Google’s Amazing Laptop... Hard to Recommend - Pixelbook Review

[nicklmg]

Buy the Pixelbook
Amazon: http://geni.us/W6d4Mm
Newegg: http://geni.us/H5Oy

 

Hardware wise the Google Pixelbook is awesome, but is ChromeOS up for the task?

 

 

[nicklmg]

Anyone around for a second video today?  

[D13H4RD]

$1000 Chromebook.

 

No thanks.

 

There's only one reason this exists; "Just because we can"

 

(And also to show off Google's engineering but eh)

[Daniel644]

14 minutes ago, nicklmg said:

Anyone around for a second video today?  

right here, but man is that one dumb fucking product price point, a U series dual core at a price point where you can get a gaming laptop with a 1060 and a 7700hq and be "VR capable".

 

If I can't Vive on it I'm not interested.

 

think you guys finally managed to find a product dumber then that macbook Linus had to "watercool" with the tray of water to keep it from thermal throttling.

[Jurrunio]

For this money ($1200 right?), NOPE. If a laptop costs this much but cannot play popular games, it has to be perfect in other ways or do things a typical laptop couldnt do, which is why Macbooks succeed.

 

Chrome OS? Dont see this turning popular in the short future. Unlike Android which can use its flexibility to blow iOS out of the waters, Chrome OS cannot do the same thing to Windows. Even to those who dont like Windows, there are still many Linux derivatives (some of them available for free) available out there that are far better polished.

[Daniel644]

like seriously, this random MSI laptop on Newegg https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154702

is orders of magnitude faster and more powerful on every level and is actually cheaper then this thing. still people defend the ultrabook form factor and complain that a 5 pound "gaming laptop" is a "monster", seriously, 5 pounds, what kind of weaklings are we raising these days, my laptop is nearly 10 pounds and I haul it everywhere with me, 5 pounds I wouldn't even know it was there, i'd have to doublecheck my bag.

[captain_to_fire]

So many alternatives to the Pixel book for the same price or lower:

• The upcoming Eve-V for an i5 dual core, 8GB RAM, 256 GB SSD storage plus a stylus and a keyboard and Windows 10 Home for the same price of $1200 
• An iPad Pro 10.5” 256 GB plus Apple Pencil plus Smart Keyboard for $1060 
• A Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 9.7” running Android 7.0 with S Pen, 32GB internal storage + microSD card slot up to 256GB + keyboard cover for a total of $550 

[BachChain]

Quote

Windows is locked out at a bios level

wat

[tscanausa]

These issues are unfortunate. I have 5 Chromebooks at home. 1 premium, 1 med range and 3 low end that I all love. I was hoping to add one or 2 of these to the collection.

 

The mid range is a good daily driver for browsing and the Android apps I need ( netflix, nook, need for speed). The high end one I use for software development at work (stock configuration). I was hoping the pixelbook would allow me to run the Adobe suite to edit my photos while on the go. Currently my mid range one runs out of ram when opening a raw photo.

[Egg-Roll]

Linus how is this main rig specs? The CPU is simply just garbage. Google even hides its shittyness on their site: https://store.google.com/product/google_pixelbook_specs

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-7700HQ-vs-Intel-Core-i5-7Y54/m211019vsm193628

Also absolutely no GPU.

 

Hardware is far from "Dope" unless you mean dope as in doped up, as in a wondering mess for a very expensive price. If so then yes this unit is dope, if you mean cool dope then no.

4 hours ago, Daniel644 said:

lstill people defend the ultrabook form factor and complain that a 5 pound "gaming laptop" is a "monster", seriously, 5 pounds, what kind of weaklings are we raising these days, my laptop is nearly 10 pounds and I haul it everywhere with me, 5 pounds I wouldn't even know it was there, i'd have to doublecheck my bag.

The people who complain are wimps I'm not going to lie. The only logical reason why someone should complain about a computer thats over 5 pounds are students, unless they bought the thing.

