The Chromebook Pixel

http://chrome.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-chromebook-pixel-for-whats-next.html

by mikeevans • 13 years ago

475 487 13 years ago

chrome.blogspot.com

andrewmunsell3• 13 years ago

So... Can I install Windows on it?

mikeevans• 13 years ago

or Linux?

andrewmunsell3• 13 years ago

Really, I'd take anything but Chrome OS... But with 32 GB of storage I doubt Windows would even fit.

newsoundwave• 13 years ago

With 32GB of storage, you probably wouldn't want to.

andrewmunsell3• 13 years ago

Yeah, it's kind of unfortunate they stick an amazing screen into a laptop with only as much storage space as a Micro SD card. And then charge $1300 for it.

recoiledsnake5• 13 years ago

Does it run Android apps?

What use is the touchscreen apart from scrolling or tapping on links in the browser?

The Verge calls it a hair thicker than the Air, am I the only one that feels that it's a lot thicker? Comparison photo: http://cdn0.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/7732773/theverge...

MatthewPhillips18• 13 years ago

You can pinch to zoom in the browser as well.

cooldeal• 13 years ago

The Verge says the touchscreen isn't really smooth though.

>And then there's the touchscreen. Google repeatedly told us how smooth and fluid it is to swipe through webpages on the touchscreen on the Pixel, and how it would enable developers to target a broader ecosystem for their apps by allowing their tablet and smartphone creations to have the same experience on the web. If only it were true: the touchscreen response is far from fluid, if Google's on-stage demos and our own hands-on impressions are any indication.

cwe• 13 years ago

That shot is misleading because the air slopes down so much. the max thickness of each device is likely pretty similar, but the Air has a much slimmer average thickness.

munificent• 13 years ago

The Air tapers across the width of the body to make the edges significantly narrower than the laptop is at its thickest point. Try looking at them both fully edge-on so you can see the Air's full profile.

jfb4• 13 years ago

It is significantly larger than the 13" MBA, and only barely smaller than the 13" rMBP.

cma• 13 years ago

It has a larger screen than either (due to the aspect ratio).

bluthru• 13 years ago

I'm glad Google is going to offer a high-end Chromebook, but I'd really like to see a $400 model that improves on screen quality and size. A 15" IPS Chromebook would be the sweet spot for me.

Also, I can't help but think that making a chromebook touch screen is a waste of money. Gorilla arm, anyone?

dragonwriter2• 13 years ago

> Also, I can't help but think that making a chromebook touch screen is a waste of money. Gorilla arm, anyone?

Having touchscreen available in additional to traditional keyboard and trackpad laptop interface doesn't raise the gorilla arm problem (since you can still interact the normal way, and aren't forced to use touch to do anything), but enables using touch for workflows where gorilla arm isn't likely to be a problem.

saym• 13 years ago

> delivering fast connectivity across Verizon's network, the largest, fastest 4G LTE network in the U.S

Will the Pixel be locked? I doubt that Google would make this arrangement, but it is a question worth asking.

obilgic• 13 years ago

Even though I use my chromebook every day, I think this is a very high price point for this device.

Seems like they release a new chrome os device every few months, I would much prefer updating my chromebook every year for 400$-500$ with faster lighter version, instead of investing 1300$.

btipling• 13 years ago

This is basically a $1,300 web browser. I don't get it, beautiful touch display or not.

kbar13• 13 years ago

chrome environment has developed enough that the "web browser" is no longer just a web browser. Consider it like emacs as it was way back when GUI's weren't around.

DanBC3• 13 years ago

Most computers are $1,300 web browsers.

TillE• 13 years ago

No, most computers are sub-$1000, probably sub-$500 web browsers.

ajross• 13 years ago

It's a PC laptop. I'm reasonably certain desktop Linux distros will be running on it in the very near future.

The screen is magnificent. And I love the move to a taller aspect (it's slightly larger, vertically, than the 13.3" screen I'm using now).

The board itself is pretty meh, though. Dual core Ivy Bridge with 4G. That will run desktop stuff, but it will do virtualization poorly. Big software builds are going to suffer a lot vs. my quad core laptop (which looks to be about 3x faster). And the 32-64G of built-in storage is mostly a joke; that just isn't going to cut it for serious development work.

So I won't buy one. But wow, I like that screen.

jfb4• 13 years ago

But if you want a good laptop in this price range to install Linux on, why get one of these? There are plenty of Windows OEMs who will sell you a better machine (modulo the screen), or you can cough up an extra $200 and buy a 13" rMBP, which has a comparable screen and is technically better in every other regard (modulo 4G, although what's the price for the LTE modem?)

colin_jack4• 13 years ago

The big problem for me would be chrome os, the hardware looks nice though.

MatthewPhillips18• 13 years ago

3 TB of Drive for free is incredible. Just 2 TB sets you back $99/month normally.

EDIT: KevinEldon corrected me below, it is 1 TB for 3 years, my mistake. Normally that would be $49/month.

KevinEldon• 13 years ago

The offer is 1 TB free for 3 years.

MatthewPhillips18• 13 years ago

Whoops, still a good deal though.

bvdbijl2• 13 years ago

That's pretty sneaky to call it 3TB....

pjscott• 13 years ago

There is a certain cost to Google to provide that big a storage limit "for free", but storage isn't that expensive these days, and most people won't use it all. I would guess that there's room in the Pixel's hefty price tag for that net present value of that cost.

jbail2• 13 years ago

So, it is real!

It looks awesome, but at $1,299, I don't think it's priced well. That's $100 more than a 13" MacBook. I just don't see that much value in a Chromebook at this point in time.

robertst2• 13 years ago

I honestly think the high price tag is the point. Google is trying to establish itself as a major brand that isn't just offering alternatives to Apple hardware for a lower price. Think of the plans to build retail stores, and how the Android brand is given less prominence these days: they are working hard to build a consumer "Google" brand that's as strong as Apple.

So far most of the devices they sold were priced to be cheaper than Apple's counterparts. This pricing move is trying to say "we have better technology than Apple and it's worth the price", possibly in anticipation of other high-end products such as Glass.

I have no idea if it will pay off, but it's a bold move.

jbail2• 13 years ago

I love bold moves and this is certainly one of them. I just don't think it's going to sell well. Yet.

I don't think the average consumer will understand what it does and why it's priced the way it is. I understand what it does and does not do, I work in front end web engineering, and ultimately would really like to see Chrome OS take off (selfishly because my skillset would be very well suited for writing software for it). This is all a step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned. I just wouldn't plunk down $1300 for one.

hadem• 13 years ago

But isn't it essentially just running web applications? I know I could download applications from the Chrome app store but I couldn't install any other applications, correct?

rayiner22• 13 years ago

One of the things Apple avoids is $1,300 products that are conceptual beta-tests. It's blatantly obvious that "life in the cloud" isn't feasible for most people yet, not when 10 GB of Verizon LTE costs $90 here in the US, then $10/GB. But with that tiny 32GB of flash, that's clearly what the Chromebook is designed for.

It's bold, but it's not going to sell. The reviews are going to rip this to shreds ("nice screen, but doesn't run anything.") In the end, it's going to be a "what the heck were they thinking?" product that will dilute the brand.

rdtsc2• 13 years ago

> That's $100 more than a 13" MacBook.

Some will see that as "So Chromebook is better than a MacBook then? They wouldn't have priced it that high if it wasn't. I want one".

Kind of how some expensive wine is sold. Sell it for $15 / bottle and it gets lost on the shelves among others. Put it in a special glass case and sell it for $120 / bottle and surprise people will buy, taste it and think it is really the best one they've ever head.

Not only this, now a cheaper Chromebook will seem like a really good deal.

unalone• 13 years ago

I don't know anybody who only bought a Mac because it was expensive. They bought it because it was worth the expense.

