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  • FITCamaro - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Are they trying to out-Apple Apple? $1000 for a laptop with relatively midrange specs, a high DPI screen, and only 32GB of space? Sorry but I'd take many other laptops before this. Especially with just Chrome OS on it.
  • Novacius - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    The first one was even more expensive. This machine is not targeted at the normal audience.
  • kspirit - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    normal == mentally stable, in this case
  • Novacius - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    It's for people who want to develop on and/or for Chrome OS. There aren't much, but there are some.
  • BittenRottenApple - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Oh come on, really?

    Google just showed off a dumb new thing: an expensive craptop that pairs the blemished screen, mediocre components, and design of a MacBook Pro with the diluted, web-based Chrome OS. In either case it makes no sense. Don't buy one.

    I haven't had much time to play with the thing, but—like burning a Koran in ISIS territory or folding a newspaper with the dear leader’s likeness printed on it in North Korea—some things are just terrible on paper and in reality. The Chromebook Pixel is one of those things. Here is why this thing was a bad idea, and will make an even worse thing to own. Do not buy a Chromebook Pixel, under any circumstances short of the threat of physical violence, for these reasons:

    1. THE CHROMEBOOK PIXEL IS WAY TOO EXPENSIVE

    The thing costs $1,300 (or $1,450 plus a data plan if you want LTE), which is a lot of money. It's enough money to buy a solid Windows 8 system or one of those crappy artificial hipster machines also called MacBook Air. It's just $50 short of enough to buy an overhyped MacBook Pro that has a similarly fucked up display aspect ratio. The nice thing about these other options is that they're at least overpriced Crapple (TM) junk with a gnawed fruit logo attached to them somewhere, as opposed to the Pixel, which is a ripoff.

    The entire conceit of Chrome OS is that it's sort of a diet computer. It does the basics, and just the basics. Chrome OS will give you internet, basic word processing through Google Docs, video via YouTube, and the rest of Google's web services including a free as in freedom lifetime direct hotlink to the NSA. You can stick in Chrome extensions for added "apps" if you'd like, possibly even a future NSA all inclusive backup app. But you're not going to get any full software here, because Chrome OS isn't compatible with anything outside of itself.
    And that's been OK, because Chrome OS laptops have been very cheap: a few hundred bucks for the essentials is a good deal.
    Thirteen hundred dollars for those same essentials is a very, very, hugely, wow-bad deal.

    2. The screen is dumb

    Google gave the Pixel a display with a 3:2 aspect ratio, claiming it suits the vertical nature of web browsing. Maybe that's true—but you're still left with a computer with a screen that's almost a square. The web goes up and down, I suppose, but our eyes go back and forth. Can you imagine watching a video on a 3:2 screen? Can you imagine the enormous letterboxes that will straddle the bar of moving image? Don't imagine it, because it is bad.

    3. Oh, here's another reason the screen is dumb

    Bountiful pixel density is lovely—it means a screen won't have discernible pixels, and that the images it displays will be terrifically crisp. Things will look good. This is good. The Chromebook Pixel has such a screen. But this is also a waste, and will do nothing but chew battery. Anything that isn't optimized for the superboosted resolution will look like garbage. This is also a reason the retina MacBook Pro is dumb cash grab with a completely underpowered GPU.
    Don't expect to get any video benefit out of all those pixels per inch either, as the Pixel carries with it the same more than lackluster Intel HD Graphics 4000 that has hampered the 13-inch retina MacBook Pro due to Crapple cheeping out and cheating the consumer again and again. But conveniently, this thing can't run any games beyond the rigors of Angry Birds, so who cares, really.

    4. Storage

    The Pixel only comes with 32 GB or 64 GB of internal storage, which might have been all right sometime early in the last decade. You'll get a free terabyte of online cloud storage, but you can only use this if you've got a web connection, and after three years that free storage will start costing you $50/month. That's $600 a year just for the privilege of storing your own things, except for the NSA’s free lifetime data backup plan, which remains covering and including every bit, free forever.

    5. LTE, shut up

    LTE data baked into a laptop is a terrific idea, but the Pixel will only give you 100 MB free per month, and even that's only for the first two years. That's enough to read text, but if you try anything that makes the internet useful in the 21st century, you'll burn through it very, very quickly. So quickly that it may not even be there for anything beyond emergency purposes.
    Your alternative is to put the Chromebook Pixel on a Verizon data plan, which is yet another monthly expense on top of this already too-expensive thing. Sadly the NSA won’t help you there.
    6. Any other computer at that price is better. Any.
    Unless you're getting something defective, odds are you'll be getting more for your money with any other laptop than you will with the Pixel or some Crapple junk. You'll be getting a computer that can run Photoshop, games, video without horrible giant letterboxing, photo editing software, Spotify—you know, the stuff you buy a computer for. Stuff that hasn't been pre-defined by Google. Stuff that's actually worth $1,300.

    The Chromebook as an idea is a splendid idea: a cheap laptop that gives you exactly your money's worth. Affordable computing. Simple computing. These are all good ideas. But the Pixel is a self-contradiction, an absurdity, a Kia with rims, a waste of your time. To say nothing of money. Hopefully the MIC gets as offended as many other tech people by this unspeakable load of junk and sends a payload of cluster bombs to Google’s Headquarters. Or better, starve them for God’s sake.
  • kspirit - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    BittenRottenApple, I think I love you.
  • MantasPakenas - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Some good arguments. Unfortunately, they are all exactly 2 years old, being targeted at the first incarnation of the Chromebook Pixel. Copy pasting this same comment all around the web during those 2 years doesn't really give you much credit either.
  • chlamchowder - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    1. The Chromebook Pixel was never meant to make sense price-wise. I think it's a flagship device that might boost sales of low-end Chromebooks.
    2. I don't have a problem with the 3:2 screen ratio. It offers more vertical space than a 16:9 screen. 4:3 would be better, but unfortunately no one makes laptops with that aspect ratio anymore.
    3. The Surface Pro 3 suffers from the same problem - legacy programs that don't know about pixel scaling. Ever tried to run Matlab on a SPro 3? You're in for some really small text. But on the flip side, photos and DPI-scaling aware apps look amazing with high pixel density.
    4. Unless Google is actively handing stuff over to the NSA, you're safe if you encrypt everything that goes in/out.
    The rest of the points about storage and connectivity are valid. I'd also add that you'd need a high speed internet connection to not get frustrated, and that's hard to get. When traveling it might be impossible to get.
  • boeush - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Regarding screen aspect ratio, I call BS. If your primary use case for a laptop is video, then you might have a point. However, if video is only a minor part of the overall usage profile, then putting up with letterboxing on YouTube is an insignificant cost to pay relative to the benefit for all other use cases which don't benefit from - indeed, suffer due to - the wide screen format.
  • Mohawke - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    We get it, you love the freedom of Microsoft, laugh, and the quality of PC hardware along with the stunningly boring and cluttered badly designed UI that goes with it. You paying them for Office 365 yet? Not sure why people like you need to hate an appliance. Would you show this much hate over an LG refrigerator? Get over it, you're not a computer God and everyon- has a right to their preference. Oh, the NSA paranoia, really? You are just a wealth of know it-all insider information.

