It's a quite good Android tablet now. At launch, it was pretty messy. Part of this was because it was supposed to be a Chrome OS tablet but got rushed out as an Android tablet before Android even had split screen. Yes, the OS matters if it limits the hardware. It has 4 mics but didn't even support Google's always on at launch (seriously?). Add to that the fact that the hardware was pretty buggy at launch with lots of users complaining about random reboots and failures.

Ars Technica has a good summary in their "One year later" review of the Pixel C. The reviewer is on his 3rd Pixel C due to hardware failures. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/09/one-year-later-can-an...