A lot of tablets show up as sealed items with choices already produced you: storage is repaired, the battery is buried someplace unattainable, and the operating system is whatever the producer chose. You utilize the device on those terms till it decreases or falls out of software assistance, and then you change it. Brax Technologies, the business behind the BraX3 privacy smartphone, is betting there’s a various way to do this.
The open_slate is a 12-inch 2-in-1 tablet that treats its hardware as a beginning point instead of a completed product. Inside the chassis sits an M. 2 2280 slot, a basic utilized in laptop computers and desktops, allowing owners to switch in faster storage, include capability, or ultimately slot in a network card. There’s likewise a user-replaceable battery, which sounds ordinary until you consider how few tablet makers have troubled to consist of one in years.
Designer: Brax Technologies
That battery holds 8,000 mAh and brings a claimed 20-hour runtime, a figure that tracks given how efficiently ARM processors handle light work. The MediaTek Genio 720 chip pairs 2 Cortex-A78 performance cores with 6 Cortex-A55 effectiveness cores. It’s a capable mid-range processor, not a desktop replacement, but paired with either 8GB or 16GB of RAM and a 120Hz display screen, everyday use needs to feel smooth for the jobs the gadget is developed for.
That 12-inch IPS screen runs at 1600 x 2400 resolution with Gorilla Glass security and supports a stylus at 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity. Connectivity covers Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, GPS, and 2 USB-C ports, one supporting DisplayPort 1.4 output. Someone writing on the go, sketching concepts, or running a Linux terminal while connected to an external screen might reasonably treat this as a primary maker, provided the software works together.
On that note: the open_slate ships with BraxOS, a de-Googled Android construct, and targets Ubuntu support through MediaTek’s Genio designer platform.
Brax acknowledges that some Linux functions may not be complete at launch, which is a truthful position for a small team working outside the mainstream supply chain. ARM Linux has enhanced considerably, however it still surprises you at inconvenient minutes. < img src="// www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%201280%20960%22%3E%3C/svg%3E"data-src="https://www.yankodesign.com/images/design_news/2026/03/the-brax-open_slate-is-a-modular-tablet-that-lets-you-actually-own-what-you-buy/open-slate-modular-tablet-04.jpg"alt =""width=" 1280" height= "960"/ >< img src ="https://www.yankodesign.com/images/design_news/2026/03/the-brax-open_slate-is-a-modular-tablet-that-lets-you-actually-own-what-you-buy/open-slate-modular-tablet-05.jpg"alt ="" width= "1280"height=
“960”/ > < img src ="// www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%201280%20960%22%3E%3C/svg%3E" data-src="https://www.yankodesign.com/images/design_news/2026/03/the-brax-open_slate-is-a-modular-tablet-that-lets-you-actually-own-what-you-buy/open-slate-modular-tablet-05.jpg" alt ="" width="1280" height="960"/ > The physical kill switches are the most distinctive feature on paper. Committed toggles cut power to the electronic cameras, microphone, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS at the hardware level, not through a software application setting that an app may silently bypass. This design reasoning comes from the secure laptop world, and using it to a consumer tablet is unusual enough to discover. For anybody who’s believed seriously about what their devices transfer and to whom, the appeal is instant. < img src="https://www.yankodesign.com/images/design_news/2026/03/the-brax-open_slate-is-a-modular-tablet-that-lets-you-actually-own-what-you-buy/open-slate-modular-tablet-10.jpg" alt ="" width="1280" height="960"/ > < img src ="// www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%201280%20960%22%3E%3C/svg%3E" data-src="https://www.yankodesign.com/images/design_news/2026/03/the-brax-open_slate-is-a-modular-tablet-that-lets-you-actually-own-what-you-buy/open-slate-modular-tablet-10.jpg" alt ="" width="1280" height="960"/ >