17 ms·

The Chromebook Pixel

475 points by mikeevans 14y ago

andrewmunsell 14y ago
So... Can I install Windows on it?
- mikeevans 14y ago
  or Linux?
  - andrewmunsell 14y ago
    Really, I'd take anything but Chrome OS... But with 32 GB of storage I doubt Windows would even fit.
    - recoiledsnake 14y ago
      An install of Windows 8 takes only 10.2GB. Add swap and hiberation files and maybe it will reach 15 to 20GB overall.
      - druidsbane 14y ago
        I think this is really trying to push the hardware to do something it isn't designed for. Why get this when you can get a Retina Macbook and install Windows on that for less. I believe they are available for around $1350 right now on sale. You'd get 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD and better performance/battery life. Plus you can then run Chrome on that :)
        recoiledsnake 14y ago
        >I think this is really trying to push the hardware to do something it isn't designed for We wouldn't be on Hacker News if we didn't try to push things to do something it wasn't designed for :) Anyway, the Retina Macbook you talk about is missing the touchscreen part which is a big thing for Windows 8.
- newsoundwave 14y ago
  With 32GB of storage, you probably wouldn't want to.
  - andrewmunsell 14y 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.
recoiledsnake 14y 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-pixel-19_2040_verge_super_wide.jpg http://cdn0.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/7732773/theverge...
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago
  You can pinch to zoom in the browser as well.
  - cooldeal 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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.
- jfb 14y ago
  It is significantly larger than the 13" MBA, and only barely smaller than the 13" rMBP.
bluthru 14y ago
I'm glad Google is going to offer a high-end Chromebook, but I'd really like to see a $400 model that improves on screen quality and size. A 15" IPS Chromebook would be the sweet spot for me. Also, I can't help but think that making a chromebook touch screen is a waste of money. Gorilla arm, anyone?
- dragonwriter 14y ago
  > Also, I can't help but think that making a chromebook touch screen is a waste of money. Gorilla arm, anyone? Having touchscreen available in additional to traditional keyboard and trackpad laptop interface doesn't raise the gorilla arm problem (since you can still interact the normal way, and aren't forced to use touch to do anything), but enables using touch for workflows where gorilla arm isn't likely to be a problem.
saym 14y ago
> delivering fast connectivity across Verizon's network, the largest, fastest 4G LTE network in the U.S Will the Pixel be locked? I doubt that Google would make this arrangement, but it is a question worth asking.
obilgic 14y ago
Even though I use my chromebook every day, I think this is a very high price point for this device. Seems like they release a new chrome os device every few months, I would much prefer updating my chromebook every year for 400$-500$ with faster lighter version, instead of investing 1300$.
btipling 14y ago
This is basically a $1,300 web browser. I don't get it, beautiful touch display or not.
- kbar13 14y 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.
- DanBC 14y ago
  Most computers are $1,300 web browsers.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - TillE 14y ago
    No, most computers are sub-$1000, probably sub-$500 web browsers.
    - DanBC 14y ago
      Eh, not with that resolution. MacBook Pro = about $1,200 MacBook Pro Retina = about $1,500
      - Cookingboy 14y ago
        And when you buy that Macbook you have the OPTION to use it for more if you need it, with the Chromebook you simply need a second computer.
- ajross 14y 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.
colin_jack 14y ago
The big problem for me would be chrome os, the hardware looks nice though.
MatthewPhillips 14y 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 14y ago
  The offer is 1 TB free for 3 years.
  - MatthewPhillips 14y ago
    Whoops, still a good deal though.
    - _delirium 14y ago
      Yeah, if you do use cloud storage in that vicinity, it makes the deal much better. At current prices, 500GB at Dropbox is $500/yr, and 1TB at G-Drive is $600/yr. Those will probably drop before the three years is up so you can't just multiply by three, but let's ballpark it and say it comes with at least $1k in cloud storage. Of course, that's only really worth $1k for people who were actually going to use that much cloud storage, but if you were, it makes the net cost of the device, vs. just buying the storage, quite small. On the other hand, if you weren't going to use that much originally, but buying this machine lures you into storing everything on Google Drive, and prices don't drop a lot in the next three years, it might in the long-term be a very expensive device...
      - rayiner 14y ago
        Jesus. That's approaching SSD prices for storage that's slow and patchy to access unless you're sitting at a desk plugged into a fiber connection, that Google is going to rummage through to sell you ads.
  - bvdbijl 14y ago
    That's pretty sneaky to call it 3TB....
jbail 14y 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.
- robertst 14y 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.
  - jbail 14y 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 14y 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?
    - robertst 14y ago