Chrome OS is an unproven platform that doesn't have nearly the popular support of Apple's products, and it's coming from a company that's still fairly new at both software and hardware design. That's not to say this will be a bad product, but this is certainly a risky marketing strategy. I'd love it they pulled it off – I like the thought of a web-only notebook, even if I don't want one myself – so I'll be crossing my fingers and hoping they pull this off.

Zarathust• 13 years ago

These things are called "scams" and rarely survive long

enraged_camel• 13 years ago

>>Kind of how some expensive wine is sold.

I don't think computers are comparable to wine.

incongruity2• 13 years ago

People use price to compare wine because we have virtually nothing else to go on. With wine, many people are selecting from options they have no direct experience with (styles, yes, particular wine or year? not in many cases) – so price became a way to discriminate when all else was unavailable.

jonknee4• 13 years ago

You're not looking at the Retina MacBook (they start at $1,499 and don't have any touch features).

nuclear_eclipse• 13 years ago

Considering that this is actually competing against the Retina MacBook Pro, it's actually $200 cheaper...

rayiner22• 13 years ago

For a much slower CPU and 1/4 the disk, and an OS that has no apps.

mrtron• 13 years ago

The importance of price anchoring...

$100 more? Is it better than a MacBook?

$200 less? Wow...MacBooks are so overpriced.

shawndumas• 13 years ago

$1269 for a refurbished 13" rMBP

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FD212LL/A/refurbished-macb...

jhaglund• 13 years ago

And none of those devices do touch.

thechut• 13 years ago

Don't see it as a direct competitor with the Macbook Pro or Retina. If anything it is trying to be higher end Air.

MaysonL• 13 years ago

Especially since for $1269, you can get a refurb MBP Retina with more RAM, more flash, more CPU, and almost as much screen.

jonpaul• 13 years ago

The battery life is crap. I honestly didn't think that $1300 was awful. Pricey, but not awfully pricey. And then I saw the battery life... only 5 hours =( If you want to delight the user with a mobile, battery life needs to be a priority. 5 hours is industry standard in crap laptops. Even the el' cheapo Chromebooks (my cr48) get better than 5 hours.

pm90• 13 years ago

What kind of apps can you run on this? Chrome OS wasn't a touch based OS as far as I recall... have they integrated touch into the OS now?

spankalee2• 13 years ago

Yes, the OS itself is touch enabled. Buttons and such are better designed for tapping, tabs are draggable, the status bar at the bottom can be pulled up with a swipe, etc.

dragonwriter2• 13 years ago

> What kind of apps can you run on this?

Well, its Chrome OS, so anything that runs on Chrome browser anywhere (including Native Client apps), plus additional apps using the Chrome OS-specific APIs.

> Chrome OS wasn't a touch based OS as far as I recall... have they integrated touch into the OS now?

Chrome browser (and, therefore, Chrome OS) has been integrating touch features for several versions. Since I don't use Chrome on touch devices (except Chrome on iOS, which is a different beast) I'm not that familiar with it, but my understanding was that the support was pretty far along by now.

hiker3• 13 years ago

Or nuke Chrome OS and install a OSX/linux/windows/whatever-rocks-your-boat on the hardware. I do love Chrome OS though.

druidsbane2• 13 years ago

A retina Macbook Air would have higher virtual density and resolution. This is only 1280x850 vs 1440x900 if you assume a 2x scale factor the way retina does things. It is nice, but 32GB, thicker and only runs a browser limits it compared to everything else out there: macbooks, windows, linux... even tablets and phones have 64-128GB now for much less and can run Chrome.

raylu• 13 years ago

Where'd you get those numbers?

ceol• 13 years ago

Direct link to specs: https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pix... (scroll down and click "full specs")

I think it's interesting they chose a 3:2 aspect ratio. The price is a bit high for the specs you get, but I suppose a lot of that is the (multi-touch)screen.

reirob2• 13 years ago

The 3:2 aspect ratio is certainly interesting to Google but not to users. It is even less vertical space than with 16:9 or 16:10. So what good is that much horizontal space, apart for ads in a column left or right of the content.

takluyver2• 13 years ago

I think you have that backwards: 3:2 == 1.5x as wide as it is high. That's more vertical space than 16:9 (1.78x) or 16:10 (1.6x).

rehashed• 13 years ago

I was going to jump on this as soon as it was announced. Sadly, I don't think this is suitable for Android development given the specs. What are your thoughts? My GF is very tempted to take over my macbook pro...

ok_craig• 13 years ago

I wonder if they are doing this, at least in part, because they really want a Chromebook that is high-end to display in their physical stores? Maybe having a really nice, really expensive Chromebook will make the brand not seem cheap to casual store browsers.

sharkweek• 13 years ago

Interesting theory -- it especially makes the other Chromebooks seem like better deals

RyanMcGreal• 13 years ago

There's the famous framing story about the company that invented the bread maker. Everyone was interested in their product but hardly anyone bought it. They brought in a product specialist who told them to release a second, high-end version of the bread maker. Once they did this, the base model started flying off the shelves.

mchristoff• 13 years ago

Can you wipe it and install Android?

speeder• 13 years ago

I think it is purely amazing the specs for that price.

But I am really bothered by the fact that it is...

A Chromebook.

I hate "cloud" stuff, I like to have stuff where I know where they are, and who can see them.

Also I live in Brazil, where internet is patchy, at best. And it is sad it does not support Ethernet... I like Ethernet! It is faster and more stable!

But impressive, very impressive, well done Google.

If anyone here has a idea if there are a way to use Chromebook as non-Chromebook (specially, non-cloud), tell me :)

recoiledsnake5• 13 years ago

>I think it is purely amazing the specs for that price.

The display specs are amazing, but storage is a paltry 32GB so I guess it's compensated there.

ConstantineXVI7• 13 years ago

All but one previous Chromebook has shipped with 16 (exception being the Acer, which uses an ordinary HDD), and the amount is almost entirely a non-issue for normal use. Which would add to my theory ChromeOS could be moving past the "just a browser" paradigm it's been going with all this time.

yuxt• 13 years ago

They also provide "One terabyte of Google Drive cloud storage, free for 3 years"

jmhain• 13 years ago

> And it is sad it does not support Ethernet... I like Ethernet! It is faster and more stable!

Most ultrabooks don't come with ethernet either. But it has USB ports, and USB ethernet adapters are not too expensive.

andreasklinger• 13 years ago

Love the fact that it neither has windows key nor mac key :)

rz2k• 13 years ago

It appears to have a Google key[1], where you'd normally find Caps Lock.

[1]http://cdn2.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/7734569/2013-02-...

muyuu• 13 years ago

No info on RAM?

I was wondering if this could be worth installing Linux on it.

zaphoyd• 13 years ago

looks like 4GB

haarts• 13 years ago

It has 4GB of it. https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pix... scoll down, click 'full specs'

naner2• 13 years ago

So this looks like it could be a very nice Linux laptop assuming all the drivers are open source (nothing bad stood out in a cursory glance of the specs, though I imagine the noise-canceling and touchscreen won't work on vanilla Linux). Only issue is how well your favorite Linux interface (Gnome, KDE, etc) will scale to such a high pixel density.

vbl• 13 years ago

For that money I want a real OS.

habosa2• 13 years ago

This is pretty incredible. Not for me, but definitely a great product. I take issue only with the 32GB internal. I know it's a cloud device but it would be nice to be able to store some local videos to watch on that incredible screen. I guess that's what USB 3.0 is for, but still.

habosa2• 13 years ago

Wow, no USB 3.0? That's a huge mistake.

jjcm• 13 years ago

I know this is going to seem like a nitpick, but laptops without magnetic power connectors these days just feel cheap. It's such a simple addition that greatly improves the product. I don't see why larger companies aren't all converting over to them. I know apple has a patent on them, but there's tons of prior art for heaven's sake. I think the only non-apple product out there I've seen with them on it is the microsoft surface (though admittedly the surface one is pretty bad, it's still better than this style of connector).

