I think it’d be nice if they offered an option without the base for $400 especially since the hub experience on it as it is currently isn’t very good. All hub mode does currently is turn it into a glorified digital picture frame with the home controls button in the bottom corner and the Google Home experience isn’t as good as a Nest Hub.
As it is right now, I wouldn’t consider the Pixel Tablet as a replacement for the Nest Hub.
I have a Pixel Tablet and I really only used the speaker to charge it, but I’m probably going to stop because the base is becoming very flakey with my experience. The speaker randomly loses power and I’ll have to unplug and plug it back in about a dozen times before it’ll start getting power again and this problem started a week after getting it. The charger is not damaged in any way which leads me to think it’s probably defective.
I don’t have a current one as I have a Moto 360 2020 that’s stuck on Wear OS 2. I’m thinking about replacing it with the 2nd gen Pixel Watch since it’s rumored to be a big improvement to the 1st gen.
From what I heard though, Wear OS 3 and 3.5 is a step in the right direction and gives OEMs more control of the UI, which is I believe why Samsung is using it now over Tizen. Really the only regression I can think of between Wear OS 2 and 3 is that Google Assistant is only available on Samsung and the Pixel Watch. If you go with any other watch, its not going to have it.
Before I deleted my account, I did give it a try and it’s truly terrible and it’s a shame they expect you to use that when basically every 3rd party app is better in every way. It’s buggy, riddled with ads and doesn’t have proper tablet support while both Sync and Boost did.
I know Revanced will fix some of the issues, but I’m done with Reddit out of principle of them throwing 3rd party devs to the curb when it’s been fine for them to develop apps for years.
I initially hoped it would have a hub specific interface that looks similar to the Nest Hub. Instead though, the dock basically puts it into screensaver mode and the home icon pulls up the basic Google Home like if you were to tap the quick settings icon.
As a tablet, it’s decent but I wouldn’t get it if you’re mostly planning to use it with Google Home as I think the current experience is disappointing.