We have to start this off asking a MAJOR question:

What do you want in a tablet?

Putting my bias up front, I’m not particularly impressed with tablet conversations fixated on basic use and “hand feel”. I don’t think that’s good criteria to judge the value of a premium purchase. If a tablet costs as much or more than a game console, it needs to do more than just stream some Netflix and “feel nice”.

Tablets have incredible processors, and GPUs, and RAM, and storage, and batteries. In a remarkably thin shell, we’ll find performance that often rivals similarly priced Chromebooks. These products are terrific general compute platforms, and it seems like such a waste to relegate them to the lowest level use.

Tablets are “solutions in search of problems”, but they can solve a LOT more of those problems than many people realize.

Tablets can DO stuff, and these two are great examples of “doing stuff” slates. They make for an interesting comparison because they’re so different.

DISCLAIMER

Both tablets were supplied by their respective manufacturers, and I have done paid hosting and consulting work in the past for both brands. Neither company has had any influence over the production of this comparison.

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OF COURSE, this is not a fair oranges-to-oranges showdown. The Robo and Kala is specced to do battle with a Surface Pro 9 5G, and the Pixel Tablet is built to shake up the Android mid-range.

The Robo and Kala full MSRP is $1,399. The Pixel Tablet with 256GB is $599 MSRP.

That’s a huge retail price gap. The sale prices have been a bit more interesting though. The Pixel Tablet 256GB is currently selling for $519. The Robo and Kala is currently on sale with a keyboard dock for $799, but over the summer it was found as low as $599.

For about a month, these two slates were the same price. That same month I took both on a road trip. Now, I have thoughts on both.

A “smart display that can leave your home” versus the “tablet that wants to be a laptop”…

Design

Immediately we see the difference in MSRP reflected in the build quality of each slate.

The Pixel is a nice tablet with an interesting backplate. Nanoceramics are often used in industrial applications and on cars to prevent oxidation. The Pixel Tablet’s Nano-Ceramic coating does not feel like a traditional ceramic back. It delivers a matte finish feeling reminiscent of (but higher quality than) the coating covering the Pixel 5.

It doesn’t feel like metal, glass, or plastic. It has a unique feel and grip on the fingers.

Part of the cost for the Pixel Tablet includes the magnetic speaker dock, used to charge and mount the tablet as a smart display.

The Robo and Kala frame is an attractive green aluminum. That’s a little easier to describe. More folks know what “metal” feels like.

The screen size on the Robo and Kala is larger than the Pixel Tablet, giving it a little more room to spread out the tech internals. The Robo and Kala is impressively thin, .8mm thinner than the Pixel Tablet. On its own, that depth measurement would be interesting, but the Robo and Kala also includes a built-in kick stand. Like the Surface Pro, that hinged stand can prop the slate up at almost any angle.

It’s a minor gripe I’ve had with many tablets. You get spoiled by hardware like a Surface Pro. Without adding the bulk of a case or cover, or without carrying around a tablet stand, you can prop the Robo and Kala up to watch content, play games, sketch, or get work done.

You’ll probably want to put the Robo and Kala down more often than the Pixel. It’s light for a laptop, weighing only 690 grams, but that’s heavy for a tablet. The Pixel Tablet weighs 493 grams.

Displays

Tablets are “all screen”. There’s almost nothing else for the user to interact with.

The Pixel Tablet is a nice 10.95” LCD at a respectable 2560 x 1600 resolution. I like this aspect ratio. 16:10 is a nice “compromise” between the slightly squarer tablets and laptop screens (some argue are better for documents and productivity) and the skinnier wide-screen displays that fit TV and films with less letterboxing.

Google’s listed screen specs are decent. The Pixel Tablet cranks around 500nits max brightness. It has a 60Hz refresh rate, and supports USI 2.0 stylus pens. Unfortunately, I have not purchased a USI 2.0 pen yet to test how the tablet might interact with one.