 

But welcome to the new gen of people, i hate being called a millennial and being associated with someone who's 10 years old and cries about every little thing they dont want to do, or because of too much freedom they go running around thinking they run the place. I guess this is what happens when the government is permitted to control the actions inside the house(punishments).

[potoooooooo]

18 hours ago, Daniel644 said:

right here, but man is that one dumb fucking product price point, a U series dual core at a price point where you can get a gaming laptop with a 1060 and a 7700hq and be "VR capable".

 

If I can't Vive on it I'm not interested.

 

think you guys finally managed to find a product dumber then that macbook Linus had to "watercool" with the tray of water to keep it from thermal throttling.

Lol not every laptop needs to be a huge gaming laptop. Just because it's not made for you doesn't mean it's dumb.

 

God, some people are so entitled.

[Daniel644]

29 minutes ago, potoooooooo said:

Lol not every laptop needs to be a huge gaming laptop. Just because it's not made for you doesn't mean it's dumb.

 

God, some people are so entitled.

even then, I'm not saying don't buy an ultrabook, i'm saying don't PAY the PRICE of a decent gaming laptop for an ultrabook that is LITTERALLY LESS THEN HALF AS POWERFUL, there are Ultrabooks that run windows with specs like this for HALF the price and even other 2 in 1 style ultrabooks (like the Lenovo's) with similar specs are in the 800-900 range (which I still think is steep for what you are getting performance wise), there is simply NO EXCUSE for this thing to cost 1200 dollars, especially since there is no windows license bumping the price up, the point of a chromebook is to be a cheap internet browsing device, this thing shouldn't even cost 1200 CANADIAN DOLLARS considering what you are getting.

 

You people defending this sound like the people defending removing the headphone jack from phones or defending the price of MACBOOKS compared to the performance you get. It's a down right RIPOFF to be selling a computer that is this kneecapped at this price point.

 

this isn't the normal don't buy a ultrabook argument, this is a DON"T BUY THIS ULTRABOOK, as THIS ULTRABOOK is a RIPOFF, even Linus can't recommend it and you know how he loves his tiny things.

[potoooooooo]

On 11/22/2017 at 10:28 PM, Daniel644 said:

even then, I'm not saying don't buy an ultrabook, i'm saying don't PAY the PRICE of a decent gaming laptop for an ultrabook that is LITTERALLY LESS THEN HALF AS POWERFUL, there are Ultrabooks that run windows with specs like this for HALF the price and even other 2 in 1 style ultrabooks (like the Lenovo's) with similar specs are in the 800-900 range (which I still think is steep for what you are getting performance wise), there is simply NO EXCUSE for this thing to cost 1200 dollars, especially since there is no windows license bumping the price up, the point of a chromebook is to be a cheap internet browsing device, this thing shouldn't even cost 1200 CANADIAN DOLLARS considering what you are getting.

 

You people defending this sound like the people defending removing the headphone jack from phones or defending the price of MACBOOKS compared to the performance you get. It's a down right RIPOFF to be selling a computer that is this kneecapped at this price point.

 

this isn't the normal don't buy a ultrabook argument, this is a DON"T BUY THIS ULTRABOOK, as THIS ULTRABOOK is a RIPOFF, even Linus can't recommend it and you know how he loves his tiny things.

Why does it matter that it's less powerful? Most people don't need or want power. There are no ultrabooks with this level of quality for 600 dollars. Windows licenses are free for PC manufacturers, that doesn't contribute to the price at all. Like honestly, you're literally reeing so hard because this product isn't tailored for you.

[Daniel644]

3 hours ago, potoooooooo said:

Why does it matter that it's less powerful? Most people don't need or want power. There are no ultrabooks with this level of quality for 600 dollars. Windows licenses are free for PC manufacturers, that doesn't contribute to the price at all. Like honestly, you're literally reeing so hard because this product isn't tailored for you.

