Hands-on with Google's Chromebook Pixel
Chrome OS has been overshadowed for years by Android's success. But with the arrival of the $1,299 Chromebook Pixel, Google's browser-based operating system can get over some of its inferiority complex.
The high-end laptop -- the first Chromebook designed by Google rather than its partners -- brings refined hardware to Chrome OS. It's got a sleek and thin body, an excellent touch pad, a backlit keyboard, and reasonable performance. But its multitouch-capable screen, with enough pixels to match Apple's Retina Display, is spectacular.
The 3.3-pound Chromebook Pixel still isn't for everybody, but cloud-computing aficionados now have some hardware they can be proud to show off. It's a pleasure to use -- as you'd hope if you're shelling out $1,299 for the Wi-Fi model or $1,499 for the LTE-equipped model, due to ship in early April.
Google is gearing the Pixel toward power users accustomed to Web apps like Google Docs and developers who'll write more Web software. Because Chrome OS machines still can't run native software, mainstream consumers should look elsewhere -- perhaps at the $249 Samsung Chromebook, which is affordable enough to be a second machine for e-mail, Facebook, homework, and a quick map search, or a MacBook Air, which isn't cheap but which can run Skype, iTunes, ... [Read more]
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