Chromebook Pixel

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LTR

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 6, 2011
Messages
198
New chromebook out today.....starting at $1300.

Tech Specs

SCREEN
12.85" display with a 3:2 aspect ratio
2560 x 1700, at 239 PPI
400 nit screen
178° extra-wide viewing angle


INPUTS
Gorilla® Glass multi-touch screen
Backlit Chrome keyboard
Fully clickable, etched-glass trackpad
HD Webcam

PORTS
2 x USB 2.0
mini display port
2-in-1 card reader supporting: SD, MMC

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
Active cooling with no visible vents
Machined from anodized aluminum
ENERGY STAR® certified

SIZE
297.7 x 224.6 x 16.2 mm

WEIGHT
3.35 lbs / 1.52 kg

CPU
Intel® Core™ i5 Processor (Dual Core 1.8GHz)
Intel® HD Graphics 4000 (Integrated)

MEMORY
4 GB DDR3 RAM
32 GB Solid State Drive*

AUDIO
Headphone/microphone jack
Built-in microphone array
Integrated DSP for noise cancellation
Powerful speakers tuned for clarity

BATTERY
Up to 5 hours of active use (59 Wh battery)*

NETWORK
Dual-band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n 2x2
Bluetooth 3.0™

GOODIES
1 TB of Google Drive Cloud Storage for 3 years*
12 free sessions of GoGo® Inflight Internet


Am I missing something? This thing seems crazy expensive considering how limited the OS is..

Get yours here.
https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=chromebook_pixel_wifi
 
I guess comparative notebooks would be the MacBook Air? MBP 13' Retina?

Nice features, but if I was going to spend that $$$$ I'd rather get a Retina MBP. On the other hand, maybe it can be hacked to run Win? I'd still be leary of the Chrome OS though....

36 months of 1TB Google Drive equates to $1800. wow...
 
No convertible screen, desperately small storage, nothing out of the ordinary for battery life.

Its all about the display I guess.
 
Well that was fast, looks like this whole touch thing is for real. Awesome looking screen but $1500 for web browser?
 
ultraman7k said:
I guess comparative notebooks would be the MacBook Air? MBP 13' Retina?

Nice features, but if I was going to spend that $$$$ I'd rather get a Retina MBP. On the other hand, maybe it can be hacked to run Win? I'd still be leary of the Chrome OS though....

36 months of 1TB Google Drive equates to $1800. wow...
Click to expand...

I'd agree for that much money I'd go with a MBP Retina, it may be touch screen but for that much money seems rather limiting...
 
I love the idea of Chromebooks, but $1300 for something you have to run web apps and Open Office on doesn't make sense to me.
 
The ONLY reason why chromebooks finally got a bit more headway recently is price. It is a complementary internet surfing device, but it shouldn't be meant to replace a real computer.

For what it is, I can't imagine any chromebooks being popular for much more than 500 - even with premium build and display quality.
 
If this was 999$ or less , or a convertible I'd be all over it

Still one sexy piece of hardware
 
Can you install Windows on it? I'd buy it immediately if I could.
 
Would make a decent Linuxbox for using around the house. But 5 hours of battery life and only 32GB of SSD storage is pitiful, frankly. The Chrome OS needs a major facelift. Preferably of the 'hack it all off and start anew' variety.

It's nice to see them pushing the resolutions up, but I have a feeling that ULV HD4000 is going to be a major bottleneck.
 
If I had to guess I would say it will not be user upgradeable. It is very clear google wants to force people to the cloud
 
So it's a $1300 ultrabook that can only run a web browser? No thanks.

It's a very well-designed piece of hardware. It seems like such a waste to gimp with such a craptastic OS. Google has had a bad run of releasing expensive hardware that no one cares about (Nexus Q ???)

If there were a proper Linux distro that played with the high resolution display and you could enable it out of the box, that would be another story.
 
Too expensive for a niche product. I think it will remain in stock for the duration.
 
I wanted to post this in this thread, but ended up doing it in another, so sorry for the re-post.

I think the reasoning very simple.
Google is going after Apple and Microsoft together.
I have no proof of this except my intuition.
Up until this point, every time a product or a company showed any weakness or an exceptional promise, Google went after them. They either released a competing product, or bought them straight out.
In this case, They see that Win8 Metro is fail for now. Win8 metro again in my opinion is MS trying to take some apple app store pie. It is not working very well right now but it is the a step in the right direction as a company for MS although it ruins our experience with how we interact with a computer.
Google sees this, they also see the success Apple had over the years.