Overall though it seems like a nice product. I'd probably be interested if I could install ubuntu on it.

picklefish2• 13 years ago

Maybe this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagSafe

Apple exclusively owns US Patent No. 7311526 ("Magnetic connector for electronic device", issued in 2007) and does not license the MagSafe connector or the patent.

ebbv4• 13 years ago

And yet Microsoft has magnetic power connectors on the Surface tablets.

mrb6• 13 years ago

I am pretty sure Apple patented magnetic power connectors, and that this is the reason no one else uses them.

pringles• 13 years ago

Better not tell the Pebble watch people then, they might get sued.

derekp7• 13 years ago

Many of the deep fryers I've used years ago had magnetic power connectors. How is Apple's design different? Is it just because it is "on a laptop", and not "on a hot oil basket"?

Edit: I looked up the patent, and it appears they've patented various improvements to the connector, such as universal orientation (can plug it in either direction), and something to do with the polarity of the magnets.

wvenable2• 13 years ago

The price ($1,299) should be in the title of this post so people can avoid getting excited about it.

ConstantineXVI7• 13 years ago

That is one beautiful laptop (note that it's not 16:9 either). I feel like we're missing something, there's no way Google would be blind enough to build such a powerful machine (vs existing Chromebooks) that's so limited by the OS. There's either something we aren't being told or Google's jumped entirely off the deep end.

(Alternative: there's no way they could do a "Retina" Chromebook for reasonably cheap, but the Nexus 10 would seem to disprove that)

MatthewPhillips18• 13 years ago

It's not really limiting though. Between NaCl and WebGL you can do everything from 3D gaming, to Remote Desktop clients (an RDP client already is in the Web Store). It's true that a lot of the software still needs to be created, but what is going to spur that to happen if not hardware that is tuned for it?

ConstantineXVI7• 13 years ago

You can't build for NaCl from CrOS, and as it stands you don't have the toolchain (editors, debuggers, shells, etc) one's used to on other platforms. I understand a $400 phone not being able to run it's own toolchain, a $1300 computer less so.

taeric3• 13 years ago

I think I am just used to hardware lagging the demands of software. This just seems, odd. Especially considering how much more this computer can do with something other than chrome os. (Correct me if I'm forgetting something, but is there anything chrome os can do that another OS can not already do?)

spankalee2• 13 years ago

Discliaimer: I work for Google, but don't know about real strategy decisions about this.

I think it's all about establishing more demand for web apps.

Already I can do everything I need to in Chrome except for a nice development environment, though Cloud9 is getting closer, and music apps like Logic. Those are quite doable though, especially with the Chrome App APIs, someone just needs to get the ball rolling.

The current crop of Chromebooks were really inexpensive and nice for the money, but they weren't going to appeal to the cutting edge tech users who will loudly demand and use better web apps. Chrome needs something that inspires, and I think the Pixel will do that. I've used it for a while now and the hardware is incredibly nice. It'll also create space between the $200-300 Chromebooks and the Pixel for some decent mid-range devices.

ConstantineXVI7• 13 years ago

IMHO, all it needs for a decent developer environment is semi-sanctioned shell access and a package manager. I've been using the age-old SSH+tmux combo fine, all that's really hurting me is latency. I'm kind of surprised Google hasn't taken up the task of building their own web-app IDE (but not that surprised, if what I keep hearing about Google not allowing code checked out on laptops is correct it's hard to improve much on SSH).

I want this machine to work, I just don't see how it can without being self-hosting.

rayiner22• 13 years ago

I can't imagine there are that many people who want to spend $1,300 to use web apps. People use GMail, Google Docs, etc, because they're cheap, not because they're good. That's why the $250 Chromebooks sell any units--because they're cheap. This thing takes the "cheap" aspect out of the equation, which seems like a mind-blowingly stupid decision.

hamxiaoz• 13 years ago

I don't think a high price (>$1000) will establish 'more' demand.

MatthewPhillips18• 13 years ago

Well said, that's my thought as well. If you look at the complaints in this thread (lack of VMs, lack of Photoshop equivalents, etc.) won't get created until there is compelling hardware capable of running them. We're already seeing an explosion of web apps to fill the need of regular Chromebook users (stuff like RDP clients are a hot item in the Web Store these days), but it will take something more capable before we get, for example, good WebGL games.

gtr32x• 13 years ago

This is actually ringing a bell in me right now. For such a high end Chromebook, without the ability to feasibly add in another OS, the price tag seems far out of reach for all the current offerings online with regard to what one may achieve.

In fact, I really won't be surprised if Google has a bag of online goodies under its table right now just waiting to be unveiled alongside with the launch of the Pixel. Unless they push with this, I just don't the current market place for such an expensive Chromebook. If Google does push forward a new set of online tools/cloud offerings, it might be groundbreaking.

revelation• 13 years ago

With 4GB of RAM, USB 2.0 (how do you even get that? what kind of oooold chipset are they using?) and only 32GB of storage, this thing is ridiculously overpriced and pretty much dead on arrival.

codeulike2• 13 years ago

What do Chromebooks use their hard drive for, exactly?

MatthewPhillips18• 13 years ago

Is this a serious question?

scarlson• 13 years ago

ChromeOS, Ubuntu, movies, music, books, web caching.

javajosh2• 13 years ago

There are only three meaningful things you can do with a computer with specs like this: development, design, or gaming. And yet ChromeOS can't do any of these things.

Perhaps this is a vanity product for the wealthy. But wealthy people are going to just surf the web on an iPad.

I really don't get this product.

commandar• 13 years ago

>And yet ChromeOS can't do any of these things.

Am I just imagining all the posts I've seen on HN from people talking about being extremely happy using Chromebooks as development platforms?

theoretick3• 13 years ago

I'll assume that's sarcasm but I haven't personally noticed that trend. The only way I made my cr-48 useful was by flashing the BIOS, adding a bigger SD, and running ubuntu on it.

taeric3• 13 years ago

Aren't most of those folks replacing the os on their machines?

criley3• 13 years ago

How do you develop on this?

I'm used to using Linux, command line, text editors, local installs of the product I'm developing for, virtual machines, etc...

Are you simply forced into using ALL websites to actually develop and unable to use anything else?

Seems strange to pay $1250+ to develop on a machine that cannot even run or test the code you write.

ConstantineXVI7• 13 years ago

Either after flipping the dev-mode switch and running a chroot or such (thus being outside CrOS's use case), or using it entirely as a thin client (which doesn't need this kind of horsepower).

rayiner22• 13 years ago

People are happy using Chromebooks as development platforms because they're $250 for an ARM laptop with long battery life, and you can hack them to run Ubuntu, not because Chrome OS has any merit on its own.

Things that are cute on a $250 machine are not so cute on a $1,300 machine...

bromagosa• 13 years ago

Same thoughts here. It's Intel-based, I wonder whether one could just install a Debian into this beast...

d23• 13 years ago

> I really don't get this product.

Reminds me of what every techie said about the iPad too.

rayiner22• 13 years ago

Or the Surface. Or BB10.

dannyr3• 13 years ago

I agree it doesn't make sense. Unless Google announces something in the near future that would make it more than just a web-browsing device...

rjv• 13 years ago

If that's the case then they should have waited to reveal the Pixel. I'm of the mind that you should buy a device for what it is, not for what it may be in the future.

j_camarena• 13 years ago

^ this

DanBC3• 13 years ago

> I really don't get this product.

Many people are not rational when they buy products. All you can do with a pair of jeans is wear them. Nice denim, nice rivets, nice pockets, and a nice zip (or buttons) - and then some quality control. And yet people can pay very much money for jeans. (Sort by price, high to low. (http://www.mrporter.com/Shop/Clothing/Jeans?sortBy=price-des...)

You say that wealthy people are just going to surf the web on tablets. This is just a tablet with a keyboard. Some people type enough to make on-screen keyboards painful to use.

baddox5• 13 years ago

If buying a product makes the buyer happy, you can hardly call the purchase "irrational."

mtgx• 13 years ago

Exactly. ChromeOS is not for such powerful machines, because the OS itself is not powerful. So ChromeOS with a $1000 machine is far from a perfect match (at least it isn't yet, maybe 5-10 years from now).

