A First Look at Google’s Expensive New Chromebook

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Who says you can’t be ultra-plain and still be expensive all at the same time; not Google, that’s for sure. If you have been wondering what the new Chromebook offering from Google will look like, behold the Pixel. Plain and simple. :cool:
 
Only 4GB RAM and 32GB SSD.

OK, seriously, if someone can...what's with all these companies PUSHING cloud storage? Is there some angle I'm not getting? Why do all these companies WANT to store your stuff? I don't get it...
 
JoeUser said:
Only 4GB RAM and 32GB SSD.

OK, seriously, if someone can...what's with all these companies PUSHING cloud storage? Is there some angle I'm not getting? Why do all these companies WANT to store your stuff? I don't get it...
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So they can lock you into using their services once it becomes too much of a hassle to migrate all your data to another service or (heaven forbid!) local storage that you physically own.

That said, I am intrigued by the laptop if only for the prospect of putting a larger SSD in it and installing linux/Windows on it. That screen looks absolutely great.
 
And not a mention of how expensive it is? All the MS bashing about how no one would pay $800 for surface pro. Guess google gets a pass because chrome is linux based?
 
I am not trying to bash Chrome OS here. My question is, who uses these? This is an honest question. I do not see the need or the appeal. I have seen plenty of Windows based laptops for around the 200 to 300 dollar range that can do a lot more than these machines.
Does anyone here have a Chrome book that they use and can tell me the benefits?
 
cocheese256 said:
I am not trying to bash Chrome OS here. My question is, who uses these? This is an honest question. I do not see the need or the appeal. I have seen plenty of Windows based laptops for around the 200 to 300 dollar range that can do a lot more than these machines.
Does anyone here have a Chrome book that they use and can tell me the benefits?
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And your $200-300 machines typically have monitors with 75% fewer pixels....and they certainly won't have an SSD.
 
forcefed said:
Everything stored online can be mined for info, either from google or the patriot act.
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Yeah...that's exactly what I'm thinking...especially considering 9 time out of 10 the storage is free. NO CORPORATION gives away free shit unless they're getting SOMETHING out of it.

bacon said:
And not a mention of how expensive it is? All the MS bashing about how no one would pay $800 for surface pro. Guess google gets a pass because chrome is linux based?
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It retails for $1300 as per the linked article...:rolleyes:

Skripka said:
And your $200-300 machines typically have monitors with 75% fewer pixels....and they certainly won't have an SSD.
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Yeah but $200-300 machines also run a real operating system and if you consider a 32GB SSD as a plus then that's your opinion. You can get a ultrabook and max the specs out for the same price as this. High-res monitor be damned!
 
JoeUser said:
Yeah but $200-300 machines also run a real operating system and if you consider a 32GB SSD as a plus then that's your opinion. You can get a ultrabook and max the specs out for the same price as this. High-res monitor be damned!
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You say this as if a 1366x768 panel, and a slow-ass spinner HDD, a simple-stupid old touchpad, and VGA output etc are reasonable concessions in favor of a dirt cheaper price. Even your ultrabook would have an inferior monitor and a shitty 4-cell battery, oh and cost more if you max it out.

For my usage, I wouldn't be using "real OS programs on it". Gaming and Photoshop and the like are why we have desktop workstations. 2560x1700 would be smexy.
 
djsb said:
So they can lock you into using their services once it becomes too much of a hassle to migrate all your data to another service or (heaven forbid!) local storage that you physically own.

That said, I am intrigued by the laptop if only for the prospect of putting a larger SSD in it and installing linux/Windows on it. That screen looks absolutely great.
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Installing Windows/Linux is interesting, but you'll notice the keyboard lacks function keys. You'll notice in fact that it misses quite a few keys, like the home, end, insert, page up, page down, print scrn and pause buttons. And unlike some laptop keyboards it doesn't seem to have an Fn key so it's not like those keys are just unlabled (for example on some Dell studio laptops there is no labeled break key, though it is there when using Fn)
 
You can install a full Linux OS on this with plenty of room to spare. I've got a 64GB SSD on my laptop running Ubuntu 12.04LTS and a whole slew of programs and I haven't broken 15GB.

The appeal of Chrombooks has been that they're a very cheap and capable web box. I don't think this one is going to go over too well, at least for Chrome OS. I reckon a good chunk of these will end up running some flavor of Linux. I guess in that sense it's an okay buy, but the hardware is still weak given the price tag. The battery life is likely going to be really poor too. That 1TB cloud storage only makes sense if Google offers a personal butler carrying a cat5 cable connected to fiber.
 
It's beautiful but the specs seem way out of line for the price, especially since you've almost got to be a Googler already to properly enjoy it. It's easy to hate on Apple, but even with fewer pixels (and the lack of touchscreen - I doubt I'd buy a notebook/netbook today without that) the Macbook Air is a good computer sold for a comparatively very reasonable price. In fact, apart from the pixels the MBA pretty much crushes the Pixel.

It's weird that Google would shoot for such a premium own-branded product when their Nexus line has great hardware at low prices.
 
Skripka said:
And your $200-300 machines typically have monitors with 75% fewer pixels....and they certainly won't have an SSD.
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Just for reference, when people are comparing the Pixel to a laptop that is "$200-$300 more" they are comparing it with the MacBook Pro with Retina display. The MacBook Pro's Retina display doesn't have 75% fewer pixels - they are almost idential save for the 3:2 aspect of the Pixel. And the MacBook has twice the ram (8GB) and an SSD four times as large (128GB) and a faster processor (i5 @ 2.5Ghz vs 1.8Ghz) and a slightly better battery (7 hours vs 5 hours). And it has a proper keyboard so you can install Windows 7 on it and use it as a real computer.
 
