- Hey guys, this is Austin.
This is a $1000 Chromebook, which begs the question,
why does it even exist?
This is the Google Pixelbook.
Now this is actually not the first time that Google has made
a high end Chromebook.
A few years ago they made the Chromebook Pixel, which is
very much an earlier version of what they've got here.
To me, spending $1000 on a Chromebook doesn't make a ton
of sense, so really the sweet spot for these is typically
in the $200-$300 price range.
There, you're getting pretty decent hardware.
And while yes, it's not going to be quite as usable as
something like a Windows computer, for a lot of people,
Chrome OS is all you actually need.
Pop open the box, and the first thing we see is the
Pixelbook itself.
And actually I will say, this is really unique hardware
for a laptop.
Unlike basically all other high end laptops these days
that are made out of aluminum or sometimes stainless,
instead you have this sort of glass finish on the both
front as well as back of the computer.
Now if you look at it side by side with something like
a Pixel 2, you'll definitely see the family resemblance.
So port wise, there's not going to be a ton.
Essentially you have one USB-C port on the side as well
as a headphone jack.
And on the other side you're going to get one more
USB-C port.
So one of the nice things about the Pixelbook is that it
actually does share pretty much all of this with the
Pixel 2, so in theory you can use the same charger
for your phone and your laptop.
Pop this guy open and we see that yeah, that is actually
rubber?
This is such a weirdly designed laptop.
Say what you want about Chrome OS and whether it belongs
on a $1000 laptop, but this hardware, it is really nice.
Man, I'm doing a 180 on this computer way too fast.
So when I'm here at work, a lot of the times I will be
using a Windows laptop to plug in to a USB-C monitor,
but this hardware is so nice, I actually might give the
Chromebook, or sorry, the Pixelbook a try.
While this guy updates, something else you might want to
consider is picking up the Pixelbook Pen.
So if a $1000 Chromebook isn't enough, you can spend
another $100 on a stylus.
Sometimes it's hard for me to justify using a stylus
on a computer.
I know a lot of people like to be able to take notes and
do sketching and stuff on a computer, and especially with
this guy where you can actually flip the screen all the
way around it might be helpful.
But I just don't find a ton of use for it.
Although, this actually does look nice.
Touch pad firmware update in progress.
Keep your hands off the touch pad.
This will take around two minutes.
I've never seen that in my life.
What happens if I touch the touch pad now?
- [Ken] Do it.
- Oh, it crashed!
(laughs)
Ken is a bad influence, okay?
A bad influence.
Inside the Pixelbook is a seventh generation Core i5
processor, eight gigabytes of RAM, and a 128 gigabyte SSD.
Those are the specs of the base model that I have here.
If you want to upgrade to the model with the Core i7,
16 gigs of RAM and a 512 gig SSD, that's going to run you
$1650.
And of course, if you want the pen, don't forget to
throw another $100 on that.
So what are you getting with a $1000+ Chromebook?
Well, the hardware, like I said, is pretty nice.
So you do have a fully flexible hinge, so not only can you
use it in sort of a display mode, but you can flip it over
to tent, or if you want, you can use it in tablet mode.
You can tell they optimized this for tablet mode, because
the bezels are kind of huge.
Now to be fair, when you're using it like this, it does
give you a little bit of space for your thumbs to sort
of rest on the screen, but when you're spending this much
money on a laptop, smaller bezels would have been
really nice.
So it is a 12.3 inch panel with a resolution of 2400x1600.
As you'd expect, it has a touch screen and it looks
really nice.
Today is the launch of the iPhone X, which could be the
most hyped phone of the year.
Not only do the speakers sound good, but it is a really
sharp screen.
This is a very high resolution for a 12 inch panel.
I had nothing but good things to say about the typing
experience either.
The keyboard feels good with solid spacing and it just has
a nice sort of tactile feel.
And the track pad is surprisingly good.
Not only does it have a glass surface, but it has some of
the most accurate scrolling I've ever felt.
This is right up there with a lot of MacBooks.
The real question here though is what exactly can you do
on a $1000 Chromebook?
Well first of all, you have Chrome.
And while yes, that doesn't sound like much of a selling
point, for me I actually do spend a lot of time in stuff
like YouTube, Google Docs and Gmail.
And for that, this works fine.
What newer Chromebooks like this have is the
Google Play Store.
Now this essentially will give you access to a ton of
different Android apps that will run straight on Chrome OS.
Oh my god, recommended for me.
Love Life School Idol Festival.
- Yes. - No.
- Please? - No.
- Please?
- I touched the track pad for you, I'm not doing
anything else.
(laughs)
of course, the first thing I have to try is Super Mario Run.
Because this is not ridiculous in any way.
Oh, oh, oh!
This is so huge!
My hand kind of hurts from holding the laptop like that, but
I mean, that's one way you can play games on your
super cool Pixelbook.
There are some slightly more practical benefits of having
Android apps, such as things like Photoshop Sketch.
So this combined with the Pixel Pen means that you can
actually do some pretty decent drawing.
Having access to Android apps like Instagram and Snapchat
on a laptop can be really cool, but the problem is is that
while some of these apps are pretty decent and do support
Chrome OS, a lot of them are either just stretched out
versions of the phone, or worse yet, they're just running
in a phone sized window.
The Pixelbook also has Google Assistant.
So there's a few different ways of launching this, but one
of my favorites is with the pen.
So when you hold the button, you can just draw on a
particular part of a web page and it will use
Google Assistant to try to figure out what
you're looking at.
So here it figures out that I'm talking about the iPhone X
and the Pixel 2.
It gives a link to the actual page as well as to
my channel, and it will also transcribe any text that
I select.
So should the Google Pixelbook exist?
I'm sure there's a market out there for someone to spend
$1000 on a Chromebook, and yes this is some of the nicest
laptop hardware I've ever tried, but it is really hard
to justify buying this when you can get a great PC
or MacBook.
So what do you guys think about the Pixelbook?
Let me know in the comments below and I will catch you
in the next one.