Pixels Everywhere! Hardware Review(2 of 4)

Perfect! (Well, almost)

So, as stated, everything arrived on time on Tuesday. I unboxed this beast and went to work installing the set of apps that I figured I would need. We’ll get to the software side of things in the next post, for now, let’s talk about hardware.

Let’s start with the actual tablet. The device is solid, screen resolution and aspect ratio is perfect for what I wanted to use it for, which is mainly editing text files and doing research. For that, it’s perfect. The screen is a bit of a fingerprint magnet, but a wipe down once a day seems to eliminate that.

One of the flaws I’ve found so far with the hardware is a pretty common one. Just below and to the left of the center of the screen, there’s a noticable give in the screen. I would have never found this if I hadn’t had known it was something to look for. I’m not planning on sending the device back for this flaw, though, as it’s something that I don’t notice during normal use. The power and volume buttons are positioned perfect for my taste, and they are very tactile, which I was hoping for. Sometimes buttons are an easy place to cut corners on, but on this device, no expese seemed to be spared.

The lightbar, while it may seem gimmicky, has proved to be quite useful. I’ve used it to check the battery while I have the tablet sitting on it’s face and charging. Maybe I’m only using it because I know it exists, I’m honestly not sure, but for now, it’s quite useful.

Another downfall that relates to hardware, but was obviously easy to fix was the device showed up at my door, with a flat battery. I had watched a few unboxings on YouTube and noticed the tablet normally booted right up when removed from the plastic wrapping, mine did not and honestly my heart sank. I’ve received my fair share of duds over the years,and normally having them replaced by the manufacturer isn’t an issue, and I doubt it would have been an issue with Google, but I’m leaving for vacation on Monday and I don’t think it would have made it here on time. Thankfully after plugging the tablet it, it started to boot right up. The day was saved!

Keyboard Woes

Now, the keyboard was the only part of the hardware I was honestly really worried about. I had always planned on using the device with an external keyboard, but that doeesn’t mean that I don’t want to use the ridiculously expensive accessory that I purchased with this thing. So, what do I think? Well… it’s okay. I’m more impressed than I expected to be, but I have had to remap some bindings to make full use of it. No escape key isn’t an issue, but lacking in brackets has really forced me back into using snippets for most things, which while it’s not bad thing, it has proven to slow me down a bit. I’m sure I’ll improve over time of using them, but for now, this is proving to be an issue while mobile.

Now, the keys that do exist on the keyboard feel awesome, lots of travel, yet they don’t need to be pushed that far to register a click. It’s honestly noiser than expected, but far from as noisey as my DAS. All in all, the keyboard is awesome and while I do have my issues with it, I’m not dissapointed, and it’s not going back.

Worth it?

Well, is it worth the high price tag that Google is charging for it? I think so, without any doubt. The hardware alone is quite close to perfect, feels great in the hand, and is well engineered. The software, while it is Android, I think is well suited for this tablet, but I’ll get into that more next week. Hardware wise though, I’m keeping it, despite my few issues with it.