    My MacBook Pro and desktops have outlasted all of my friends Windows machines, especially laptops. The only laptop I've owned, post good old days hardware earlier than 1998, that has beat it is my Gateway M675 I purchased in 2002. It still runs right along with out PPC 800 17" Mac. I'd also give high regard to some of Dell's business class desktops. Anyway, I've got my iPhone 2g, just gave away our 3Gs phones to friends, and my kid uses my wife's 4s as a iPod since she upgraded - they all work and have very little damage unlike the multiple crushed Android screens I see on a daily basis, and yes I've had my phone on me 24x7 since 2007 when the first iPhone came out. I have never had to return one for any reason. Buy the way, my son has a mid range affordable iMac and his friend who doesn't own crapple always loses chunks and gets kicked while my son is running a Minecraft server on the same iMac he plays on. Hmm, sounds like someone is judging something they've never actually used.

    The hardware on this Chronebook is good for an i7 dual core 2+ ghz, Intel 5500 graphics, touchscreen, 64gb Solid state drive, and 16 gb ram on a laptop. Show me a cheaper laptop at this spec. I'll bet I could install many flavors of Linux on this and have a pretty decent laptop that's not a big horrid plastic POS sporting a 1920x1080 15" or less screen to offset the cost of a crappy GPU, an i5, 8gb ram, and a horrid contrast problem on the display.

    I will agree the screen ratio is rather odd, but does it matter? I lived half my computer career and life on square monitors (CGI, CRT, etc...) and square televisions with tubes. I've been in the computer industry professionally since 1987 and as a hobbiest even earlier. I personally think this is a great machine for people that want to do basic computing and enjoy the services Google provides but want enough computing power to have a smooth experience. You can develop Google OS apps on Mac/Windows so who ever mentioned only for development is just as much of an ass. As a developer I would never pay a grand to develop glorified web apps when I can develop them anywhere, but I might buy one as a toy.

    As for storage, and I'll wager you replace the slow ass 5400 POS for a 7200 rpm drive in every laptop you've owned, IT HAS USB and there's a lot of USB storage cheaply obtained these days. Chrome isn't a big install and the app footprints are small so who cares if everything you own isn't on the root drive? I'll bet you can connect it to a NAS if you really tried. I never place all my eggs in one basket anyway - thanks to 20+ years of using Linux/BSD/Solaris I learned that home is best on its own drive so it's on removable storage, even better, I can take it with me and leave the laptop at home. Mixing user data and setting on the OS partition just wastes time.

    If you really want a decent priced laptop for gaming and high end productivity the System 76 Bonobo Extreme is really your best choice, but it's a Linux paired machine. Sorry, no Windows support, but they will provide drivers. As for ChromeOS, it works, people are using it, it's simple, clean, minimalistic and I have a feeling it's going to be around awhile - Firefox guys get it...
  • FITCamaro - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link

    Apple is not innocent from hardware problems. They just started offering fixes for 2011-2013 Macbook Pros that have heat issues. I had an early 2011 MBP through work and had to get it fixed 4 times. I was on my third physical machine until I was upgraded to a new 2014 MBP. It definitely runs cooler but also doesn't have a dedicated GPU. And at 1920x1200 (the max supported effective resolution), the Iris Pro isn't powerful enough to properly drive all the animations so you get screen tearing just in swiping between desktops.
  • mayank.gulia - Friday, May 15, 2015 - link

    In a world of fanboys spewing venom at each other, its refreshing to read such a balanced view on a gadget.

    One device (or platform) doesn't have to be SHIT to justify your choice in buying the competitor.

    I have a Macbook pro at home, a Windows Laptop for work and an old Ubuntu Dell Machine that refuses to die. That works as my download machine. And I am still going to buy the Pixel 2. Because I am heavily vested in the Google eco system. And it would be fun to check out a new toy.

    I will buy the pixel 2. Not because its "the most magical and innovative" device in the world that will keep me young forever or cure ALS or bankrupt Microsoft and Apple. I will buy it.. because I can.

    Well said Mohawke.
  • sligett - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link

    Wow. Are you Sam Biddle, or did you just steal his Gizmodo article from 2013? In either case, couldn't you at least update and correct it? Your point #2 doesn't have any facts in it, but all your other points are full of errors.
  • MamiyaOtaru - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link

    I really don't like widescreen. I'm tempted by this solely for the aspect ratio. I used to use 5:4 on the desktop before moving to 4:3 to get an IPS. This is still less square than that, but nowhere near the awful 16:9 junk everything else has nowadays
  • HackerForHire - Sunday, March 22, 2015 - link

    >Chrome OS will give you internet, basic word processing through Google Docs, video via YouTube, and the rest of Google's web services including a free as in freedom lifetime direct hotlink to the NSA

    That's funny. According to this NSA slide Microsoft was volunteering data to the NSA way back in 2007.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_%28surveillance...

    In fact, Microsoft was the very first company to sign up.
  • Spunjji - Wednesday, April 8, 2015 - link

    3:2, a square? You think that a rectangle 50% longer on one axis is a square? Perhaps you would like to think about that some more.

    This system doesn't have HD4000 graphics either. Please fact check before you write more overly-long posts.

