I'll never switch off a MacBook Pro. You'll have to pry it from my cold... dead... hands. I look at my MacBook Pro the same way I look an my dog. It has served me loyally while the PCs in my life have all experienced time crushing issues.
Nobody is interested in your comments. And what are you doing here? Comments are on Pixelbooks. Displaying habit of typical Apple user. Go live with your MacBook Pro. Sniggering comments of a distinctive Apple user who never get tired of extolling the virtues of Apple ecosystem.
It will soon, google announced it was coming at google i/o. I think they had hoped to have it ready for pixelbook launch but its clearly not ready yet. They are working on it however!
If you're only using web browser on your laptop, what's the point of dropping 1k$+ on it? I mean, I'm not telling anyone what to do with their money, but it's like buying a Mustang GT just to go to the nearest grocery twice a week. Sure, you may have 400+ ponies under the hood, but it doesn't matter if you're not using them.
I am not in the market for one of these, but there is a difference between "works" and works well, even just for web browsers. How nice does the kbd feel? Does the trackpad track like Mac :-) or like Windows ;-( ? How fast is the flash? How long does the battery last? How nice is the screen?
There are many places where you can cut corners top get from a $1.5K laptop to a $400 laptop, and there is a reason almost all those corners are NOT cut in a premium device.
That's like saying just because you can buy a Civic for 18k, Ferrari's aren't work 350k.
Both get you from point A to point B. Both reach the 60-70mph speed limit. But something NICER is generally worth MORE.
If you dont like it or cannot afford it, stop complaining and buy what you can afford. If you DO like it and want it, but don't have money, start saving up.
If you like it and you can afford it, and it'll make you happy or be useful for your work, buy it.
Look, I'll never buy a Chromebook until I can wipe it out and install Linux or Windows on it, straight up not with this Crouton crap. That being said, for the vast majority of users, Chrome OS has everything one would need in a computing device. It really does.
The only difference between the base, 1000-dollar one, and this is 8GB of RAM and 512GB SSD, which is a great example on how to upsell 512GB commodity SSD for 600 bucks, at the time when even high quality 512GB standalone SSD sells for 150. Great product for suckers. Go ahead. Line up.
Dug Up from the Grave! It's not entirely true. It is a i5 to an i7 (which isn't particularly noteworthy a change in these Ultra low power devices. However, the SSD in the i5's (the 128GB and 256 GB ones) are eMMC based, whereas the 512 GB one is, in fact an NVMe device. Still not entirely sure the price justifies that cost differential, though, especially now in mid 2018.
Yeah, such a great platform to run all that professional, demanding productivity software.... oh wait, there isn't any...
Too often those multi-billion dollar corporations manage to surprise the world with their capacity for stupidity. With that OS this is just utterly wasted hardware, and it is not cheap either.
For that amount of money you can get a yoga 720 with a QUAD core CPU and a 1050 graphics and 4k display. It has the pen, the 512 gb of storage and the 16 gigs of ram as well. And it is trivial to open up, replace batteries, upgrade or replace ram and storage. Unlike this sealed brick, which you will have to throw away when the battery capacity drops in a couple of years, or pay a ridiculous amount of a replacement.
Google apparently believes they have reached the amount of brand loyalty levels, required to sell overpriced and piratically useless hardware to idiots.
Even if the OS can be replaced, why bother, when there are already similar form factor products with identical features and much better specs?
Has it ever occurred to you that the OS is a POSITIVE selling point, not something to rebel against?
Not everyone wants Linux, not everyone wants Windows. Hell not everyone even wants macOS (which is why, at some point, it'll be replaced with something closer to iOS --- same macOS UI, same macOS ability to use external hardware, even same Terminal.app. BUT more secure, more robust, even less to manage and to go wrong).
A whole lot of things occur to me. I agree that having a niche OS might be a good thing, for example barely anyone will bother writing viruses for it.
My point was that hardware is literally wasted when coupled with an OS that has no software that could take advantage of it. Thus you are literally throwing money away on buying useless hardware.
The device would make much more sense with a much lower power CPU and lower power storage, making the device much more affordable and significantly increasing battery life/
There will be no security to be gained form switching macos to ios, because as soon as that gains prominence it will also become a more prominent hacking target.
If you think ios is more secure, you must be living under a rock. This week alone there were news of 2 serious exploits. The reason it is less targeted is because the platform offers less reward.
