Speaker 1: Google's pixel Slate combines the best of a tablet and
Speaker 1: a laptop.
Speaker 2: What's going on, I'm Rich Demiro. This is Rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: Google recently unveiled a new device called the pixel Slate.
Speaker 1: It's a tablet that becomes a laptop once you snap
Speaker 1: it into a specially designed keyboard cover, and it also
Speaker 1: has a stylus sound familiar while pixel Slate combines aspects
Speaker 1: of the iPad Pro, Microsoft Surface, and a Chromebook all
Speaker 1: into one. I went hands on with the device at
Speaker 1: Google's Made by Google launch event earlier this month in
Speaker 1: New York City, and although I personally dream of having
Speaker 1: an all in one device like this that would let
Speaker 1: me go from productivity on the plane to Netflix before bed,
Speaker 1: I'm a rare use case scenario since I edit a
Speaker 1: lot of video on the go and I rely on
Speaker 1: a MacBook Pro for that. But the pixel Slate is
Speaker 1: a good contender if you're doing mostly business stuff like
Speaker 1: email and spreadsheets, then want to unwind a bit with
Speaker 1: a tablet to read or watch video. I talked to
Speaker 1: Matt vacone product management director at Google, about why a
Speaker 1: two in one.
Speaker 3: We see a lot of people very interested in you
Speaker 3: as your life blends together more between work and play.
Speaker 3: More and more hybrid type of devices are coming out,
Speaker 3: and people want the flexibility both in the operating system
Speaker 3: as well as in the hardware itself for getting work
Speaker 3: done sometimes or just kicking back and watching a movie
Speaker 3: at times. So really focused on two main things is
Speaker 3: the brilliant display in front, firing speakers so that entertainment experience,
Speaker 3: but then bringing Chrome OS into a full tablet experience
Speaker 3: so you can actually use it to get work done
Speaker 3: as well as using all your favorite apps.
Speaker 2: Pixel Slate is thin and sleek.
Speaker 1: It has a substantial feel though when you pick it
Speaker 1: up it's seven millimeters thick and one point six pounds heavy.
Speaker 1: The display is just over twelve inches and it does
Speaker 1: take up most of the front of the device.
Speaker 2: It's also a really clear screen.
Speaker 1: The pixel Slate runs a more touch optimized version of
Speaker 1: Chrome OS, and you can run Android apps too.
Speaker 3: It's actually the same operaing system as what's on all
Speaker 3: chromebooks is what's on pixel book, but we now have
Speaker 3: it we've really enhanced if we use on a touch screen.
Speaker 3: There's actually a long journey we've been on to bring
Speaker 3: great touch support into their all the great applications as well.
Speaker 4: So it's actually the same experience when it's really cool.
Speaker 3: When you try out the device, when you're holding it
Speaker 3: as a tablet, you know, it looks like a traditional
Speaker 3: tablet experience, and then we pop it into the keyboard,
Speaker 3: it looks just like a typical Chromebook experience.
Speaker 1: Important to know, pixel Slate also runs a full version
Speaker 1: of the Chrome web browser.
Speaker 2: This is key.
Speaker 1: You're not limited to mobile versions of sites, and you
Speaker 1: can install all of your favorite extensions just like you
Speaker 1: would on the desktop. Now, you're still going to be
Speaker 1: making some compromises with the device like this, but as
Speaker 1: technology and software gets more advanced in this form factor,
Speaker 1: we're making less of them.
Speaker 3: But we don't think it's true anymore in what we've
Speaker 3: done with pixel Slay, and that was a key thing.
Speaker 3: We want to have no compromise, that you can actually
Speaker 3: get down to one device that you really need to use,
Speaker 3: and so that's why it was important to have a
Speaker 3: great keyboard option, full proactivity operating system, you know, not
Speaker 3: something that's kind of a phone operating system. Really trying
Speaker 3: to stretch up and also for your personal time, having
Speaker 3: all the great application supports.
Speaker 1: The keyboard doubles as a folio case. That's a two
Speaker 1: hundred dollars add on. It has rounded keys and in
Speaker 1: my limited hands on time, felt very comfortable and easy
Speaker 1: to type on. Very unlike my MacBook Pro, which I
Speaker 1: don't like what Apple did to the keyboard this time around.
