- I don't even know where to start with this thing.
This is the new Pixel Slate,
it's not quite the first Chrome OS tablet ever
but it is the first one that signals Google
is really trying to make Chrome OS
its big screen computing platform of the future.
It's a tablet that runs
the full desktop Chrome web browser, web apps,
and Android apps.
It can cost as little as $600 bucks
but the one that I'm testing right here costs a thousand
plus $200 bucks for this keyboard right here.
This thing is weird.
It's somewhere between a tablet and laptop
and it's not great at either.
It feels like an experiment in the future of computing
but not the actual future.
So, in a lot of ways I do kind of love it but sometimes,
I really hate it.
Let's just get into the hardware.
The Pixel Slate has a 12.3 inch, 3,000 by 2,000 screen
that Google calls a molecular display
but it pretty much just looks like any other LCD to me.
It's good.
It has some fairly sizable bezels,
partly because there are two front-facing speakers
that sound great on the front of it.
It is blue and it picks up fingerprints really easily
but overall, it's pretty nice in terms of quality.
You can login with your fingerprint
right there on the power button.
There are a couple of cameras
that do camera things pretty well.
There's no headphone jack and there are two USBC ports
and I'll get to those USBC ports in a minute,
don't you fret.
Anyway, as tablets go, it's big but it's still manageable.
It's sort of like that 12.9 inch iPad Pro
but unlike that iPad Pro, this has an Intel chip inside it
and that's where things start to get weird.
Google decided to offer four different processor options
and three different RAM options
in five different price points,
so picking out a Pixel Slate is complicated.
You can spend as little as $599,
but it won't do much more than open up a few tabs
and run the Netflix app.
Or you can can kid it out with the max specs
and a keyboard and pen and spend $2,000 dollars.
I think the only one really worth considering
is the Core i5 model that I'm using right here
but I think that because I know how Chrome OS works
and I know that I want to do more
than just use it as a basic tablet.
And that's the thing,
you need to know a lot about what you want out of Chrome OS
just to figure out which one to buy.
In fact, you need to know a lot about Chrome OS
to get most outta the Pixel Slate
no matter which one you buy.
So, let's talk about Chrome OS and more specifically,
let's talk about how it works on this hybrid Pixel Slate.
When you have the keyboard attached,
it works just like any other Chromebook.
You've got a mouse and resizable windows,
you can open up Chrome tabs and Chrome windows,
and web apps and Android apps,
and move them around, the whole works.
It's all really familiar right on down to Android apps,
working but still feeling just a little bit different
than the rest of the OS.
I gotta say though, I don't love this Folio keyboard much.
It's not the rounded keys, they're fine,
they're quiet and they're backlit, and it's pretty nice.
And it's great that you can use it in almost any angle
thanks to this really neat magnet trick
that puts it up at just the right spot.
But the keyboard deck is connected by this floppy flap
and it flexes so much
that you can actually click the trackpad
by accidentally resting your palms on it
when it's on your lap, just like it flexes.
No good.
Brydge makes a Bluetooth keyboard
specifically for the Pixel Slate that's way better
and it's $40 dollars cheaper.
Anyway, when you detach the keyboard
or when you flip it under like this,
it goes into tablet mode.
All your windows go full-screen,
but you can do some split-screen
by dragging down from the top and then over to the right.
And there are some neat touches here,
I really love that if you want,
you can have this little thumb-swipe keyboard
over on the right
instead of having the full-screen keyboard
taking up half the screen.
It's kinda neat.
But the thing is, in tablet mode,
the animation feels really kinda janky,
it's inelegant and it's pretty stuttery.
And performance overall is a mixed bag,
it's not bad most of the time,
I can have like 20 tabs
and a few apps going at the same time.
So, that's good but sometimes I get really bad lag
where I feel like I shouldn't.
So, for example in the Google Keep app,
sometimes I pen with it and it's totally fine
other times it lags really bad.
And other times, things are just kind of unstable.
There are bugs.
The first review unit that Google sent me,
straight up crashed into a boot loop
and it had to be replaced.
The second one, luckily, hasn't had that issue
but I've still had problems with Bluetooth disconnecting
and since there's no headphone jack,
that's kinda just a killer.
Now let's say you trust Google to fix all those bugs,
there is a new version of Chrome OS out
every six weeks after all.
That brings us to the next question,
really the most important question,
can you make this your main computer?
It's the same question we asked about the iPad Pro.
I don't know if you noticed,
but I started this video with the exact same line
that Nilay used in his iPad Pro video
because in a lot of ways,
these devices are trying to do similar things
but from different directions.
- Either you have to completely understand
the limitations of IOS so well
that you can make use of these little hacks
all over the place to get things done,
or you just deal with it and accept the fact
that you have to go back to a real computer
from time to time because it's just easier.
- Yeah, it's the same thing with the Pixel Slate
but for different reasons.
Most people should not make this their main computer
but Chrome OS experts could.
There are a million examples I could cite here,
so I'm just gonna pick one and yeah,
it's finally time to talk about those USBC ports.
So, let's just plug some stuff in.
(quiet upbeat music)
Check, check, check, ha.
Oh no,
ah, woop woop!
So the Pixel Slate isn't restricted like the iPad Pro,
there's a real file browser that sees drives
and if you plug a microphone in, it'll work
and any app can theoretically see whatever you plug in.
It's not really limited by the OS,
instead it's limited by the apps that you can get on it.
So, for example, when I plug in an SD card,
it just pops up the files app.
So far so good.
But the Adobe Lightroom Android app
was designed to work with phones
and doesn't work with Chrome OS' file browser,
so you have to injust the photos into the file app,
then go looking for 'em in Lightroom,
and then go back and delete them in the files app.
Now look, I don't wanna just pick on Adobe here
because this Android app weirdness is kind of all over.
It's nice that you have access
to the full Google Play library of Android apps
but most of the stuff you're really gonna wanna use
instead of web apps
are stuff like video streaming apps and games.
I mean, I don't know,
Spotify just looks silly here for example,
it's just like a tacked on phone app.
The trade off though,
is you get a real desktop-class web browser,
you can't get that on an iPad.
So, I'm able to get more work done on this
than I can on an iPad Pro based on my particular needs.
Just the thing is, I gotta admit,
this is way less fun to use.
So look, I've been hard on this Pixel Slate
but I think it's time to start expecting more
from Chromebooks.
This thing is in the same price range as the iPad Pro,
the Microsoft Surface,
and tons of high-end Windows and Mac laptops.
I honestly think the only people who should buy this
are Chrome OS diehards,
and you know what?
Even for them, I don't think this makes sense.
Last years Pixelbook is still right there
and it's getting discounted all the time.
Sure, it's last years processor
and you can't attach the keyboard,
but otherwise, it's basically the same thing
and it weighs a quarter pound less than this tablet
with the keyboard attached.
I still love my Pixelbook and I'm sticking with it.
Now, the Pixel Slate has a lot going for it
but I think it's just too experimental.
The bummer of it all is I really do like
what Google is trying to do here,
I just wish it was less trying and more doing.
Hey, thanks so much for watching
and let me know in the comments, what would it take for you
to consider a full Chrome OS tablet?
I'm really curious and you know?
I'm obsessed with these new kinds of computers
and I have a video that's a good introduction
to what I think about 'em
it's the very first processor episode
where I try to answer the question,
what's a computer?