No software to take advantage of it? what are you talking about? all web-apps run on it. Netflix, hulu, gmail, google calendar, google sheets, google drive, google keep, google voice, google hangouts, google maps, JStorrent, facebook, amazon, anandtech.com, wordpress, medium, instagram, skype's web-app, etc etc etc it'd be easier to try to list relevant apps that don't work on it than ones that do.
Web apps are apps. who cares if they through a web-browser or if they run on win32 or whatever
you think ios has less reward for hackers than windows? I don't really follow that, I'd argue being able to hack iphones would be the most valuable thing to hack.
Nope, if you want to playing non-web games, don't buy a chromebook... in fact, don't buy any sub 3LB portable computer... it'll be a terrible experience if it runs the game at all. Get a desktop with a powerful GPU... yet tons of ipads and ultrabooks sell and many people are happy with them.
"Google apparently believes they have reached the amount of brand loyalty levels, required to sell overpriced and piratically useless hardware to idiots."
And it was apparent from the very first thing called "Pixel".
That is exactly what I was thinking - wonder if Google is purposely trying to destroy the PC market - I feel sorry for people that purchase this thinking they are getting a real 2in1.
It also has an i7 vs the i5. Now that the Mac Book Air is out; for an i5 same RAM and HDD you will pay $1800.. Where $1600 gets you an i7, and the pen of the PixleBook.
Nice high-end config, about $1k less than the upper end Surface Pro.
My concern is why buy a high-end system which lacks the apps to make use of it? Needs versions of Photoshop, Lightroom...heck the whole creative suite. MS Office for Android have gaps but aren't horrible. I don't see versions of developer IDE's either.
Basically I'm wanting to learn what apps (sorry an old and use the term "apps" for anything that runs on a computer) can justify buying into Google's ecosystem on a professional level?
I feel the same way. Why get this when you can get win 10 laptop for the same price. You might not like windows 10 but at least you can install your own software and games on it.
For that matter, you can install Chrome OS (via CloudReady) on nearly any modern laptop. I did it the other day for a friend's parents, they had fallen victim to ransomware by clicking on the wrong ad (thankfully they didn't lose any real data, it was a new laptop). They only paid $180 for the laptop in the first place; I replaced Windows 10 with CloudReady and they love it. Better build quality and specs than an equally priced Chromebook too, and they can always go back to Windows if they feel the need, though I think they are sold on Chrome OS.
Well most people are not getting this for editing of any kind, its market is the same as people who just want something to carry around that does basic stuff, but sometimes need a little more power.
lots of ways to code on the web... but if your life is in photoshop or Eclipse, maybe this wouldn't be your ideal work machine.
if you are the other 90% of people who only use their web-browser, or easily could exclusively use their web-browser, then this may be the best highly mobile machine for that.
I can see Chromebook as a good alternative because they generally have great displays for super cheap pricing, it's good for normal browsing, email and light work as well as streaming content.
But when it comes to things like Pixelbook, it doesn't make sense to me. At all. But that doesn't mean there aren't people who won't buy it, there's always a market for anything you can make.
It's simply Google's latest foray into trying to cultivate an apple-like cult of retarded users who will buy anything with their name on it, where the higher the price, the higher the "prestige" in that cult.
I think they may also be trying to allow devs to justify developing high end applications for the Chrombook. Once they make the hardware, there's a chance Adobe, et al will develop for it. They won't bother otherwise. I suspect this is their plan and they know they're going to lose money on the R&D and so on for this early model as few will buy it but their plan is probably long term and combined with early talks with software companies who have said they'll develop if the hardware exists and gains some traction.
But yeh, at the moment it's totally a cult status symbol and of no practical use.
Cult status symbol you say? Good, I'll buy 3 of them so I can arrange them around me on a table at Starbucks while I sip an iced venti mint mocha frappe (non-fat milk, of course). Doing so will make me look and feel more important than anyone else there regardless of their computing platform and don't even get me started on the lesser mortals that only take their phone out with them to drink overpriced coffee. They're beneath my notice.
More than 50% of all educational sales are now Chromebooks (It would be higher but they don't have to replace them every 3 years). The majority of Kids that entered middle school after 2008 have chromebooks and have used nothing else (most probably couldn't even use a windows computer). The vast majority of people using computers have no need for anything other than a chromebook. They are secure, safe, automatically updated. Most are lightweight with long battery lives and look better than apple computers.