Here comes the Pixel.
It looks like Apple build quality and screen resolution with Win8 laptop pricing and touch before Apple releases touch enable MBPr's.

I think they are going to try to swing everyone in to google operating system. I have a feeling that they want a world that uses Pixel's with google OP system, while forcing productivity software manufacturers like Adobe, MS and others to make their software compatible with google operating system.
It is huge step and it may actually work.
To be honest, I like google, if pixel book had the muscle to run everything I need and all my programs ran on it, I would totally use one. I had enough of MS and asus and sony etc..
I love MBPr's but they are a tad bit too expensive.
Even if google can't do what I think they are trying to do, they may just push MS based products over the ledge and share the market with Apple.
 
Your intuition is that google wants to go after its competitors? How intuitive.
 
Sorry its just that most of what you said had little thought put into it, google will leverage android to break into the laptop / desktop market at some point. But this device offers nothing of the break in potential or even sense, it doesn't run android, it doesn't have anywhere near the power of a real CPU like most notebooks or a MBPr, and it has no GPU either, and it doesn't have anywhere near the space of any of its competition. The only thing it is, is a glorified net book, and since it has no support for power apps like photoshop, cad, office etc... It doesnt make any sense to point out that this is their big move to start to attack to MS or apple in the higher form factor space. This is CLEARLY due to its anemic capacity and free 1TB of cloud storage something more like a console or phone designed to sell on its screen and sucker people into the cloud as a paid service for life. Otherwise the space of this in its price range makes absolutely no sense at all. Google is no trying to get MS, Adobe and the rest to develop for their platform when they dont even have enough space to install those programs, they are trying to move people to googles web based productivity apps.
 
Seeing whats been written so far I'm intrigued if anyone here has used any Chromebook device.

I have. They are great!
 
I actually just took the plunge today actually. My local BestBuy had an open box Samsung Chromebook for ~$200, so I decided to give it a try. I've been using this thing for a couple of hours and so far so good. Certainly not going to replace my other machines for work and gaming, but for sitting on the couch web browsing this thing fits the bill perfectly.

Don't think I would ever want to drop the big bucks for a Chromebook Pixel but for 200 I'm pretty happy with the whole Chromebook idea.
 
bmstrong said:
I'm curious if anyone on forum actually picked up a Pixel? Are you running Crouton?
Click to expand...

I have one. I just got it Friday from Google Play.

I'm a sucker for Google products and I felt like rewarding a bold move with AMAZING build quality that is sorely lacking in the laptop market. Seriously, this thing is flat out gorgeous and a tank.

I have a MacBook pro retina (15",) the display on the Pixel actually seems to be a bit nicer. They're both easily the best displays I have ever seen on anything.

ChromeOS is beautifully minimalist. I already use it as my main browser at work, home, and mobile. It's fantastic to be able to have everything synced and available. The 1TB of storage was a great perk that I plan on using for work and as a backup.

I'd be happy to answer any questions any of you have as well. I'm typing this on my surface pro so I've kind of "used it all" and have some good comparison experience.
 
eallan said:
I have one. I just got it Friday from Google Play.

I'm a sucker for Google products and I felt like rewarding a bold move with AMAZING build quality that is sorely lacking in the laptop market. Seriously, this thing is flat out gorgeous and a tank.

I have a MacBook pro retina (15",) the display on the Pixel actually seems to be a bit nicer. They're both easily the best displays I have ever seen on anything.

ChromeOS is beautifully minimalist. I already use it as my main browser at work, home, and mobile. It's fantastic to be able to have everything synced and available. The 1TB of storage was a great perk that I plan on using for work and as a backup.

I'd be happy to answer any questions any of you have as well. I'm typing this on my surface pro so I've kind of "used it all" and have some good comparison experience.
Click to expand...

Damn. Incredibly jealous right now. It's not that I can't afford it, I can, it's more a psychological barrier than anything. Part of me really wants to sell the 1TB of Drive to bring the cost down to a less painful price. I will never use that amount of storage.