    The thing is, you have a reasonable point about the pointlessness of an expensive Chromebook. You just fouled it up with bile and nonsense.
  • BrandonVillatuya - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link

    But here's the thing when you buy a chromebook pixel, you pay for what you aren't getting. If you don't want more than 64gb of internal storage if you don't want a ton of extrebloated features you don't need, you are actually paying for an experience that is slower and less efficient than that of a Chromebook. What if you don't use native apps that much and what if you aren't too worried about the NSA because literally it makes no difference what laptop you use. With the Chromebook pixel you get better battery life for the light os, a great display, two USB c ports, and it can run Linux. So basically everything you hate about it doesn't matter.
  • ThorOlsen - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    I'd say most programmers would love to own it. The vertical display depth is fantastic for programming. Google could easily charge more and it'd still be an attractive buy. The keyboard-layout (US/UK only) is the only thing stopping me from ordering one.
  • boeush - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    I'm a programmer... I wouldn't want to work on a 13" screen. I wouldn't even wish that on my worst enemy...
  • sorten - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link

    The only aspect of the Pixel that would be appreciated by programmers is the aspect ratio of the display. ChromeOS would limit you to web based dev tools, which are improving but are not a real option in most dev shops unless you're doing web dev only (html, css, javascript).
  • Selden - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link

    New Macbook: mobile processor, 480px camera, *1* USB Type-C port, 5 Gb iDrive space. $1299.
    New Pixel: i5, 720px camera, 2 USB Type-C, two USB Type A ports, 1 Tb of Google Drive space for 3 years. $999

    I'
  • BackInAction - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    I don't think Google intends for this to be something Joe Public will purchase. More of a ChromeOS Developer tool?

    Any comparison between this and other laptops is meaningless because it isn't meant to be compared with anything.
  • chlamchowder - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    I don't know if it's the best idea to develop for a device more powerful than what most of the userbase will buy.

    The 64 GB version looks like a decent platform to put Linux on, as long as you don't try to store too much. After all, the lowest end original Surface Pro had 64 GB, and Windows programs tend to be heavier on storage. But I'm not sure I'd pay $1300 to tinker with Linux on it.
  • coder543 - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    In general, developer machines *have* to be more powerful than the consumer machines the software will run on. Just because you're developing on a powerful rig, doesn't mean you won't test your software on weaker hardware along the way.

    It's not exactly the same thing, but a great example of this is game development. I literally could not run the Unreal Engine 4 development tools reliably on a Mac mini with 4GB of RAM. It would crash often due to running out of memory. Once I upgraded it to have 16GB of RAM, these problems all disappeared. UE4 allows you to develop games for everything from smartphones to the most powerful desktops, yet there is absolutely no way you could run the developer tools on a smartphone -- even if it is the platform you're targeting, and you don't think it's good to develop on more powerful hardware than you're targeting.
  • chlamchowder - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    I said develop for, not develop on. I really doubt developers will want to code right on Chrome OS. They're probably following a similar model to cell phone app development, where you write/compile your code on a 'real' machine, and then package/deploy it to a test machine (cell phone, or Chromebook).

    With that model, using the Chromebook Pixel as a test platform might not be the best idea. An app that performs decently on the Pixel might not do so well on lower end Chromebooks.

    I suppose you could drop a full blown Linux distro or Windows on a Chromebook Pixel and use it for coding...but then limited storage could be an issue.
  • extide - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    But its not a *testing* platform, it's a *developing* platform. Also, great for users who'd like to put Linux on.
  • chlamchowder - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Developing *on* Chrome OS seems like a horrible idea, even on the Pixel.

    To start, Chrome OS doesn't come with any development tools (though there's a messy way to get GCC on it). Assuming you manage to get a build environment set up, you then have to deal with very limited storage. Want to store local copies of several large projects? GLHF. Then, what about compilation times? A Broadwell i5 ULV chip is great for an ultrabook, but a desktop with an adequately cooled, higher clocked i7 will blow it out of the water.

    Any laptop or desktop for the same price is much better for coding.
  • melgross - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    A developer tool doesn't need to be made out of aluminum. No, Google is clearly trying to make a high end laptop to compete with Apple. Since Chrome still isn't nearly as useful as either Windows of OS X, this is a very limited device. Are they worth more than $1,000? No way nearly.
  • Hanoveur - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    No, Google is on record saying they gave these away to the developers at the Google Developers Conference and were simply making them available for the general public to buy. They aren't expecting to sell many of them. Look it up.

    And why wouldn't someone buy this? People could buy a Toyota Corolla to simply drive from point A to point B, but there are those that choose the Infinity to do exactly the same thing. It's all about preference. It might seem insane to some people, but people like what they like. Everyone elses world and tastes do not revolve around yours.
  • chlamchowder - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    It's just difficult to imagine who's tastes this would fit.
  • steven75 - Wednesday, March 18, 2015 - link

    The problem is this is a barely-higher-than Corolla quality device at a non-Corolla price.
  • whatsa - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    A chrome os dev would be smarter to buy the cheap one to do performamnce testing.
  • sorten - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link

    Exactly. This would be the worst choice for dev or testing. For dev you want a real OS and a CPU with a larger TDP envelope for quick builds and for testing you want a piece of crap for testing the worst case scenario.
  • jabber - Wednesday, March 18, 2015 - link

    If you are a serious ChromeOS developer and can buy the Pixel then you can afford $250 for a standard Chromebook for testing too. To be honest development is a business of sorts. If you can't afford a couple of thousand dollars for hardware/software costs then maybe look to do something else. Annoys me when people setup in business or run a business and then baulk at spending say $200 on software that will enable them to potentially make $200000.
  • NeatOman - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    The only thing that seperates this from another $1000+ laptop is storage which google doesn't want you to have because they want these type of machines to be cloud/service driven as this is the pinnacle of an internet driven OS. A lot of people bought the first Chrome Pixel and simply replaced the ssd with a much larger one.
  • tyger11 - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    I thought the original Chrome Pixel had its SSD soldered in, so I doubt 'many' - or even ANY - replaced the SSD.
  • retrospooty - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Yeah, I never got this product. The Chromebook, by definition is a low end internet appliance. This is a high end low end well-speced device with no need or use for it's specs. Core i7 and 16gb RAM on the high end ? WHY?

