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    Chrome OS 75 makes Pixel Slate tablet mode animations “buttery smooth”, take a look

    Kevin TofelBy Updated:6 Comments2 Mins Read

    For the past several months, I’ve seen code commits and comments indicating that the Chromium team has been working to improve the Pixel Slate’s tablet mode. When the device first launched, switching between apps was abysmal on the Celeron-powered base model of the Pixel Slate, less so on higher-end configurations.

    Chrome OS 75 brings a visually noticeable improvement to the Pixel Slate according to u/clubtech on Reddit, who is running the Beta Channel, although I’m not sure which Slate configuration was tested. Still, this sounded promising when I read it:

    The latest beta (75.0.3770.19) that was released today for the Slate has done wonders for the the device. The overview animation is finally buttery smooth in both desktop mode and tablet mode. They also fixed other UI bugs with notifications and the way they sometimes showed squared vs. circled. This is the best update the slate has seen since it was released. It’s like a new machine in terms of fluidity.

    I have the Chrome OS 75 Dev Channel on an Intel Core i5 model with 8 GB of memory and at the moment both the Dev and Beta Channels are both running the same Chrome OS version: 75.0.3770.19. So I took a look and videoed the experience of tablet mode, switching between eight different apps running as PWAs, native Chrome OS and Android.

    You can easily see the difference from how the Pixel Slate performed in tablet mode at launch to this version of Chrome OS. The animations are much smoother and the overall experience of using the Slate without a keyboard is actually enjoyable.

    Is there room still for improvement? Sure, I’d say so. But at least one of the main knocks against the Pixel Slate can be crossed off the list. Well, at least for the $999 Pixel Slate with Intel Core i5 and 8 GB of RAM, that is. That’s the only Pixel Slate configuration I have, so if you have a different one and feel up to the challenge of running Chrome OS 75 in the Dev or Beta Channel, give it a go and tell me if you see the improvements as well.

    For the less adventurous Pixel Slate owners out there, June 11 is the expected date for Chrome OS to hit the Stable Channel, so you can wait about four more weeks before you get the improved tablet experience.

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    After spending 15 years in IT at Fortune 100 companies, Kevin turned a hobby into a career and began covering mobile technology in 2003. He writes daily on the industry and has co-hosted the weekly MobileTechRoundup podcast since 2006. His writing has appeared in print (The New York Times, PC Magazine and PC World) and he has been featured on NBC News in Philadelphia.

    6 Comments

    1. CajunMoses on

      This is great progress! I’m still hoping that some progress will be made on my pet peeve, which seems to be mostly a problem when using Android apps: After switching a convertible laptop several times between laptop mode and tablet mode, the apps become unstable. Specifically, they stop responding to touch and/or the “busy” OS blocks all input (persistent spinning throbber).

    2. Aaron on

      Do we know if other Chromebooks will get the benefit of these improvements in tablet mode?

      • Jaxon on

        I am pretty certain this is an OS-level fix, rather than Slate-specific. If the Chromebook can convert to tablet mode (any convertible or 2in1), it should benefit from this fix

      • iamakii on

        Samsung CB v2 Beta 75.0.3770.24 overview in tablet mode seems to have improved as well.

    4. HumbleBee on

      Is it iPad pro good? No, because it’s way better than iPad pro, sorry, apple I am looking at you! Full web browsing on iPad pro please!