PC Manufactures BUY bundles of licenses from Microsoft, it's NOT "free" to them.

Also seriously "why does it matter if they are less powerful" WHY in the world would you voluntarily buy a less powerful machine for the same money (or less)? no seriously, the 8th Gen U series CPU's are in several ultrabooks now, you can get 40-60% better performance and maybe drop from a 10 hour battery life to a 9 hour battery life, why would you NOT do that?

 

what do you use to define "quality"? because I would call something only capable of running ChromeOS or a janky Linux distro pretty crappy at this price point.

[Results45]

The Pixelbook and other Chrome OS devices can now run Linux and eventually Windows (or maybe even Mac OS via KVMs?):

 

Tutorials, guides, & videos:

Spoiler

•  

Installing Linux on Chrome OS:

• https://www.linux.com/learn/intro-to-linux/2017/3/how-install-debian-ubuntu-or-kali-linux-your-chromebook
• https://www.bennettnotes.com/install-linux-on-chromebook/
• https://www.linux.com/learn/how-easily-install-Ubuntu-Chromebook-crouton
• https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/06/how-to-install-linux-on-a-chromebook/
• https://www.howtogeek.com/363331/how-to-set-up-and-use-linux-apps-on-chrome-os/
• https://www.computerworld.com/article/3314739/how-to-use-linux-apps-on-chrome-os.html

 

[Linux Layer] Crouton Guides & Resources:

• Runs on top of Chrome OS via a KVM inside a container shell.
• https://www.linux.com/learn/how-easily-install-Ubuntu-Chromebook-crouton
• https://www.codedonut.com/chromebook/install-crouton-chromebook/
• https://www.androidauthority.com/crouton-turn-your-chromebook-into-far-more-than-a-glorified-web-browser-663044/
• https://www.linux.com/learn/intro-to-linux/2017/3/how-install-debian-ubuntu-or-kali-linux-your-chromebook
• https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/16/16656420/google-pixelbook-chromebook-development-linux-crouton-how-to
• https://www.howtogeek.com/210047/how-to-manage-the-crouton-linux-system-on-your-chromebook/
• https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton

 

[Linux Distro] GalliumOS Guides & Resources:

• A lightweight version of Linux optimized for Chrome OS ~ you can choose to run Gallium instead of Chrome OS when dual-booting.
• https://medium.com/@adrian.carroll7/how-to-dual-boot-chromeos-and-linux-a-step-by-step-guide-68ed5b073e1b
• https://galliumos.org/
• https://wiki.galliumos.org/Hardware_Compatibility

 

Crostini: Official Support for Linux Apps on Chrome OS:

• https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-add-linux-to-your-chromebook/
• https://blog.simos.info/a-closer-look-at-chrome-os-using-lxd-to-run-linux-gui-apps-project-crostini/
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chrome_OS_devices/Crostini
•  
• https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/containers_and_vms.md
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Crostini/wiki/index#wiki_how-to_pages
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Crostini/wiki/getstarted/crostini-setup-guide
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Crostini/wiki/getstarted/crostini-enabled-devices
•  
• https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/running-virtual-machines-on-your-chromebook
• https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform/crosvm/+/2a2e2587b1799f265f5f1631228e9865fbf527ad/README.md
• https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform/tremplin/

 

Miscellaneous Resources:

• https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/13/17682902/google-windows-10-dual-boot-chromebooks-support-campfire
• https://discuss.linuxcontainers.org/t/using-lxd-on-your-chromebook/3823
• https://www.reddit.com/r/chromeos/comments/5zts0w/crouton_or_galliumos/
• https://www.aboutchromebooks.com/news/project-crostini-for-chromebooks-explained-in-15-minutes-video/
• https://gizmodo.com/how-to-get-more-out-of-your-chromebook-by-running-linux-1829058899
• https://www.linuxinsider.com/story/85799.html
• https://www.codeweavers.com/products/crossover-chromeos

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Can you consider doing a follow-up video?