    More importantly you are spending $1000+ on a laptop , why on earth would you buy a chromebook?
  • BrandonVillatuya - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link

    Oh sure the specs aren't the highest specs. But the point IS that it's a chromebook. It gets no viruses, it will outperform anything with the same specs including macbooks when it comes to the web, it has the fastest bootup times of any computer etc. The battery life is also hours better than similar priced macbooks and PCs. You are paying for what you aren't getting. For people who don't do much but surf the web, type documents, or any of the basic functions, it becomes worth the money as a long term investment. On top of that chrome os is growing in functionality at an extremely fast rate. I have a PC laptop, but I don't do heavy photo or video editing. Literally when I don't have WiFi my laptop is just as useless to me as a chromebook.
  • damianrobertjones - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    "and the rest of its specs were also impressive."

    32Gb of storage space. There's a limit to what we'll believe.
  • lilmoe - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    32GB on a laptop this expensive is just..................offensive.

    Side note: Microsoft needs to make a Surface Laptop. I'd be all over that. Surface Pro3 is the best tablet ever, yes, but it isn't as practical in most of MY use cases.

    A Surface Laptop (with a touch screen) and a Galaxy S6 running Windows 10 would be reallllly nice.
  • peterfares - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    What Microsoft needs to do with the Surface is release another, larger keyboard for it that has a laptop-style hinge.
  • chlamchowder - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    It's called 'Surface' for a reason. A larger, hinged keyboard would kind of defeat the design concept.

    Also, Galaxy S6 running Windows 10....someone needs to port Prime95 to ARM. I want to know if it has overheating problems.
  • fokka - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    it would still be detatchable and nobody would be forced to buy it, but to me a proper keyboard-base would make the surface much more buyable, than having to deal with that flimsy type cover and that awkward kickstand, which is simply a lesser workaround to a normal screen hinge.
  • retrospooty - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    "32GB on a laptop this expensive is just..................offensive"

    - Any Chromebook this expensive is just..................offensive".
  • fokka - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    a surface laptop you say? you've got my attention!
  • edhburns - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Every review of the Pixel gets the exact same comments. It's like the same people just follow reviews of this device for the express purpose of saying that it is not an option for them. Spoiler! This device is not for you. And I don't say that like the Apple people do. The Pixel is a limited production device that is produced primarily for Google Chrome OS developers. Everyone knows that this is too expensive for the average consumer. Even Google knows this. Very few of these devices will ever be made and the vast majority (~80%) will end up in the hands of Google employees.
  • Flunk - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    There are very few people who it is an option for. You need to both own a real computer in addition to this and want to fork out $999 for another, toy computer.
  • edhburns - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    As I said in my comment, this is not for normal people. It is for developers who work for Google or the very small subsection of a subsection of linux users who want a very well built laptop to run a linux build and don't mind the small storage cap.
  • melgross - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Bah! This is not for developers.

    This is to establish Chrome as a high end computing OS, something that no one yet believes (for good reason). Like it or not, for something to succeed and be profitable, there needs to be a more expensive device out there. Keeping Chrome at the $/50 and below level isn't goi g to do that. It's just another race to the bottom, and that's how people will look at it; something to buy if you don't want to buy a slightly more expensive Windows device, or an even more expensive OS X device.

    So people will look at these (Google hopes), and think of them as genuine competition to Windows and OS X, which it's really not.
  • Hanoveur - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Then you have people who don't use Chrome OS who think they know everything about Chrome OS. This was a machine given to people at the Google's developers conference. They made them available for sale on their web site. Do you see any keynotes or major ad campaigns trying to sell these? Would you have known about it if it wasn't for this review or other reviews on the web? I think the tech journalists are making more of a deal about this machine than Google is.

    BAH! lol.

    BTW: I'm writing this on a Chromebook. I don't need an entire Windows installation to cruise the internet. That's like buying an entire car just because you needed a spare tire. If I need access to a PC, I just RDP to my machine upstairs. That's very rare though.
  • chlamchowder - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    But since you have a Windows machine already, why spend the extra money on a Chromebook when that machine can already cruise the internet (and more)?

    It's like having a car, and then buying another car...
  • Hanoveur - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Okay, I'll drag my desktop PC downstairs just to cruise the web when I'm watching TV. That makes sense.
  • steven75 - Wednesday, March 18, 2015 - link

    Or replace the desktop with one real $1,000 laptop like everyone else?
  • Hanoveur - Wednesday, March 18, 2015 - link

    I guess I don't want to be like everyone else since I build my own PCs.
  • coder543 - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    I disagree with that comment, but sure, believe whatever you want to about Chrome OS.

    For 95% of consumers, an iPad is all they need for their daily computational lives. They literally *Do not* need a full computer. A Chromebook is like an iPad with a keyboard, USB ports, and flash player. It really is good enough for the majority of consumers. For the people who need more, Crouton allows you to easily have access to a true Linux desktop environment in parallel with ChromeOS -- switching between them with a keyboard shortcut. Full Linux is sufficient for anyone who doesn't require exact pieces of specialized software, which is the vast majority of people. They may have preferences for pieces of software, but there are Linux equivalents that are awesome in most cases.

    So, no, this is not a toy computer, and no, you don't "need" to own a real computer in addition to it.

    I really wish it had more storage by default -- that is a fair criticism. Everything about this device is justifiable except that, which is just a poor decision by Google.
  • chlamchowder - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    The storage limitation is justifiable if it's used as a thin client.

    What turns me off is that it is a thin client. It's expensive and/or difficult to get a very high speed internet connection. ISPs in the US just aren't that good. When traveling, it might even be impossible (and Chromebooks are laptops/ultrabooks...see where the problem is?). But that's how it was designed.
  • andychow - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    That's why I love it. I don't understand people "only 32GB". Really? That sounds overkill. Under normal circumstances, it's a device you will never store any files on.

    It's a thin client, but a nice one with no lag, a nice screen and great battery life. I'm getting one to replace my other chromebook.
  • Hanoveur - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    I use a Synology NAS as extra storage for all the computers in my home, including my Chromebook. I have my own private cloud. But then again, some people are digital packrats...they want to make sure they have terabytes of movies and music with them at all times for some strange reason...and then they lose their devices and media. Not to mention the amount of time they spend transferring it all.
  • ppi - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Cloud storage (even home NAS) will not save you if you are on the travel. Especially in Europe - imagine you go with family skiing to Austria, and you want to have along some movies for your kids. Data roaming is insanely expensive (think €50 for 10MB data) and WiFi in hotels or rented apartments is not standard either.