From what I've seen of the market the high end chromebooks are purchased by developers, they install Linux via Crouton on top of the Chrome install, they get all the security of Chrome, a full Linux workspace and development tools and one of the lightest, longest battery laptops in the market that isn't fully locked to Microsoft or paying the MS/Apple Tax.
The vast majority of the computer market needs nothing more than a Chromebook for personal use. Fact is if you don't game or aren't one of the 1% doing heavy computational tasks in your free time you really shouldn't be using anything other than a chromebook and the market has been shifting toward that reality.
What's humorous to me is every time a chromebook is released you see all the comments like in this thread, but at the same time somewhere around 1/3 of all laptop format computers in use are now chromebooks. Chromebooks dominate the educational market and in 10 years it's going to be even more dominant due to that. Microsoft laughed at these things when they came out but they now sell so many of them it's the second most popular operating system for laptop format and still growing in popularity every quarter while overall windows sales as a percent of total sales is falling in the non-business market. You might not get chromebook, but that's likely because you've anchored yourself to Microsoft.
Fact is if you don't game or aren't one of the 1% doing heavy computational tasks in your free time you really shouldn't be using anything other than a chromebook and the market has been shifting toward that reality.
No wonder I have noticed recently that there are crazy number of deals for buying "gaming laptops" with quad-core Intel CPUs, latest GPUs, and FHD screens for something like 600-800USD. The truth is that most people don't need that any more.
Why? It's not like there aren't plenty of cheap Chromebooks available rom other vendors.
If you want to establish your brand as premium, you DON'T SELL CRAP. Not ever. Not in any form factor. The reason people are willing to pay an extra 20% or so for premium brands is that they trust that they are not being abused, that whatever they buy is basically a good product at that price point.
As soon as you split the line into "the good stuff" and "the crap stuff", there's no longer any point in paying that 20% premium because the brand, by itself, no longer guarantees anything. Sony went down this path, Samsung is going down it as we speak (with the sane 10% of the company trying desperately to keep the Galaxy S sub-brand as premium, and the insane 90% trying to slap Galaxy onto any random PoS they can ship).
Google APPEARS to want to be in the business of establishing a brand premium. This probably makes sense, for the same reason that MS had to make laptops --- because no-one else is going to ship Google-OS devices that aren't GUARANTEED not to suck. Listening to you and destroying that brand premium would be the stupidest thing they could do.
Chromebook was first design to have a light OS and an affordable solution, i.e. something that can be used in schools without breaking the bank. This however, I am not sure if Google actually thought through who is their target audience. Just because the company is worth billions doesn't mean they waste resources coming up with meaningless product.
Every article about a Chromebook has the same discussion. The people who have used a Chromebook are generally in love with it (including myself), the people who haven't can't see the point. Most of the criticism are aimed at the lack of features, but for most of the proponents that is the strong point. Everything it can do works and works well. Especially installing the platform is such a joy. Login and within 5 minutes you're up and running. I just wish people could look past their own needs and ideas to understand others better. Nobody would recommend a Chromebook to a gamer or a power user. This Pixelbook is obviously for the professional who wants to install Linux and use it for development and also to stimulate development of the ChromeOS platform. For people who don't need this use case, there are the Asus C302A or the Samsung Chromebook Plus/Pro. I have the former and it is really nice. 2-1 functionality, great keyboard and trackpad, 64GB and microSD.
It funny when Microsoft makes a lock down version Windows with Windows 10 S people complain. But then when Google makes an useless Chrome OS machine - they like it. The best type of CPU for this environment is probably Atom cpu's and possibly the m3-6y30.
I am sure if Chromebooks got as popular as Windows, Virus will be created for it. They are not creating the virus - because nobody truly uses them.
I do feel sorry for gullible non informed user - that purchase one of these or even worst the new Google one's with i7, expecting they can do more. But I could see this being used for a person like my dad who is 82 years old - with one exception can it do Microsoft Word or Excel
To me Chromebooks remind me of Windows RT machines with less apps.
I assume if you had an endless supply of money and wanted a good machine for only surfing the internet it would be good choice.
As developer how could you used this machine - do they have developer app - I heard you can't installed other OS's on this things. Why would developer consider a machine like this. To me it is an over price toy
Different types of customers - the people complaining about a locked-down Windows 10 are not the same people who'd buy a Chromebook or an Apple device.
That doesn't mean that their complaints are invalid though - Microsoft needs to understand their customers and why they have continued to be Microsoft customers rather than Apple or Google customers.
