Today, I’m here to talk about my mother. My mom has also been looking to downsize the amount of technology in her life. My mom daily drives an iPhone and has for a long time, but has no concern for the Apple ecosystem. My dad still handles most of the tax collecting duties and my mom has also completely dropped using a computer altogether and only uses her iPhone. After all, most things are done in a web browser just fine.
But as my parents starting to get up there in the years and their senses are start to get weaker. My mom in particular has wanted a device with a screen larger than her iPhone and initially suggested an iPad. Not wanting her to fall deeper into the Apple ecosystem, I pushed her to get Google’s first generation Pixel Tablet. You have the ability to use a tablet fully free of the Google ecosystem through GrapheneOS and a mobile device with more software longevity than an iPad. Google has had a rough reputation with Android tablet support, but have leapt into action to try to catch up to iPads. So going in, I’m going to be focusing on the Android Tablet experience for a “normal” user–my mom.
I do a lot of paranoid things with my own devices, but the priority is for my mom to what she needs done done; open source and respect for her privacy are secondary priorities. Don’t get too excited about a hardware review because there isn’t a whole lot to say.
As a reminder, I receive nothing from Google except your ad revenue (if you watch the video on YouTube). The tablet was bought at a Best Buy with my parents’ retirement fund.
Hardware
The Pixel Tablet comes in a large box with the “charging speaker dock,” some manuals, and the tablet itself. In terms of hardware, the Pixel Tablet uses and shares similarities to Samsung’s Galaxy Tab. A difference is the Pixel Tablet uses the Exynos chip, which Samsung appears to be returning to with their phones.
If wasn’t clear by the video footage, the Pixel Tablet isn’t very visible in bright lighting conditions. The display is quite capable, but not ideal. It works great in dark environments like during the evening, but leaves a bit to be desired during the day.
On the charging speaker dock, it’s an interesting idea, but the speakers are kind of middling. There is also no charging cable included, so you will need to provide your own. When charging the tablet, the tablet comes with dots which allows you to magnetically attach it to the dock. The magnets are pretty sensitive, so you have to make sure the dots are properly aligned or you risk the tablet falling. She also purchased a synthetic leather Fintie case from Amazon.
In terms of hardware, the Pixel Tablet is pretty unremarkable, but not overtly cheap. The price comes in at $500, frequently discounted 1 year in. In some ways, the Pixel Tablet provides a worse app experience than an iPad, but outperforms an iPad in offering more freedom and features Apple refuses to give users.
GrapheneOS
The very first thing that I did was install GrapheneOS. On this tablet.
However, one thing I want to make obvious is my mom is not a technical
user–far from it actually. I chose to use GrapheneOS because of the
security features, but also the “extended” support cycle. Since moving
away from Qualcomm, Google has extended their hardware to 3 years of
feature updates (or Pixel Feature Drops) and 5 years of security
updates.
After June 2028, the Pixel OS will be out of support and ROMs like
GrapheneOS and
CalyxOS will be the top picks. GrapheneOS is the
winner for me because of their frequent updates and the constant
innovation of features to making Android better, including assisting
Google and the Android community in detecting serious vulnerabilities
and bugs.
There are some post installation steps you can do, which I never touched on in my original GrapheneOS video. I want to cover some of GrapheneOS’s extra apps and features.
Following the esoteric guide on GrapheneOS’s website (seriously, this thing is way too technical for normal people) and used my Pixel 7 Pro as the installation device. I jacked in with a USB-C cable and pressed all the buttons the installer told me to.
If you don’t have another Android device, you will need to use one of the supported operating systems, download the Android debugging bridge from Google’s website or from a supported Linux distro’s repos, and the Chromium browser from their list. Then you enter what is basically a cheat code to unlock the bootloader and click 3 buttons.
The installation took about 20 minutes, but at the end, the Google was ripped out and GrapheneOS was in. Afterwards, you follow more post-installation steps.
The GrapheneOS App Store
GrapheneOS comes with an app store for independently updating their secure Camera, PDF Viewer, the default Vanadium browser, and the Auditor.
Separate from the stock apps, GrapheneOS includes downloads for various Google products compatible with GrapheneOS: Android Auto, Markup, and the Play Store. Typically, Google’s apps get much more visibility into your device and could potentially use this to collect more information about you.
