Chromebook Pixel
 

Can someone explain the Chromebook Pixel to me? $1299-1499 for HD laptop that only runs Chrome OS? Huh? :confused::confused::confused:

http://9to5mac.com/2013/02/21/google...n-the-display/

They are trying to appeal to the anti-Apple hipsters who also spend their days at Starbucks.

Totally buying one. ChromeOS keeps getting better and better. I suspect we'll see some major upgrades at Google IO - and it wouldn't surprise me if we are introduced to native apps, or even Android apps.

With LTE built in, I'm totally buying into the next generation of Chromebook. Already love my Samsung.

Oh, and the only time I ever go to a Starbucks is at the airport to get a water ;)

Hopefully you'll be seen using it with your Vertu phone? ;)

I've got a Samsung Chromebook at home, but it was $300. and even then I wondered if I should have been buying a cheapo AMD based Windows 7 notebook instead.

I still don't get it.

The high price probably has a lot to do with the touchscreen, no? I don't get the appeal of that either. Once it gets all fingerprinted up all of those beautiful pixels won't be nearly as sharp and clear.

Needing a constant internet connection doesn't make any sense to me either. Makes it not as useful for international travel as a regular old laptop. I have an Asus Ultrabook with Win7 that is almost perfect for travel. It came in at about $900.

I don't understand that allure of Chromebooks. Why are they better than a standard laptop?

Thin client computing. No viruses. Patching is fast/easy. Always connected cloud/Web based apps.

No need for big processor/disk/ram so that makes them cheap.

The Pixel doesn't add up. It goes against everything they've been promoting. Unless= of course ScottC is right and they are adding local android app compatibility. Where's the market? I can't see Photographers lining up for the Pixel. A couple of dozen raw image uploads and Verizon will own your soul.

The same (or a few more) $ can get you a Retina Macbook Pro, and you get a bigger hard disk, mac applications, and you can run Chrome. :)

I agree. The Pixel's price point makes zero sense.

I would like to know what kind of high-end week were provided to Google engineers
who designed the Chromebook Pixel. Is it available legally outside of Google's campus?

As one of the original testers who received complimentary Google Chromebook CR-48
laptops, I love the concept. I still use the CR-48 as of today.

But $1300 for a Chromebook? I might as well get a MacBookAir.
(considering that I am a certified Apple-hater, this is a very strong statement)

That 3:2 display has got to have some ThinkPad people cheering...

Will the Chromebook Pixel run Adobe Lightroom and CS6?
My Macbook Air can.

I read about this yesterday and was surprised by the price.

As a new Google Docs/Drive (amazed I never used it previously) user I can see the potential use for Chromebook. But at $1,200.00 - the Chromebook Pixal seems a bit excessive.

$250.00 - great - but $1,200.00 - Wow!

4:3 used to be pretty standard (and I'll admit I lament the day my Thinkpad came with a 16:9). But 3:2? Not sure why that would fly.

As for the chromebook - I am still puzzled. Even when the originals were the same price as a Transformer tablet with keyboard - it always seemed like Android would be the more capable host OS.

3:2 is the aspect ratio of 35mm film.... combined with a super high screen resolution,
perhaps Google wants the Pixel to be used as a professional photoshop tool?

I'm still waiting for more general availability of the Samsung 3G Chromebook.

My guess about the Pixel?
1. It ups the ante for Chromebooks, encouraging Samsung and Asus to take their Chromebooks further up the food chain. It also helps them by establishing that Chromebooks aren't only for those who can't afford a real computer.
2. They needed an engineering platform for a high-performance Chromebook and figured out it might be cheaper to bring it through retail than to build hundreds or thousands engineering prototypes for their engineers. Does anyone know if the SDK runs on a Chromebook?
3. Maybe there's hidden value in finding out who buys these things and selling Adwords to affluent Chromophiles?

I have to admit that 90% of my use of my MacBook Air is browsing in Chrome or using Chrome apps like Google docs.

With a 32gb disk?

Haven't you heard? Google wants you upload every single picture you take
up to their cloud server. They will help you organize everything by automatically identifying all the people, places and objects in your photos.
You(or anybody on the internet) can then search with names.

Yes, I have. But if you're a photographer using pixel as a "professional tool", 32 or 64gb isn't enough. And shuttling raw files to and from your 1tb of google drive over wifi (forget LTE) or your attached usb 2.0 disk? No way...