      Yes, it's just webapps, Chrome extensions and Chrome Apps from the Web store. If you feel strongly that you need to install other software then the Pixel is probably not a product for you... Just keep in mind that it's pretty much the same for all tablet users, since they can also only use webapps and install apps from their vendor's store.
jonpaul 14y 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 14y 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?
- spankalee 14y 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.
- dragonwriter 14y 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.
  - hiker 14y ago
    Or nuke Chrome OS and install a OSX/linux/windows/whatever-rocks-your-boat on the hardware. I do love Chrome OS though.
druidsbane 14y 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 14y ago
  Where'd you get those numbers?
ceol 14y ago
Direct link to specs: https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pixel/#pixel-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.
- reirob 14y 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.
  - takluyver 14y 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).
    - reirob 14y ago
      You are absolutely right. Thanks for correcting. Then it seems like a a move in the right direction.
rehashed 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago
  Interesting theory -- it especially makes the other Chromebooks seem like better deals
  - RyanMcGreal 14y 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 14y ago
Can you wipe it and install Android?
speeder 14y 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 :)
- recoiledsnake 14y 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.
  - ConstantineXVI 14y 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 14y ago
    They also provide "One terabyte of Google Drive cloud storage, free for 3 years"
    - rayiner 14y ago
      ... which you will pay your ISP out the nose to access.
    - nwh 14y ago
      It would cost me $20,000 to transfer that amount of data over 3G, and almost ten times that on another common carrier. The amount of "cloud" storage is irrelevant in most countries.
andreasklinger 14y ago
Love the fact that it neither has windows key nor mac key :)
- rz2k 14y ago
  It appears to have a Google key[1], where you'd normally find Caps Lock. [1]http://cdn2.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/7734569/2013-02-21_01-39-23-1020_verge_super_wide.jpg http://cdn2.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/7734569/2013-02-...
muyuu 14y ago
No info on RAM? I was wondering if this could be worth installing Linux on it.
- zaphoyd 14y ago
  looks like 4GB
- haarts 14y ago
  It has 4GB of it. https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pixel/#pixel-specs https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pix... scoll down, click 'full specs'
naner 14y 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.
deleted 14y ago
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vbl 14y ago
For that money I want a real OS.
habosa 14y 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.
- habosa 14y ago
  Wow, no USB 3.0? That's a huge mistake.
jjcm 14y 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.
- picklefish 14y ago
  Maybe this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagSafe 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.
  - ebbv 14y ago
    And yet Microsoft has magnetic power connectors on the Surface tablets.
    - picklefish 14y ago
      Hrmm. I don't know. I was just curious and looked it up. It appears that microsoft has their own patent for a magsafe-like connector: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/14/microsoft-magnetic-patent-application/ http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/14/microsoft-magnetic-patent... from http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/19/microsoft-surface-power-connector/ http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/19/microsoft-surface-power-c...
      - ebbv 14y ago
        So clearly Google needs to get their own, or license Microsoft's. :P
      - monochromatic 14y ago
wvenable 14y ago
The price ($1,299) should be in the title of this post so people can avoid getting excited about it.
ConstantineXVI 14y 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)
- MatthewPhillips 14y 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?
  - ConstantineXVI 14y 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.
    - MatthewPhillips 14y ago
      It's much easier to develop on a Chromebook than you probably think. There are many editor choices, there is Web Inspector for debugging, there is an SSH client (in NaCl), there is developer mode, there is Crouton which gives you a Ubuntu chroot without losing the rest of ChromeOS[1]. I don't do NaCl, so I can't speak to how much pain that is, but for web development I find Cloud9, Web Inspector, Secure Shell to be more than adequate. [1]https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton
      - ConstantineXVI 14y ago
        I've got a Chromebook sitting to the right of my keyboard, and routinely use it as an SSH terminal (that and the keyboard is exactly why I have it). Remote is sufficient, but not always desirable (not just offline, latency can get in the way as well); and crouton and such are kludges vs. having a proper *nix environment within CrOS (not to mention losing verified boot, which I see as a plus overall but glad it can be turned off)
gtr32x 14y 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 14y 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.
- codeulike 14y ago
  What do Chromebooks use their hard drive for, exactly?
  - MatthewPhillips 14y ago
    Is this a serious question?
  - scarlson 14y ago
    ChromeOS, Ubuntu, movies, music, books, web caching.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
