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During the holidays, I took advantage of one of the many deals available on Google’s Pixel Tablet. Even though I’m mainly an iPad guy, I like to keep tabs on what Apple’s competitors are up to in this space. And while Material You is, in my opinion, the ugliest iteration of Material Design yet (it used to look better than iOS!), I still think Google’s software generally looks better than Samsung’s. I acknowledge, though, the Samsung is pretty much single handedly keeping Android tablets alive, as a category.

Another reason to buy the Pixel Tablet was the many years of promised Android updates that Pixel devices are known for….or so I thought. As it turns out, that promise only applies to newer Pixel devices (the Pixel 8 generation and newer). Since the Pixel Tablet originally launched in 2023, it was already nearing the end of its promised three years of Android OS updates.

As noted by 9to5Google, that has recently changed. Google updated its support page for the Pixel Tablet, confirming it will now receive Android updates through June 2028 instead of June 2026. Those of us who were late to Google’s latest (and maybe last) tablet don’t have to feel quite so cheated after all.

Google also appears to be moving full steam ahead with its plans to further merge Android and ChromeOS. While it’s unclear how much of this hybrid OS vision can realistically make its way to the Pixel Tablet given its aging hardware, but the additional years of OS updates at least give it a fighting chance. Hopefully that means the Pixel Tablet will see some version of Android that’s better optimized for larger screens and more laptop-like use cases.

Link: 9to5Google