    Also, i7 on a device that can do only as much as Chromebook is a waste. Core-M would be more appropriate.
  • cjb110 - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link

    your skiing in Austria and you take a laptop with you? why? who cares what laptop is? The scenario you've invented makes little sense for any laptop Windows, Apple or Google.
  • jimbo2779 - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link

    You cannot ski 24/7, also kids tend to enjoy watching things they like while their parents sit around and have a relaxing drink.

    Face it 32GB is a tiny amount, especially when you are splashing this much cash for a laptop, it is absolutely inexcusable. There are so many scenarios where you would want some media on the machine and you would easily fill this up. Having to lug around extra USB drives to ensure you have enough storage when away from a net connection is just not as convenient.

    Relying on cloud or NAS for your media is fine if you never leave your home or office but when you are out and about you need LTE for full coverage and not only does this cost more you are not always covered when not in a city and coverage can be spotty when you do have it.

    On top of this there is the argument of relying on cloud storage which is great until they start charging for it after a few years so something that could have been added in the high price of your laptop is now costing real money.

    Again, 32Gb at this price point is inexcusable, there are many reasons as to why.
  • armwood - Sunday, September 20, 2015 - link

    It seems that so many people do not understand the concept of the Chrome operating system. It is a cloud system. Wifi is most places and where it is not either carry a hotspot or tether your phone. It is not rocket science. Google Drive or Dropbox can whole all of your data with movies etc on an SD card. Wake up, this is the future of computing. It amazes me how shortsighted so many people are.
  • armwood - Sunday, September 20, 2015 - link

    You need to spend a fee days with a Chromebook Pixel 2 LS. I use it and leave my Macbook Pro and Surface Pro 3 on my desk. I take it and use it for my college lectures over the other two machines. It is a superb, fast device that works in environments with weaker wifi signals better than Apple or Windows computers.
  • jabber - Wednesday, March 18, 2015 - link

    I've been using my Chrombook for over 2 years now. No user data has ever touched the 16GB SSD in it in all that time.

    I don't get the love for 'big data'. Just seems like tying yourself down to a huge anchor.
  • armwood - Sunday, September 20, 2015 - link

    It seems that so many people do not understand the concept of the Chrome operating system. It is a cloud system. Wifi is most places and where it is not either carry a hotspot or tether your phone. It is not rocket science. Google Drive or Dropbox can whole all of your data with movies etc on an SD card. Wake up, this is the future of computing. It amazes me how shortsighted so many people are.
  • psychobriggsy - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    There's a lot to like about this product - especially the hardware and design.

    If it came with a 256GB SSD with Crouton pre-installed, that would have been great. 32/64GB isn't enough so you'd need to spend more on replacing this - a build option would be great. Yeah, I know this doesn't fit into Google's concept of a computing device.

    The touchscreen is a bit pointless, unless they had made the device more Yoga-like, with a tablet folding mode.

    In terms of hardware design, this is up there with the best. Other OEMs can learn a lot from this, for their non-Air-ripoff designs.
  • Hanoveur - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    You can buy a 256gb XDSC card and plug that into it.
  • jimbo2779 - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link

    And spend more money fixing something that should not be an issue, sounds like a great solution.

    Also it is easy to lose a memory card, especially when kids are around. Built in storage is slightly harder to lose
  • steven75 - Wednesday, March 18, 2015 - link

    Did you just bring up Flash player in 2015?
  • djw39 - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    But that "real computer" can be old and cheap. For example, I have a desktop PC I got 10 years ago for $500, anything the chromebook can't do due to limitations of the OS can theoretically be done on the desktop. In real life I almost never use the desktop.

    Now, I fully admit, I'd take an orange-and-white plastic version for $500-600. But I think a high-resolution screen and Core i5 sounds about right for the hardware.
  • jabber - Wednesday, March 18, 2015 - link

    I must say if I wasn't in the realm of Windows support I'd dump all my computing gear and buy a Pixel in a heart beat. I have a little 11" Samsung Chromebook and I love it. I must say I'm aghast at the level of ignorance on this and many tech sites regarding the Pixel and ChromeOS in general.
  • uhuznaa - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Executive ChromeBook.
  • ATC9001 - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Is it possibly to remove the SSD and put in another one and dual boot windows?...or just windows only?

    999 is decent, add 100/200 for a 256/512 SSD and you get a pretty solid machine for a reasonable price. Would be interesting to see this compared to say an XPS 13 or similiar
  • edhburns - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    My assumption is that it is not possible to remove the SSD. The previous version was soldered down. Although I haven't seen any reviews of this device where anyone opened up the inside to find out. So time will tell.
  • chlamchowder - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    If you're going that route, you might as well get a Surface Pro 3 + type cover for about the same price. You're also guaranteed that the hardware is supported in Windows.
  • iniudan - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Cannot boot Windows has they use Coreboot as their boot firmware.

    Of course if you were willing to load a payload to Coreboot it could be possible, in theory, but you would have to disable Chromebook secure boot first, which is a bit more involved then the UEFI equivalent.
  • iniudan - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    And let not forget all the possible driver problem once you boot Windows.
  • Uplink10 - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Other Linux distributions clearly beat Chrome OS with their wide range of software and hardware is an overkill for this notebook.
  • chlamchowder - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    They should put in a 256 GB SSD and ship it without an OS for the same price.
  • cjb110 - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link

    I think they hope someone else will...Google isn't interested in making PC's. Do we know who made it for Google? Maybe they could be convinced.
  • Sushisamurai - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Just nit picking, but for the battery / charge time section, I think you should add a chart for normalized values, to compare efficiency - I think it'd be neat to see how efficient these new laptops are getting (it's the new trend!)
  • Sushisamurai - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    But yeah, cool read. If it didn't have chrome book logo written on it, i think I might just mistake the keyboard/trackpad design for a Macbook design. The body could use some contours IMO. That LED light bar is a novel idea
  • andychow - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    My only real complaint is the lack of "page-up/page-down" buttons. They had the space left and right of the "up" button. I use those a lot normally. I know you can do alt-up or alt-down, but, I would like those buttons.

