The Chromebook Pixel Is Real, and Expensive

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The Chromebook Pixel Is Real, and Expensive

Posted by timothy on Thursday February 21, 2013 @08:00AM from the shifting-value-proposition dept.

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.

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nope by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-21 08:04 · Score: 4, Insightful

nope
Well.. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-21 08:05 · Score: 0, Insightful

No
1. Re:Well.. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-21 12:28 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  On if you can hack it ... a way of getting a MacBook Pro workalike
  But OSX doesn't support touch screens so that kind of defeats the purpose of buying this machine. You can build a cheaper hackbook.
  without giving money to either Apple or Microsoft then I'm for it.
  Personally I'm much more concerned about what Google gets from me than either Apple or Microsoft. That's why I'd never use any Android device, and if Chrome were the last browser on earth I'd surf the net with wget.
Re:Looks pretty good. by BanHammor · 2013-02-21 08:10 · Score: 5, Insightful

Still, it's like 1 million dollar vodka - it does its job for sure, but it is surely a little expensive for that.
Netbook??? by nomel · 2013-02-21 08:13 · Score: 5, Insightful

Since when is Core i5, Intel HD 4000, and 4GB of ram, and a screen with an absurdly high resolution, considered a netbook?
Sure, it has a netbook os installed...but that doesn't mean anything. I could also install windows 3.1...big deal.
1. Re:Netbook??? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-21 08:18 · Score: 0, Insightful
  
  Since when is Core i5, Intel HD 4000, and 4GB of ram, and a screen with an absurdly high resolution, considered a netbook?
  When all it can do is web browsing?
  Besides, 4GB is pretty lame for a new system. I'd have that much in my netbook if the Atom chipset supported more than 2GB.
2. Re:Netbook??? by hedwards · 2013-02-21 08:50 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  If you filter out the MS astroturfers, a netbook is a low cost, minimalist computer with low specs that's mostly useful for the net.
  MS had a cow when Asus had success with the Eee PC line and started to apply pressure to release Windows netbooks. At which point, the whole definition was pretty much broken as the specs had to be just about doubled to make that work with XP and the cost went above what normal people would pay.
  As for your definition, that would include UMPCs as well, which is sort of a problem.
Re:wow, that's a ton more expensive than I expecte by h4rr4r · 2013-02-21 08:14 · Score: 2, Insightful

Then you are not going to get a machine of this caliber. The display is expensive, the method of construction is expensive, plus like all luxury goods there will be a good deal of markup.
OMG, the display! by dabadab · 2013-02-21 08:16 · Score: 4, Insightful

The only interesting thing in the whole machine is the display.
It has sane proportions (3:2) and it has a very decent resolution (2560x1700). Basically these were the worst problems of the notebooks of the last few years: the 16:9 display that made no sense whatsoever* and the laughably low resolution. Now it seems that these may go away.
*: please note that I'm talking about the really portable size range where basically the keyboard determines the width of the notebook - in this category the displays did not get wide; they got short, with huge unused spaces above and below them.

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Real life is overrated.
Re:Seems expensive for a notebook. by Tough+Love · 2013-02-21 08:32 · Score: 1, Insightful

Is it worth the money?
Especially considering it comes preinstalled with crippleware.

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When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Re:wow, that's a ton more expensive than I expecte by rwa2 · 2013-02-21 08:41 · Score: 2, Insightful

Hmm, the price would make sense if they actually had a nice video card in there...
But an Intel HD 4000 ?
I'm not expecting that to keep up with the high-res display. Though I guess with all of the touchscreen smudges, it wouldn't matter as much...
needs more ram as well 4gb is small at that price by Joe_Dragon · 2013-02-21 08:54 · Score: 4, Insightful

needs more ram as well 4gb is small at that price also flash size is small.
Re:Looks pretty good. by beelsebob · 2013-02-21 09:05 · Score: 4, Insightful

I don't get why you'd want this – it's only $100 less than a 13" rMBP, while having 4GB less RAM, a much much smaller SSD, and a far inferior OS.
Re:needs more ram as well 4gb is small at that pri by derGoldstein · 2013-02-21 10:05 · Score: 2, Insightful

Those 11" Ultrabooks come with a copy of Windows, so you can actually do something useful.

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Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
Re:No. by MSG · 2013-02-21 12:54 · Score: 3, Insightful

That seems like an overreaction. You can't purchase anything from the Google Play Store without a Google account (which automatically means Plus). Why would they allow someone who can't use the Play Store to review an app there? That's nothing more than an open invitation for abuse.
Re:Pricing Is For Cloud Storage by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-21 15:28 · Score: 1, Insightful

So $1700 for three years for the 'bonus' of being reliant on someone else's uptime, requirements to be online, adding extra points of failure into the stack, and being able to send links to files instead of files in emails?
Fools and money and their parting being soon and whatnot...
Re:Pricing Is For Cloud Storage by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-21 16:14 · Score: 2, Insightful

Portable hard drive...
+1 reliability vs. TheCloud
+1 convenience vs. TheCloud
+1 easy of sharing vs. TheCloud
+1 accessibility vs. TheCloud
I'd take local storage over even infinite cloud storage any day.
Re:Pricing Is For Cloud Storage by ignavus · 2013-02-21 23:27 · Score: 3, Insightful

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.
In what universe is the cloud more reliable than a local drive? I can sit in a train in the underground and use my 1TB portable drive with confidence. I cannot get internet access there for love or money. This is a real use case for me. Internet access is only reliable at work and to a *lesser* extent (less in speed and uptime) at home. I cannot even get a 3G signal inside my house, only slowish ADSL2+ (I live more than three miles from my nearest telephone exchange). The cloud is not at all reliable outside those two locations. My portable drive is reliable everywhere, and it is never congested with other users sharing inadequate bandwidth.
The cloud is my biggest reason for not buying a ChromeBook. Gaaah!

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I am anarch of all I survey.