Hands-on with the Remix Ultra Tablet, a Microsoft Surface-like Android tablet created by three ex-Google engineers
First look at the Remix Ultra Tablet — An Android tablet to get work done on — Jide, a company founded by three ex-Googlers, showed off its first device at CES 2015 — the Remix Ultra Tablet.
Context & Ripple Effects
At CES 2015, Jide — founded by three ex-Google engineers — showed off its first device, the Remix Ultra Tablet, an Android tablet built for getting work done rather than media consumption, explicitly modeled on Microsoft's Surface playbook. It was one of the earliest attempts to give Android a keyboard-and-productivity form factor without Google's involvement.
The hands-on is the opening move of a short arc: Jide doubled down a year later with Remix OS 2.0, a fork of Android Lollipop rebuilt for x86 PCs, before shutting down the PC version entirely in 2017 and refunding Kickstarter backers of its Remix IO/IO+ box.
First-order effects
- Jide enters the productivity-hardware market directly against Microsoft's Surface line, betting that ex-Google DNA plus Android can deliver laptop-class work on a tablet where stock Android could not.
Second-order effects
- The device becomes proof-of-concept for a bigger software play: Remix OS 2.0 forks Android Lollipop onto generic x86 PCs, turning a hardware startup into an OS vendor competing for the low-cost Windows-PC slot.
Third-order effects
- The pattern that follows — Jide discontinuing Remix OS for PCs and issuing refunds while Google itself re-entered tablets via the Pixel Slate and later put Android co-founder Rich Miner in charge of Android tablets — suggests Android-based productivity hardware from third parties struggles to survive when the platform owner controls the direction.
The trend: Independent attempts to reshape Android into a desktop-grade productivity OS keep surfacing at CES-style launches, then collapse or get absorbed once Google reasserts control over its own tablet roadmap.