    Otherwise, great device that fixes the only real problem with the first one: the battery life.

    I can't find this on the google store, but as soon as it's there I'm buying one.
  • Brandon Chester - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Are you in the US or UK? It should be available there right now.
  • melgross - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    "All these little details result in a really unique design, and its been clear since the original Pixel that Google wanted to create their own device instead of just carbon copying another laptop"

    Well, as this looks almost exactly like a Macbook Pro to most people, I wouldn't say that it's so original. It seems that to pc makers, and now this extends to Google's Chrome efforts, being "original" means copying Apple (again).

    Yes, I expect to get flamed here, but that doesn't change the facts.
  • Brandon Chester - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    I have both Retina MacBook Pros and the Pixel is distinctly different in many ways.
  • aliasfox - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    As someone who's seen and used a variety of different MacBooks as well as the first generation Pixel, I'll say that if a Retina MacBook Pro makes the average laptop look cheap and chintzy, then the Pixel makes the rMBP look and feel like a low-effort design. The Pixels that I've handled and seen seem to have tighter tolerances and lower torsional flex than even the unibody MacBooks, which make them seem even more 'hewn from one piece of metal' than Apple's products do.

    In terms of look and feel, if the average laptop was a Toyota Corolla and a MacBook Pro was an Audi A6, then the Pixel is like a Mercedes Benz S-Class. It really is very noticeable.
  • MykeM - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link

    Knowing Mercedes, the attention to details cover more than just the exterior design but also the engine or the engineering throughout the entire vehicle. If you look at the typical Mercedes, it would look something like this:

    http://i.imgur.com/DQg0bp4.jpg

    Now if you look inside a Chromebook, you'll see this:

    http://i.imgur.com/V9BVu2N.jpg

    http://i.imgur.com/ZnK3YTJ.png

    And compare it to the inside of a Retina MacBook Pro:

    http://i.imgur.com/O5LcAHg.jpg

    Now tell me again which of the two is the Mercedes and the Toyota Prius?

    http://i.imgur.com/Ua07lwU.jpg
  • Braincruser - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    This is a price range for many gaming laptops. Infinitely more powerful, better storage AND better facebook machine.
  • MantasPakenas - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Nice review. However, I see a couple of glaring issues I'd like to see addressed:

    Even though you criticize the Pixel, even if indirectly, for running a somewhat limited OS for this price bracket, you (and to be fair, most other reviewers) fail to mention it's one huge advantage (given the limitations) - killer security features and 0 hassle with updates or almost anything else OS related. That's worth a lot to a lot of people, even if most of them look for something much cheaper.

    Pardon, but I just don't see how benchmarking the Pixel against tablets and vastly cheaper and inferior Chromebooks makes any sense at all. This is, after all, an ultrabook, and one costing $1000 or more. These benchmarks give me somewhere around 10% of (somewhat) useful information, and omit the 90% of the really important one. I can understand how including one or two more powerful Chromebooks makes sense as a baseline, but this laptop has a display, battery, and processor that needs to be compared only agains Macbook Pros, Airs, Lenovo Yoga Pros and Dell XPS 13s! Especially since this is targeted at developers and these guys are more than likely to run at least Linux on it, doing most of the same tasks they would do on their Windows or OSX machines.
  • Brandon Chester - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    The issues with benchmarking it against other laptops are explained on the CPU performance page.
  • MantasPakenas - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    What I meant is that I don't see how those are issues. The issue that there are very few benchmarks you can run on a Chromebook? Yeah, sure. But where is the issue of including data points you already have for other laptops for these same benchmarks? E.g. here:

    http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Notebook/729

    You also have charging times of normal laptops, as well as browsing and video playback battery life. Why not include those? I really don't see how comparing this to an iPad makes any more sense.
  • JarredWalton - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    The "Light" and "Heavy" laptop tests are completely different than what we run on Chomebooks. The Light test uses IE10/11, cycling through a set of four open tabs. We could probably do this on a Chromebook, though we would need to modify it to make it work comparably (as the Windows Light test actually runs from a batch file).

    The Heavy test is a different matter. We're playing a 1080p video fullscreen, surfing the web with four pages loading every ~7 seconds, and downloading over FTP at 8Mbps. Without a good FTP client, this is pretty much impossible to do on a Chromebook. Plus on every other Chromebook other than the Pixel (and maybe the Core i3 Acer models) you won't be able to do all of these tasks without the video stuttering.

    Bottom line is that most Chromebooks have hardware and pricing that's similar to tablets, so we use the tablet benchmarks for comparison.
  • MantasPakenas - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link

    If I understand correctly, you're saying that it would be possible to benchmark the Pixel against it's real competition, but since most of the Chromebooks are underpowered, you are putting this monster up against much weaker devices. This still doesn't make sense to me. HP Stream 11 costs, performs and competes against Chromebooks, yet you measure it mostly against high end laptops (although C720 is included in some applicable benchmarks, and even an iPad Air in charging times). I question that approach as much as this case.

    Just as much as it makes sense to benchmark SSDs against other SSDs, low end phones against other low end phones, high end ones against iPhone 6 and tablets, it makes sense to benchmark the Pixel against high end laptops, because it deserves that treatment. Nobody is any wiser to know it can beat all tablets and budget chromebooks.

    And I bet it wouldn't stutter playing a video, downloading and surfing the web at the same time. Yet I'm doing all those things concurrently on my HP Chromebook 14, and you bet I would do it on the Pixel!
  • jabber - Wednesday, March 18, 2015 - link

    Indeed, I've seen plenty people pay $1200+ for a Macbook/Mac just to look at Facebook/Amazon because they didn't want to deal with Windows anymore.
  • mekpro - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Nice review and really fast !

    I wish there are more extensive tests for USB Type-C, as this is the very first laptop to ship with it. I wonder what is the maximum resolution and how many external display supported ? Is the limitation come from the USB Type-C or Broadwell or the ChromeOS itself ?
  • Dumbledore147 - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Me too. I would love to see a setup with two 4k monitors running at 60 Hz while charging the chromebook.
  • psychobriggsy - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    The device, like the new MacBook, supports USB 3.1 Rev 1, otherwise known as USB 3.0 (i.e., 5 Gbps) on a USB Type C port (which adds charging, displayport, USB 2.0).