But right now ChromeOS is and should be for light web machines. And I've said it many times before. There's absolutely no reason for Chromebooks to use x86 chips. I've said Google will almost surely mess up the pricing of Chromebook Pixel because they never seem to understand how to price a new product.

Maybe if they would've made a quad core Cortex A15 machine with this display and for $500, that would've been a little more attractive - although for people just looking for browsing the web, there was no need for such a high resolution anyway. Just keep Chromebooks at $250 and use ARM in them, and get to that 10h battery life.

MatthewPhillips18• 13 years ago

The Chromebook with the best battery life is the Atom-based Samsung Series 5.

Teckla• 13 years ago

There's absolutely no reason for Chromebooks to use x86 chips.

What about people that prefer trading some battery life for some performance?

j-b• 13 years ago

Why pay $1,299 for a thin client OS even if it's running thick client hardware? I can run a browser and so much more in a macbook air or thinkpad in the same price range.

dman2• 13 years ago

a) Read legal briefs

b) View financial reports

c) Read research papers

d) Write web based apps

e) Write apps so that more actitivities can be done with specs like this.

chestnut-tree• 13 years ago

"And yet ChromeOS can't do any of these things...I really don't get this product."

I completely agree. If I pay $1300 for a laptop, I expect to be able to do some serious graphics work or video editing. Instead Chrome Pixel gives you powerful hardware coupled to an internet-connected OS with basic, limited apps like Google Docs. (As an example, Google Docs is so basic it can't even span table cells. Worperfect 5.0 could do this over 20 years ago. Pay $1300 for an OS so lacking in features or capable software? Is this progress?).

JungleGymSam2• 13 years ago

I agree but the only explanation I can think of is in preparation for Native Client. But why buy now when the price is high, right?

JungleGymSam2• 13 years ago

Oh yeah http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/02/27/038254/pixel-picture...

baddox5• 13 years ago

By "specs like this," I'm assuming you just mean the high resolution display. I disagree that a hi-res display is only useful or "meaningful" for development, design, or gaming. It's great for web browsing, which is my main usage for the iPad, and I happily upgraded from iPad 2 to the 3rd generation iPad just for the retina display.

strongvigilance• 13 years ago

I imagine "specs like this" is referring to the Core i5 rather than the display.

mcantelon3• 13 years ago

>And yet ChromeOS can't do any of these things.

It does seem weird, yes. My guess is gaming is definitely something it will be able to do (if not now then soon) via Native Client.

wycats• 13 years ago

I was delighted to see Bastion, a game I played on my Mac, available on the Chrome Web Store using Native Client (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bastion/oohphhdkah...)

jonknee4• 13 years ago

Using that logic I don't know how Apple sells so many of its MacBooks. They're all expensive and have "specs like this", but the vast majority are not used for development, design or gaming.

I can see the appeal of a small (thinner than a MacBook Air), well constructed, blazingly fast laptop. If I could run 1Password on it I would be very tempted to take it for a spin, with the LTE it would make an excellent travel machine.

MrVitaliy• 13 years ago

MBAir is best dev laptop I ever had. Its super light, plenty of power and space for most app development and within reach price wise. Also, I suggest you look up Linus's rant about how he loves Mac book air and SSD for kernel development.

masklinn2• 13 years ago

> Using that logic I don't know how Apple sells so many of its MacBooks. They're all expensive and have "specs like this", but the vast majority are not used for development, design or gaming.

A macbook is more than a thin client running SSH and a browser.

scholia• 13 years ago

Maybe it's designed for Google employees. If so, we may not know why they wanted that spec, and the price doesn't matter...

dudusmaximus• 13 years ago

I agree. Dogfooding whilst ensuring their productivity won't suffer. Something to replace all those MacBookPros being used at Google ..

ZeroGravitas• 13 years ago

It's got integrated Intel graphics. That's something I pay attention to because the open source support is great. But I was led to believe that no serious gamer would touch them.

Note also that I could probably develop on it as I use Vim in a terminal, which I believe ChromeOS has.

stanleydrew2• 13 years ago

Yes ChromeOS has a terminal. Just hit Ctrl+Alt+T. The SSH interface is a little non-standard as I recall but not enough to be a problem. It has dynamic proxying support so you can set up a SOCKS proxy through localhost and on to a host in [country] to get around content licensing restrictions. I've done this for Netflix, Hulu, MLB, Fox Soccer, and the London Olympics.

monochromatic4• 13 years ago

And who wants to smear fingerprints all over his laptop screen?

RexRollman3• 13 years ago

This! I just can't understand why it would be desired on a laptop.

rayiner22• 13 years ago

Nobody does: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/02/googles-new-touchscre...

Not a single positive comment on the entire front-page, and Ars isn't exactly madly pro-Mac.

I have to admit my feeling of schadenfreude is pretty strong right now...

phaus• 13 years ago

My theory is that maybe this announcement was intended to make the $1500 Google Glass seem slightly less ridiculous. It's going to take more than a $1300 Chrome book to do that.

In all seriousness though, I was really excited about this when I saw the first video, then it was reported to be a fraud, and now all of a sudden it has an i5 and it costs twice what I thought it would.

At 600-700 bucks, I was ready to trade in my iPad, but for this amount, I'd rather get an XPS dev edition or a 13" retina macbook for just a bit more.

hiker3• 13 years ago

Before I read your comment I though that computers only good for accounting and scientific simulations. But then I remembered that it's not 1951 any more. Thank you. </bitter-irony>

hiker3• 13 years ago

You can always nuke Chrome OS and install a OSX/linux/windows/whatever-rocks-your-boat. You're paying for the hardware, not for Chrome OS.

dannyr3• 13 years ago

"There are only three meaningful things you can do with a computer with specs like this: development, design, or gaming. And yet ChromeOS can't do any of these things."

If ChromeOS wants to do these things, they need something like Pixel.

You got it the other way around.

curveship• 13 years ago

Some speculation about one thing a machine like this might be for:

1. Google purchased Nik Software a few months ago. Nik makes several industry leading tools for photo retouching.

2. Before the acquisition, Nik had started transitioning their desktop technology to touch, for use in their tablet app Snapseed.

3. The Nik folk have been kind of quiet since the acquisition.

4. Now Google comes out with a hi-res, touch-oriented laptop, an absolute dream machine for photo editing.

5. ... New Chrome OS native photo editing app?

colmvp• 13 years ago

Neither do I.

For an extra $200, you can get twice the RAM, four times the storage, a better battery, and the ability to install whatever OS suits your fancy.

medikoo• 13 years ago

well.. 64GB limit of internal memory, makes this device not capable for any serious development, design etc. work.

floetic• 13 years ago

Who cares. Next.

tlrobinson• 13 years ago

I wish the screen folded 180 degrees around so you could use it as a tablet.

mediagearbox• 13 years ago

I agree with this, that would probably be the icing on the cake. At least help on the steep price jump.

rodolphoarruda• 13 years ago

> The WiFi version ($1,299 U.S. and £1,049 U.K.) will start shipping next week(...)

Uh, will there be a non-wifi version?

guyzero• 13 years ago

Versus the wifi-plus-LTE version.

DigitalTurk• 13 years ago

The Verge has more pictures.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/21/4013480/google-chromebook-...

It looks an awful lot like a Macbook: Just witness the aluminum-like color and the black bevel around the screen. Where it looks different, it's uglier. The hinge looks particularly bad. And judging by the pictures it's an awful lot bulkier than a Macbook Air.

Chrome OS strikes me as an underpowered OS. That is, there's a lot it won't do and it seems mostly suitable for underpowered machines.

UPDATE: this paragraph is wrong; I stand corrected! -- The ChromeBook Pixel has a 4:3 display. Now, I recently came across an old laptop of mine that had a 4:3 display and it looked off. I'm not saying that 4:3 aspect ratio a bad choice in an objective sense, but it strikes me as a bad choice from a marketing point of view.

