Google’s Chromebook was supposed to be more of a ‘big Android’, a tablet with a keyboard and an OS centered around the Chrome browser, subsidized to be cheaper than a full laptop and almost ‘disposable’ due to the low cost and lack of local storage/personalization.
This new laptop is nearly the opposite of the first Chromebooks:
- Expensive! At ~$1,449* you won’t want to be ‘disposing’ this?
- Powerful! An Intel i5 CPU
- 32GB local storage! Heaps of space for something that saves to the cloud?
- 2560 x 1700 3:2 12.85″ touch screen! For web browsing?
- 4GB RAM! How many tabs are you going to have open?
- Intel HD 4000 GPU! This is actually going to be handy for WebGL.
- 5hrs est. battery life! More than you should need between charges?
*(For the LTE Pixel. $1,299 for the WiFi Pixel)
So why is the highest resolution screen to ever be sold in a retail laptop getting married to a WebOS?
Well according to Google, the insane resolution is a nod to the future of the web and what’s in store.
So clearly the only thing that’s disposable about the Chromebook Pixel is the ‘disposable’ nature of the previous Chromebooks?
Speaking of what’s clear, this new Chromebook has a lot of not so obvious features:
- Back-lighting under the keyboard for low-light use
- Quality speakers that also lurk under the keyboard
- Stereo microphones and a 720p webcam in the lid
- A 3rd ‘keyboard’ microphone to eliminate typing noise in recordings
- Cooling vents in the screen hinge to avoid blockage
- A hinge design that does not lift the bottom of the laptop when opening
- Over-sized track-pad with special surface treatment
- A funky blue-red-yellow-green LED status bar/power light
In fact the fellows who have been hands-on with the Pixel admit that the whole affair comes off like a “high-end luxury automobile” with all the subtle attention to detail.
Not once have I seen any mention of who’s manufacturing the new Chromebook, but my guess would be that it’s a Lenovo device at the core.
The biggest concern seems to be the price, which is understandable, especially considering the ultra-low prices of competing tablets that seem much better engineered for the tasks that you’d use a Chromebook for.
Keep in mind that this is a Linux OS that runs a Chrome browser tuned for HTML5. Using the machine for much of anything outside of the browser or play store is going to require the skills of a nerdy power user to implement.
Here’s the original into video from 2009 when the Chrome OS was just launching (I love that ‘cloud’ wasn’t a buzz-word back then):
So while the new Google Chromebook Pixel can be used for lots of things this really seems like massive overkill for what you can tackle with Chrome OS right now.
SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 5:03 pm