I think it's unexplainable. I'm sure there's a market for it, but I just don't get it. Don't get the design of it, don't get why storage is so limited (there are times you won't access the cloud), don't get why the battery life is only five hours on a non replaceable battery, and the price is just plain crazy.

I'm sure there's a market for it, I just don't understand why.

Just read an interesting blog post. The Pixel is a no brainer if you're you're paying for 1TB of Google Storage ($600/year). The Pixel comes with 1Tb included in the price for 3 years, So based on the price of 3 years of storage, it pays for itself, and yields a few hundred in savings (depending on the model)...

I suspect that, like the original low-end Chromebooks, the price will drop within a year. Also, I am dying for this speculation to come true (Chrome OS and Android merging). For these reasons, I'm going to hold off for a bit.

But I'm with you in loving Chromebooks in general. I own four for my home/office and have purchased many more for others. My latest two cost me $140 in like-new condition (from CowBoom) and were essentially free because I put the 12 GoGo passes and 100GB cloud upgrades to good use. With the right apps installed, I'm finding them very flexible and useful, and while they have some limitations, for the price you can't go wrong.


Google isn't trying to cater to everyone by making a device that has the broadest appeal. They are trying to cater to people who have specific *preferences*, and therefore, do "get it". It's not inherently better to have a touchscreen... it is better only for those who prefer to have the capability. It isn't better to have 1TB cloud storage versus 500GB local... it is superior only to those who appreciate cloud storage more than local.

In my case, I am almost always connected (via WiFi or 4G LTE) and prefer to have everything important on the cloud regardless. I'd pay for extra cloud storage and I love that everything I have is redundantly secure and backed up/synced across all my devices without requiring effort or thought. For the rare times I'm not connected, the offline apps (ever-expanding) and the fact it syncs as soon as I'm back online is more than sufficient. So you can see why 1TB of Google Drive free would appeal to me and make the effective price of this Chromebook *much* lower. I wouldn't pay $600 for the extra storage, but I'd gladly pay $300, so that's the discount I factor in. YMMV.

Similarly, I use GoGo WiFi often. If this device didn't come with the 12 free passes, I'd eventually pay for them, so again, it lowers the effective price. If I never worked online when flying, my opinion would be different.

I have unlimited 4G LTE data via hotspot and grandfathered accounts, but I love having 100MB free/month for backup in situations where I don't have my phone or don't care to bring it in a pinch. Others might not care less.

I won't use the touch screen all that much, but I like being able to at times. If I never wanted to use it, or the threat of minor fingerprints scared me, it would be a detraction.

I prefer Chrome OS, but I like the fact that this device allows you the option of multi-booting to others. I might employ that later in case I need to use software that won't run on the Chrome OS platform. Someone who exclusively uses one OS and doesn't like Chrome will certainly find the flexibility useless.

In summary, debating the Chromebook as "better or not" is rather silly. There's no way it will be better - nor is it intended to be - for someone who dislikes the cloud, touchscreens, working from the air, etc.

I got to try one of these a couple days ago. First thing I noticed, GLOSSY screen. I currently use a 15" rMBP with the greatly reduced, but still a tad glossy screen. Any of the previous non-anti-glare screens, I simply could not use and the Pixel was even worse.

It had quite a heft to it, even though its only like 5 lb.

But the thing I found most odd was the question "what is this for?" With such a high pixle density I would think photo editing. But, with such limited local storage and currently NO quality "chrome" photo editing apps, I can't imagine how painful it would be to be having to swap files back and forth from the cloud to the device, or god forbid EDITING while IN the cloud on RAW or TIFF images. That would be truly painful.

A macbook air is such a better device at this point (and will probably come with some retina screen in the next release) and has a lot of local storage and can do literally everything a chromebook pixel can do for less money. AND it can do all the things a chromebook cannot.

At 1399-1499$ this is in no way going to be a seller and sadly will probably end up in the google tv, nexus Q heap.

Knowing Google, I don't think this product, as are their others, is primarily meant to generate revenue through sales. I think it's to promote a certain understanding and experience of computing that is currently not available. Perhaps they want to push the web to be more catered to high-resolutions and touch first, before they arrive at native applications. Maybe it's also, like someone mentioned, to bridge Android and Chrome, by supporting touch. Of course the more content on the web, the more revenue for them, as they really are an advertising company. Information is where it's at for them. Their "products" (phones, computers, services), are just a means for them to acquire more information.

