Google Introduces the Chromebook Pixel to Compete With the MacBook Air

[Tech198]

uh.... the chrome book is a cheap low powered to like like the MBA ultra-slim.

Expect to have a price raise then. But then again... those who buy Chromebook currently anyway, is not really the same kind of people who would run windows n a business.

Its hardly a performer by any stretch.... Only for simple tasks.

[fpsBeaTt]

Originally Posted by deconstruct60

Look up the word resolution in a good dictionary. You can't completely decouple pixel density from resolution in the context talking about the resolution of a LCD panel. Resolution is more than simply the number of horizontal and vertical pixels. Either also have to factor in the panel's size or dpi ( two ways of getting to the same issue).

For the common distance usagae for a Pixel or Apple retina offering dpi is a factor in resolution in any real sense of the word.

Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.

[GermanyChris]

Let me just throw out the pat answer that everyone here says when someone criticizes and Apple product:

Don't buy it!

[fpsBeaTt]

Originally Posted by samcraig

Was it? I don't recall reading anything that stated it was. Do you have a source? Further - if it was the truth - why did Apple immediate (even at the end of the keynote) change their line to world's thinnest iPhone" - and put that on the website. Why not world's thinnest smartphone? It was sure stated a lot before the last few minutes of the product launch...

Use Google. I hear it's quite useful.

[haravikk]

That's a lot of money for a web-only laptop; while it seems a nice machine I wouldn't want one running Chrome OS.

[samcraig]

Originally Posted by fpsBeaTt

Use Google. I hear it's quite useful.

Or you could backup your claim with a link. I hear that's an effective way to defend forum posts.

[iFergal]

Watching this ad actually made me feel sick to my stomach!
I cant believe Apple will let them get away with this kind of plagiarism.
Then again, it's so ludicrous, Boogle are digging their own grave here.
Idiots!

[StoneJack]

I have an impression this is an approach similar to that of Microsoft.

Microsoft has money from Office and Windows so it can afford to make and try to sell various risky things, like Xbox, zunes, Surface RT. They even might be made at al loss, if necessary, just to see what remains stuck on the wall after a while.

Google is well known for a number of its initiatives beyond search, most of which were failures like Wave, or Google TV, but some were reasonably successful (Google Docs, for example). They never tried premium hardware (Nexuses are sold as cheaply as possible), so its an attempt to see if they can win something from that.

After a while we'll see if market approves this. My feeling is that it will have similar fate to Google TV or whatever like like that unfortunate hardware companies like Logitech tried to adopt. Probably, it doesn't have a real business plan, its an experiment, maybe not that costly for Google, because an outsourced manufacturer in Taiwan or China or maybe some Motorola division assembles the thing for them, its kinda experimental.

The thing is that after a number of such tries in various fields (Glass, TV, music, etc) none of which really add to their core strength of selling private information for ads, they will begin to lose more and more money. Since their search algorithm made 15 years ago, they have really nothing innovative, all their recent attempts - android, g-drive, picasa, whatever is still aimed for data excavation from individuals.

[Rogifan]

Originally Posted by GermanyChris

Let me just throw out the pat answer that everyone here says when someone criticizes and Apple product:

Don't buy it!

Believe me nobody will.

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Originally Posted by CausticPuppy

You get $1800 worth of cloud storage for $1300, plus a crippled computer thrown in for free. That's revolutionary!

Haha I suppose Google marking would spin it that way!

[mac.ross]

A beautiful and no doubt effective machine but the asking price is just a little steep for what it is, in my opinion.

[tivoboy]

What I really don't understand is why they chose to go with a retina type display. That thing uses so much power generally, and is great for things like photo editing, etc..

but, with such limited storage and no good "chrome" resident photo editing apps, photo editing is going to have to rely heavily on cloud storage and back and forth transmission of very large files. That, in my opinion would totally suck.

And 4:3 format for the screen, the black bars above and below normally formatted 16:9 movies will be bigger than the movie itself.

Ah well, put it all together in the heap of failed hardware products like google tv, nexus Q among others.

[rMBP13]

Originally Posted by Hungry&Foolish

overpriced for sure.

Junk OS for sure

[GregAndonian]

Originally Posted by Renzatic

What's outdated about it?

There's no USB 3, for one thing.


The biggest flaw, though, isn't that it's outdated- it's that it's underutilized. They put a high density screen on a machine that's designed to surf the web and use the cloud. (how many retina-quality web pages have you been to recently? )

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Originally Posted by tivoboy

with such limited storage and no good "chrome" resident photo editing apps, photo editing is going to have to rely heavily on cloud storage and back and forth transmission of very large files. That, in my opinion would totally suck.

Wow, I hadn't thought of that. You're right, that WOULD suck!

[Renzatic]

Originally Posted by GregAndonian

There's no USB 3, for one thing.

Yeah, but...I mean...besides that. :P

The biggest flaw, though, isn't that it's outdated- it's that it's underutilized. They put a high density screen on a machine that's designed to surf the web and use the cloud. (how many retina-quality web pages have you been to recently? )

Probably none, but it'd still look decent. Every page I visit looks nicer, crisper on my iPad 3 than it does on my big computer monitor. You don't necessarily have to have a retina enabled web page to take advantage of a high resolution display.

I do agree with you about it being underutilized. It's got an excellent screen, decent hardware, and...an OS that can't do anything with either one of them.