GrapheneOS levels the playing field by forcing these apps to be installed and treated as normal apps you might download from another app store. They don’t get the special access, but are still able to do what most people expect them to do.
Google Play Store
Unlike other Android ROMs, GrapheneOS provides a fully functional copy of the Google Play Store. This is the standard of way of getting apps on Android, but also necessary for specific services. For example, when you use apps that receive notifications, most apps call for the Google services because it’s more battery efficient.
- To download the Play Store, you need to download all of the pre-requisite libraries. At the end, you should only get the Play Store available. The Play Store and the Google services are required if you wish to use Android Auto.
- Some apps require Google services in order to function properly. Others will have features missing, like passkey support or specific banking apps. Great resources for seeing app performance are Techlore’s Plexus, which documents various apps with(out) Google services and PrivSec’s list of working banking apps.
- There are some apps like Tuta or Signal, which do not use Google’s services and provide a redundant service instead for privacy reasons.
Usage
Using an Android tablet like the Pixel Tablet is pretty similar to running an Android phone, but there are some differences. My mom also has very different uses than most of the target audience of something like GrapheneOS–she needs to use all of the spyware apps in her life.
User Profiles
A feature Android possesses is user profiles. User profiles allow Android users to have a separate profile where they can store data or install things separate from their main profiles. User profiles are similar to users on computers.
On most Android ROMs, you are limited to 4, but GrapheneOS bumps this limit up to 32 and makes various enhancements to these profiles, including a secure “end session” feature, which shuts down all running apps.
While not typically seen as a business device, using a profile is much more valuable when a tablet is a family device. Suppose my dad wants to use the Pixel Tablet. He can create a user profile for himself to install apps just for him, completely separate from my mom. My mom is also given the “owner” account, which allows her to retain full control of the Pixel Tablet. What if you have a child who want to hop in on the latest mobile game? You can install the game in a separate profile so the game doesn’t get access to all my personal app data.
To Google or Not?
My mom has very specific needs and uses her tablet only for using streaming services and social media apps. This already encompasses a wide variety of apps like YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime.
As a result, I linked her Google account to the Tablet and we got the Play Store up and running. YouTube requires Google services to function, plus my mom was just going to sign in anyway.
I said earlier that GrapheneOS locks these apps down more, but they are still very much functional. This includes spying on you, so with higher threat models, Google Services will still capture your notifications. Google account information is also kept if you choose to login, so it would be prudent to disable your advertising ID.
Disable your advertising ID (GrapheneOS)
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In the Settings app, navigate to Apps > Sandboxed Google Play > Google Settings > Ads > Delete advertising ID
Android Tablet Support Exists…
When I set up the Pixel Tablet last year, my mom and I came across our biggest hurdle–incompatible apps. The long and short is despite the budding interest in Android tablets, not every app will work with Android tablets properly, if even at all.
Fixing the Aspect Ratio
Similar to iPads, some apps like Reddit are limited to a phone-like window to preserve the app’s intended aspect ratio. If you are bothered by this, Android 14+ allows you to stretch these apps to match your tablet’s screen ratio. It’s pretty seamless.
Early Woes with Signal
Thankfully, I have convinced a good portion of my family to adopt the secure messaging app Signal. However, when we first got the Pixel Tablet, there was a major issue: Signal would not work on Android tablets at all. Today, Signal works flawlessly on Android tablets, but this was not always the case.
With Signal in particular, there was a workaround I found that worked. I installed Molly using their F-Droid mirror. Molly is a fork of Signal Android client that implements some anti-forensic features not present in Signal. For a long time, Molly was the only way to use Signal’s service on an Android tablet.
Molly is generally a day behind Signal with updates (which is pretty reasonable) and I personally prefer the main Signal app as using Molly requires you trust their developers in addition to Signal’s. Molly is also great if you need to access more than one Signal account on a single Android profile.
While Signal works today, I feel it is too much friction to get my mom to switch away from Molly.
AirPods on Android
As an Apple refugee, my mom has 2nd generation AirPods as her headphones of choice. However, as Apple products, controlling them without an Apple device is difficult. I discovered a project by Frederico Dossena (the creator of LibreSpeed) called OpenPods. It lets you control your AirPods, gives connection notifications, and monitor their battery life of both ears.