javajosh 14y 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.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- commandar 14y 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?
  - theoretick 14y 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.
  - taeric 14y ago
    Aren't most of those folks replacing the os on their machines?
  - criley 14y 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.
    - raingrove 14y ago
      Action.IO... Cloud9... Koding...
floetic 14y ago
Who cares. Next.
tlrobinson 14y ago
I wish the screen folded 180 degrees around so you could use it as a tablet.
- mediagearbox 14y ago
  I agree with this, that would probably be the icing on the cake. At least help on the steep price jump.
rodolphoarruda 14y 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 14y ago
  Versus the wifi-plus-LTE version.
DigitalTurk 14y ago
The Verge has more pictures. http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/21/4013480/google-chromebook-pixel 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.
- networked 14y 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-8859-1 14y ago
    You're lucky that it has quadratic pixels! You can't assume that. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio
    - networked 14y ago
      It seemed like a pretty safe assumption to make given the nature of the device. Google shipping a web-oriented device with non-square pixels would be very strange of them because of all the potential problems this would entail. Are there any modern portable computers with non-square pixels? For that matter, were pixel aspect ratios other than 1:1 ever prominent on LCD portables? Last time I had to deal with non-square pixels on x86 was when programming mode 13h graphics for DOS at a 320x200 resolution (which was then stretched to 4:3). The only thing that comes to my mind that you could do now with modern equipment would be to connect your laptop/PC to a bargain bin plasma panel that has a 1024x768 physical resolution and achieves a 16:9 aspect ratio by virtue of non-square pixels [1]. My first encounter with one of those caused me trouble when I wanted to use it with a Linux PC some time ago. [1] http://hometheater.about.com/cs/television/f/aaplasmafaq5.htm http://hometheater.about.com/cs/television/f/aaplasmafaq5.ht... Edit: expanded first paragraph.
Vervious 14y 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.
- wmf 14y ago
  Isn't that the Nexus 10?
influx 14y 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.
- theoretick 14y ago
  The labeling on the spine is a nice touch, I rather like that. Otherwise, most of them have been woeful copies.
- naner 14y ago
  Any thin laptop with a minimal case ends up looking like an Apple laptop. There's not really much they can do...
  - rayiner 14y ago
    Hardly. See: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9P8WdCCk5cE/UJuZ-QMgYhI/AAAAAAAABZQ/vzjVr4lquFI/s1600/samsung-series-9+latest+images+wallpapers+pics+photos.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9P8WdCCk5cE/UJuZ-QMgYhI/AAAAAAAABZ... http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/X1_closed.jpg http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/X1_close... http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-Ultrabook.jpeg http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Thin...
- andrewguenther 14y ago
  Good design = looks like Apple product.
moron4hire 14y 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.
- ebbv 14y 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.
- theoretick 14y ago
  > Pixel also comes with one terabyte of Google Drive cloud storage, free for 3 years,
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
OWaz 14y 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.
glogla 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago
    It's use msata interface. teardown picture :http://goo.gl/Gt2oN http://goo.gl/Gt2oN
bitcartel 14y 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 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.
- wmf 14y 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%20Generation%20Intel%C2%AE%20Core%E2%84%A2%20i5%20Processors&CoreCountMin=2&CoreCountMax=2&ClockSpeed=1.8%20GHz 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.
  - bitcartel 14y ago
    That's a shame. I'm sure quite a few people were interested in putting Linux onto the machine.
- Evbn 14y ago
  Are you certain these are 3rd gen core chips?
  - rplnt 14y ago
    Probably not since they are using some old chipset.
rogerchucker 14y ago
$1300? How do you say WTF in Google-ese?
bane 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 ?
- glogla 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago
  I have a link, but it does not currently work in any browser: http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pixel/#pixel-specs http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pixe... So search for "Full specs" on the page and click on it.
- martythemaniak 14y 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.
  - nbouscal 14y 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 14y ago
37prime 14y ago
I still can't get over the price tag for a Chromebook regardless of the specs.
codeulike 14y ago
Is an Apple touchscreen laptop now looking more likely?
yourmind 14y ago
I love it.
DonnyV 14y 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.
NateDad 14y 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 14y 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/ 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 14y 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_f 14y 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 14y 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!