I've looked at the Surface Pro and haven't pulled the trigger, either. Good build quality but I just think it's too much for a generation one product.

If you are offering, many thanks, and this is a can of worms, I have a ton of questions:

What model did you grab? LTE or Wi-Fi? You are 75/85/95% Cloud, since this is your main machine? What amount will the SD card slot read? 64/128/256? How far does the card stick out? How does Chrome handle the Save To option, can I save a movie or picture straight to the SD card? Have you enabled the experimental flags setting and what did you choose? Are you using Ubuntu for offline work? Can I install VLC and play a ripped Blu-Ray? Can you update the build of Ubuntu straight from terminal? Have you tested any other Linux distributions? If so, besides the touch screen, does everything work? No problems installing applications despite the small local SSD? Run any speed test on the USB 2.0? I'm still miffed they didn't go 3.0. What do reach for now ? Pro, Pixel or Mac? Turn the internet access off, do you think you can manage offline on the Pixel? Your thoughts on the upcoming I/O? Now is a given, along with a Notification center and LED integration but where do you want to see it go as a daily user?
 
bmstrong said:
Damn. Incredibly jealous right now. It's not that I can't afford it, I can, it's more a psychological barrier than anything. Part of me really wants to sell the 1TB of Drive to bring the cost down to a less painful price. I will never use that amount of storage.

I've looked at the Surface Pro and haven't pulled the trigger, either. Good build quality but I just think it's too much for a generation one product.

If you are offering, many thanks, and this is a can of worms, I have a ton of questions:

What model did you grab? LTE or Wi-Fi? You are 75/85/95% Cloud, since this is your main machine? What amount will the SD card slot read? 64/128/256? How far does the card stick out? How does Chrome handle the Save To option, can I save a movie or picture straight to the SD card? Have you enabled the experimental flags setting and what did you choose? Are you using Ubuntu for offline work? Can I install VLC and play a ripped Blu-Ray? Can you update the build of Ubuntu straight from terminal? Have you tested any other Linux distributions? If so, besides the touch screen, does everything work? No problems installing applications despite the small local SSD? Run any speed test on the USB 2.0? I'm still miffed they didn't go 3.0. What do reach for now ? Pro, Pixel or Mac? Turn the internet access off, do you think you can manage offline on the Pixel? Your thoughts on the upcoming I/O? Now is a given, along with a Notification center and LED integration but where do you want to see it go as a daily user?
Click to expand...

Hey man, I wish I had that psychological barrier, I'd be a richer man!

I got WiFi, but it has some Light bleed and i have two unlimited lines with verizon, so i'll be swapping for the LTE.

It's by no means my main machine, I use my rMBP as my "work" computer with citrix and some other things (sales). I also use my surface pro (I sit in a ton of meetings.)

Here is how much the SD card sticks out: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwmuHGIuYaAUd21NWkFDLXJVVkE/edit?usp=sharing

You can save directly to the SD card (Just tested it.)

I picked just the pinch to zoom flag so far. There are a LOT.

No Ubuntu so far, just ChromeOS.

No USB 3.0 is the most confusing thing. I don't know if it's conscious or they just really really want to discourage local storage!

If i'm at home, I reach for the Pixel, the others stay in my work bag.

Using the pixel offline sounds like a terrible experience, hence why i'm going the LTE route!

I'm so fucking psyched for IO i can't stand it. I have a Nexus 4, Nexus 10, and Pixel. GIVE ME SOME LOVE GOOGLE


I don't know why I love ChromeOS so much so far, it really is almost entirely JUST a browser, but it's an EXCELLENT browser where all my bookmarks (a lot) are synced. Hell, there is even a simplenote extension! I can read my kindle books! I haven't been found wanting anything else so far, aside from steam and such.
 
Appreciate the answers. I/O was a minor curiosity for me but after yesterday I can't wait for it. Chromedroid? Adrome? Either way May just got a whole lot more interesting.
 
bmstrong said:
Appreciate the answers. I/O was a minor curiosity for me but after yesterday I can't wait for it. Chromedroid? Adrome? Either way May just got a whole lot more interesting.
Click to expand...

I would agree. Google has been toying with the idea of integrating a mobile and desktop environment for years now. Chromebook Pixel, by itself, has great hardware but there seems to be a question mark with software. I, too, think May's I/O event will answer that question.
 
