Amazon Reveals Google Pixel Tablet Release Date And A Sweet Pre-Order Bonus

Google has some big hardware plans for the next few weeks, with a foldable, a budget smartphone, and a tablet all dropping within weeks of each other. Google pre-announced the tablet, predictably known as the Pixel Tablet, at last year's Google I/O. We won't have to wait for this year's I/O to get all the details, thanks to a leak on Amazon's Japanese site.

The Amazon.jp listing for the Pixel Tablet was reportedly activated early. The page has since been taken down, but an industrious Redditor was able to grab a screenshot. The listing reveals a few things, not least of which is the price. The Japanese site showed a price of 79,800 JPY, which works out to $590.


If the Pixel Tablet costs $550-600 in the US, that would put it a notch below the latest Samsung Galaxy Tab lineup and right in line with the OnePlus Pad. That's competitive on the Android side, but Google's going to have to prove it's committed to tablets if it wants to compete with the 10th-generation iPad, which starts at just $450.


The listing also revealed a nice pre-order bonus (at least in Japan). The tablet will apparently come with the magnetic speaker dock, which turns the tablet into a smart display. It's unclear if that deal will extend to the US or if it will apply after the pre-order period. The Japanese variant of the tablet (GA04750-JP) will reportedly launch on June 20th. Again, that might not be the same as the launch date in the US or other regions.


Google has a scattershot history with Android tablets. It has, on more than one occasion, announced a major change in its approach to tablets only to forget about those devices a year or two later. As a result, Android has been slow to adopt large-screen optimizations and app support. Google has been addressing some of these shortcomings over the past several OS updates, but the Pixel Tablet will be the true test.