- recoiledsnake 14y 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 http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-GB-monthly-201201-201301
Terretta 14y 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.
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alexpeiniger 14y ago
Looks like a great device. Really looking forward to try this out.
RexRollman 14y 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.
RexRollman 14y 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.
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snuze 14y ago
Google, stop trying to make ChromeOS happen, it's not going to happen.
wuster 14y ago
Intel Core i5 and HD 4000 - I think this thing can be Hackintoshed!
- silasb 14y ago
  That is what I'm thinking.
CGamesPlay 14y 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=1081505 - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1081140 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?
- polshaw 14y 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 14y 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.
  - monochromatic 14y 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.
- sidcool 14y ago
  Well played sir.
gkcn 14y ago
Where are the home/end/pgup/pgdown keys? It doesn't have a function key as in Mac either.
- iso-8859-1 14y 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_Keyboard.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/IBM_5150_... Discussion briefly mentions PgUp: https://plus.google.com/+JeffJarvis/posts/g9gcXLPuVVQ https://plus.google.com/+JeffJarvis/posts/g9gcXLPuVVQ
skc 14y 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.
- SquareWheel 14y ago
  It's a laptop with a good screen. Pretty much what people have been wanting for years.
  - adamors 14y ago
    It's a laptop - <everything you do on a laptop> + browser. Pathetic is what it is.
    - SquareWheel 14y ago
      Sounds like you're not in the target demographic. That's okay, there are other products for you.
onemorepassword 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago
For $1,300 this should come with Google Glass
Detrus 14y ago
This promo video http://youtu.be/j-XTpdDDXiU 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 14y ago
Google Store // Play Store // Google Phone // Chromebook Pixel Apple Store // App Store // iPhone // Macbook Pro Microsoft Store (http://content.microsoftstore.com/Home.aspx http://content.microsoftstore.com/Home.aspx ) // Windows Store // Windows Phone // Microsoft Surface RT ok, very innovative strategies I'd say..
akurilin 14y 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.
anonymous 14y 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 14y ago
"Lightbar. Just because it looks cool." If the next iteration looses the touchscreen and is fully Ubuntu supported, I might get it.
martindale 14y ago
Only 100MB/mo for the LTE? That's like 8 refreshes of the TechCrunch homepage.
KaoruAoiShiho 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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-pixel 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 14y 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 14y ago
I hope this means MBA Retina will be coming soon :)
kunai 14y 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 14y 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!
akandiah 14y 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-hands-on-video-and-impressions http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/21/4013932/chromebook-pixel-h...
- Shooti 14y ago
  If Chrome for Android is anything to go by it's not the screen, but Chrome's touch handling.
mark-r 14y 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 14y 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.
zmanian 14y 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 14y ago
Why is the screen nearly square???
- iso-8859-1 14y ago
  Because it has an aspect ratio of 1.5:1. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_%28image%29#3:2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_%28image%29#3:2
zmanian 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago
I just called every best buy in nyc and no one there has heard of it.
spinchange 14y 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.
mrb 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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.
Zenst 14y 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.
- kinlan 14y ago
tszming 14y 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 14y 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.
rogerchucker 14y ago
Is it impossible to develop Chrome apps on a Chromebook? Do IDEs like ShiftEdit and Cloud9 allow that?
tree_of_item 14y ago
Anyone else think this is a perfect proving ground for something like asm.js? http://asmjs.org/spec/latest/ http://asmjs.org/spec/latest/
ams6110 14y ago
The price is insane.
bound008 14y 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 14y ago
will the intel hd 4000 graphics do webgl?
- iso-8859-1 14y ago
  yes, even the oooold intel graphics can do this.
soemarko 14y ago
wouldn't this be a better win 8 device than surface? it works on a lap... or maybe running hackintosh?
sidcool 14y ago
This has touch!!! Holy laptop!!!
sidcool 14y ago
1 Terabyte Google Drive cloud storage!!!! Jesus it's brilliant!
sidcool 14y ago
Oh, but $1299 is expensive.
ezolotko 14y 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.
- ezolotko 14y 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 14y ago
I will be interested only when virtualbox will run on it ;-)
przemoc 14y ago
Google, you forgot about a trackpoint.

