The Chromebook Pixel Is Real, and Expensive

First time accepted submitter Lirodon writes "Just when you thought Google's rumored Chrome OS laptop, the Chromebook Pixel, was an elaborate fake, think again. This high-end Chromebook with a 12.85-inch high resolution touchscreen (available in both Wi-Fi only and Verizon LTE versions) and an Intel Core i5 processor under the hood is super fancy, and also super expensive: starting at $1299. Would you want to pay that much for what is essentially a premium netbook?" Engadget has a hands-on with the device.

Comments

Re:Cheap alternative to Retina MacBook

[alen]

Apple just dropped the price on all their retina laptops

Re:wow, that's a ton more expensive than I expecte

[h4rr4r]

It should not be a problem. I have a very similar built in intel card driving a 1366x768 and a 1920x1080 screen at the same time.

Re:Cheap alternative to Retina MacBook

[tlhIngan]

Hey, it's an x86 PC, even if it runs a crappy OS. I suspect most of these will eventually wind up running Windows, unless there's something about the hardware that prevents this.

For people who liked the Retina hardware on the new MacBooks but couldn't justify the price (and don't care about or don't want OSX), this could be a good alternative. I'll wait a while, though: I don't see this price point lasting very long.

You can't run Windows on a Chromebook. The BIOS doesn't exist - just a small loader that can boot Linux and that's it. You can flip a hidden switch into "developer mode" where it'll let you have a command prompt, but that's really all there is. You can modify ChromeOS at that point to have a Linux system (there are instructions for installing Ubuntu, but it involves a bit of work with DD).

In regular non-developer mode, ChromeOS is quite locked down.

Cheaper than 3 years of 1TB Google Drive Storage

[Anonymous Coward]

At current prices, 3 Years of 1TB Google Drive Storage (that they throw in for free with every Pixel purchase) goes for 12x3x49.99=1799.64.

Basically you get a laptop for free and some discount if you prepay for it.

Seems like a good deal (if you *need* that kind of storage)

Re:wow, that's a ton more expensive than I expecte

[Bill Hayden]

But an Intel HD 4000 ?

I'm not expecting that to keep up with the high-res display.

It doesn't seem to be a problem for the Retina version of the MacBook Pro 13", which uses the same chip.

Re:Well..

[EGSonikku]

The 13" Macabook Pro Retina starts at $1499.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro

For that you get:

2.5GHz Core i5
8GB RAM
128GB SSD

And out of the box you can run OS X, Windows, or Linux.

So for $200 more than a Chromebook you get 4x the storage, and an actual OS and apps.

Seems a no brainier to me, assuming you HAVE to have a super HD display.

If you HAVE to have a Retina/Pixel display...

[EGSonikku]

Get a Retina MacBook Pro.

Lets compare:

13" Chromebook Pixel
1.8GHz Core i5
4GB RAM
32GB Storage
5 Hour battery
Only runs Chrome
$1,299

13" Retina MacBook Pro
2.5GHz Core i5
8GB RAM
128GB SSD
7 Hour battery
Can run OS X, Windows, or Linux
$1,499

Seems to me that extra $200 gets you a LOT more bang for your buck. And if you don't care about the display then that same cash gets you a much better hardware spec'd laptop from many other places.

Re:Unask

[theVarangian]

Wouldn't a 'premium' notebook have a real OS?

This isn't a 'premium' notebook, with Chrome OS installed it isn't even really a notebook, it's a portable $1299 thin client.

Re:Well..

[the_B0fh]

$1349 for the cheapest 13" Retina display.

http://appleinsider.com/mac_price_guide/#%23

$50 more only if you do comparison shopping. :)

Re:x86? REALLY?

[Anonymous Coward]

OS X upscales non-Retina-aware applications by pixel-doubling. That's the facts, jack.

You can turn on the resolution-independent stuff with the developer tools. In practice, it doesn't look good -- too many bitmaps and hardcoded resolutions. Just like Windows and probably Linux.

Re:Cheap alternative to Retina MacBook

[Derek Pomery]

Bit of clarification on the linux instructions.
http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/

Has the typing commands portion of the instructions simplified down to:
wget http://goo.gl/34v87; sudo bash 34v87

run at least twice.

And:
sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 5 -S 1 /dev/mmcblk0

To set ubuntu as the default boot.

So. No need to type in anything too complex w/ dd

Re:x86? REALLY?

[shutdown -p now]

Sure, it has that code - but its UI stack does not use it for widgets etc. Which is why it still doesn't have an option to e.g. make text bigger in all applications, like you can in Windows or most Linux DEs.

Re:No.

[paulpach]

If anyone cares what pushed me over the edge, it was when I found they now require you have Google Plus to write a review in the play store. A move worthy of Microsoft at its vilest. This is not the only issue by any means though.

As someone who sells a game in google play I appreciated this move. Before, when a customer had a problem with the game, I had absolutely no way of helping the customer. Now at least I can help some of them by contacting them on their google play.

I would really prefer if I could simply reply to reviews and keep it anonymous, many of the problems people have are just misunderstandings or are a checkbox away. Any change that allows me to respond to reviews is very welcome.

Re:wow, that's a ton more expensive than I expecte

[jbolden]

I'm sure it is a problem. I have the 15" rMBP. The Nvidia 650M can have problems keeping up with 5mp. The Intel 4000 definitely lags if you force the laptop to use integrated graphics. I would never buy the 13" rMBP for that reason.

Pricing Is For Cloud Storage

[jdev]

I'm not clear what the hardware is worth, but people are ignoring why this is priced so high. What nobody mentions is the laptop comes with 3 years of 1TB Google Drive storage. If you check out pricing for that much storage, you are looking at $50/month, which translates to $600/yr or $1,800 for 3 years.

So if you are a Google Drive power user and need a ton of storage space, this thing is a bargain. You get the storage at a discount and a nice free laptop. Sure, that seems like a crazy amount to spend on cloud storage space but this thing isn't exactly a laptop for the masses.

The big question here is who needs that much cloud storage space. It sounds like something that would be nice to have, but I wouldn't spend $600/yr. I'm not the target audience though.

Re:Pricing Is For Cloud Storage

[jdev]

Here, 1 TB of always-available, portable storage for $99.99, perhaps less if you shop around for a discount.

Yes, portable hard drives are almost exactly like cloud storage. Except for the reliability. And the convenience. And ease of sharing. And accessibility. But besides that, it's exactly the same.

Re:x86? REALLY?

[shutdown -p now]

This isn't necessarily true. Apple has been shipping this for years as a developer features (open Quartz Debug, set your UI scale, logout, login.)

Yes, they did. Have you ever tried actually enabling this option? It didn't just break third-party apps - it broke the core OS UI, such as the top-level app menu. I don't know on what level the UI stack actually supports this, but it clearly doesn't extend to all stock widgets.