As far as I heard what is bad with this devices is they don't allow other OS's to run on it. Microsoft does have Windows 10 S that is pretty much same level of OS command to Chrome OS.
The hardware looks nice, but the price is comparable to Windows convertibles like the Lenovo Yoga and Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 that you can do a lot more with.
Not only is the price extortionate for a Chromebook, but they can't even be bothered to give you the (Wacom AES) pen in the box and want another $99 for that. Ridiculous!
Meanwhile, you can buy something like a Surface Pro 2 in the low $300s, maybe a bit less second-hand, have similar pen input capabilties (Wacom EMR, still preferable to N-trig in later Surface Pros), and you can actually run software like Photoshop, CLIP STUDIO PAINT, etc. on it.
So yeah, I'm not seeing the appeal here. I would've rather seen them make the Pixelbook Pen work on the Pixel 2 XL just so the Galaxy Note lineup has a real competitor for once.
If this supports Linux VMs as some recent Google Github commits suggest, it might be pretty interestnig. 1K sounds like a lot for a chromebook, but it's about right for the hardware at least. Other-Linux without Chroot or dual boot would be sweet on it, nice dev machine.
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iampivot - Wednesday, October 4, 2017 - link
If only android studio would run on it, then I'd drop my macbook pro for it.prisonerX - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
Install linux on it and it will. Now you have no excuse.TEAMSWITCHER - Friday, October 6, 2017 - link
I'll never switch off a MacBook Pro. You'll have to pry it from my cold... dead... hands. I look at my MacBook Pro the same way I look an my dog. It has served me loyally while the PCs in my life have all experienced time crushing issues.artk2219 - Tuesday, October 10, 2017 - link
That means you were buying cheap crappy PC's.amitural - Friday, October 20, 2017 - link
Nobody is interested in your comments. And what are you doing here? Comments are on Pixelbooks. Displaying habit of typical Apple user. Go live with your MacBook Pro. Sniggering comments of a distinctive Apple user who never get tired of extolling the virtues of Apple ecosystem.adriaaaaan - Friday, October 6, 2017 - link
It will soon, google announced it was coming at google i/o. I think they had hoped to have it ready for pixelbook launch but its clearly not ready yet. They are working on it however!shabby - Wednesday, October 4, 2017 - link
i7 in a chromebook? Lol$1649 for a chromebook? Lol
Google what are you doing...
8steve8 - Wednesday, October 4, 2017 - link
They are making a fast, great, chromebook. That's what they are doing. I wish bezels were smaller though.bubblyboo - Wednesday, October 4, 2017 - link
Yeah but it's still $1K+ for a Chromebook.And bezels are generally needed for tablet + pen mode.
8steve8 - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
for those who are basically only using a web-browser on their laptop, (and there are a ton of those people), what's the problem?you can also get a windows laptop for $400, doesn't mean some aren't worth over $1k
Barilla - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
If you're only using web browser on your laptop, what's the point of dropping 1k$+ on it? I mean, I'm not telling anyone what to do with their money, but it's like buying a Mustang GT just to go to the nearest grocery twice a week. Sure, you may have 400+ ponies under the hood, but it doesn't matter if you're not using them.name99 - Friday, October 6, 2017 - link
I am not in the market for one of these, but there is a difference between "works" and works well, even just for web browsers.How nice does the kbd feel? Does the trackpad track like Mac :-) or like Windows ;-( ?
How fast is the flash? How long does the battery last? How nice is the screen?
There are many places where you can cut corners top get from a $1.5K laptop to a $400 laptop, and there is a reason almost all those corners are NOT cut in a premium device.
WinterCharm - Friday, October 6, 2017 - link
That's like saying just because you can buy a Civic for 18k, Ferrari's aren't work 350k.Both get you from point A to point B. Both reach the 60-70mph speed limit. But something NICER is generally worth MORE.
If you dont like it or cannot afford it, stop complaining and buy what you can afford. If you DO like it and want it, but don't have money, start saving up.