475 points by mikeevans 14y ago

andrewmunsell 14y ago

So... Can I install Windows on it?

mikeevans 14y ago
or Linux?
- andrewmunsell 14y ago
  Really, I'd take anything but Chrome OS... But with 32 GB of storage I doubt Windows would even fit.
  - recoiledsnake 14y ago
    An install of Windows 8 takes only 10.2GB. Add swap and hiberation files and maybe it will reach 15 to 20GB overall.
    - druidsbane 14y ago
      I think this is really trying to push the hardware to do something it isn't designed for. Why get this when you can get a Retina Macbook and install Windows on that for less. I believe they are available for around $1350 right now on sale. You'd get 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD and better performance/battery life. Plus you can then run Chrome on that :)
      - recoiledsnake 14y ago
        >I think this is really trying to push the hardware to do something it isn't designed for We wouldn't be on Hacker News if we didn't try to push things to do something it wasn't designed for :) Anyway, the Retina Macbook you talk about is missing the touchscreen part which is a big thing for Windows 8.
newsoundwave 14y ago
With 32GB of storage, you probably wouldn't want to.
- andrewmunsell 14y 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.

recoiledsnake 14y 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-pixel-19_2040_verge_super_wide.jpg http://cdn0.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/7732773/theverge...

MatthewPhillips 14y ago
You can pinch to zoom in the browser as well.
- cooldeal 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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.
jfb 14y ago
It is significantly larger than the 13" MBA, and only barely smaller than the 13" rMBP.

bluthru 14y 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?

dragonwriter 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago

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

kbar13 14y 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.
DanBC 14y ago
Most computers are $1,300 web browsers.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- TillE 14y ago
  No, most computers are sub-$1000, probably sub-$500 web browsers.
  - DanBC 14y ago
    Eh, not with that resolution. MacBook Pro = about $1,200 MacBook Pro Retina = about $1,500
    - Cookingboy 14y ago
      And when you buy that Macbook you have the OPTION to use it for more if you need it, with the Chromebook you simply need a second computer.
ajross 14y 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.

colin_jack 14y ago

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

MatthewPhillips 14y 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 14y ago
The offer is 1 TB free for 3 years.
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago
  Whoops, still a good deal though.
  - _delirium 14y ago
    Yeah, if you do use cloud storage in that vicinity, it makes the deal much better. At current prices, 500GB at Dropbox is $500/yr, and 1TB at G-Drive is $600/yr. Those will probably drop before the three years is up so you can't just multiply by three, but let's ballpark it and say it comes with at least $1k in cloud storage. Of course, that's only really worth $1k for people who were actually going to use that much cloud storage, but if you were, it makes the net cost of the device, vs. just buying the storage, quite small. On the other hand, if you weren't going to use that much originally, but buying this machine lures you into storing everything on Google Drive, and prices don't drop a lot in the next three years, it might in the long-term be a very expensive device...
    - rayiner 14y ago
      Jesus. That's approaching SSD prices for storage that's slow and patchy to access unless you're sitting at a desk plugged into a fiber connection, that Google is going to rummage through to sell you ads.
- bvdbijl 14y ago
  That's pretty sneaky to call it 3TB....