For one hundred dollars less you can get a 13" Macbook Air. For two hundred dollars more you can get a 13" Macbook Pro with Retina Display. Both these machines seem better than the Chromebook Pixel in every way, including battery life (7 hours versus 5).

In conclusion, I think this is going to fail badly.

networked2• 13 years ago

>The ChromeBook Pixel has a 4:3 display.

That would be 2560x1920. ChromeBook Pixel has a 2560 by 1700 display, which makes for a wider aspect ratio of almost 3:2.

iso-8859-18• 13 years ago

You're lucky that it has quadratic pixels! You can't assume that. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio

mcantelon3• 13 years ago

>Both these machines seem better than the Chromebook Pixel in every way

Other than not having a touch screen.

Lockyy2• 13 years ago

Because my laptop doesn't already get enough fingerprints all over the screen.

monochromatic4• 13 years ago

A laptop having a touch screen is a bug, not a feature.

Taylorious• 13 years ago

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I agree that it looks too much like an Apple product, but I think the differences they made are nice and the machine over all looks better than the Macbook Pro.

I am disappointed though. One of the images they showed was in low light and it made it look like the whole surface of the keyboard area was charcoal sort of shade. I think that would look way more sleek and professional looking, and at the same time it would help to differentiate it from Apple products.

qu4z-2• 13 years ago

I would just about buy it purely on the basis of being 4:3, were it so.

Zak9• 13 years ago

I love that it has a taller/squarer aspect ratio than the vast majority of laptops on the market. I find the current crop of ultra-short screens completely unacceptable for the text-heavy tasks I spend the vast majority of my computer time doing.

I'd rather have 4:3, and my current laptop is a semi-custom Thinkpad I built by shoehorning a newer motherboard in to a T60p just so I could have a decent 15" 4:3 screen and 8gb of memory in the same laptop.

Unfortunately, this particular machine is a little pricey for what it is and not a size I'd like. It should diminish the "these are the only screens we can get" excuse that PC makers keep trying to give us though.

drummer32• 13 years ago

So now Apple has a patent on aluminium color and black bezel? Most laptops (and for that matter tablets) have a black bezel cause it provides a good contrast from the content on the screen. When I saw the picture i thought "At least they won't say it looks like a macbook. It has a hard-edge look, from the pictures i looks like it has a dark tone aluminium color and it has that (admitetly awfull looking) hinge thingy. But hey, it's a laptop and and it's small and silvery, Google made a Macbook clone...

Vervious• 13 years ago

Why didn't they just turn it into a tablet? The trackpad seems almost extraneous, and the keyboard could be an add-on. Not to mention the square form factor that makes it look bulkier than it really is.

wmf3• 13 years ago

Isn't that the Nexus 10?

influx• 13 years ago

I wish Google would come up with a unique design, they have the talent for it, this looks very much like an Apple product to me.

theoretick3• 13 years ago

The labeling on the spine is a nice touch, I rather like that. Otherwise, most of them have been woeful copies.

naner2• 13 years ago

Any thin laptop with a minimal case ends up looking like an Apple laptop. There's not really much they can do...

rayiner22• 13 years ago

Hardly.

See: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9P8WdCCk5cE/UJuZ-QMgYhI/AAAAAAAABZ...

http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/X1_close...

http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Thin...

andrewguenther• 13 years ago

Good design = looks like Apple product.

moron4hire• 13 years ago

Is the 1TB Google Drive account complimentary with the purchase? And for how long? Cuz that's $600 in the first year, right there.

ebbv4• 13 years ago

It's free for 3 years which is supposedly "the lifetime of the laptop." Which, I dunno, I would think part of the attraction of a Chromebook would be that it would have a longer life due to everything happening on the cloud, and thus the local CPU, etc. being less important. Ergo, it should have a longer life.

theoretick3• 13 years ago

> Pixel also comes with one terabyte of Google Drive cloud storage, free for 3 years,

OWaz• 13 years ago

I wonder if existing Chromebook users would want to pay for a Chromebook Pixel, or if they're content with what they have.I thought Chromebooks were about low price points, an alternative to expensive machines which people primarily used for web browsing. I guess there's going to some people who don't care about the number of gigabytes on their laptop. They just want sharp graphics and constant online access.

glogla3• 13 years ago

Oh boy. If only they gave it 128 GB drive.

The way it is it's useless for me (and I guess most people on HN, though I think basic Ubuntu could fit into 32/64 GB), but it still makes me cautiously optimistic that after years of stagnation and perhaps even regression, the 1366x768 era might be nearing it's end. I can hope that in a year, "reasonable-resolution" (as Linus called it) laptop like the Pixel will be not outrageous or top of the line but simply normal.

And the screen aspect ratio is just a cherry on top.

cjbprime• 13 years ago

128GB UHS-I SD cards are about $100 these days, so you could just add a permanent one as Ubuntu's /home. You'd expect to lose at least a factor of four in max transfer speed over an SSD, though.

dnissley• 13 years ago

I can't wait for a teardown. I'm crossing my fingers for there to be an ssd in there attached to an msata interface which could be easily swapped out for something bigger.

I'm guessing that the ram is soldered in though, due to the thinness of the device. Oh well, 4gb is workable.

damniatx• 13 years ago

It's use msata interface. teardown picture :http://goo.gl/Gt2oN

bitcartel2• 13 years ago

Where are the real specs? Google have gone and copied what Apple do, and just dumped marketing blurb everywhere.

"Intel® Core™ i5 Processor (Dual Core 1.8GHz)" - What's the model number? There are numerous Core i5 processors and their performance varies, which one am I getting? http://www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html

32 GB SSD - What kind of read/write speed? Standard SATA or mSATA interface?

4 GB DDR3 RAM - Is the RAM soldered or user upgradeable? How many ram slots? What's the maximum capacity?

Perhaps I'm in the minority, but at that price, I do actually want to know if I'm buying an appliance or a computer.

wmf3• 13 years ago

Chromebooks are definitely appliances.

I only found two current Dual Core 1.8GHz i5s: http://ark.intel.com/search/advanced/?s=t&FamilyText=3rd...

The SSD specs don't matter because you can't run anything that would stress it and officially it's not replaceable.

Likewise, RAM is officially not upgradeable/replaceable.

bitcartel2• 13 years ago

That's a shame. I'm sure quite a few people were interested in putting Linux onto the machine.

Evbn6• 13 years ago

Are you certain these are 3rd gen core chips?

rplnt2• 13 years ago

Probably not since they are using some old chipset.

rogerchucker2• 13 years ago

$1300? How do you say WTF in Google-ese?

bane• 13 years ago

wrong direction..$250 should be the target for mass uptake. This is $1050 in the wrong direction...it's almost like they don't want mass uptake of this concept quite yet

dangrossman• 13 years ago

I'm still waiting for Chrome to support high DPI displays on Windows. It looks terrible in Windows 8 with DPI scaling enabled.

theboywho• 13 years ago

Some years from now, people will refer to this (Chromebooks and everything related to Chrome OS) as Google's biggest strategic mistake.

Google's second biggest strategic mistake will be Glass.

I just hope Google would recover.

nickconfer• 13 years ago

I'm curious as to why you think these products won't succeed, and particularly what opportunity they're missing by focusing on these.

Raphael_Amiard• 13 years ago

Am i the only one seeing this as a high-end computer with :

- Linux drivers working out of the box

- Amazing screens

- Very easy to transform into a full fledged Linux development machine

I hope it can fit the bill, certainly looks promising from that perspective ! Anybody has a link to full specs ?

glogla3• 13 years ago

Sadly, with 32 GB, it would probably end as only development machine, while with even 120 GB it could work as reasonable "home machine" too.

But otherwise yes, it looks great.

jre• 13 years ago

I had the same initial reaction, but the killer is the hard drive : 32 or 64 GB SSD... That's a bit short to do local development. Maybe you can change it though.

anonymfus• 13 years ago

I have a link, but it does not currently work in any browser:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pixe...