If you like it and you can afford it, and it'll make you happy or be useful for your work, buy it.
flyingpants1 - Monday, October 9, 2017 - link
That's very stupid and a bad analogy. The Chromebook can't run any software. This will sell like 5k units total.niva - Tuesday, October 10, 2017 - link
Any software? Really?Look, I'll never buy a Chromebook until I can wipe it out and install Linux or Windows on it, straight up not with this Crouton crap. That being said, for the vast majority of users, Chrome OS has everything one would need in a computing device. It really does.
firesetter - Tuesday, October 10, 2017 - link
soon you will be able to. ChromeOS is getting built in vm support. https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platf...8steve8 - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
bezels may be needed, but they don't need to be that big. ipad pro has smaller bezels for exampleUtilityMax - Saturday, October 7, 2017 - link
The only difference between the base, 1000-dollar one, and this is 8GB of RAM and 512GB SSD, which is a great example on how to upsell 512GB commodity SSD for 600 bucks, at the time when even high quality 512GB standalone SSD sells for 150. Great product for suckers. Go ahead. Line up.niva - Tuesday, October 10, 2017 - link
Yeah, that's a very valid critique. How hard is it to swap out the SSDs and upgrade RAM in these?artk2219 - Tuesday, October 10, 2017 - link
If we're lucky they use M.2 SSD's, but given the form factor i doubt we're lucky, which means soldered everything! YAY! D:erple2 - Saturday, July 21, 2018 - link
Dug Up from the Grave! It's not entirely true. It is a i5 to an i7 (which isn't particularly noteworthy a change in these Ultra low power devices. However, the SSD in the i5's (the 128GB and 256 GB ones) are eMMC based, whereas the 512 GB one is, in fact an NVMe device. Still not entirely sure the price justifies that cost differential, though, especially now in mid 2018.mr_tawan - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
fastest Android-compatible device maybe ?ddriver - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
Yeah, such a great platform to run all that professional, demanding productivity software.... oh wait, there isn't any...Too often those multi-billion dollar corporations manage to surprise the world with their capacity for stupidity. With that OS this is just utterly wasted hardware, and it is not cheap either.
nagi603 - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
Also, why 512 SSD on a chromebook? 16GB RAM is understandable, desktop chrome itself can eat that much with lots of tabs.WorldWithoutMadness - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
It's pretty decent priced if it's using 8th gen so you can just install other OSes in it. Simple as thatdigiguy - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
No way you can install Windows on this. ROM is locked to ChromeOS, let alone lack of any drivers...ddriver - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
For that amount of money you can get a yoga 720 with a QUAD core CPU and a 1050 graphics and 4k display. It has the pen, the 512 gb of storage and the 16 gigs of ram as well. And it is trivial to open up, replace batteries, upgrade or replace ram and storage. Unlike this sealed brick, which you will have to throw away when the battery capacity drops in a couple of years, or pay a ridiculous amount of a replacement.Google apparently believes they have reached the amount of brand loyalty levels, required to sell overpriced and piratically useless hardware to idiots.
Even if the OS can be replaced, why bother, when there are already similar form factor products with identical features and much better specs?
name99 - Friday, October 6, 2017 - link
Has it ever occurred to you that the OS is a POSITIVE selling point, not something to rebel against?Not everyone wants Linux, not everyone wants Windows. Hell not everyone even wants macOS (which is why, at some point, it'll be replaced with something closer to iOS --- same macOS UI, same macOS ability to use external hardware, even same Terminal.app. BUT more secure, more robust, even less to manage and to go wrong).
ddriver - Saturday, October 7, 2017 - link
A whole lot of things occur to me. I agree that having a niche OS might be a good thing, for example barely anyone will bother writing viruses for it.My point was that hardware is literally wasted when coupled with an OS that has no software that could take advantage of it. Thus you are literally throwing money away on buying useless hardware.
The device would make much more sense with a much lower power CPU and lower power storage, making the device much more affordable and significantly increasing battery life/
There will be no security to be gained form switching macos to ios, because as soon as that gains prominence it will also become a more prominent hacking target.
If you think ios is more secure, you must be living under a rock. This week alone there were news of 2 serious exploits. The reason it is less targeted is because the platform offers less reward.
8steve8 - Saturday, October 7, 2017 - link
No software to take advantage of it? what are you talking about?all web-apps run on it.
Netflix, hulu, gmail, google calendar, google sheets, google drive, google keep, google voice, google hangouts, google maps, JStorrent, facebook, amazon, anandtech.com, wordpress, medium, instagram, skype's web-app, etc etc etc it'd be easier to try to list relevant apps that don't work on it than ones that do.
Web apps are apps. who cares if they through a web-browser or if they run on win32 or whatever
you think ios has less reward for hackers than windows? I don't really follow that, I'd argue being able to hack iphones would be the most valuable thing to hack.
