I wasn’t out there for a Google Pixel Pill, but it surely’s laborious to go up for 50% off.
When shopping Slickdeals final week, I noticed a trade-in promotion for the $500 Pixel Pill, the one which comes with its personal dockable speaker hub. It, in essence, can act as a sensible residence show and an on-the-go pill.
Google was providing a beneficiant $400 credit score when buying and selling in an everyday sixth-generation iPad from 2018, the mannequin that launched at $329. This meant that Google was giving $71 over the iPad’s authentic retail value to entice folks over to the world of Android. Nonetheless, as of final Friday, plainly Google has clamped down on the beneficiant trade-in supply and is now solely giving $75 for a sixth-gen iPad. To get a $400 trade-in credit score, you will must trade-in an eighth gen iPad from 2020 or a fifth-gen iPad Air from 2022.
Both method, I did what any deal-hungry tech reporter would do: turned to Fb Market. There, I discovered somebody promoting a sixth-gen iPad for $130. After some back-and-forth, we agreed to a value of $110 and I picked it up for the only objective of buying and selling it in.
Google launched the Pixel Pill final 12 months after a virtually nine-year hiatus from the Android pill area. Earlier than the Pixel Pill was the Pixel C from 2015, which ran on Android 8.1. Throughout Google’s absence, it was largely as much as producers like Samsung, Huawei, Lenovo and Amazon to offer pill consumers an alternative choice to the iPad. However as Android pill makers tried to compete with out robust Google help, Apple hit 40% world market share by 2022, in line with Statista. It did not assist that the market was being flooded by low-cost, low-quality Android tablets, both. As Apple continued to put money into iPad, making it a vibrant platform for apps, many Android apps ended up wanting like scaled-up variations of their cell counterparts by comparability. It is why many finest pill lists have been dominated by iPads for years.
Fortunately, Google has two retail areas in New York and will commerce in my iPad in-person. So, I grabbed my newly acquired iPad and took the practice over to Chelsea Market. There, I discovered a largely quiet Google retailer. It appeared there have been extra workers than clients. It is nothing just like the throngs of individuals flooding Apple Shops at buying malls across the nation.
Two workers checked over my iPad and knocked $400 off the worth for a Pixel Pill. After taxes, the Pixel Pill got here out to $144.29. Tacking on the $110 I spent on the iPad, I walked out of the Google Retailer with a Pixel Pill in my backpack having solely spent $254.29 in whole. For that value, it is undoubtedly a steal.
Despite the fact that Google has already adjusted the phrases of the deal, I’ve seen used eighth-gen iPads are on-line for round $150, which implies you might nonetheless save about $250 on the Pixel Pill.
The Pixel Pill trade-in promotion ends on Might twentieth at 11:59 pm PT.