jbail 14y 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.

robertst 14y 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.
- jbail 14y 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 14y 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?
  - robertst 14y ago
    Yes, it's just webapps, Chrome extensions and Chrome Apps from the Web store. If you feel strongly that you need to install other software then the Pixel is probably not a product for you... Just keep in mind that it's pretty much the same for all tablet users, since they can also only use webapps and install apps from their vendor's store.

jonpaul 14y 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 14y 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?

spankalee 14y 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.
dragonwriter 14y 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.
- hiker 14y ago
  Or nuke Chrome OS and install a OSX/linux/windows/whatever-rocks-your-boat on the hardware. I do love Chrome OS though.

druidsbane 14y 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 14y ago
Where'd you get those numbers?

ceol 14y ago

Direct link to specs: https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pixel/#pixel-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.

reirob 14y 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.
- takluyver 14y 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).
  - reirob 14y ago
    You are absolutely right. Thanks for correcting. Then it seems like a a move in the right direction.

rehashed 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago
Interesting theory -- it especially makes the other Chromebooks seem like better deals
- RyanMcGreal 14y 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 14y ago

Can you wipe it and install Android?

speeder 14y 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 :)

recoiledsnake 14y 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.
- ConstantineXVI 14y 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 14y ago
  They also provide "One terabyte of Google Drive cloud storage, free for 3 years"
  - rayiner 14y ago
    ... which you will pay your ISP out the nose to access.
  - nwh 14y ago
    It would cost me $20,000 to transfer that amount of data over 3G, and almost ten times that on another common carrier. The amount of "cloud" storage is irrelevant in most countries.

andreasklinger 14y ago

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

rz2k 14y ago
It appears to have a Google key[1], where you'd normally find Caps Lock. [1]http://cdn2.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/7734569/2013-02-21_01-39-23-1020_verge_super_wide.jpg http://cdn2.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/7734569/2013-02-...

muyuu 14y ago

No info on RAM? I was wondering if this could be worth installing Linux on it.

zaphoyd 14y ago
looks like 4GB
haarts 14y ago
It has 4GB of it. https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pixel/#pixel-specs https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pix... scoll down, click 'full specs'

naner 14y 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.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

vbl 14y ago

For that money I want a real OS.

habosa 14y 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.

habosa 14y ago
Wow, no USB 3.0? That's a huge mistake.

jjcm 14y 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.

picklefish 14y ago
Maybe this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagSafe 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.
- ebbv 14y ago
  And yet Microsoft has magnetic power connectors on the Surface tablets.
  - picklefish 14y ago
    Hrmm. I don't know. I was just curious and looked it up. It appears that microsoft has their own patent for a magsafe-like connector: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/14/microsoft-magnetic-patent-application/ http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/14/microsoft-magnetic-patent... from http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/19/microsoft-surface-power-connector/ http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/19/microsoft-surface-power-c...
    - ebbv 14y ago
      So clearly Google needs to get their own, or license Microsoft's. :P
    - monochromatic 14y ago

wvenable 14y ago

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

ConstantineXVI 14y 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)

MatthewPhillips 14y 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?
- ConstantineXVI 14y 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.
  - MatthewPhillips 14y ago
    It's much easier to develop on a Chromebook than you probably think. There are many editor choices, there is Web Inspector for debugging, there is an SSH client (in NaCl), there is developer mode, there is Crouton which gives you a Ubuntu chroot without losing the rest of ChromeOS[1]. I don't do NaCl, so I can't speak to how much pain that is, but for web development I find Cloud9, Web Inspector, Secure Shell to be more than adequate. [1]https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton
    - ConstantineXVI 14y ago
      I've got a Chromebook sitting to the right of my keyboard, and routinely use it as an SSH terminal (that and the keyboard is exactly why I have it). Remote is sufficient, but not always desirable (not just offline, latency can get in the way as well); and crouton and such are kludges vs. having a proper *nix environment within CrOS (not to mention losing verified boot, which I see as a plus overall but glad it can be turned off)

gtr32x 14y 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 14y 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.