1_rick - Monday, October 9, 2017 - link
Awesome! Can I play WoW or ROTR, or use a C++ compiler on the Chromebook?8steve8 - Monday, October 9, 2017 - link
Nope, if you want to playing non-web games, don't buy a chromebook... in fact, don't buy any sub 3LB portable computer... it'll be a terrible experience if it runs the game at all. Get a desktop with a powerful GPU... yet tons of ipads and ultrabooks sell and many people are happy with them.flyingpants1 - Monday, October 9, 2017 - link
Yeah, I'd love to be limited to those 12 garbage web applications with limited features.peevee - Wednesday, October 11, 2017 - link
"Google apparently believes they have reached the amount of brand loyalty levels, required to sell overpriced and piratically useless hardware to idiots."And it was apparent from the very first thing called "Pixel".
HStewart - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
That is exactly what I was thinking - wonder if Google is purposely trying to destroy the PC market - I feel sorry for people that purchase this thinking they are getting a real 2in1.flyingpants1 - Monday, October 9, 2017 - link
I can only imagine this is for Google employees, otherwise it's just a placeholder until they can figure something outTEAMSWITCHER - Friday, October 6, 2017 - link
Kicking a dead horse,clamatowas - Thursday, December 20, 2018 - link
It also has an i7 vs the i5.Now that the Mac Book Air is out; for an i5 same RAM and HDD you will pay $1800.. Where $1600 gets you an i7, and the pen of the PixleBook.
rkw - Wednesday, October 4, 2017 - link
Nice high-end config, about $1k less than the upper end Surface Pro.My concern is why buy a high-end system which lacks the apps to make use of it? Needs versions of Photoshop, Lightroom...heck the whole creative suite. MS Office for Android have gaps but aren't horrible. I don't see versions of developer IDE's either.
Basically I'm wanting to learn what apps (sorry an old and use the term "apps" for anything that runs on a computer) can justify buying into Google's ecosystem on a professional level?
Cliff34 - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
I feel the same way. Why get this when you can get win 10 laptop for the same price. You might not like windows 10 but at least you can install your own software and games on it.kaidenshi - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
For that matter, you can install Chrome OS (via CloudReady) on nearly any modern laptop. I did it the other day for a friend's parents, they had fallen victim to ransomware by clicking on the wrong ad (thankfully they didn't lose any real data, it was a new laptop). They only paid $180 for the laptop in the first place; I replaced Windows 10 with CloudReady and they love it. Better build quality and specs than an equally priced Chromebook too, and they can always go back to Windows if they feel the need, though I think they are sold on Chrome OS.8steve8 - Saturday, October 7, 2017 - link
so for your friend's parents, if they were wealthy, maybe they'd want this?haha so many people are hating on this, for a lot of people it may be the best thin/light laptop/tablet hybrid. Not the cheapest, but the best.
sorten - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
This is only $500 less than the i7, 16GB, 512GB Surface Pro, and of course the SP comes with a better screen and a much more capable OS.8steve8 - Saturday, October 7, 2017 - link
does it come with a better screen? Why do you say that?imaheadcase - Saturday, October 7, 2017 - link
Well most people are not getting this for editing of any kind, its market is the same as people who just want something to carry around that does basic stuff, but sometimes need a little more power.Its more of a media/personal device.
8steve8 - Saturday, October 7, 2017 - link
google actually advertise being able to use lightroom on it.https://store.google.com/product/google_pixelbook
lots of ways to code on the web... but if your life is in photoshop or Eclipse, maybe this wouldn't be your ideal work machine.
if you are the other 90% of people who only use their web-browser, or easily could exclusively use their web-browser, then this may be the best highly mobile machine for that.
peevee - Wednesday, October 11, 2017 - link
"but if your life is in photoshop or Eclipse, maybe this wouldn't be your ideal work machine."12"... work machine... duh. Is it 1979 again?
bleh0 - Wednesday, October 4, 2017 - link
After all these years I still can't see a good use case for a chromebook especially a high end model like this.Umer - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
I can see Chromebook as a good alternative because they generally have great displays for super cheap pricing, it's good for normal browsing, email and light work as well as streaming content.But when it comes to things like Pixelbook, it doesn't make sense to me. At all. But that doesn't mean there aren't people who won't buy it, there's always a market for anything you can make.