So search for "Full specs" on the page and click on it.

martythemaniak• 13 years ago

Nope, I was wondering whether sticking Ubuntu or Mint on this would transform it into a kickass Linux laptop. It's close, but there is a measly 32GB SSD and no option for i7 or 8GB RAM.

nbouscal4• 13 years ago

I've been using my Cr-48 with Linux for development and it's actually pretty doable, and it only has 16GB and obviously much worse specs. This is, of course, going to depend very heavily on what kind of development you're doing.

samolang• 13 years ago

http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pixe...

vladev• 13 years ago

I wonder how Linux desktops will handle the screen - I imagine lots of tiny, unreadable text.

bnegreve• 13 years ago

I a pretty sure the font size isn't hard coded in the kernel ;)

37prime• 13 years ago

I still can't get over the price tag for a Chromebook regardless of the specs.

codeulike2• 13 years ago

Is an Apple touchscreen laptop now looking more likely?

yourmind• 13 years ago

I love it.

DonnyV• 13 years ago

12.85" display....really. I blame Apple for all these new over priced tiny screens. At least make it a 15" and the ability to run Android apps.

NateDad3• 13 years ago

The screen is the only thing to like. If it had 256gb drive, 8gb RAM, and an i7, then I'd be a lot more likely to look at it (and install ubuntu on it).

Yes, it has a touch screen... do people actually like touch screens on their laptops? Is that worth such a huge premium for such mediocre hardware otherwise?

guylhem• 13 years ago

For my mobile devices, I usually don't care a lot about the brand, and only slightly the costs - I simply get what best matches my needs.

I want all my data in the cloud + permanent access on a powerful device where I can do everything (ie I don't want something underpowered causing limitations).

The $150 difference for a minimal LTE connections makes this thing attractive - that means no need to look for wifi hotspots and then spend a minute to ask for the damn password to restaurant owners.

The 1TB cloud storage, if it can be shared with other computers at home, would just kill any need I have of Dropbox and others. That is also a big plus. If the cloud storage can somehow be used to host static websites with a custom domain name, I would also cancel at least 2 hosting accounts. (add some PostgreSQL capability and that'd be 3 hosting accounts I'd cancel)

BUT :

- 4Gb of RAM? Who though that it could be decent for a high-end laptop? 8Gb is the bare minimum I will consider. I will want to run heavy stuff on that thing if there is an i5 and a low battery life instead of an ARM. (heavy stuff: a gazillon tabs, editors, many pdf files, editing documents, cpu-hog websites doing pretty graphs like http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/trends/)

- 64 Gb of flash??? Really??? How will I get permanent access to my 1Tb of data if I'm in a place without LTE or WIFI ???

I purchased a 512 Gb SSD for my Macbook Air as soon as it was available on OWC, just because I can't stand the pain of missing some document or music or whatever

I don't want to care. I want my problems to be solved. 1Tb: ok, 64 Gb cache: fails.

As attractive as this chromebook may look like, I won't buy one because it is not solving all my problems - even if I'm one of these users who want everything in the cloud.

I want everything in the cloud but the online storage is only up to 1 Tb. I have more data that this, but ok, I can live with that minor limitation. However, I want a full backup locally accessible for whenever connectivity might be a problem.

If it is somehow possible to upgrade the RAM and the SSD (in the early days of Zaurus and Simpad, there were shops doing BGA reflow for such needs), and if for say $1000 more I can get than done and get at least 512 Gb of SSD and 8 Gb of ram, I may buy one.

1 Tb of SSD and 8 Gb of ram means I will buy one, but only if at this $1400+$1000=$2400 pricetag there are no better options to run Linux or OSX on similar hardware (1.5 kg, high res touch screen, slim laptop) - because I don't care about the brand.

These are a lot of conditions for me, so I'm not sure about what the market is for that thing. Certainly not me at least.

pwthornton• 13 years ago

As a Chromebook user, I find this device both very intriguing and expensive. I use my Chromebook for writing, Web surfing, light code work. It's a nice little machine to have around. It's not the main event, however.

For heavy-duty work, I use my 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro, which not only has a much better screen, touchpad and other hardware, but it also has a big SSD and a full-fledged OS. Chrome OS is not a OS X competitor, and there are a lot of things I simply cannot do on ChromeOS. The beauty of ChromeOS is that its a lightweight OS that can be placed on cheap hardware to make it usable and fast by serving as a thin client. I don't see it as a great OS to stick on expensive hardware.

I find the Pixel to be an intriguing device, and hope that all laptops have high pixel density screens within five years. This price point is too high for ChromeOS. I'm not spending $1,000 for a machine that cannot do certain computing tasks.

There are no good graphic or photo editors in the cloud. Editing audio and video is very difficult to do as well. Using your machine as a development device without connecting to a server is not possible. Not to mention that the MacBook Pro can play games, run Windows and Linux, etc.

The Retina MacBook may have cost more than the Pixel is going to, but it is worth several times more. Not to mention that Apple has spent a lot of time working with hiDPI screens and has made the OS work well for it.

What would make an intriguing price point? $799. Perhaps $999. It will come down to the software, however. I've never see ChromeOS with a touchscren. Maybe it'll work well, and maybe what would really work well is a Pixel-like device with a detachable screen. But the kind of people that spend more than $1,000 on a computer are looking for more than just a thin client.

paul_f2• 13 years ago

My theory is the Pixel is for corporate customers not consumers. Dramatically lower IT support costs since no local storage. Probably increased security as well. And this version takes care of the high end of that market.

mcfazeli• 13 years ago

What I find rather shocking is that 10% of all UK laptops are Chromebooks. When and how did that happen? This is all while Apple is still dominating the Windows exodus!

recoiledsnake5• 13 years ago

The original source says this:

>In PC pro stores with a Google Zone, sales of Chromebooks represent over 10% of our notebook sales.

That's a far cry from "10% of all UK laptops are Chromebooks".

First they're talking about sales, while your statement is talking about install base.

I suspect the "other" below is mostly Android, so it's not even a blip on the radar in Statcounter stats for UK.

http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-GB-monthly-201201-201301

Terretta• 13 years ago

Google Drive 1TB for 3 years = $1,800

Chromebook Pixel 1TB for 3 years = $1,300 + free laptop

Or put another way, commit to Google Drive for 3 years of 1TB, get 30% off and a free Chromebook Pixel.

alexpeiniger• 13 years ago

Looks like a great device. Really looking forward to try this out.

RexRollman3• 13 years ago

"Speed has been a core tenet of Chrome and Chromebooks since the beginning"

Too bad the OS is seemingly always tied to low end - dog slow hardware.

RexRollman3• 13 years ago

Personally, I wish you could get one without the touchscreen. I understand people like touchscreens on tablets but I don't see the need for it on a laptop.

snuze• 13 years ago

Google, stop trying to make ChromeOS happen, it's not going to happen.

wuster• 13 years ago

Intel Core i5 and HD 4000 - I think this thing can be Hackintoshed!

silasb• 13 years ago

That is what I'm thinking.

CGamesPlay• 13 years ago

To help get context on this, I went back in time and looked at discussion about the initial iPad launch:

- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1081505

- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1081140

The first poll is especially telling. Overwhelmingly, people said they wouldn't get this device (2/3 of the voters). The initial iPad was obviously very successful.

The complaints in the second thread are largely a mirror of the conversation in this thread, except for back then, nobody came up with counterarguments in favor of the iPad. Does that indicate that the market for this sort of thing is different these days?

polshaw2• 13 years ago

1 in 3 people saying they want to get a new device is an extremely good result. IMO the ipad 1 wasn't that great either.

zevyoura• 13 years ago

Indeed, it seems like a stretch to compare that discussion to this one, where I haven't seen a single poster who seemed eager to by one.

monochromatic4• 13 years ago

Still using mine. It's a bit laggy, but perfectly usable. I use it every day, and if it were inadequate in any way, I would go out and replace it tomorrow.

