The Google Pixel C Review
by Brandon Chester & Joshua Ho on January 25, 2016 8:00 AM ESTCamera
A tablet's large display can make it one of the best viewfinders in the world. While many still see tablet cameras as a mostly pointless feature, they do see a great deal of use among certain subsets of tablet users. Like most tablets, the Pixel C sports an 8MP rear-facing camera sensor with 1.12 micron pixels and a 1/4" sensor format. To see the specifics of the Pixel C's cameras along with a comparison to the Nexus 9 check out the chart below.
| Camera Specifications | ||||
| Google Nexus 9 | Google Pixel C | |||
| Front Camera | 1.6MP | 2.1MP | ||
| Front Camera - Sensor | OV9760 (1.75µm, 1/5") |
IMX208 (1.4 µm, 1/5.78") |
||
| Front Camera - Max Aperture | F/2.2 | |||
| Rear Camera | 8.0MP (3280 x 2460) |
|||
| Rear Camera - Sensor | IMX219 (1.12 µm, 1/4") |
|||
| Rear Camera - Focal Length | 33mm eff | 32mm eff | ||
| Rear Camera - Max Aperture | F/2.4 | |||
As always, the first comparisons puts the Pixel C against other devices when taking photos during the day, followed by tests done in the dark, which ends up being heavily influenced by the quality of a tablet's ISP and photo processing.
| Daytime Photography Scene 1 |
The Pixel C doesn't perform very well in this test. It wouldn't surprise me if Tegra's ISP was still to blame, as was the case with the Nexus 9. Compared to the iPad Pro, which has essentially the same camera capabilities as the iPad Mini 4 and iPad Air 2, the image is quite disappointing. There are issues with autofocus on the Pixel C which cause problems with achieving a sharp image, along with color noise in the frame despite the photo being taken in the day at base ISO. While I think tablet cameras should only be used in a pinch, when you're selling one for $500 it's not acceptable to lag so far behind your competitor's $399 mini tablet. This is something Google and NVIDIA need to work on if Tegra SoCs are going to continue being used in Pixel and Nexus device
| Daytime Photography Scene 2 |
In this second scene the Pixel C was able to lock its AF, and as a result there are no issues with bluriness. Unfortunately, the color noise in the frame is still present and there's generally just less detail than the photos taken with the iPad cameras. Color noise is something that's very distracting, and the fact that Google is having problems eliminating it in the daytime is very concerning.
| Low Light Photography Scene 1 |
| Low Light Photography Scene 2 |
Moving on to the low light testing, we see that the Pixel C has an enormous amount of color noise across the entire frame. The Nexus 9 suffers from this as well, and it appears that the ISPs in Tegra X1 and K1 ISP struggle with doing things like hot pixel compensation in low light, as in the dark areas of the photo there are obvious bright speckles of pixel noise. In comparison we have the iPad Pro, which is essentially equal to the Air 2 and Mini 4 as far as image quality is concerned. It produces a much sharper image with very little color noise and relatively fine grained luma noise. The Pixel C simply isn't competitive here.
| Low Light Photography Scene 3 |
This next low light scene echoes the results of the previous one. The Pixel C lags behind the iPads as far as detail and noise is concerned.
| 1080p30 Video |
The Pixel C can record 1080p video at 30fps. This is in line with most tablets on the market. Unfortunately, the video is encoded using the H.264 Baseline profile with a bitrate of 14Mbps. This is yet another Android device using a profile aimed at applications like encoding real time video for streaming and easy decoding for very low performance devices, and I continue to wait for a smartphone or tablet that will buck the trend and be competitive with what Apple is offering in this area. For comparison, the iPad Pro records 1080p30 video using the H.264 High profile at 17Mbps, and the difference in quality is noticeable to say the least. On top of that, the Pixel C's video ends up suffering from some processing issues, including contrast which is too high, which reduces the detail in dark areas.