    We'll have to wait until Broadwell supports USB 3.1 Rev 2 for 10 Gbps data transfers.
  • tyger11 - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Type-C is a connector. The underlying port itself is a standard 5gbps USB 3.0 port. It's unfortunate they didn't go with USB 3.1, but neither did the new Apple MacBook Retina (even though they're calling it 'USB 3.1 Gen 1'. Ugh.
  • JBVertexx - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    This is a very targeted strike directly at the MacBook pro. The current market is very small, as many have commented on. I think an equally likely user is an account executive for companies that use the Google ecosystem.

    My company (a pre-IPO enterprise software company) uses the entire Google ecosystem. So, when I am traveling, I use either Gmail, Google docs, or some other web-based application for nearly 100% of my use. The percentage of time that I need to actually use MS Office is getting smaller and smaller.

    When you compare this against the new 13-inch MacBook pro, the specs compare very favorably. The Pixel has a stronger processor (the 13" MacBook pro only ships with an i5), but the Pixel has much less storage space, clearly catering to cloud users (100% of what I store is in the cloud).

    Google may be giving these away to developers, but I don't think that is the target audience for this. There is a small sliver of working professionals who will buy this over a MacBook pro. Google is using that niche market to improve the product, improve Chrome OS, and will over the next couple years be well positioned to be a serious competitor.
  • Bob Todd - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link

    I'll avoid debating the usefulness of Chrome OS, but I wanted to clarify a bit of misinformation from your post. The base i5 in the 13" rMBP is faster than the i7 in the upgraded Pixel build. You are comparing low voltage 15 watt parts to full voltage 28 watt parts. Same goes for the GPU.
  • savagemike - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Always a lot of talk about the limitations of ChromeOS but hardly ever much talk of its virtues. And it does have some virtues. It's almost certainly the most secure commercially available OS going. Maintenance is generally trivial. Updates are blindingly fast.
    I have a lowly c720 and updates literally are a 10 to 12 second affair. So yeah - it's great your Windows machine can run Photoshop. But I wasn't wanting to run Photoshop anyway. Maybe the next time Windows is updating you could use the time to write me an essay on why I should think about it. You'll have time. Meanwhile one thing which never appears on my Chromebook is some little icon spinning in the corner to represent the antivirus thinking about the wisdom of my actually running whatever I just clicked on.
    If your usage falls within the capability of ChromeOS and you prefer time spent computing to time spent managing your computer then ChromeOS is brilliant stuff.
    For the quality of the laptop $1000 does not seem out of place at all. A lot of people whinge about the storage space compared to other systems but within the paradigm of the intended usage of ChromeOS it is a complete non issue. It's essentially intended to be almost a thin client where the web is the real working/storage environment. Keeping gigs and gigs of data on the machine is not the point.
    It's quite possible ChromeOS doesn't fit your usage model. But it actually does fit the usage of the vast majority of users who do nothing more than e-mail and facebook and youtube and netflix anyway. I doubt that is actually any different for the majority of people shelling out for Apple laptops selling well above this $1000 price point.
    Though chromeOS can certainly be a serious tool too, depending on the task.
  • chlamchowder - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link

    Updates: Windows updates can often finish in under a minute if you have a SSD. Same with Linux.
    Antivirus: Don't install one - they're pretty useless IMO.
    How about an example of when Chrome OS is slower? Suppose you're on vacation. You just took ~100 pictures (JPEGs, about 3 MB each). Suppose your hotel gives you a 10 Mb/s down and 4 Mb/s up connection. It takes 100 * 3 * 8 (bits/byte) / 4 (Mbits/sec) = 600 seconds = 10 minutes to get those pics off the camera and into the cloud. To get them back (for display), it'll take 240 seconds = 4 min. Most hotels won't give you such a nice connection, btw.

    On a laptop with a SSD that can write at 200 MB/s and read at 300 MB/s...your copying speed is now limited by the memory card. Let's say that card reads at 45 MB/s. You're done in 7 seconds. What about photo viewing? You can read all the photos in ~1 sec.

    Also, let's hope Chrome OS users never learn how to take video.
  • jabber - Wednesday, March 18, 2015 - link

    As a Chromebook user who takes it on holiday and lots of high MP photos too, I have to say the issue you mentioned never ever has come up. Why would I want to upload all my pics to the cloud while on holiday to look at them when I can just slot the SD card in the side and look at them then? Even if I had a Windows laptop an needed to upload everything, by your reckoning I'd still be stuck by the limiting bandwidth so it makes no difference. It's not hard to carry a 16GB SD card or (a radical approach) even two of them. The scenario you quote is total bollocks chap. Using a Chrombook for looking at and editing photos on holiday is not a problem.
  • chlamchowder - Thursday, March 19, 2015 - link

    So you just keep all your pics and video on your SD cards?

    What if you're away for a week? Those cards fill. What if you're shooting raw, burst shooting, or taking video? Even 16 GB cards fill fast. SD cards are also easy to lose, so I'd rather get the pics onto a computer unless I don't have the time to do so.
  • tipoo - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Yeah...I still don't really "get" this. To me, Chromebooks are Netbooks 2.0, they're good at doing a few things, but not a full laptop replacement. So to spend over 1000 dollars on one, when you could get a wonderful Windows or even OSX machine for that price (refurb, or student discount), I don't get it at all.