Speaker 2: The keys don't move very much.
Speaker 1: I'm always making mistakes and it is super duper loud.
Speaker 3: We're really really proud of the pixel Slate keyboard that
Speaker 3: folio and how awesome the keyboard is. Our team takes
Speaker 3: a lot of pride in being geeks about keyboards. We
Speaker 3: made an awesome keyboard and pixel book we brought that
Speaker 3: into a folio, so it just feels great. It's super quiet.
Speaker 3: We call them hush keys. Yes, so we think being
Speaker 3: very very quiet and a good feel. So we're really
Speaker 3: really proud of the work that we did there.
Speaker 1: Pixel Slate has a camera on both the front and
Speaker 1: the back, as well as front firing speakers.
Speaker 2: There's also a USB sport on each.
Speaker 1: Side of the tablet and the power button is also
Speaker 1: a fingerprint scanner to unlock the device.
Speaker 3: So the two cameras we put on a really so
Speaker 3: the front one is when we really focus on for
Speaker 3: a very very wide field of view because everyone's using
Speaker 3: these devices, like me and my family to do a
Speaker 3: video chat, and it's annoying, like at least my my
Speaker 3: son's need to cram in around me, what my wife
Speaker 3: needs to cram in. So we really went for having
Speaker 3: a very very wide field of view. And then Duo
Speaker 3: is launching on Chrome West at the same time as
Speaker 3: we're launching, as we're renouncing pixel Slate, and they really
Speaker 3: took advantage of this for a great video chat experience.
Speaker 3: And then in back camera, a lot of the actually
Speaker 3: similar things we've learned from the pixel phone.
Speaker 4: Camera we've implemented into our camera as well.
Speaker 3: So that's why on the tablet you can actually now
Speaker 3: take photos when you take a photo on a tablet
Speaker 3: in portrait mode.
Speaker 2: Okay, but what about battery life.
Speaker 3: Battery life, we're really excited we're at twelve hours of
Speaker 3: battery life, and you know, that was the main goal
Speaker 3: of ours, to get full all day, because if you're
Speaker 3: gonna carry on one device and with a versatility life,
Speaker 3: we really really wanted great long battery life. So we're
Speaker 3: really proud that we've we've hit we've hit twelve hours.
Speaker 1: Safety and security always a big benefit of Chromebooks, and
Speaker 1: that extends to the pixel Slate. It's going to boot
Speaker 1: up fast, the soft is always up to date automatically,
Speaker 1: and there's no worry about viruses. One funny thing, there
Speaker 1: was a lot of talk about this secure enclave chip
Speaker 1: Google calls Titan m has a fancy name, but Matt
Speaker 1: says they actually had it in last year's devices too.
Speaker 3: Security has always been a core tenet of promos. You know,
Speaker 3: antivirus is built in the operating system automatically updates in
Speaker 3: the background. That's why it's really getting a lot of
Speaker 3: great traction across a lot of user segments.
Speaker 4: Is a security and so we have a titaned security chip.
Speaker 3: We actually had it in pixel Book last year as well,
Speaker 3: and it's the same chip we're actually using in pixel
Speaker 3: Slate this year to really lock down once of your
Speaker 3: core data and keep it on device in a very
Speaker 3: very protected way.
Speaker 1: And when I asked Matt about the biggest challenges in
Speaker 1: creating a device like the pixel Slate, I got a
Speaker 1: little insight into Google and how it works. Keep in mind,
Speaker 1: this is a software company first and foremost, and not
Speaker 1: even apps really and things like that, but really search
Speaker 1: technology coding, So doing hardware is a bit different from
Speaker 1: what Google is typically used to versus say, Apple, which
Speaker 1: is a leader in marrying hardware and software to work together.
Speaker 1: Google is definitely getting better at it. You can see
Speaker 1: that evidenced in their hardware like the Pixel, but you
Speaker 1: can tell they are learning from past experiences where things
Speaker 1: might not have lined up. Keep in mind, Google designs
Speaker 1: its software to run on devices from a wide variety
Speaker 1: of manufacturers, whereas Apple is only concerned about how something
Speaker 1: runs on their devices, So that definitely presents a challenge
Speaker 1: for a company like Google.