Honestly, the only thing I really miss compared to my girlfriend's newer model is that her backlight gets dimmer than mine.

sidcool4• 13 years ago

Well played sir.

gkcn• 13 years ago

Where are the home/end/pgup/pgdown keys? It doesn't have a function key as in Mac either.

iso-8859-18• 13 years ago

You probably need to use the other modifier keys. But it's weird... it's not even a PC-101! I guess Google has really gone back to the roots... PC/XT or PC/AT :P

PC/XT keyboard: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/IBM_5150_...

Discussion briefly mentions PgUp: https://plus.google.com/+JeffJarvis/posts/g9gcXLPuVVQ

skc• 13 years ago

I'm confused. People said the Surface Pro was overpriced. This thing does much, much less than a Surface Pro but costs $300 more.

And it's being praised?

Wow.

SquareWheel2• 13 years ago

It's a laptop with a good screen. Pretty much what people have been wanting for years.

adamors• 13 years ago

It's a laptop - <everything you do on a laptop> + browser.

Pathetic is what it is.

onemorepassword• 13 years ago

Just ignoring the specs and the Chromebook concept for a second (yes, this baby is useless for most of us, obviously), I'm very impressed with the design.

This is the first time ever I've seen a laptop design that is not a total Apple rip-off and looks classy. At least it doesn't scream "compromise" like 99% of all other non-Apple laptops.

dysoco• 13 years ago

Everyone is saying that you can easily turn this into a development machine with SSH or a web IDE like action.io ... but what if I don't have internet? You never leave your home?

What's the point of a mobile chromebook if I won't use it ouside my home or my workplace? And last time I checked there isn't open WiFi in the streets.

Stenerson• 13 years ago

For $1,300 this should come with Google Glass

Detrus• 13 years ago

This promo video http://youtu.be/j-XTpdDDXiU looks and sounds like Apple's, apart from white backgrounds. Speech writing is the same, uses the same words like delightful, great, blah blah. Weird.

mikemoka• 13 years ago

Google Store // Play Store // Google Phone // Chromebook Pixel

Apple Store // App Store // iPhone // Macbook Pro

Microsoft Store (http://content.microsoftstore.com/Home.aspx ) // Windows Store // Windows Phone // Microsoft Surface RT

ok, very innovative strategies I'd say..

akurilin• 13 years ago

On the plus side, seems like high PPI screens are getting more popular, thank gosh. Next stop desktop monitors, or at least so I hope.

anonymous2• 13 years ago

> 3:2 display at 239 ppi

YES

FUCK YES

I WANT TEN (provided I can install a different linux distro on them)

Too bad google won't sell one to me yet.

pdknsk• 13 years ago

"Lightbar. Just because it looks cool."

If the next iteration looses the touchscreen and is fully Ubuntu supported, I might get it.

martindale• 13 years ago

Only 100MB/mo for the LTE? That's like 8 refreshes of the TechCrunch homepage.

KaoruAoiShiho• 13 years ago

This is the Tesla roadster. It's an aspirational product for those who can afford it, those who wants to live in a brand new, and not quite ready for primetime, cutting edge world.

samstave• 13 years ago

It all started a few years ago. People didn't understand at first. It looked hap-hazzard.. but now. Now they get it - but even more than that, they're trapped.

One used to be able to expect both freedom and choice. Now they have neither.

It was a kicker too, starting out with a service here, a device there, a bit of infrastructure over there.... but now? Now its one big system. From bit to brick, its all one big pipe - an experience fully enclosed, encapsulated, enumerated, evaluated and.... exploited. For every single bit of information about, well, everything.

They worked their way down the layers. What was once a web service is now the actual physical net.

You cant push a packet without them seeing it.Most people don' care though - they bought into the web services decades ago. Phones were next, then laptops, service providers and frequencies.

Its basically the commercial version of the NSA these days, hell, there hasn't even been a real difference between the two for some time now.

Now, pretty much any connection is provided by them. They started out nice enough... do no evil and all... but when you're the only game in town - it's pretty hard to not abuse your power. Hell, its more than power. Power is limited... omnipotence is not. That's what they are now - omnipotent, and there isn't anything anyone can do about it now, either.

Every spoken word, every communication mashed out from keyboard to carrier is captured in the goog. They pretty much own thought at this point...

bitsoda• 13 years ago

Besides being too expensive for something in which you can't do real work (yes, I know, you can SSH into a hosted box, but why would I pay $1300 and $X.XX for hosting, to essentially use this new machine as a dumb terminal), what's the point of having a touch screen on a laptop? Haven't we concluded that this is a horrible idea? Just look at this demo (http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/21/4013480/google-chromebook-...) from The Verge, Dieter fumbles around trying to hit a tab.

It strikes me odd that Google, a company with no shortage of talent, can't get retail right. Who is this laptop for? The 12 year old Engadget/Verge reader who thinks this Chromebook Pixel is the nail in Apple's coffin?

This is so misguided. I know I shouldn't be so infuriated over a botched product launch, but this irks me for some reason. I guess it's because I like Google's products and want them to succeed in hardware, but I lose hope when I see questionable decisions like the manufacturing of this neutered MacBook Pro ripoff. Ugh.

weej• 13 years ago

I could see ChromeOS converging w/ Android into a single platform that allowed for android app emulation while running x86_64 apps natively.

I realize they're completely separate teams, but at what point do they converge to provide a greater value-add to the product?

What user is going to drop $1200 on a machine that only lets you browse the web? Unless GOOG plans on providing some large backend for virtualization or offloading CPU processing what's in it for the "power" user.

There's more to this than we're privy to. I don't see a user needing this kind of horse power for just cloud-based applications. That doesn't make sense.

codenerdz• 13 years ago

I hope this means MBA Retina will be coming soon :)

kunai6• 13 years ago

Props to them for making the display vertically rather than horizontally oriented. I've been incredibly tired of the stupidly short 16:9 displays dominating the market. However, one has to wonder why such a good display is being wasted on a product like this. Great specs, great display, but horrible, crap operating system.

Who needs this kind of laptop to just browse the web? I would buy this in an instant if it had some custom Linux distribution on it.

I guess it's Retina or nothing, then, unfortunately.

celerity• 13 years ago

This screen and 4:3 would make this an almost perfect Ubuntu Linux laptop for me. Too bad it probably won't be installable for a long time!

akandiah2• 13 years ago

I'm saddened that it's 2013 and we still have to deal with laggy screens!

http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/21/4013932/chromebook-pixel-h...

Shooti• 13 years ago

If Chrome for Android is anything to go by it's not the screen, but Chrome's touch handling.

mark-r• 13 years ago

Interesting screen aspect ratio of 3:2, halfway between the 4:3 of yore and the nearly inescapable 16:9 widescreen. It seems like a nice compromise, better than 16:10 if height is important to you.

I wonder how long it will be before other manufacturers pick it up?

smallegan• 13 years ago

Anyone notice how closely the video ad resembles an Apple ad? Come on google, how about a little originality? I'd love to try one of these out in person though.

zmanian2• 13 years ago

One strong point for installing arbitrary Linux distros on the pixel is that the Intel linux gpu drivers are fully open source. The downside of the arm chrome book has been the Samsung binary blob

twanlass• 13 years ago

Why is the screen nearly square???

iso-8859-18• 13 years ago

Because it has an aspect ratio of 1.5:1. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_%28image%29#3:2

zmanian2• 13 years ago

I've never understood why Mark Shuttleworth and Cannonical never built a halo laptop for Ubuntu. If they knew this was in the works, it starts to make sense

erikpukinskis• 13 years ago

People are (correctly) pointing out that the consumer/pro value proposition is not really there.