Communism - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
It's simply Google's latest foray into trying to cultivate an apple-like cult of retarded users who will buy anything with their name on it, where the higher the price, the higher the "prestige" in that cult.damianrobertjones - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
Nail hit firmly on the head there.philehidiot - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
I think they may also be trying to allow devs to justify developing high end applications for the Chrombook. Once they make the hardware, there's a chance Adobe, et al will develop for it. They won't bother otherwise. I suspect this is their plan and they know they're going to lose money on the R&D and so on for this early model as few will buy it but their plan is probably long term and combined with early talks with software companies who have said they'll develop if the hardware exists and gains some traction.But yeh, at the moment it's totally a cult status symbol and of no practical use.
BrokenCrayons - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
Cult status symbol you say? Good, I'll buy 3 of them so I can arrange them around me on a table at Starbucks while I sip an iced venti mint mocha frappe (non-fat milk, of course). Doing so will make me look and feel more important than anyone else there regardless of their computing platform and don't even get me started on the lesser mortals that only take their phone out with them to drink overpriced coffee. They're beneath my notice.shabby - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
Problem is this is even less useful than a macbook.Jumangi - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
This is to give Google employees something better than the $250 basic stuff. Google just sells it to the public on the side.rahvin - Friday, October 6, 2017 - link
More than 50% of all educational sales are now Chromebooks (It would be higher but they don't have to replace them every 3 years). The majority of Kids that entered middle school after 2008 have chromebooks and have used nothing else (most probably couldn't even use a windows computer). The vast majority of people using computers have no need for anything other than a chromebook. They are secure, safe, automatically updated. Most are lightweight with long battery lives and look better than apple computers.From what I've seen of the market the high end chromebooks are purchased by developers, they install Linux via Crouton on top of the Chrome install, they get all the security of Chrome, a full Linux workspace and development tools and one of the lightest, longest battery laptops in the market that isn't fully locked to Microsoft or paying the MS/Apple Tax.
The vast majority of the computer market needs nothing more than a Chromebook for personal use. Fact is if you don't game or aren't one of the 1% doing heavy computational tasks in your free time you really shouldn't be using anything other than a chromebook and the market has been shifting toward that reality.
What's humorous to me is every time a chromebook is released you see all the comments like in this thread, but at the same time somewhere around 1/3 of all laptop format computers in use are now chromebooks. Chromebooks dominate the educational market and in 10 years it's going to be even more dominant due to that. Microsoft laughed at these things when they came out but they now sell so many of them it's the second most popular operating system for laptop format and still growing in popularity every quarter while overall windows sales as a percent of total sales is falling in the non-business market. You might not get chromebook, but that's likely because you've anchored yourself to Microsoft.
UtilityMax - Saturday, October 7, 2017 - link
Fact is if you don't game or aren't one of the 1% doing heavy computational tasks in your free time you really shouldn't be using anything other than a chromebook and the market has been shifting toward that reality.No wonder I have noticed recently that there are crazy number of deals for buying "gaming laptops" with quad-core Intel CPUs, latest GPUs, and FHD screens for something like 600-800USD. The truth is that most people don't need that any more.
peevee - Wednesday, October 11, 2017 - link
"but at the same time somewhere around 1/3 of all laptop format computers in use are now chromebooks"97.9% of all stats though are invented on the spot.
leo_sk - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
Now just release something similar with atom processor at half the pricename99 - Friday, October 6, 2017 - link
Why? It's not like there aren't plenty of cheap Chromebooks available rom other vendors.If you want to establish your brand as premium, you DON'T SELL CRAP. Not ever. Not in any form factor. The reason people are willing to pay an extra 20% or so for premium brands is that they trust that they are not being abused, that whatever they buy is basically a good product at that price point.
As soon as you split the line into "the good stuff" and "the crap stuff", there's no longer any point in paying that 20% premium because the brand, by itself, no longer guarantees anything. Sony went down this path, Samsung is going down it as we speak (with the sane 10% of the company trying desperately to keep the Galaxy S sub-brand as premium, and the insane 90% trying to slap Galaxy onto any random PoS they can ship).
Google APPEARS to want to be in the business of establishing a brand premium. This probably makes sense, for the same reason that MS had to make laptops --- because no-one else is going to ship Google-OS devices that aren't GUARANTEED not to suck.