I’m personally not one to dismiss a product with an LCD just because it has an LCD. I prefer OLED, but a good LCD is still a good screen. The Pixel Tablet is a solid performer at every task presented, with good brightness and very good viewing angles. It makes sense in the context of a display used for at-a-glance home management, video calls, and the ability to carry it around the home.

Google delivers a “nice” screen at a good MSRP.

The Robo and Kala moves up in size to a 12.6” display at the same aspect ratio, resolution, and refresh rate as the Pixel. However, the Robo and Kala uses a brighter 600nit OLED panel, and that just looks better. Brighter, more vivid colors, better dynamic range, and the Robo and Kala has those “inky” blacks we enjoy courtesy of OLED contrast.

Robo and Kala also includes stylus support, with their own pen that magnetically charges on the side of the tablet. It’s a separate accessory sold at $69.99. I’m not sure exactly what pen tech the Robo and Kala stylus uses. The tablet can interact with some of my other active pens, but the Robo and Kala pen doesn’t interact with any of my other phones or tablets.

Biometric Unlock

Google uses a fingerprint sensor built into the power button on the Pixel Tablet. It’s a responsive button that unlocks reliably. I prefer power button fingerprint sensors on phones. My only gripe with the Pixel Tablet has to do with the docked smart display mode. Theres a funny little loop that happens if you try to turn the screen off with the finger you trained to unlock the tablet.

The fingerprint sensor unlocks the tablet WHILE the button is trying to turn the screen off. Often, the button returns you to the docked clock mode, but with the screen still on. A second press will turn the screen fully off, but if there’s any separation in the action, you might turn the “tablet” back on for re-scanning your fingerprint. I’ve had the tablet for a couple weeks now, and I still have to think about the action when docked.

As a standalone slate, the sensor is great.

Robo and Kala uses Windows Hello with a proper face scanning array. It’s a fast face recognizing system. I don’t like face scanning on phones, as that often requires a more deliberate action of lifting your phone to start the unlock process, but on a laptop or tablet, which might be propped up already, I think this action makes more sense.

The Robo and Kala unlocks fast as you’re looking at the display, but isn’t quite as consistent as a Surface Pro in dim light.

Internals

The Pixel Tablet is a straightforward Android slate. Powered by a Tensor 2 with 8GB of RAM, it’s sold in 128GB and 256GB variants. There is no other storage expansion. The single USB-C port can charge the tablet, and connect accessories like external SSDs, but there is no video output for external displays.

The Robo and Kala is also powered by an ARM chip. The Snapdragon 8CX Gen 3 is designed for laptop grade computing, though some of the individual chip components are similar to the Pixel’s. Robo and Kala only sells one configuration of slate with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

There is no memory card expansion, but the SSD is user accessible, and you can upgrade the internal storage.

There’s a pair of USB-C ports, and each can be used to charge the tablet and to add one external display. The Robo and Kala can output to two screens at a time, either two external displays or one external screen and the built-in screen.

Performance

The most powerful CPU cores found on both tablets are very similar Cortex X1 cores. If we run a synthetic benchmark, the test results are close for single-core tests. Both tablets are octa-core SOCs, but the Robo and Kala is packing more of the bigger CPU cores.

The Pixel Tablet has a 2-2-4 configuration: two “BIG” X1 cores, two “medium” A76 cores, and four “small” low power cores.

The Robo and Kala has a 4-4 configuration: four “BIG” X1 cores and 4 “medium” A78 cores.

While the single core tests are close, the Robo and Kala pulls farther ahead with apps that take advantage of multiple CPU cores. The smallest CPU cores on the Robo and Kala are more powerful than the “medium” cores on the Pixel Tablet.

For most folks using these tablets, I think the operating systems are going to have the largest influence over perceived performance. The Geekbench tests I ran were both produced using the Android version of Geekbench, were the Robo and Kala can install and run Android apps INSIDE Windows 11.

