Google Chromebook Pixel Pro Reviews

There are a few reasons to get a Chromebook Pixel. One, you are a Chromebooks fan and you can get your money worth just from the user experience. Second, you plan to recycle the hardware and run some other Operating Systems. Third, you buy it as a collector item. I do not see any other hardware manufacturers, beside Google, to come up with another high-end laptop Chromebook. Unlike Google, they do care if the product sells or not. The Chromebook Samsung 3 price range is the about right value. I could see a “high end” Chromebook around $500ish.

If you appreciate art and design, and have plenty of disposable cash, buy a Chromebook Pixel. It's a joy to use and an even greater joy to handle. For everyone else, let's just hope that the design chops displayed here can trickle down to a machine that's more affordable and accessible in due time.

Something magical happened during the course of this review. I know many of you have been waiting for it, and we apologize for the delay. But truth be told, it was worth it. I’d already spent a few weeks with the Pixel when it entered the bowels of Anand’s lab to have its display characterized. I used that time to put together much of what you’re about to read. My conclusion was somewhat complex but came to this: If you want Chrome OS to succeed, can put it to good use now, and have Retina MBP class money to spend, you should get it. Philosophically the flaws of Chrome OS are its assets, and its assets are occasionally flawed. And once I’d retrieved the Pixel from Anand’s labyrinth (you thought I meant laboratory didn’t you?) I opened it up to give it one last look, and something magical had happened. It got better.

I love the Chromebook Pixel. I can't remember the last time I so unequivocally enjoyed using a device. Its display, keyboard, trackpad, and overall fit and finish are as good as any laptop I've ever used, and in some cases is my new standard-bearer for laptop reviews going forward. Battery life is a bummer but not a deal-breaker — it's not terrible, just not as good as I hoped — and I actually sort of liked the limitations of having to use browser-based tools, because it meant I could recreate my entire workspace on any device that runs Chrome. And yet, when it came time to write this review, edit and upload pictures, and do real research, I opened up my MacBook Air again. I needed Photoshop. I needed Evernote to work offline, because I needed a tool that worked better than Google Docs's Scratchpad tool (which is handy, just not particularly powerful). I needed to easily jump back and forth between three windows at once. I'd rather use the Chromebook Pixel, but I wind up having to use the MacBook all the time.

In terms of specifications, design, and build quality, the Pixel is up there with the best of today's laptops. MacBook Air users won't be impressed with its bulkiness and weight, but it makes most premium Windows laptops look last-generation. But the Pixel is a very expensive bit of kit for what it is. Chromebooks have principally been sold at the cheap end of the market, and Chrome OS is an attractive choice for a household's second laptop. But at the Pixel's premium price, it's a tough sell. For a distinct subset of power cloud users, the Pixel is a dream machine – we suspect a lot of start-ups that are built around Google Apps will love it. That could in itself give Google a viable business plan, since it says that the deal it has with an unnamed Chinese ODM to manufacture the Pixel gives Mountain View a profit on each machine sold.

Again we reach the dreaded wrap-up section on a Chromebook review. It's simply never easy to classify these machines. In some regards, the Pixel is even harder to pigeonhole than its predecessors. The level of quality and attention to detail here is quite remarkable for what is, we'll again remind you, Google's first swing at building a laptop. Boot-ups are quick, performance is generally good and, of course, there's that display. But, with one single statistic, Google has made the Chromebook Pixel even easier to write off than any of its quirky predecessors: price. For an MSRP that is on par with some of the best laptops in the world, the Pixel doesn't provide anywhere near as much potential when it comes to functionality. It embraces a world where everyone is always connected and everything is done on the web -- a world that few people currently live in.