Comp625 said:
I would agree. Google has been toying with the idea of integrating a mobile and desktop environment for years now. Chromebook Pixel, by itself, has great hardware but there seems to be a question mark with software. I, too, think May's I/O event will answer that question.
Click to expand...

Software will evolve. Actually I think at the moment google is way more concerned with hardware than software and it shows on their releases. For my work we use a lot of office applications from Word all the way to Microsoft project and even Visio. In order to save these documents and make them available to the whole team we use a shared dropbox folder. Now technically google drive has everything we need, and with better ideas behind them. For example, as long as you have a supporting browser and internet access you can log in to your google drive account and edit, save, copy, paste, read anything you want on the fly. At the same time many users can log on to the document at the same time, editing simultaneously without ruining each others work. You can even see what they are doing, or what cell they are in, you can even chat with them on a side window. These are incredibly usefull ideas that google came up with, however they do not work properly. Their editors and viewers are very limited at the moment and do not support intra application copy/paste from most major software titles that most of us use on a daily basis.

So google is pushing their hardware, they are showing the world that they are hardware capable and you will be happy with their devices. I feel an Apple'ish entry to the market with greatly designed, solid, reliable devices with high quality components and prices. Once this is established a bit, I am sure google will bring all their productivity apps to the same level as Microsoft, and with the addition of "G" rated software like google maps, gmail, google sky, google earth etc... etc... all you have left from a traditional computing experience is the ability to play big x86 native games like WOW, Diablo, Fifa etc.... and support for specialized software that google may not want to develop like Photoshop and stuff.
There is a big big big problem with this whole thing though.
Everything above will let google sell their products to house hold members, kids, teenagers, moms, students etc... but not enterprises. Big companies are still and will be dominated by Intel, Apple and Microsoft and the biggest reason for that is the specialized software that I talked about up there.
Example : Aerospace systems giants like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and Jet Propulsion Laboratory will and can not switch away from spice based circuit analysis tools like OrCad, 3D design software like AutoCad and SolidWorks, computational platforms such as Matlab and Wolfram or FPGA programming and control devices like Altera and Xylinx. All of these programs run on windows, some run in OSX and Linux also. Considering some of these $100k or more worth software not been implemented by their manufacturer in to OSX or Mac, it will be a very long time or millions of requests for them to run on Google hardware based devices. So Google is either going to offer compatibility to Windows based programs or they are not getting in to the enterprise market.
 
Andyk5 said:
Software will evolve. Actually I think at the moment google is way more concerned with hardware than software and it shows on their releases. For my work we use a lot of office applications from Word all the way to Microsoft project and even Visio. In order to save these documents and make them available to the whole team we use a shared dropbox folder. Now technically google drive has everything we need, and with better ideas behind them. For example, as long as you have a supporting browser and internet access you can log in to your google drive account and edit, save, copy, paste, read anything you want on the fly. At the same time many users can log on to the document at the same time, editing simultaneously without ruining each others work. You can even see what they are doing, or what cell they are in, you can even chat with them on a side window. These are incredibly usefull ideas that google came up with, however they do not work properly. Their editors and viewers are very limited at the moment and do not support intra application copy/paste from most major software titles that most of us use on a daily basis.

So google is pushing their hardware, they are showing the world that they are hardware capable and you will be happy with their devices. I feel an Apple'ish entry to the market with greatly designed, solid, reliable devices with high quality components and prices. Once this is established a bit, I am sure google will bring all their productivity apps to the same level as Microsoft, and with the addition of "G" rated software like google maps, gmail, google sky, google earth etc... etc... all you have left from a traditional computing experience is the ability to play big x86 native games like WOW, Diablo, Fifa etc.... and support for specialized software that google may not want to develop like Photoshop and stuff.
There is a big big big problem with this whole thing though.
Everything above will let google sell their products to house hold members, kids, teenagers, moms, students etc... but not enterprises. Big companies are still and will be dominated by Intel, Apple and Microsoft and the biggest reason for that is the specialized software that I talked about up there.
Example : Aerospace systems giants like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and Jet Propulsion Laboratory will and can not switch away from spice based circuit analysis tools like OrCad, 3D design software like AutoCad and SolidWorks, computational platforms such as Matlab and Wolfram or FPGA programming and control devices like Altera and Xylinx. All of these programs run on windows, some run in OSX and Linux also. Considering some of these $100k or more worth software not been implemented by their manufacturer in to OSX or Mac, it will be a very long time or millions of requests for them to run on Google hardware based devices. So Google is either going to offer compatibility to Windows based programs or they are not getting in to the enterprise market.
Click to expand...

