The Pixel Tablet was announced one year ago at Google I/O 2022, then a second time at the Pixel 7's launch event, and now it's back on stage for a third time at Google I/O 2023. This time, it's getting a full spec sheet and a price. The Pixel Tablet is officially in iPad territory at $499, and that's with the fancy magnetic speaker dock included in the box. It's going up for preorder today, and will ship sometime next month.

Since it's been a year, here is a quick recap: This is Google's first self-branded Android tablet in eight years. The Pixel Tablet release follows up the company's rebooted Android tablet strategy, which started with Android 12L in 2022, and has continued with pretty comprehensive tablet updates to most of Google's apps.

For specs, we have a 10.95-inch, 60 Hz, 2560×1600 LCD, the Google Tensor G2 SoC (same as the Pixel phones, that's an Arm X1 chip), 8GB of RAM, 128GB or 256GB of storage, and a 27 watt-hour battery. The cameras seem like an afterthought, with only an 8 MP sensor on the front and back. There's a fingerprint reader included in the power button, and while there's no official stylus, the tablet has USI 2.0 compatibility. The body is aluminum, with a "nano ceramic coating" that Google says is "inspired by porcelain."

The Pixel Tablet comes with a speaker dock, and you buy additional docks for $129 each. The dock connects to the tablet via four pogo pins, which the spec sheet says are capable of "charging, data transfer, and audio output." The dock charges the tablet at 15 W, and, in addition to the four speakers on the Pixel Tablet, the dock has a 43.5 mm full-range speaker, so it can play music.

The Pixel Tablet is also a Google Cast receiver. While, like any other Android device, it can send Google Cast content to other devices, the Pixel Tablet can be a cast target for other devices. You can tell your phone to play video or music on the Pixel tablet, and it will do it. That's kind of close to smart display functionality, right?