JoeUser said:
It retails for $1300 as per the linked article...:rolleyes:
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Surface pro is $899 sorry. I was making a point about how everyone was saying it was too expensive at launch. Nerd crying all over the place because it was more expensive than the iPad.
 
bacon said:
Surface pro is $899 sorry. I was making a point about how everyone was saying it was too expensive at launch. Nerd crying all over the place because it was more expensive than the iPad.
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And your point barely holds any water as Surface Pro doesn't come with a keyboard at that price...has an inferior monitor, and inferior battery life...and cannot be used with a keyboard on anything other than a table.
 
Skripka said:
And your point barely holds any water as Surface Pro doesn't come with a keyboard at that price...has an inferior monitor, and inferior battery life...and cannot be used with a keyboard on anything other than a table.
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And your point holds no water as you can get a keyboard for it and it still comes out significantly cheaper as well as...OH I DON'T KNOW...USING A FULL ON WINDOWS DESKTOP OS?!

You can argue for the Pixel all you want...yes it has a nice screen...but that is IT. That's ALL it has...especially for that ridiculous price, limited OS, and paltry specs (again, 32GB SSD is pathetic).
 
David_CAN said:
Just for reference, when people are comparing the Pixel to a laptop that is "$200-$300 more" they are comparing it with the MacBook Pro with Retina display. The MacBook Pro's Retina display doesn't have 75% fewer pixels - they are almost idential save for the 3:2 aspect of the Pixel. And the MacBook has twice the ram (8GB) and an SSD four times as large (128GB) and a faster processor (i5 @ 2.5Ghz vs 1.8Ghz) and a slightly better battery (7 hours vs 5 hours). And it has a proper keyboard so you can install Windows 7 on it and use it as a real computer.
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See post #11. The claim was that a laptop of 200-300 dollar range was superior not a laptop of 200-300 dollar more range.
 
Met-AL said:
See post #11. The claim was that a laptop of 200-300 dollar range was superior not a laptop of 200-300 dollar more range.
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Oh right, because that makes sense. Comparing a $200-300 laptop vs. a $1300 Chromebook.

Not aiming this at you, just point out the ridiculousness of it.
 
I personally don't see why anyone would want to buy this. $1300 for such a limited OS? I mean if aesthetics are what you are looking for, there are so many better Intel ultrabooks or even some Macs. Sure the Pixel has a nice screen, but that doesn't really matter if there's nothing you can use that screen for.
 
Aaron11 said:
I personally don't see why anyone would want to buy this. $1300 for such a limited OS? I mean if aesthetics are what you are looking for, there are so many better Intel ultrabooks or even some Macs. Sure the Pixel has a nice screen, but that doesn't really matter if there's nothing you can use that screen for.
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You can use it for surfing the interwebs and and and...that's all I got...
 
I'd be all over this if it only had a better GPU say like a GT645M. And if it were a little more user serviceable - it looks like you'd have to use a cutting torch to get at the battery/RAM/SSD & (assuming it has one - if not that would be another deal breaker) developer switch.
 
you can get a 10 year old laptop for free that can do everything it can do. Fact is computers have come to a point where there is no need to upgrade anything for the average person.
 
At the price the Pixel goes for, I'd simply buy a rMBP instead. More storage, more RAM, faster processor, and if talking about the 15", an even higher resolution. All with the ability to run OS X or whatever else I want. And, before you ask, no I wouldn't miss having the touchscreen. Such a nice screen covered in oil and dirt, or having to constantly clean it, would annoy me to no end. Until someone invents a screen that can clean itself so that I never have to see the streaking I'll leave touchscreens on phones and tablets where I begrudgingly accept such annoyances.
 
The only thing this has going for it is the High Res display. I really doubt many consumers are going to buy this over other products considering how limited this is in what it can do, the specs other than the screen just sucks at this price. The screen probably cost google $400-500 most likely less since the new ipads screen cost like 200. Everything else spec wise is probably a total build cost of 300. Which leaves me boggled at why its $1300.
 
Non Windows/Mac/Linux laptop with 4GB RAM, a 32GB SSD, limited usability of ChromeOS for $1300? Holy shit, Google!

This one will fail. And fail hard.
 
blitzkommando said:
At the price the Pixel goes for, I'd simply buy a rMBP instead. More storage, more RAM, faster processor, and if talking about the 15", an even higher resolution. All with the ability to run OS X or whatever else I want. And, before you ask, no I wouldn't miss having the touchscreen. Such a nice screen covered in oil and dirt, or having to constantly clean it, would annoy me to no end. Until someone invents a screen that can clean itself so that I never have to see the streaking I'll leave touchscreens on phones and tablets where I begrudgingly accept such annoyances.
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pug-surprised-by-windshield-wipers.gif


Patent pending.
 
You guys don't realize this is a test for google. They are going after microsoft and apple. Its called market Penetration.
 
Wrench00 said:
You guys don't realize this is a test for google. They are going after microsoft and apple. Its called market Penetration.
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They're going to have about as much penetration as a .22 pistol would have on an M1 Abram.


Non Windows/Mac/Linux laptop with 4GB RAM, a 32GB SSD, limited usability of ChromeOS for $1300? Holy shit, Google!

This one will fail. And fail hard.
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I fully agree. wft Google.
 
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