Though like I said earlier, if I could get a refurbed model for $800 or so, and pop another OS on it (Linux is already in the pipelines), I'd probably be tempted to pick one up.

[Michael Goff]

"Junk OS"

"Browser"

Man, I get the feeling the people on here haven't actually ever used Chrome OS and get their information from their local Best Buy...

[Renzatic]

It isn't a bad OS for what it is, but there isn't anything on it that needs an i5 and 4GB ram to run.

...at least not yet.

[Michael Goff]

Originally Posted by Renzatic

It isn't a bad OS for what it is, but there isn't anything on it that needs an i5 and 4GB ram to run.

...at least not yet.

No, no, it does need the 4GB of RAM.

2GB just didn't cut it for the Samsung Chromebook.

The i5 would likely let it run 1080p video without lagging.

[Renzatic]

Okay, I can understand having 4GB ram for people who work with multiple tabs. Ram's so cheap and plentiful, they might as well throw it in.

But 1080p video doesn't need an i5 to run. Even my iPad 3 with it's dinky ARM processor can play high def videos without any problems.

[Bawstun]

Isn't this essentially a $1300 tablet, inserted into a laptop's frame?

[Michael Goff]

Originally Posted by Renzatic

Okay, I can understand having 4GB ram for people who work with multiple tabs. Ram's so cheap and plentiful, they might as well throw it in.

But 1080p video doesn't need an i5 to run. Even my iPad 3 with it's dinky ARM processor can play high def videos without any problems.

Then there's something wrong with the Samsung Chromebook. It has the most recent Exynos processor... but I could never get it to run 1080 without grinding to a halt.

Then again, the iPad has the best graphics processor for an ARM device.

[Liquorpuki]

Originally Posted by Bawstun

Isn't this essentially a $1300 tablet, inserted into a laptop's frame?

No a tablet in a laptop frame would still have 100x more functionality than this piece of junk

[Michael Goff]

Originally Posted by Liquorpuki

No a tablet in a laptop frame would still have 100x more functionality than this piece of junk

Finish this sentence.

"My iPad is more functional than this Chromebook because _________".

I mean real ways, functional things.

[I.Love.Apple]

Originally Posted by GregAndonian

There's no USB 3, for one thing.


The biggest flaw, though, isn't that it's outdated- it's that it's underutilized. They put a high density screen on a machine that's designed to surf the web and use the cloud. (how many retina-quality web pages have you been to recently? )

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Wow, I hadn't thought of that. You're right, that WOULD suck!

Same applies to most all laptops. Real professionals do not use laptops for creative work. As far as USB 3.0 is concerned, Google's decision makes a lot more sense than Apple sticking with USB 2.0 for too long. This is a cloud-connected device. The data comes and goes via WiFi/LTE. USB 2.0 is their mostly for a mouse which would not benefit from USB 3.0 anyways.

[iEvolution]

Originally Posted by fodio

And here comes google, managing to undercut apple in price for the macbook air, yet sticking in a gorgeous retina plus screen higher than even the one in the mbp, in an even more gorgeous disruptive 3:2 format, WITH a touch screen, WITH the glass fused on the screen (unlike say the air gap ipad), with 1 tb of cloud storage, with a forward looking os (that might not be there yet, but hell, someone's got to innovate right? if a notes app passes of as innovation these days in the apple camp, the guys at google go all in with the cloud), in what looks like it's a beautiful engineering machine...


...and people here are critical of google? Seriously? After the most backward, counter innovative year in apple's history post Jobs? Where they only managed to have one os, security, software, quality control fiasco after the other whilst sacking (and rehiring in some cases) one exec after the other?

Oh I don't disagree with you, Apple hasn't offered much for the last few years other than spec updates. Can't expect them to blow up a new market every year that is a little unrealistic but they really have been putting half efforts out the last few years, switching ports (lightning) just to corner the market and intentionally holding back releases (the mini) for future update ideas because they can't find anything that's really new for the iPad Mini next year so they'll recycle the iPad 4 updates for the 2nd generation iPad Mini.

Anyway the reason they are critical is that the product is on a operating system that isn't even popular or well established right now so why would they think anyone wants to pay that high of a price (even if the hardware is great) when it can only do 1/10th of what Windows could do or 1/5th of what iOS could do?

Originally Posted by Renzatic

Explain to me in 3 sentences or less how the Surface Pro is overpriced.

Because you can get Windows 8 touch screens/laptop hybrids for $300 cheaper (actually $419 cheaper if you buy the keyboard too) which include a keyboard and much more space. Detachable ones are still $200 ($319) cheaper than the Surface Pro.

[Liquorpuki]

Originally Posted by Michael Goff

Finish this sentence.

"My iPad is more functional than this Chromebook because _________".

I mean real ways, functional things.

I think the iPad is a toy and I own a Surface Pro now so I really can't finish that sentence without laughing

But functionality comes from software
iPad = budget ARM software
Surface Pro = premium x86 software
Chromebook Pixel = web apps, which don't penetrate the software market in any volume sizable enough to make this laptop a disruptive product or good value proposition

Buying a Chromebook Pixel is like paying top dollar for a Blu Ray player in a world where Blu Ray discs aren't gonna exist for another 5-10 years. And in the meantime it won't even let you watch regular DVD's