I don't really use the cameras on tablets, but the Pixel C is another offering that just isn't remotely competitive with what you get on an iPad, or even on a tablet like the Galaxy Tab S2 which is on par with the iPads for still images, and still much better than the Pixel C for video recording. With this trend of poor image processing on Tegra devices Google may want to work with NVIDIA to improve that part of their SoCs, or adopt an external ISP to do processing, because the current solution just isn't working.
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xthetenth - Monday, January 25, 2016 - link
I actually use the home screen a good bit on my phone but that's because I have a windows phone and it's actually useful. On tablets I'm more likely to use a broader and more varied set of apps and use the task switcher and apps list.Alexstarfire - Tuesday, January 26, 2016 - link
I use the home screen on my phone for just about everything really. I don't own a tablet but I can only imagine I'd do the same thing on it. I've got everything laid out on my home screen with folder(s) for grouping when necessary. Only time I go into the app drawer is to go to the gallery and to settings, and that's because I'm lazy and don't use them a whole lot. Task Switcher/Manager is used if I know the app I'm looking for was only used a couple apps ago. I'm not going to go scrolling through all my apps when it's easier to just go to the home screen and click the icon.Given that it's called the "Home Screen" I think you're not using your device to its potential if you are on your home screen so infrequently. To each his own though. :)
lilmoe - Monday, January 25, 2016 - link
This is a good iPad Pro competitor. But both aren't Surface competitors. Stop spreading stupidity.SaolDan - Monday, January 25, 2016 - link
Amen!osxandwindows - Monday, January 25, 2016 - link
I hope your joking.With all the problems and lack of apps, this can hardly be any sirius competition to the iPad pro.
Alexey291 - Saturday, January 30, 2016 - link
ipad pro? Wait wait someone actually compared ipad pro to a tablet? Oh boy.jjj - Monday, January 25, 2016 - link
lol i forgot that this thing exists.Google might as well give up instead of letting second graders do product design and Apple users set prices. Nobody has a decent tablet and they go on misguided explorations.
BrokenCrayons - Monday, January 25, 2016 - link
Android's problems and the overall lack of app quality are much more acceptable on a device that doesn't compete in higher price brackets. A $50 - 100 USD tablet are where glitches and errors like that belong rather than on something in the Pixel's price range. At that price, keeping productivity in mind as a primary usage scenario, it's probably a better idea to simply purchase a laptop.It's my personal opinion that Google's biggest mistake is fielding two distinctly different operating systems and then acting indecisively about which one to use on which product from the start. While Android is probably less elegant than Chrome, I think Google would help its own cause by abandoning Chrome and throwing that effort into making Android an OS that could operate effectively on phones, tablets, and small notebooks.
Murloc - Monday, January 25, 2016 - link
so basically converge like Microsoft did, only from an opposite place.We still have to see if that strategy works. Google has the advantage that everything started in their walled garden and so there's not the compatibility issues that microsoft has, they have a clean slate. But on the other hand, they'd have to make all the mouse and keyboard apps from scratch.
BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, January 26, 2016 - link
I don't think convergence is a good answer to the problem. In my opinion, there's very little of value that Chrome OS offers that's worth the effort of making the big muscle movements necessary to bring them over to Android. Having used x86 builds of Android on laptops previously, I think the shortcomings of the platform on notebook form factors become obvious when the user is compelled to make unusual gestures with a touchpad including things like clicking and dragging to scroll or being forced to deal with apps that rotate the screen without regard for the underlying platform. The former is something that needs a little work from Google in the gesture support department while addressing the latter is up to individual app developers to resolve. Having used several bluetooth keyboards paired to Android phones (along with the aforementioned x86 Android builds) in an effort to minimize the size and intrusiveness of computing tasks while improving flexibility through mobility, I argue that keyboard and mouse support is already pretty close to good enough based on my experiences and that very little work is required to get Android whipped into shape for laptop usage.In fact, all I'm really advocating is that Google dump Chrome OS because it seems like its mere existence is holding back development of Android. Simply tossing the entire thing into the trash and moving on is probably the best way to address the dysfunctions within the company over what OS to use on which device.