OpenPods must be downloaded from F-Droid as they were mysteriously banned from the Play Store.
Viki & Vanadium
In the United States, there’s been a surge in people seeking to stream Korean dramas and my mom is no exception. The most popular app to watch K-dramas is an app called Viki. However, Viki is incompatible with Android tablets and they still refuse to make a compatible app.
The solution was actually fairly simple–using a web browser. Using a web browser is not only possible, but we can also create a home screen shortcut so it can be used similar to an app. However using a web browser opens up the can of worms that is browser choice.
GrapheneOS’s default browser, Vanadium, supports Google’s Widevine DRM. GrapheneOS also takes your connection to Google’s DRM and puts it through a proxy to limit what Google can collect about you.
The one disappointment with Vanadium doesn’t support blocking static or cosmetic ads and I really do not want my mom clicking on malicious ads. Instead, my mom uses Brave. I know there are some who swear by Vanadium, but Vanadium has weaker fingerprinting protection and content blocking. Brave is the only other browser endorsed by GrapheneOS and my second choice anyway.
I’d be open to exploring NextDNS in the future, but have not had adequate time to test whether the free plan would work with my mom or not. If it doesn’t, I would have to pay and have her piggyback off my plan.
Gboard
I installed Gboard, the stock Google keyboard and the keyboard for the Pixel Tablet’s stock ROM. I disabled the internet connection for the app to limit Google’s data collection. As much as I like GrapheneOS, the AOSP keyboard is borderline unusable. Since my mom uses Google services anyway, I figured it would be a better experience.
Misc
- There’s a phone app in GrapheneOS’s Tablet ROM. The Pixel Tablet can’t use eSIMs or a SIM card, so I don’t know why this is here.
- I enabled button navigation opposed to gesture navigation. My mom has a strong preference for buttons.
- I disabled all touch/tap sounds. My mom is so angry whenever my dad types on his phone.
- Adaptive brightness can sometimes be very aggressive.
Should you buy?
After 5 months with the Pixel Tablet, my mom has been very satisfied with its performance and rarely commented on the differences of GrapheneOS. It very much is the stripped down Android experience for the vast majority of people, but they will need help setting it up, whether it’s a custom ROM like GrapheneOS or because of lack of app support.
Setting up a custom Android ROM is not overly difficult, but if you don’t have that knowledge, it can difficult. While GrapheneOS has made lots of great changes to make the installation experience pretty painless, it could stand to hold the less technical user’s hand a little bit. Most people will see the wall of text on that installation page and lose their minds. In my mind, unless you set up GrapheneOS or CalyxOS, the Pixel Tablet isn’t worth your time.
There’s also the issue of identifying problematic apps because Android tablets have been treated like third-class citizens for years. The Android tablet app experience leaves a bit to be desired, complicated more by the “fragmentation” of the Android ecosystem. If you won’t install a custom ROM or you have apps you know will not work, you’d probably be better off with the tried and true iPad.
I think that if you are willing to learn and follow that ultra-technical guide on GrapheneOS’s website, the Pixel Tablet is the best choice for you for a tablet device that respects your privacy, freedom, and ownership of the device. This, combined with user profiles, proper split-screen, and freedom to use alternate app stores are all amazing reasons to consider a Pixel Tablet. It would also be cool to see if Google keeps making tablets and what the next generation has in store.
Summary
🚫 Not recommended, due to poor Android tablet compatibility and Google discontinuing future prospects for this form factor (but will continue device security updates until 2028). Installing GrapheneOS is necessary to last beyond end of life, but not encouraged.
Pros
- Allows installation of a custom OS (GrapheneOS)
- Best choice for Android tablets in terms of updates (5 years of support), legacy support on custom ROMs
- Tablet experience offers things Apple will not: calculator, split screen, user profiles, third party app stores
- Good performance
- Great as media or emulation device
Cons
- Comes with privacy invasive stock OS
- Android tablet experience (while functional for most) leaves a bit to be desired
- Screen does not perform well in bright conditions
- No headphone jack
- Forces you to buy a gimmick speaker dock with a proprietary cable and does not include a USB-C charger