I suspect this is a pure enterprise play for Google. Institutional customers who value the management features of the ChromeBook platform but want to give their employees something nicer than a $300 netbook with a laptop screen.

o0-0o• 13 years ago

I just called every best buy in nyc and no one there has heard of it.

spinchange• 13 years ago

I love it but it's too niche and rich for my blood. I get the idea: A beautiful, super high-res touch display with keyboard running a Cloud OS. The only problem is for this dollar you're in Mac territory and while maybe you sacrifice touch display, you suddenly have far more robust hardware and local I/O. If money was no object, I'd get one in a heartbeat. But realistically...

It is a thing of beauty. It just seems uneconomical / impractical at this price point which is necessitated by the display.

Edit - I was going to suggest a PC laptop with touch display, that you could always install ChromeOS on in a boot partition, but your're just not going to get that resolution. This is for someone who wants a beautiful thin client above all else.

mrb6• 13 years ago

Two words: reading maps.

A high-PPI screen is heaven for using Google Maps. I always get so frustrated on my 1080p screen: even with the browser map in full screen mode, I can't seem to see "enough" of it when browsing random geographical locations and trying to get a sense of how the surrounding area looks.

A 239 PPI screen allows displaying a character in an 8-pixel font (eg. "fixed" on Linux) in a 1x1mm area. You could have all the tiniest roads and cities labelled on the map, even if barely readable.

hmottestad• 13 years ago

I feel there is far too little discussion here on the screen.

This laptop screen is amazing. Since we today have light, fast, power efficient and sturdy laptops. The next big thing, is the screen.

A TN screen on a laptop is just sad. My first Macbook pro felt horrid just because I was used to a PVA desktop screen. I kept adjusting and adjusting the screen.

If you take a moment to appreciate your crummy laptop screen you will notice a few things.

1. The screen has a tint to it. Ranging from green to purple from the top of the screen to the bottom. Put the screen on its side and this is very clear.

2. The viewing angles are horrendous. Put on a black background and try to adjust the screen so that it's evenly black top to bottom. At arms length this is impossible, and really annoying when watching a movie.

3. Try having a friend stand behind you while you work and show him a picture of your girlfriend, he'll be shocked at how pale she has become.

I'm currently on a Macbook with retina screen. I have an iPad with retina screen and I have a normal 24" 1920x1200 desktop which used to be my best screen, but is now only better than the screen on my old ipod touch.

People complain about their laptop keyboards. I complain about laptop screens.

shrughes• 13 years ago

Meanwhile, plenty of TN screens are fine -- the 15.6" FHD 95% NTSC gamut screens floating around out there are great, the 13.1" FHD screens on the Vaio Z were great, and meanwhile many IPS screens have a shimmer effect when you move your head off-center, or have weak color gamut. The only good IPS screens are found on some Elitebooks and Precisions.

nakedrobot2• 13 years ago

The absolute best news about this computer is that it has a 4:3 screen, as it should be. This is the first 4:3 screen I have seen in a very long time. On top of that, it is a fantastic resolution. This is great news.

babebridou• 13 years ago

I completely agree with you here. fullscreen web doesn't really work in 16:10, even in portrait. It's among the reasons why I preferred my iPad to my Xoom for web browsing a couple years ago.

Now I wish you could switch to portrait on this one and still keep the keyboard.

Zenst2• 13 years ago

Had a few friends who got invites and have one to play with for a month now.

Must say I'm somewhat feeling meh about this on many levels.

Initialy the price was a wake up and I thought, ok I'm missing something so I did a little digging and still think its too expensive for the sum of parts.

Issues I have are:

1) Price 2) Limited local storage 3) Only USB2 and no USB3 4) No 3g or 4G options in the UK and given the price I'd expect at least 3 years worth of unlimited 3G internet based up consumer prices and that spec. 5) battery life, is somewhat lacking

Concerns that may also be worries when I know more are:

1) Keyboard mic could be used to snarf passwords via applications that have access to the mic 2) No vents apparent and suspect hidden under the keyboard which is worrying in case of spill/splash 3) Screen mooted to have good viewing angles so more mindful to shoulder surfing

But in general for what you get it seems way too expensive and look forward to a teardown.

Now all that said Google did somewhat get burned on the Nexus 4 pricing and I don't know if they are over compensating or what. They may be releaseing at a silly price for those with more money to burn, then gradualy lower the price to fit all price pockets.

Another aspect a friend said was it has 1tb for 3 years cloud storage and whilst nice and with that local storage overly needed I do think such lockins to Google without being able to tap alternatives and cheaper alternatives distracting from the price. Remember Microsoft many years ago got lambasted for tieing in everybody to IE on windows as default and not offing a simple-janet-and-john alternative for the happy people. This ties in more than that, but different times.

When I factor all that it is and is not I still think if I had that money I would get a macbook air and I have never had Apple product and very much a google fan, but this is so over priced to me that it would be insane to buy one at that price, least for me.

I would also add that two wifi ipads with retina screens and a bluetooth keyboard works out cheaper and with that, it does somewhat again highlight the price factor.

So with all that I'll stick with my plans to get a Chromebook (cheap one) and probably get one even cheaper 2nd hand now :) that and my netbook with built in 3g modem and twice the battery life is still nothing to worry about.

I would like to see a resolution like this but with more storage, USB3, built in 3g modem (3G in the UK is faster than USA 4G and CDMA 4G with voice is a battery nightmare apparently as well as a kludge somewhat). Also at the very least twice that battery life.

So I will with for a tegra 4 version, which will make more sence on more levels.

kinlan2• 13 years ago

The vent is along the back of the hinge. We don't have any API's in js to access the microphones other than getUserMedia API.

On the Drive integration, there is access to other developers for FS for apps and extensions, so it is not just tied to drive http://developer.chrome.com/extensions/fileBrowserHandler.ht...

There is quite a lot of local Storage 32gb and 64gb.

Zenst2• 13 years ago

Thank you and reinsuring too know. With that I'm apprecieting the platform more and more :)).

tszming• 13 years ago

No one think this is a good news in fact?

People really need to thanks Google for bringing up the competition all the time. Now Apple have little reason not to add support for retina, lte, multi touch display in the coming MBA models.

On the other hand, it is a little strange that Google didn't mention the weight of the Pixel.

sevenatenine• 13 years ago

I was surprised at how expensive this was seeing as how there is a $250 chromebook. It's a big step up in price and I don't see what the advantage of it over say a macbook pro would be.

rogerchucker2• 13 years ago

Is it impossible to develop Chrome apps on a Chromebook? Do IDEs like ShiftEdit and Cloud9 allow that?

tree_of_item• 13 years ago

Anyone else think this is a perfect proving ground for something like asm.js?

http://asmjs.org/spec/latest/

ams6110• 13 years ago

The price is insane.

bound008• 13 years ago

Why isn't there 8gb of ram? Even as a die hard apple user I still can't see why they didn't try and beat apple on such a simple and clear specification that when you spend all day in a web browser will help with how fast the device seems.

ilaksh• 13 years ago

will the intel hd 4000 graphics do webgl?

iso-8859-18• 13 years ago

yes, even the oooold intel graphics can do this.

soemarko• 13 years ago

wouldn't this be a better win 8 device than surface? it works on a lap... or maybe running hackintosh?

sidcool4• 13 years ago

This has touch!!! Holy laptop!!!

sidcool4• 13 years ago

1 Terabyte Google Drive cloud storage!!!! Jesus it's brilliant!

sidcool4• 13 years ago

Oh, but $1299 is expensive.

ezolotko2• 13 years ago

1. The design is "borrowed" from Apple 2. Average specs for the price 3. ChromeOS cannot do anything this kind of hardware allows you to.

Verdict: Could be a good Windows PC if the design was original and the specs were better.

ezolotko2• 13 years ago

Forgot to mention - touchscreen on notebook laptops is useless - your arms get tired and your screen gets dirty very quickly. Also: google are regular copycats.

webreac• 13 years ago

I will be interested only when virtualbox will run on it ;-)

przemoc• 13 years ago

Google, you forgot about a trackpoint.

The Chromebook Pixel

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