Google Unveils Chromebook Pixel, High Res Touchscreen For $1300

After a few rumors of a Chromebook Pixel and others of a touch screen Chromebook, we have an official announcement. Google has unveiled the Chromebook Pixel, a 12.85 inch notebook running their Chrome OS.

The screen has been supercharged with a 2560×1700 resolution in a 3:2 format. It clocks in at a very impressive 239 pixels per inch and a very high 400 nit brightness. On top of that you get a sheet of Gorilla glass with a built in touch layer, giving touchscreen capabilities to this little notebook.

In other hardware, you get a 1.8GHz Intel Core i5, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 32GB SSD (really?) with 1TB of free Google Drive space for three years, three microphones, and a weight of 3.35 pounds. Really, it’s a pretty nice piece of machine.

If you’re planning to take it for travel, it includes some nice features. You should get about 5 hours of battery out of this thing, and Google has included 12 free sessions of GoGo Inflight internet for those who like to fly a lot. And if you spring for an LTE model, you’ll get 100MB a month of free Verizon LTE for two years.

But there must be a catch. This hardware is just too good to be true, right? Well it’s true, but you’ll have to pony up $1300 for the standard model and $1500 for the LTE model. Tell me, who would buy a laptop for $1300 and be content with getting a 32GB SSD and only the ability to run web apps? I’d sure as hell be disappointed. I expect a lot more for $1300. But what do you guys think? Will be be a success? Will you buy one? Tell us in the comments!

Google Chromebook Pixel | The Next Web

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Business Telephone 11 pts

You're right! It's very very expensive. I hope Google will introduce something like this with great specs yet with a "not so expensive" price. My pocket can't take this kind of expense. I'd rather save and buy my money with a car or a house.

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This whole article misses the point of Pixel. I believe Jean-Louis Nyuyen explains it the best:

 

I see all these articles and posts calling the $1,299 Chromebook Pixel a "pricey boondoggle" (+TechCrunch), pitching it squarely against the Surface Pro or MacBook Pro, speculating whether it can "upend" Windows (+ZDNet), suggesting it's competing against the MacBook Air (+MacRumors)... that it's too expensive, too early, or both. But they're all missing the point. The Pixel is really just an experiment, but one that is crucial for Chrome OS. It may not sell well. Hey, it probably won't. And the Chrome team may not care how many it sells after all. What they will watch closely is what happens next, specifically, the Web Store. In a way, it reminds me of what the Nexus One did for Android. Consider the 2 biggest complaints you've heard about Chromebooks over the past few years: 1- it uses cheap hardware, and 2- it lacks powerful apps. Hence, critics have called it just a glorified browser. To them, the Pixel probably doesn't make sense either. I bet most reviews will conclude it's too expensive or the hardware is premature. But as we've seen repeated in the blog post and video, the Pixel is really "for what's next". What today's announcement shows is that Google has chosen to address hardware first; doing so on its own (not relying on Samsung, Acer, HP or Lenovo) and doing so boldly. No longer are Chromebooks synonymous with budget hardware; they can be cutting edge; specs are no longer a sore point. Now that hardware is out of the way, it's clear what the next battle is for Chrome OS: cutting-edge applications. The Chrome team has known this for a while; Sundar Pichai certainly knows this today. It's the missing piece they need. It's what consumers have said are keeping them from adopting Chrome OS or switching completely from Windows or Mac. Users need powerful productivity apps and games. The Web Store has to get better. The groundwork has been laid all these years, but Google needs its developers to make the rest happen. Developers also needed a Chromebook they could get excited about. That's the Pixel. In the next few months, you'll see Google doing its best to get the Pixel in the hands - especially minds - of as many developers as possible. The Pixel will probably be given away at Google I/O next May. Meanwhile, the Chrome team will continue to push development until the web is all users really need - reducing hardware dependencies, bringing in more pieces of Android (notifications), and making Google Now a central part of the experience. When apps become powerful enough, Chromebooks will finally be more than a glorified browser in the eye of the mainstream consumer. And that is the gamble Google made today.

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Haloruler64 84 pts

That's fair and all, but that doesn't change anything written in the article. It's still a glorified web browser on an i5. It's not a good consumer product, it's a big test. 

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roboguy12 31 pts

If they pushed this down to ~$500 or so I could see it selling really well. The touch screen component doesn't make a whole lot of sense for ChromeOS and I don't really see the purpose of having it unless it could act like a Yoga-esque computer and fold backward and double as a tablet. For people looking to buy a computer though (and not a tablet, so we'll ignore the fact that you can get a killer tablet for less than $500) I see no reason why anyone would spend $1300 on this when the 13-inch (same size as this) Macbook Pro is roughly the same amount, and also a full-featured computer. Google should be playing up the market of a cheap alternative for a computer that targets the average user, and a $1300 price point will most certainly not meet that.

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JQuest81 94 pts

I'm actually on the fence about that one. It seems like a really nice machine, but good lord, if that isn't expensive for something that a Transformer Infinity can do with a more robust OS and battery life in Android for about half the price. The only big thing you give up is screen real estate. Is that a too far off assessment? What would be the advantage of a Chromebook over a really nice Tablet?

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Haloruler64 84 pts

 JQuest81 I personally see Android as more powerful because of its app selection. Chrome OS is a web browser, not much more. However, it IS optimized for mouse/keyboard more than Android. I'm fairly conflicted too, but a TF Infinity with the keyboard dock could do a LOT for users. So could a $250 Samsung Chromebook. Also remember that ASUS has some good stuff coming at MWC, so don't go buying a TF yet! 

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