I don't get the Pixel
 

It's more or less the same price as my MacBook Air. My MacBook Air lives in multiple clouds but the Pixel mostly lives in just one. Yes, the screen is nice, but no one has yet made a touch screen work really well with a keyboard in front of it.

Skofarrell's finding about that 1TB of cloud storage is pretty interesting in that it raises the possibility of network/ecosystem effects.

I could also see the 1TB cloud being pretty nice for folks signing up for Google Fiber gigabit internet.

It's not a great device for high-end media editing, nor was it intended to be. If it fails, it won't be because it's not good at doing something that it wasn't intended to do in the first place.

*If* you are someone who would otherwise purchase expanded cloud storage and/or in-flight WiFi, the effective price of the Pixel is much lower than that of a MacBook Air. Even without these things, it's somewhat cheaper. The touchscreen and 4G LTE backup capabilities are also features unique to it that the MacBook Air lacks.

You've nailed it. Their primary source of revenue is targeted, useful ads. They make money by helping people find what they seek, and getting a cut of the proceeds when that leads to business. They could lose money on phones, tablets, laptops, and many other forms of hardware and still be wildly profitable from people *using* the devices. Very different model from Apple, who makes the vast majority of revenue (and profit) from the hardware itself.

I had the original FREE Chromebook CR-48 that came with free Verizon 3G
service for 24 months.(only 100MB/month, but I only used it for emails)

Does the Chromebook Pixel LTE come with free Verizon 4G LTE for 24 months?
If so, that can a great deal! :) (which can cost several hundred dollars if
you used your own laptop)

Yes it does (at least, on the LTE version of course).

presenters for tonight's Oscars are getting the Chromebook Pixel, the Samsung Note 8.0, and free 1-year lease on the 2013 Buick Verano, among other free goodies... :(

CR-48 and Pixel (even the new Samsung $250 models) are wildly different.

Yes, comes with free 4G LTE, but just 100MB per month. Good as a backup when needed (download email, quick navigation or searches, etc), but not nearly enough to use on a regular basis. I've maintained for a long time that it would do them a lot of good to boost the free data cap to something like 500MB or 1GB, as that would allow those who don't frequently stream videos or otherwise gulp data to actually use the thing productively from anywhere to a more notable degree.

It's got the usual 100 MB free for two years.

The only purpose is to have people get through the 100 MB and then pop them over to a page to either sign up for another plan or buy more pay as you go time.

It's like a doughnut shop passing out free samples out front.

They get $20 a month for people who want 1 GB of data a month, they aren't going to give that away for free.

more like the drug dealer giving out free samples of weed! ^

They give away 1TB of cloud storage and command ~$50/month for that, so I don't think that giving away 500MB to 1GB of 4G data that commands ~$10-20/month would be a stretch. Even better would be if they'd give you a choice of three or four freebies, allowing you to select two, one of which could be 4G data.

I THINK one also gets the 12 GOGO passes, so THAT has some additional value.

I wonder if one could sell the storage for a fee somewhere on the interwebs.

Nope - it is tied to the machine identifier. That is why refurbs/returns are a bad idea on places like Amazon - people activate the free Google Drive, return it and of course get to keep the freebie storage.

Two of my Samsung Chromebooks were from Cowboom in like-new condition, $134 after coupon code and cash back and free shipping. One had the freebies still intact, the other didn't, but a Ninja made it right with just one quick request. Given the current price of GoGo and that I'd be buying either some passes or a subscription otherwise, the passes alone were almost worth the price. Of course, the Pixel can't be had anywhere near $134, but the principle of the freebies functioning as a serious discount for those who would have purchased them otherwise still applies.

Just because all the Apple fans don't get it, I just had to order one, I guess this totally makes me an anti-Apple hipster :D

Estimated Ship:
Less than one week 1 Google Chromebook Pixel (WiFi) $1,299.00
Shipping: $18.99
Tax: $119.28
Total: $1,437.27


Woohoo!

I'm sure it will look good under the Surface Pro(s).

Nice, but ouch on that tax. Makes me thankful I'm in a state with none!

Now that you're a hipster, you'll need a murse and an attitude.

And the Ativ Pro, Vivobook and other products.

With all that money I wasted on multiple laptops, I could have purchased one Macbook instead :p