codeulike 14y ago
What do Chromebooks use their hard drive for, exactly?
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago
  Is this a serious question?
- scarlson 14y ago
  ChromeOS, Ubuntu, movies, music, books, web caching.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

javajosh 14y 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.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
commandar 14y 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?
- theoretick 14y 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.
- taeric 14y ago
  Aren't most of those folks replacing the os on their machines?
- criley 14y 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.
  - raingrove 14y ago
    Action.IO... Cloud9... Koding...

floetic 14y ago

Who cares. Next.

tlrobinson 14y ago

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

mediagearbox 14y ago
I agree with this, that would probably be the icing on the cake. At least help on the steep price jump.

rodolphoarruda 14y 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 14y ago
Versus the wifi-plus-LTE version.

DigitalTurk 14y ago

The Verge has more pictures. http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/21/4013480/google-chromebook-pixel 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.

networked 14y 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-8859-1 14y ago
  You're lucky that it has quadratic pixels! You can't assume that. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio
  - networked 14y ago
    It seemed like a pretty safe assumption to make given the nature of the device. Google shipping a web-oriented device with non-square pixels would be very strange of them because of all the potential problems this would entail. Are there any modern portable computers with non-square pixels? For that matter, were pixel aspect ratios other than 1:1 ever prominent on LCD portables? Last time I had to deal with non-square pixels on x86 was when programming mode 13h graphics for DOS at a 320x200 resolution (which was then stretched to 4:3). The only thing that comes to my mind that you could do now with modern equipment would be to connect your laptop/PC to a bargain bin plasma panel that has a 1024x768 physical resolution and achieves a 16:9 aspect ratio by virtue of non-square pixels [1]. My first encounter with one of those caused me trouble when I wanted to use it with a Linux PC some time ago. [1] http://hometheater.about.com/cs/television/f/aaplasmafaq5.htm http://hometheater.about.com/cs/television/f/aaplasmafaq5.ht... Edit: expanded first paragraph.

Vervious 14y 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.

wmf 14y ago
Isn't that the Nexus 10?

influx 14y 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.

theoretick 14y ago
The labeling on the spine is a nice touch, I rather like that. Otherwise, most of them have been woeful copies.
naner 14y ago
Any thin laptop with a minimal case ends up looking like an Apple laptop. There's not really much they can do...
- rayiner 14y ago
  Hardly. See: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9P8WdCCk5cE/UJuZ-QMgYhI/AAAAAAAABZQ/vzjVr4lquFI/s1600/samsung-series-9+latest+images+wallpapers+pics+photos.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9P8WdCCk5cE/UJuZ-QMgYhI/AAAAAAAABZ... http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/X1_closed.jpg http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/X1_close... http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-Ultrabook.jpeg http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Thin...
andrewguenther 14y ago
Good design = looks like Apple product.

moron4hire 14y 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.

ebbv 14y 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.
theoretick 14y ago
> Pixel also comes with one terabyte of Google Drive cloud storage, free for 3 years,

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

OWaz 14y 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.

glogla 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago
  It's use msata interface. teardown picture :http://goo.gl/Gt2oN http://goo.gl/Gt2oN

bitcartel 14y 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 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.

wmf 14y 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%20Generation%20Intel%C2%AE%20Core%E2%84%A2%20i5%20Processors&CoreCountMin=2&CoreCountMax=2&ClockSpeed=1.8%20GHz 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.
- bitcartel 14y ago
  That's a shame. I'm sure quite a few people were interested in putting Linux onto the machine.
Evbn 14y ago
Are you certain these are 3rd gen core chips?
- rplnt 14y ago
  Probably not since they are using some old chipset.

rogerchucker 14y ago

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

bane 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 ?

glogla 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago
I have a link, but it does not currently work in any browser: http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pixel/#pixel-specs http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pixe... So search for "Full specs" on the page and click on it.
martythemaniak 14y 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.
- nbouscal 14y 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 14y ago

37prime 14y ago

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

codeulike 14y ago

Is an Apple touchscreen laptop now looking more likely?

yourmind 14y ago

I love it.