    A Chromebook with a high DPI display is a good idea - but it doesn't' need mid range PC hardware. If it was 500 dollars with an ARM SoC or Atom? Maybe.
  • BrokenCrayons - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    While it's a very nice MacBook clone chassis, the specifications and price along with Chrome's inflexibility (it's almost not even really an OS in a true sense as it limits rather than permits the user to run and do what they want on the platform) make it a no-brainer to write off. Given the missing capabilities of Chrome OS, the underlying hardware ultimately needs to beat inexpensive Windows tablets and laptops in price in order to be a compelling purchase and Google is taking their own budget-minded system in the wrong direction to appeal to the mass market. Given the rumored return rate for Chrome OS devices in general though, it might be that they're trying to target a different audience that's less likely to take their computer back to the place they purchased it to obtain a refund or exchange it for a more capable Windows or Apple computer. Beyond that, the price premium should also come with a no data mining promise from Google, but I expect that won't be the case and everything done with the hardware will be compiled and combined with metrics obtained from phones and other computers for targeted advertising purposes. With that being the final nail in the coffin, I don't know if buying one of these is even remotely rational. It doesn't seem that way to me.
  • Valis - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Bleh! that is one bland looking laptop, in the time when we have stylish things we get a square, grey with what looks like a keyboard made by a cheap Chinese electronics company selling their stuff on alibaba and aliexpress.
  • Valis - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    I can get a 1080p XPS 13 with i5 for 899 or 999, I'll take that any day before this Surf-OS device.
  • pdf - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    I'd find this really appealing to drop Linux onto if it wasn't for the terrible keyboard layout - no meta key, and no home/end/ins/del/pgup/pgdown makes this absolutely useless for anything other than ChromeOS, and even there, I'd be really pissed without some of those navigation keys. I really don't know what they were thinking when they designed this keyboard.
  • some_guy - Saturday, April 11, 2015 - link

    There are built in shortcuts for these keys along with a bunch of other shortcuts. ( Page up is Alt up arrow )

    https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/18310...

    My question is that if I were to install Linux, will the shortcuts also be there or will I have to do them myself somehow or search for something on the Internet. Thanks.
  • djscrew - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    How come nearly every Chrome laptop is hideous.
  • zodiacfml - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link

    Too expensive. How much is the Yoga 3?
  • cjb110 - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link

    Is that battery charge test right? Seems a massive increase with no apparent reason that covers it, the components could only do so much. Kudos to Google if it is true, but
  • l_d_allan - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link

    Did I miss comments and evaluation about on-board storage? The SSD looks rather wimpy, but I didn't notice any numbers, charts, wordage one way or the other.

    Or is that considered irrelevant to a ChromeBook?
  • eanazag - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link

    This is a laptop for Google employees.
  • shm224 - Wednesday, March 18, 2015 - link

    I still don't get why "browser/js engine" benchmarks are showing here as "CPU performance." I think Ho has once explained that that is purely for comparing the performance within the same product line, but I don't see any previous iterations (of Chromebooks) listed here. To the contrary, the web/js benchmarks are compared against the latest competing products as if they are at all relevant to CPU performance. I think the web/js benchmarks somewhat relevant here because everything on Chromebooks runs on Google's Chrome browser, but Anandtech still continues to use the same methodology to evaluate smartphones for instance where web browsing no longer represents much of smartphone usage.
  • ntd11 - Friday, March 20, 2015 - link

    How many here have tried a Chromebook for more than a few hours? I'm talking about logging in remotely and doing work from the comfort of a couch. Maybe its because I've been doing that sort of work since... 1992, back when the only computers that could do real work were called 'supercomputers' built up some habits. (Anyone else remember 'Xwindows?').

    After two years using a Chromebook I wanted something much better. For a year I haven't picked up my tablet. I either used my large smartphone, the Chromebook, or I wanted a multi-monitor workstation with the ergo keyboard/mouse, and enough RAM to actually do simulations.

    I'm not the developer. But I look at it this way, everyone I've loaned my now obsolete Chromebook has bought one. Look at the benchmarks. If you log into a web page to work remotely, this is the machine. I used to have 20+ tabs open on a really low end Chromebook that would make a decent windows machine beg for mercy.

    Take a minute to realize why the growing Chromebook community is excited about this laptop. I bet I'm the only one here actually posting from a Chromebook pixel. I came to read the review from a 'non-Chromebook fan site.'

    Is it a great value? Well, so-so. But I wanted the long battery life. I like to wander to the back yard and work for hours. Then I wander into a quiet room and watch a movie. So nice to not worry about a power cord. The only downside is I find printing from a Chromebook not worth the hassle. I send documents to my windows machine and print from there. But look at the benchmarks. As a web browsing machine... this is fast.

    Note: I do remote engineering. Not development for iPhones, Android, or Chromebooks. I use high end software that someone else has developed to simulate complex physics. This is now the Chromebook everyone can say 'that is too expensive' and buy one half (or less) the price. But

    I find windows machines slow too much with age. My old Chromebook never did. Apple machines slow with every OS upgrade. It is preference.
  • HanTorso - Thursday, April 9, 2015 - link

    I feel this would be great if it just had at least a 256gb ssd. I would install Linux on it, and maybe use the Chrome OS just for simple things. The most important element is the 3:2 aspect ratio, which makes it superior to any non-Apple laptop display. The price is still too expensive though, because except for the screen, it doesn''t seem to have any advantage over an Apple laptop of the same price.
  • dodysw - Sunday, May 31, 2015 - link

    Brandon, according to https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/61645... the Chromebook Pixel 2015 battery capacity is 72Wh, not 59Wh as specified in your article.
  • BrandonVillatuya - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link

    Oh sure the specs aren't the highest specs. But the point IS that it's a chromebook. It gets no viruses, it will outperform anything with the same specs including macbooks when it comes to the web, it has the fastest bootup times of any computer etc. The battery life is also hours better than similar priced macbooks and PCs. You are paying for what you aren't getting. For people who don't do much but surf the web, type documents, or any of the basic functions, it becomes worth the money as a long term investment. On top of that chrome os is growing in functionality at an extremely fast rate. I have a PC laptop, but I don't do heavy photo or video editing. Literally when I don't have WiFi my laptop is just as useless to me as a chromebook.
  • FutureCTO - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link

    1. USB C? Awesome. Now at $1300 dollar, PLEASE let me USE MY OWN devices for productivity???? ~ Specifically I only need Two Technological Marvel's to Work, products specifically the Optical LG M-Disc media burners, and any Xerox "Solid Snake" Printers.

    2. Also what Intel I/O port chipset controller is Google 2015 Pixel i7 attached to or using?

    3. Am i the only one who finds it stange, that the open source generic drivers of these devices or the LPT print standard are not supported by Chrome OS? Google owns all your work and gets to read and block or delete your every scholastic discovery? I love learning. Quit deleting me findings from my google account !

    4. What are Free & Accepted Mason good for? Not enough. National Insecurity & Religious War or G'od.
  • bwilliams - Sunday, February 28, 2016 - link

    How did you manage to run iPerf on your Chromebook? I'd be very interested in this

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