Pixel Tablet teardown by iFixit
TL;DR
- The insides of the Pixel Tablet are surprisingly spacious.
- The component layout looks amateurish and shows that Google could have done so much more with the slate but chose not to.
- There’s enough space inside the Pixel Tablet for a bigger battery, better speakers, a headphone jack, expandable storage, and so much more.
iFixit recently posted a repair guide for Google’s Pixel Tablet, revealing what’s on the inside, or shall we say, what’s NOT on the inside. First spotted and written about by ArsTechnica, the surprising emptiness of the Pixel Tablet goes against all principles of modern component assembly. It seems Google has failed to smartly utilize the space inside the tablet, with oodles of free plastic base stretching across the device.
High-end electronics like smartphones and tablets are usually packed tightly with components. Manufacturers strive to maximize the use of the space they have inside the body of such devices. However, the Pixel Tablet looks like it was put together in a rush, with so much room to spare. All the white space you see inside the tablet in the image above is just purposeless. Google could have easily equipped the Pixel Tablet with a bigger battery, better speakers, a headphone jack, an expandable storage slot, better cooling tech, and so much more.
You can see the stark difference between the insides of the Pixel Tablet and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 in the image below. The teardown of the latter was performed by folks at PBK Reviews and shows how Samsung has efficiently utilized the space inside the tablet. Samsung’s component layout and cable management look much more mature and refined compared to Google’s approach.
PBK Reviews
Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 teardown
Surprisingly enough, with all that empty space, the Pixel Tablet is not much lighter than the Galaxy Tab S8. The weight difference between the two tablets is just a few grams. It just seems like a case of bad design on Google’s part. As Ars points out, it looks like the components of the 11-inch Pixel Tablet were meant for a much smaller slate.
