Google’s Pixel Tablet has a charging speaker dock that turns it into a smart screen

Google has talked about its Pixel Tablet before, and at its Made by Google hardware event today, the tech giant shared some more details about the device, including that it will have a charging speaker dock. 

The dock will give the tablet more functionality, allowing you to use manage your smart home in the same way you would use your Google Nest or Amazon Echo Show. In addition to charging the device, the dock will control all of household devices, such as your home’s thermostat. 

Google said that typically, tablets are ‘homebodies’, remaining home 80% of the time and only useful for certain time of the day. With the charging speaker dock, Google hopes to transform the tablet from something that sits forgotten in your home into a device that is more of an integral part of your life 

When docked, the tablet will also curate a slideshow of photos which play as a slideshow, acting as a smart photo frame. 

Google said the tablet will bring together recent advances in Android, including material-UI, while housing a Pixel design. The tablet is the perfect companion to the Pixel phone and your smart home devices, according to Google. 

The tablet will utilize Google’s new Tensor G2 chip as well as advanced machine learning and picture processing so that your pixel phone features can work on the large screen device. Google said it has been working with app developers to make sure that the tablet can take advantage of split screen and stylus support.