly refreshing that core functions like the file system, multi-monitor support and mass storage connectivity work seamlessly – just as you’d expect them to.

If Google had just set the price around £200 lower I’d be more forgiving, but you can’t go up against the market leader when the software and ecosystem is this rough around the edges. And I think it’s a bit cheeky, too, to try to fob users off with a Core i5 Y-series CPU at this price. The fact that Google attempts to gloss over this inadequacy on its website is mildly scandalous.

The simple fact is that, if someone came to me wanting to spend £1,300 on a portable computer, I simply wouldn’t be able to recommend the Pixel Slate. Not because it’s a bad product, poorly made or ergonomically suspect – it is none of these things – but because its rivals are more mature, work in a more consistent fashion and offer better performance for the same or less money.