Speaker 3: Biggest challenge is always what's great about we're working at Harvard.
Speaker 3: Part of Google is, you know, we get a chance
Speaker 3: to represent all of Google in our product and kind
Speaker 3: of ship all of Google. But that's you know, big
Speaker 3: ambitious goals that we had. We had a hardware efforts.
Speaker 3: Chromos have this very very large effort to really bring
Speaker 3: out a great touch oriented experience. The assistant team did
Speaker 3: a lot of work, The duo team did a lot
Speaker 3: of work to really optimize the great wide field of
Speaker 3: view of camera that we have on the front.
Speaker 4: So it's a.
Speaker 3: Coordination of all these awesome teams at Google aiming for
Speaker 3: a day like today to announce all of our work.
Speaker 4: So it's probably, you know.
Speaker 3: It's what's it's so cool about getting to do this
Speaker 3: work at Google. But it's also a big challenge just
Speaker 3: to orchestrate all these teams of land everything at the
Speaker 3: exact same time.
Speaker 1: Like I said earlier, I would love to have a
Speaker 1: two in one device. I find myself not wanting to
Speaker 1: take both a laptop and a phone and a tablet
Speaker 1: on business travel.
Speaker 2: Then when I'm on personal travel, I want a tablet.
Speaker 1: For the entertainment value, but it's nice to have a
Speaker 1: laptop in case I want to get some real work done.
Speaker 1: And device like the pixel Slate definitely solves this dilemma.
Speaker 1: But with me, I am editing video, which is getting
Speaker 1: easier on tablets and devices like this thanks to apps
Speaker 1: like Adobe Premiere Rush.
Speaker 2: But I don't think we're there just yet.
Speaker 1: But if you're a business person that doesn't require highly
Speaker 1: specialized apps for your line of work and you do
Speaker 1: mostly web based stuff, this is sort of perfect.
Speaker 3: A lot of people who want just a great, awesome
Speaker 3: Google experience. You know, we haven't really focused on the
Speaker 3: tablet space the last few years, so now there's a
Speaker 3: lot of users out there who really want you know,
Speaker 3: the full g suite, Google Google Play Store experience. You
Speaker 3: know types of users you see, you know a lot
Speaker 3: of who have grown up going you know, on their chromebooks,
Speaker 3: are now getting older and buying their own devices. So
Speaker 3: that's a great grace of users we think about there.
Speaker 3: And then you know, a busy on the goal professional
Speaker 3: that needs to have something thin light that they're carrying around,
Speaker 3: but also if they're on the road, want to be
Speaker 3: able to watch you know, content and on things like that.
Speaker 4: So those are two users i'd highlight.
Speaker 2: Finally, one more fun feature for the road Warrior.
Speaker 1: The Peloton app is going to launch on Android with
Speaker 1: the pixel Slate later this year. If you're not familiar
Speaker 1: with Peloton, this is sort of a live and on
Speaker 1: demand spinning class. The bike is several thousand dollars, so
Speaker 1: the fact that you can just fire up the pixel
Speaker 1: Slate and take a class on there is pretty cool.
Speaker 4: They'll launch this later this year.
Speaker 3: They've been outside is coming soon and so yeah, when
Speaker 3: you're on the road, just going to the hotel gym,
Speaker 3: put pixel Slate right in front of the bike and
Speaker 3: then get your workout in there.
Speaker 2: You have it.
Speaker 1: Google's pixel Slate going on sale later this year, and yes,
Speaker 1: you can adjust the folio cover to any angle you want.
Speaker 1: The device starts at six hundred dollars, then add another
Speaker 1: two hundred dollars for the keyboard and another one hundred
Speaker 1: dollars for the pen. You're looking at close to one
Speaker 1: thousand dollars for a device that functions as a tablet
Speaker 1: and a laptop. You can see more of the pixel
Speaker 1: Slate on my website, Rich on tech dot tv. I've
Speaker 1: got the hands on demo there, or just look for
Speaker 1: the link in the show notes. Thanks so much for
Speaker 1: listening to the show. I'm Rich Demiro.
Speaker 2: I'll talk to you real soon.