The Pixel places itself in a unique position. On one hand, the overall quality of the hardware and construction, even down to the speakers, is one of the best in its size class. It’s thin without being fragile, rigid without being bulky and substantial without being heavy. The minimalistic design is distinctive and hits all the right notes while the keyboard and touchpad feel remarkably roomy given the otherwise small size of the system. The low fan noise, optional LTE support and decent battery life only make it an even better companion for classrooms and traveling. Google truly deserves unequivocal praise for the fundamental hardware design of the Pixel. Meanwhile, the high resolution Gorilla Glass touchscreen display steals much of the spotlight, and for good reason. Everything about it from its bright backlight, crisp texts and even crisper images is similar or even better to what one may see on a Retina MacBook or iPad, though color accuracy is not yet quite up there when against some expensive workstations. Touchscreen functionality is responsive and even practical at times due to the orderly and uncluttered nature of the UI, making it a blast to use for games and some navigation.

Judged on its own terms, the Google Chromebook Pixel is one of the three or four most desirable laptops in the world. The question is whether more than a handful of people will judge it on those terms. A Chromebook, as you know, is a notebook that focuses solely on the Web experience, with an operating system built around the Chrome browser and apps that run in browser windows, led by Google Docs and Gmail. In the past few months, we've seen two effective and popular models, the Samsung Chromebook and Acer C7 Chromebook$232.98 at Amazon.

Google certainly put on a spectacle when they announced the all-new Chromebook Pixel, and the display is truly wonderful. Everything about this new Chromebook is top notch. The design is elegant, the screen is crisp and beautiful, but we still have what many would probably agree is a love-hate relationship with the Chrome OS. Add in a touchscreen for our smartphone accustomed brains and we could really have something here. However, read on to find out if the $1,299 price is worth the risk.

The Chromebook Pixel is Google’s first stab at a physical product that doesn’t rely on value to justify its existence. From the jaw-dropping 2560 x 1700 display to the Core i5 processor, no corners have been cut. But can Chrome OS really support a system that starts at $1,300?

There’s no avoiding the fact that the Chromebook Pixel is expensive. But it’s also very well made and an absolute pleasure to use. Lay your fingers on the keyboard and view the world through the Pixel’s high-resolution display and some of the anguish you might have in parting with over £1,000 will be abated. But you can’t help but consider the range of excellent Ultrabooks and MacBooks that you could also get. We’re not saying they’re directly comparable. No. Both Windows and OS X will do much more. In hardware terms the touchpad on the Pixel doesn’t offer you the control flexibility of the Mac. The touch panel doesn’t give you a neat way around the OS like you can have with Windows 8. The real point to the Pixel all hangs on Chrome OS. If you’re living in the cloud, if you’re a Google user, if you’re always connected to the internet, then this may do everything you want with a simplicity and panache that conventional operating systems lack.

With its beautiful retina display, this would be a serious MacBook rival if it wasn’t for Chrome OS

The Chromebook Pixel is a good laptop, definitely worth a look. But it's unlikely to be the right laptop for lots of people. It has a beautiful display and amazing build quality, but poor battery life. And the Chrome OS is limited. An interesting concept, if not a mass-market winner.

Again, it depends on what you're looking for in a laptop. Similarly spec'ed Windows 8 Ultrabooks retail for less, and you can pick up a refurbished MBP (or tricked out MBA) for about the same. So if you need a "full-function" workstation or can't stand the thought of a device not being used to its fullest potential then, no, you probably shouldn't. However, a lot of people also use their laptops for little more than checking email and surfing the web—your parents, for example. It's easy to forget just how enormous the Internet is, how much there is to see and do on it. And how gorgeous it all looks under 239 ppi.

While the Pixel makes manifest our subconscious expectations of the Chromebook when it first launched two years ago, the expensive, high-end, touch screen laptop still falls short in some key areas. Yes, there's a lot to like about the hardware, but the Web-based Chrome OS just has far too many caveats and compromises to justify its exorbitant price tag. At $1,300 to $1,500, every other PC -- Mac or Windows -- will give the vast majority of users far more options for the money, though right now they’ll have to choose between a high-res Retina screen (MacBook Pro, starting at $1,349) or a touch screen (many, many Windows models). The Chromebook Pixel is an interesting "halo product," and the design chops Google has shown bode well for future models. But for now, this is laptop is targeted at a niche of a niche. The vast majority of people who use Google services would be better served by sticking with the Samsung Chromebook Series 3. It lacks the high-res touch screen and zippy Intel processor, but at $249, it’s a lot easier to overlook its flaws.