Google is working on a new Android tablet to compete with the iPad

Is Google getting ready to return to the Android tablet market? After abandoning the tactile slate sector, largely dominated by the iPad, the Mountain View giant imagined a Pixel tablet with a screen devoid of any border.

A few years ago, Google gradually abandoned the tablet market. Faced with sales dominated by the Apple iPad, the Mountain View giant has disinterested in tactile slates from 2018 to turn to computers convertible into tablets. That year, Google notably launched the Pixel Slate.

In 2019, the ax finally fell. Rick Osterloh, vice president of the products and services branch of Google, then confirmed the abandonment of all work on tablets. The American group announced that it would now focus on the development of smartphones and computers. In a market dominated by the iPad, Pixel tablets have failed to find a place.

Google imagined an Android tablet with a hole in the screen

It seems, however, that Google hasn’t completely given up on its Android tablet ideas. A patent filed with the Japanese Patent Office reveals the existence of a new Pixel tablet very different from other Android tablets on the market. The documents were approved by the Japanese body in the summer of 2021 after several months of waiting.

Based on the diagrams included in the patent, our colleagues from LetsGoDigital have developed 3D renderings of the design of the tactile slate. The Pixel tablet is obviously built around a borderless screen. The fine borders which surround the touch screen are very fine and uniform. To house the camera for selfies, Google opts for a small punch in the screen, similar to the one found on Pixel smartphones.

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Pending official information, there is no indication that Google really intends touse this design on its products It is not uncommon for a manufacturer to patent technologies without ever integrating them into products, only in order to secure his inventions. For now, we do not know if Google still has ambitions in the field of the tablet.

Source: LetsGoDigital