Using Windows 11 though, people are more likely to compare the Robo and Kala against other Windows laptops. Performance is close to a current gen Intel Core i3, or an older Core i5. The advantage of Windows on ARM is not top end performance for the price. It’s easy finding Windows laptops at this price that outperform this tablet. It’s almost impossible to find Windows laptops near this price that outperform the Robo and Kala, get similar battery life, in a shell this small, AND run as cool without fans.

Doing basic tablet-y things, both of these slates are incredible overkill.

This is a tier of performance well above producing a “smooth UI” and streaming high resolution video. These tablets are overpowered for web browsing activities and using educational software.

In looking at specs like RAM, the two are better matched because of the differences in software. Android will run more efficiently on less RAM, but it is limited in its multitasking ability. Windows is a full desktop style operating system, and uses more resources for operation, but is also more capable of running multiple programs at the same time.

Getting Work Done

If you’re running one app at a time, there won’t be much difference in the experience. Running full desktop programs versus Android apps, the Pixel Tablet will probably feel more responsive at program launch.

The more aggressively you use each though, the more the Robo and Kala rises to the increased workload.

Pixel Tablet can split-screen two apps side by side, where Windows 11 can run numerous programs at the same time with different options for snapped dual, triple, and quad windows on screen (and even more functional with a second display).

The Pixel Tablet shines in that singular use moment, and can be pushed farther for some simple multi-tasking, but you’re always working with Android apps.

The Robo and Kala is an incredibly flexible platform that can run a lot of legacy classic Windows software through emulation, more modern Windows “apps”, and can run subsystems for Android and Linux INSIDE Windows. No need to dual or triple boot, Microsoft has sneakily absorbed a lot of the advantages of competing platforms.

This had a huge impact on how I used each on the road.

I brought accessories for both tablets, and the Pixel Tablet was a perfectly functional mobile Office machine. I could load the Android version of Microsoft 365, write some scripts, scan through some PowerPoint, and edit my spreadsheets.

The Robo and Kala used the full desktop version of Microsoft Office with better tools for document editing.

The Pixel Tablet is handy for a quick video call.

The Robo and Kala had better support for all the tools I would use to do things like video livestreaming. I recently joined the folks at Android Faithful, and the Robo and Kala properly supported a video capture card connected to my mirrorless camera, wireless mics, wireless earbuds connected to a USB transmitter, and I streamed through a laptop hub with ethernet support.

Android can support all of this hardware too, but we don’t have the same ability to join platforms which require desktop grade web browsers. It’s still not nearly as easy to get Android to use video capture devices in place of built in web cams, or to “see” alternative microphone options. Windows 11 is still better at routing all of the different hardware options connected.

This split largely holds true for most “creative” uses. There’s some fun image and editing software you can use on Android, but then you can use “real” programs on the Robo and Kala. I fire up the Linux flavor of GIMP to do most of my video thumbnails.

The fun flip for creative work is video editing.

Many Windows video editing programs like Davinci Resolve struggle with the unconventional GPU on the Robo and Kala. Microsoft can point people to an app like Clipchamp, but that’s a VERY limited consumer editing solution. Linux programs function, but 4K video editing turns into a slideshow.

This is one of the greatest strengths for Android in general, and the Pixel specifically. Using a program like LumaFusion delivers a competent set of tools to edit out in the field, and the Tensor 2 is currently the fastest mobile option available for rendering UHD video. Even though Tensor 2 scores lower in synthetic benchmarks, a phone or tablet with a Tensor 2 will hang with and outpace the most expensive phones from Samsung and Apple while rendering 4K.

Gaming

The Robo and Kala is handily more powerful in most similar Android apps, and performs surprisingly well for PC gaming. Game optimization is a funny thing though, where games developed for Android might perform better on a Pixel. The quality of the port matters a lot.

