hi I'm Bernie Thompson I'm the founder
of pluggable technologies and we're
really excited today to have gotten in a
Chromebook pixel and what makes this so
exciting to us and to a lot of other
people is this is the very first laptop
or computer of any kind that has USB
type-c ports Apple actually beat Google
to the punch in terms of announcing a
system the new MacBook but here we are
apple announced on Tuesday Google
announced on Wednesday sitting here on
Friday we placed an order with Google
and already have our Chromebook pixel in
hand so the Chromebook pixel has a
minimum number of ports it's got a USB
type-c here two USB type a here audio
here on the other side it's got another
USB type-c which distinguishes it from
the MacBook which only has one this has
two and a memory card slot so why are
the two type C ports important well
right from the get-go power delivery the
ability to charge and power the laptop
is baked right in so here we have the
power adapter that comes with the
Chromebook pixel it's a 60 watt power
adapter and all of that power and any
data connectivity is going through the
same USB wire and USB type-c connector
and so we just plug that into one of the
available ports and the Chromebook pixel
starts charging now the cool thing is
USB type-c like the Apple lightning
connector we can flip it over and plug
it in the other way so no more where you
have to flip it once flip it twice and
it seems like only on the third or
fourth try gives in this will go in the
first time every time because we have a
port on the other side now now that's
open up to connect devices so over here
we have a pluggable USB 3 hub with an
Ethernet adapter built right into it the
Chromebook pixel only has Wi-Fi built in
so getting wired network will at least
double your performance sometimes triple
or quadruple it so it's really great to
get wired now we could plug this type-a
connector into the type-a ports that are
on the side of the Chromebook pixel but
for example on the MacBook that isn't
possible because it doesn't have those
type-a ports so
in addition to getting the Chromebook
pixel we ordered Google's female type a
to type-c connector cable so we'll just
plug that in here and plug that into the
into the Chromebook pixel and so what I
have attached here is the Ethernet cable
so now I'm going to switch from Wi-Fi to
wired Ethernet and I've got a mouse
connected so now I can drag Windows
around on the screen etc with this
standard USB wired mouse so this is
again where you know USB has just done
such a great job over the years I've got
these older devices using the older
connector in fact a USB mouse is
actually a USB one-one device if you
look at it from kind of a electrical or
USB standards level and yet this USB one
one device basically I could take a USB
mouse from 15 years ago
and plug it in and it will still connect
through and work on this USB type-c port
I just need to adapt the connector types
the same great backward compatibility we
we've kind of have come to love about
USB it works here with the type C port
so you know I now have a couple extra
ports that are available I could connect
in flash drives I can connect in USB
hard drives you know Google Chrome OS
has pretty good support for a wide range
of standard type devices like USB HID
which would be the mouse and USB
mass-storage which would be the flash
drive it also has a built-in support for
a lot of devices basically that are
supported in the Linux kernel and a
pluggable we try really hard to make
sure that we produce devices that have
in kernel a Linux driver support what if
we want to connect a second large
display to our Chromebook pixel well I
can unplug that and plug in Google's
type-c to HDMI adapter so I'll plug that
in and I'll go over here and I'll grab
an HDMI cable and in fact I don't need
to charge right now I'm going to unplug
that and plug my hub and my mouse over
here so I get my mouse back and all my
USB ports and now up pops a monitor and
I can drag that window back and forth we
don't need to make any compromises with
Chromebooks anymore
inter
of being able to attach multiple
monitors you may find that you actually
have an older display that only has a
VGA connector nothing built into the
Chromebook none of those adapters will
allow you to connect to a VGA monitor or
projector but we actually have a VGA to
HDMI cable and here it is and I can
actually unplug this HDMI display and
then plug that HDMI adapter in there and
so this is a pluggable brand cable it's
basically doing digital which is this
HDMI side to analog which is that
monitor side and that will pop up in a
second and in the Chrome OS desktop will
extend over to this other monitor let's
actually grab a different type of hub so
here we have a seven port USB 3 hub we
can connect it either directly to the to
the type 8 ports here on the side or
again connect it through to the type C
here through the the Google adapter
which by the way is an option it doesn't
come with the Chromebook pixel but it's
only 13 dollars and we've got a separate
USB Ethernet adapter attached to that
again one of ours and so now I'll take
my mouse and take it from this other hub
and plug that in over here and I already
have that network adapter plugged in so
now I'm able to connect up to seven
devices and with this hub they're all
powered with the smaller one I was
showing you earlier it's relying on the
power off type C which is usually plenty
for most devices but as you get up to
seven attached USB devices you want that
to be externally powered and that's what
that hub does there you know what's the
performance like on the Chromebook pixel
Chrome OS is really efficient as long as
what you're doing lives within the
browser and you know around here we're
heavy users of Google Docs and Gmail and
and other kind of browser based services
you know the performance is really great
and perfectly snappy Chromebook pixel a
little bit pricey at $9.99 but the very
first system to support USB type-c ports
and so you're really future-proofed it's
gonna be showing up on more and more
Macs and PCs and tablets and phones over
the coming years the industry is really
kind of solidifying around the type-c
connector and you can get access to and
be on the forefront of that with a
Chromebook pixel so if you have any
questions feel free to comment below in
the review we'd be happy to answer
anything all the devices that we used
here we'll have links for you in the
description so again really excited this
is the Google Chromebook pixel with the
USB type-c connectors