DonnyV 14y 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.

NateDad 14y 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 14y 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/ 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 14y 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_f 14y 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 14y 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!

recoiledsnake 14y 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 http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-GB-monthly-201201-201301

Terretta 14y 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.

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alexpeiniger 14y ago

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

RexRollman 14y 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.

RexRollman 14y 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.

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snuze 14y ago

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

wuster 14y ago

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

silasb 14y ago
That is what I'm thinking.

CGamesPlay 14y 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=1081505 - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1081140 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?

polshaw 14y 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 14y 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.
- monochromatic 14y 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.
sidcool 14y ago
Well played sir.

gkcn 14y ago

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

iso-8859-1 14y 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_Keyboard.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/IBM_5150_... Discussion briefly mentions PgUp: https://plus.google.com/+JeffJarvis/posts/g9gcXLPuVVQ https://plus.google.com/+JeffJarvis/posts/g9gcXLPuVVQ

skc 14y 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.

SquareWheel 14y ago
It's a laptop with a good screen. Pretty much what people have been wanting for years.
- adamors 14y ago
  It's a laptop - <everything you do on a laptop> + browser. Pathetic is what it is.
  - SquareWheel 14y ago
    Sounds like you're not in the target demographic. That's okay, there are other products for you.

onemorepassword 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago

For $1,300 this should come with Google Glass

Detrus 14y ago

This promo video http://youtu.be/j-XTpdDDXiU 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 14y ago

Google Store // Play Store // Google Phone // Chromebook Pixel Apple Store // App Store // iPhone // Macbook Pro Microsoft Store (http://content.microsoftstore.com/Home.aspx http://content.microsoftstore.com/Home.aspx ) // Windows Store // Windows Phone // Microsoft Surface RT ok, very innovative strategies I'd say..

akurilin 14y 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.

anonymous 14y 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 14y ago

"Lightbar. Just because it looks cool." If the next iteration looses the touchscreen and is fully Ubuntu supported, I might get it.

martindale 14y ago

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

KaoruAoiShiho 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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-pixel 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 14y 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 14y ago

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

kunai 14y 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 14y 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!

akandiah 14y 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-hands-on-video-and-impressions http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/21/4013932/chromebook-pixel-h...

Shooti 14y ago
If Chrome for Android is anything to go by it's not the screen, but Chrome's touch handling.

mark-r 14y 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 14y 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.

zmanian 14y 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 14y ago

Why is the screen nearly square???

iso-8859-1 14y ago
Because it has an aspect ratio of 1.5:1. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_%28image%29#3:2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_%28image%29#3:2

zmanian 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago

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

spinchange 14y 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.

mrb 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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.

Zenst 14y 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.

kinlan 14y ago

tszming 14y 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 14y 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.

rogerchucker 14y ago

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

tree_of_item 14y ago

Anyone else think this is a perfect proving ground for something like asm.js? http://asmjs.org/spec/latest/ http://asmjs.org/spec/latest/

ams6110 14y ago

The price is insane.

bound008 14y 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 14y ago

will the intel hd 4000 graphics do webgl?

iso-8859-1 14y ago
yes, even the oooold intel graphics can do this.

soemarko 14y ago

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

sidcool 14y ago

This has touch!!! Holy laptop!!!

sidcool 14y ago

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

sidcool 14y ago

Oh, but $1299 is expensive.

ezolotko 14y 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.

ezolotko 14y 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 14y ago

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

przemoc 14y ago

Google, you forgot about a trackpoint.