Well, they can get in to part of the enterprise market, certainly not the those few you mentioned, but there are plenty of salesmen or whatever "low tech" jobs that can benefit from the tight integration and slick hardware.

Either way, the pixel is a fun toy for me and some DAMN fine hardware.
 
Cloud-based applications aren't going to be reliant on internet access for much longer. Browsers are upping their cache, and with it offline applications are much easier to manage. You'll just have to load it once and you can have it stored, or for enterprise use it can be hosted via central server -- which is something enterprises have been doing for years now, actually.

The enterprise market will always be a burden for Google, but I think it's not as difficult to overcome as people are making it out to be. Many businesses are already using OS X and iOS/Android, and if they want to keep customers and appeal to the new generation of devices, it's in their best interest to start getting friendly with other OSes. Some software will never make the transition, like custom-made applications for specific purposes/businesses that doesn't see any revisions, but the most popular software will. With respect to AutoCAD, we've already seen Autodesk appealing to mobile devices with slimmed down variants of their CAD applications.
 
I just don't understand the price for this product. Based on the hardware specs the $1300 starting price seems way to high. As per some reviews the Chromebook Pixel has mediocre battery life, laggy touchscreen response, low local storage and a limited OS. The high resolution touch display is the only feature that seems unique but does that alone justify the cost? The 13" Apple rMBP also has a high resolution display, high end hardware, runs a robust OS and sells for $1500.
 
StryderxX said:
I just don't understand the price for this product. Based on the hardware specs the $1300 starting price seems way to high. As per some reviews the Chromebook Pixel has mediocre battery life, laggy touchscreen response, low local storage and a limited OS. The high resolution touch display is the only feature that seems unique but does that alone justify the cost? The 13" Apple rMBP also has a high resolution display, high end hardware, runs a robust OS and sells for $1500.
Click to expand...

It is the build quality and the tightness of the overall design that you are paying for. As an engineer I understand how much money it takes to design and build such equipment and if I had extra money laying around, I would definitely buy one.
As an example you can personally build an operational amplifier to be used on a your power amplifier for your stereo. Your operational amplifier can have the same "consumer" specs as an off the shelf part but cost 10-100 times more money to build. It will also sound much better than the off the shelf part. When you compare the two on paper they will both look like having similar gain characteristics but the real performance will come in to play with the frequency response and the slew rate ( how fast the output can respond to a change at the input) characteristics. You may need $50 transistors to achieve what you are looking for while off the shelf op-amp may be built with .15 cent ones. Off the shelf one may have weaker board links, it may burn out quickly, may not be as reliable at max or rms settings.
All I am trying to say is, just because two electronic equipment look the same on a 4 to 8 line paper comparison, does not mean they are the same. A real technical spec sheet (10 to 50 pages long) and cost analysis can show that they are worlds apart from each other.
That is the exact reason why a 12volt Milwaukee drill is stronger ,lasts 10 times longer, has more battery life per charge and more expensive than an 18 volt Ryobi drill which on paper has better specs than the Milwaukee.
 
StryderxX said:
I just don't understand the price for this product. Based on the hardware specs the $1300 starting price seems way to high. As per some reviews the Chromebook Pixel has mediocre battery life, laggy touchscreen response, low local storage and a limited OS. The high resolution touch display is the only feature that seems unique but does that alone justify the cost? The 13" Apple rMBP also has a high resolution display, high end hardware, runs a robust OS and sells for $1500.
Click to expand...

I dunno, the touchscreen works fine on mine. Battery life isn't stellar, but comparable to similar ultrabooks.


The build quality blows the doors off of any windows laptop around and is on the same level as a MBP (Better in some areas)
 
could someone let me know how to activate the 1TB of google drive that comes with this machine?
 
Love the hardware, hate how completely utterly useless the software is if you actually want to do any real work with it that is not what you can do from a web browser.
 
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