Listening to you and destroying that brand premium would be the stupidest thing they could do.
watzupken - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
Chromebook was first design to have a light OS and an affordable solution, i.e. something that can be used in schools without breaking the bank. This however, I am not sure if Google actually thought through who is their target audience. Just because the company is worth billions doesn't mean they waste resources coming up with meaningless product.jwcalla - Thursday, October 5, 2017 - link
Google has gone full-on retarded in the past couple of years.AgeOfPanic - Friday, October 6, 2017 - link
Every article about a Chromebook has the same discussion. The people who have used a Chromebook are generally in love with it (including myself), the people who haven't can't see the point. Most of the criticism are aimed at the lack of features, but for most of the proponents that is the strong point. Everything it can do works and works well. Especially installing the platform is such a joy. Login and within 5 minutes you're up and running. I just wish people could look past their own needs and ideas to understand others better. Nobody would recommend a Chromebook to a gamer or a power user.This Pixelbook is obviously for the professional who wants to install Linux and use it for development and also to stimulate development of the ChromeOS platform. For people who don't need this use case, there are the Asus C302A or the Samsung Chromebook Plus/Pro. I have the former and it is really nice. 2-1 functionality, great keyboard and trackpad, 64GB and microSD.
SpartanJet - Friday, October 6, 2017 - link
Thats one expensive paperweight. Can you at least install Windows 10 on it so you can you know, do something other than fart apps?HStewart - Friday, October 6, 2017 - link
It funny when Microsoft makes a lock down version Windows with Windows 10 S people complain. But then when Google makes an useless Chrome OS machine - they like it. The best type of CPU for this environment is probably Atom cpu's and possibly the m3-6y30.I am sure if Chromebooks got as popular as Windows, Virus will be created for it. They are not creating the virus - because nobody truly uses them.
I do feel sorry for gullible non informed user - that purchase one of these or even worst the new Google one's with i7, expecting they can do more. But I could see this being used for a person like my dad who is 82 years old - with one exception can it do Microsoft Word or Excel
To me Chromebooks remind me of Windows RT machines with less apps.
I assume if you had an endless supply of money and wanted a good machine for only surfing the internet it would be good choice.
As developer how could you used this machine - do they have developer app - I heard you can't installed other OS's on this things. Why would developer consider a machine like this. To me it is an over price toy
twtech - Friday, October 6, 2017 - link
Different types of customers - the people complaining about a locked-down Windows 10 are not the same people who'd buy a Chromebook or an Apple device.That doesn't mean that their complaints are invalid though - Microsoft needs to understand their customers and why they have continued to be Microsoft customers rather than Apple or Google customers.
HStewart - Saturday, October 7, 2017 - link
As far as I heard what is bad with this devices is they don't allow other OS's to run on it. Microsoft does have Windows 10 S that is pretty much same level of OS command to Chrome OS.peevee - Wednesday, October 11, 2017 - link
Except you can turn S into a real thing for $50.twtech - Friday, October 6, 2017 - link
The hardware looks nice, but the price is comparable to Windows convertibles like the Lenovo Yoga and Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 that you can do a lot more with.HStewart - Saturday, October 7, 2017 - link
I have an XPS 13 2in1 and this thing has a major difference - it can not run real applications. Screen on XPS 13 2in1 is significantly better also.Lord-Bryan - Saturday, October 7, 2017 - link
Wow, the price of this thing makes me feel uneasyUtilityMax - Saturday, October 7, 2017 - link
This is a textbook example on how to upsell 512GB SSD for 600 dollars. Thank you very much.NamelessPFG - Sunday, October 8, 2017 - link
Not only is the price extortionate for a Chromebook, but they can't even be bothered to give you the (Wacom AES) pen in the box and want another $99 for that. Ridiculous!Meanwhile, you can buy something like a Surface Pro 2 in the low $300s, maybe a bit less second-hand, have similar pen input capabilties (Wacom EMR, still preferable to N-trig in later Surface Pros), and you can actually run software like Photoshop, CLIP STUDIO PAINT, etc. on it.
So yeah, I'm not seeing the appeal here. I would've rather seen them make the Pixelbook Pen work on the Pixel 2 XL just so the Galaxy Note lineup has a real competitor for once.
peevee - Wednesday, October 11, 2017 - link
Do you remember $149 netbooks? Now from Google for only $1649, and even no Windows included.tipoo - Monday, October 16, 2017 - link
Like this is comparable to a 149 Chromebook.Those still exist, this doesn't send them away.
tipoo - Monday, October 16, 2017 - link
If this supports Linux VMs as some recent Google Github commits suggest, it might be pretty interestnig. 1K sounds like a lot for a chromebook, but it's about right for the hardware at least. Other-Linux without Chroot or dual boot would be sweet on it, nice dev machine.