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Google Wants Its New Pixelbook to Win the Laptop and Tablet Battle (fortune.com)

Posted by msmash on from the for-your-consideration dept.

Google is once again trying to make a big splash with laptop computers, this time with its new Pixelbook. From a report: Google debuted its Pixelbook, a new laptop-tablet hybrid during its Pixel 2 event in San Francisco on Wednesday, a high-end version of its barebones Chromebook laptops that rely on Google's Chrome operating system (OS). Google hopes its new Pixelbook, which sells for $999 to $1,649, will give it a viable challenger to Apple's MacBooks and other premium laptops. With Google's low-end Chromebooks, the company supplies the OS while third-party companies like HP Inc. and Dell build the devices. But Chromebooks are bulky, short on processing power, have limited storage, and are incompatible with Google's new Pixelbook stylus pen for drawing digital images on touchscreens. Matt Vokoun, Google's director for Chromebooks, emphasized that his company is serious about the Pixelbook. Although Google previously sold both high-end laptops and tablets, they were mostly "demonstration-oriented," he said, meaning Google didn't produce many of them and that they were instead for showing to potential manufacturers to get them on board with the idea.

15 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Not at those prices by Rockoon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you want to win "the laptop and tablet battle" you are messing with the wrong end of the price spectrum.

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
    1. Re:Not at those prices by ctilsie242 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is a pretty expensive thin client. For a little bit more, I can buy a MacBook with 16 gigs of RAM, an i7, and 512 GB of SSD. It won't be a barnburner, but it definitely can do whatever tasks are needed when being remote. To boot, if I do not have Internet access, I'm still free to work offline without being tied to the cloud or running in a limited offline mode. I could buy a Surface laptop and at have similar functionality.

      For me, Chromebooks have their spot... as Citrix clients and thin clients for the VDI. $1000 for what is basically a dumb terminal? I'll pass.

  2. No thanks. by Jason1729 · · Score: 2

    I don't want a tablet. I don't want a laptop that acts like a tablet. I don't want google spyware pre-installed. I don't want chromeOS.

    I do want a powerful and open laptop.

    So there is nothing to like about this product.

    1. Re:No thanks. by avgjoe62 · · Score: 2

      I don't want google spyware pre-installed.

      So you might go for Microsoft's instead? The Surface Pro 4 is in a similar price range.

      :%s/google/$manufacturer/

      --

      How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?

  3. Well, no by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    Google hopes its new Pixelbook, which sells for $999 to $1,649, will give it a viable challenger to Apple's MacBooks and other premium laptops.

    Apple's MacBooks and other premium laptops are OS-agnostic, OSX aside. You can run Windows or Linux on them without having to worry about hitting the wrong key at boot time and wiping out your installation. Google's value proposition is based on collecting data about you and advertising to you; are they going to let you escape their clutches, and install another operating system on the device without extreme hazard at every boot time?

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re: Well, no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Look everybody, swillden is back to shill for his bosses again. Tell me more swillden, I'm all ears. Your pragmatic objectivity is what I come here for.

  4. advertising company by anthony_greer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I would rather not get my hardware and OS from a company that generates over 90% of its income from advertisements.

    Apple and Windows/amd64 OEMa have their issues but they do at least, for the most part, treat teh person buying the device as the customer, not the person buying the spy data.

    1. Re:advertising company by emacsomancer · · Score: 4, Informative

      At least with Windows 10, I don't think one can make that claim for Microsoft. Perhaps for Apple. So far.

    2. Re:advertising company by jareth-0205 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I would rather not get my hardware and OS from a company that generates over 90% of its income from advertisements.

      Apple and Windows/amd64 OEMa have their issues but they do at least, for the most part, treat teh person buying the device as the customer, not the person buying the spy data.

      *sigh*, this trope is getting pretty dull. Why are you willing to trust *any* company? Do we actually have any evidence of Google acting badly with people's data? Should be some by now. I get that modern tech trends are worrying - but I can't bring myself to be any more scared of Google than Microsoft or Apple, especially since MS have turned into a data company now too.

    3. Re: advertising company by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I have to admit, with the direction that Microsoft and Google are going, that Apple is getting more and more attractive every day.

      Funny thing is (and I say this as a Mac user since 2003) - as Apple takes a privacy stance which appeals to the technologically literate, they simultaneously seem to be designing their laptops to be less useful to that same group.

      10-15 years ago, there seemed to be a big movement to Apple laptops by Unix sysadmin / programmer types. I believe that was part of the reason interest in Apple laptops started to take off among the young college crowd.

      Maybe they think laptops are dying as a business... but they sure seem to be squandering the technical fan base they once held.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
  5. What can you do when offline? by presidenteloco · · Score: 2

    Just curious.

    Could one do software development and testing while offline, with one of these puppies? e.g. Can I have linux in a VM or use docker containers etc in chromeos?

    --

    Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
    1. Re:What can you do when offline? by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      Google can't spy on you if you are offline. Why do you think they created ChromeOS?

    2. Re:What can you do when offline? by swillden · · Score: 2, Informative

      Just curious.

      Could one do software development and testing while offline, with one of these puppies? e.g. Can I have linux in a VM or use docker containers etc in chromeos?

      No.

      Yes. That one is a chroot system running under ChromeOS' Linux OS, but there are other approaches. Crouton is great as a dev environment.

      Also note that ChromeOS works just fine offline as long as the Chrome apps you're using support it. Most do.

      In addition, there's always the option of flipping the device to dev mode and replacing ChromeOS with whatever you like (and can get to run; many Linux and *BSD distros work fine on Chromebooks. I'm not sure you could get Windows to run and I would be amazed if you could make OS X work).

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  6. This is a great deal.... by u19925 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I am getting Google privacy at Apple price point.

  7. Carry two flash drives with your Chromebook by tepples · · Score: 2

    The Chromebooks all have to be put into developer mode to boot another OS, and a bad button press can wipe out the system.

    As BarbaraHudson wrote in a reply to me, wiping the drive if you are dumb enough to follow the prompts is a feature. It helps ensure that the majority of people, who are unfamiliar with Chrome OS, will not access private data that you have stored on the device's internal storage. Just make sure to carry two USB flash drives with your developer mode Chromebook: one with reinstallation media for the operating system and applications, and the other to back up data that you expect to persist for more than five minutes.

    Or if your hardware warranty has already expired, install replacement firmware without the warning.