Indie and old school games are going to be nearly identical. The Pixel produces slightly higher average frame rates in the end game of a Vampire Survivors run, but both handle games like TMNT Shredder’s Revenge fine.

For emulation on the Robo and Kala, the Android version of RetroArch will not work as well as the Windows version for 8 and 16 bit game emulation.

For more graphics intense gaming, the Android ports for Alien Isolation and BattleChasers are really good, and the Pixel Tablet will perform better than playing either game on the Robo and Kala after installing it through Steam.

There are just SO MANY MORE games available for PC though. Like, it’s shocking how we don’t have a good Android port of Tetris Effect or Puyo Puyo Tetris.

The great equalizer for folks with good data connections is game streaming. Either local with Steam Link or online with GamePass or GeForce Now. The local performance of each tablet is largely irrelevant when you can offload the graphics processing to a remote server.

Accessories

I normally wouldn’t weight the available accessories as hard in a tablet showdown, but it’s one of the frustrations of Pixel Tablet at present, and it’s something Robo and Kala is doing really well. It helps show the different philosophies behind each product.

Right now, the least expensive way to buy the Robo and Kala is to bundle it with the dual-mode keyboard blade. It’s $100 cheaper to buy the bundle than to buy the tablet by itself. The bundle provides a pogo pin keyboard+trackpad that also works over Bluetooth, and protects the display when closed.

Robo and Kala also sell the aforementioned stylus, a reasonably priced glass screen protector, and a faux-leather protection sleeve. A USB-C 65W charger is included with the tablet. You can put together one order from the company website, and you have a fully outfitted laptop-replacement slate ready to use.

The Pixel Tablet arrives ready to be used as a smart display. It has an AC adapter for the dock, but no USB-C charger is included. On Google’s site you can also pick up additional speaker docks, a screen protector, and choose between two stand cases that don’t protect the screen.

And that’s it.

Google does not sell a first party keyboard or keyboard case or screen protection case. Google isn’t stocking a compatible stylus. The user can source other options on their own, but that feels incomplete. I have good keyboard, mouse, and laptop accessories.

They feel like “extra” things to pack and carry. The whole kit to travel with the Pixel Tablet takes up more space in a backpack, and more items will be loose, than traveling with the Robo and Kala.

The Wrap Up…

Getting to the end of this comparison, it shouldn’t be any grand reveal that two products, built for different uses, perform in different ways. I’m usually an advocate for properly defining the role of a product and judging it by those standards.

However, it’s my biggest pet peeve of our current mobile tech industry, to grossly over-sell compute power to consumers.

Tablets are “solutions in search of problems” devices, yet we often house the conversation around them based on what “most average basic” people MIGHT do with them. There’s really no reason why the compute power of a mid-range phone or tablet shouldn’t easily displace the daily digital needs of a large portion of the population.

The main things holding consumers back are accessories and better software to take advantage of that compute power.

I think the Robo and Kala demonstrates that well. The potential consumer who would be impacted by some of the legacy software compatibility issues using Windows on ARM, is likely also savvy enough to find other solutions in web apps, Android apps, and Linux programs. Otherwise, it’s ready to go as a laptop replacement, and can use almost any software or hardware another Windows PC might use.

Google’s philosophy for the Pixel Tablet starts to feel a little claustrophobic. Here’s an incredibly powerful slate, where a primary use for the screen will be taking video calls and setting kitchen timers. I know that’s what a lot of people are already doing with their tablets, but that doesn’t feel very empowering. We’re not elevating or leading the conversation on slates. We’re merely satisfying the lowest current expectations.

We can satisfy those LOW expectations for less cash.

Taking the Pixel Tablet out of my house, and away from Google’s speaker dock, it was encouraging to see how well it performed. The raw capability is there. We CAN do more with this. If more developers support app updates for Android on bigger tablet screens, we’ll continue to close the functionality gap between a mobile OS and a more desktop style OS.

I just wish Google was doing more to lead that conversation…

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