- [Narrator] Sponsored by Surfshark VPN.
At 2019's Made by Google event in New York City,
I expected to come away entranced by the smartphones
and apathetic about everything else.
But it turns out that a Chromebook aimed at those
who stay mobile, well, that's right up my alley.
This is the Pixelbook Go, and while it's not the best deal
you can get in the Google Store,
it is the Chromebook that I would buy.
(upbeat music)
Chromebooks have come a long way since that budget model
I covered a couple years back.
They're still designed mainly for browsing,
writing, and other light work,
but that also means they're faster to boot,
simpler to use, and last longer on a charge than full PCs.
And the fact that they can now run almost every app
that an Android phone can, that makes 'em
a lot more versatile than they once were.
A lot of vendors make Chromebooks,
but Google has only made a handful of its' own.
2017's Pixelbook was a triumphant blend
of aesthetics and power that you had to pay
at least 1,000 bucks to own.
And last year's Pixel Slate was a disaster.
It tried to be tablet and laptop
and pretty much failed at both.
The Pixelbook Go is more limited in its ambitions
and as a consequence, it's much more focused.
This is a purebred laptop.
You can't pop the screen off or fold it behind the keyboard,
you open it to use it and close it when you're done.
That makes it less exciting,
and in the opinion of Android Central's Ara Wagoner,
less practical than other Chromebooks.
We'll come back to that, but first,
I gotta give Google props for the hardware here.
This is one of the most comfortable laptops I've used.
It's all pillowy curves.
The bottom plate is scalloped
in this way I've never seen before
and the keyboard is soft and quiet
without falling into the trap of being mushy.
I could type on this all day.
Matter of fact, I have, for five days.
The Pixelbook Go passes the one-handed opening test,
thank you for that, and the casing is painted magnesium,
but in the same way the Pixel 4 doesn't feel like glass,
this feels too soft to be metal.
Speaking of the Pixel 4, if you pair it to the Pixelbook Go,
you can use Smart Lock to bypass your password.
Just unlock your phone
and then you can tap right in on the touchscreen.
You can also turn on your phone's wifi hotspot
right from Chrome OS,
rather than fish your phone out of your bag.
You don't need a Pixel 4 or a Pixelbook Go
to take advantage of these features in a Chromebook,
but after not using Chrome OS for a while
and forgetting about these features,
I was really happy to have them back.
For the past five days, I've used the Pixelbook Go
for the writing and research part of my workflow,
which means juggling an average of eight to 10 Chrome tabs,
Slack, Evernote, Spotify, and Pocket Casts,
which by the way, absolutely rocks on these speakers.
- [Ara] The bestselling Chromebook today, I believe,
is the Lenovo C330, the $250 Chromebook,
and it runs all day.
- [Man] When do we set the clocks back?
- [Computer] First Sunday in November.
Here's a summary from WebExhibits.
- They're not quite as spacious and crisp
as my MacBook Pros, but they are just as loud.
And with that typical workflow,
I've averaged about eight hours of continuous use
between charges, far short of the 12 hours Google promises,
but every manufacturer overstates battery claims,
and more to the point, eight hours is far better
than the four to five I've come to expect
from my MacBook and most PCs.
Google says the included 45 watt adapter
can replenish it quickly and here,
the company delivers like Domino's.
After my review unit died, I plugged it in for 20 minutes,
then unplugged it, set my watch,
and got exactly the promised two hours of use
from that 20 minute top up.
Between this and the new Microsoft Surfaces,
I love that fast charging
is finally becoming common on laptops.
Quick word on the trim level,
this is the mid-tier Pixelbook Go,
so it's powered by an Intel Core i5
backed up by eight gigs of ram.
Now, if you want, you can spend more
to get double the memory in the next higher tier,
Chrome OS loves its' ram,
but I've had no performance complaints
even with my mid-range unit.
If you're gonna upgrade,
do it to get a higher resolution screen, if anything.
This full HD panel is fine,
but I wish it was sharper and brighter.
As we approach the critical point
where I tell you whether I think it's a good buy or not,
I'm gonna do two things.
Secondly, I wanna come back to Ara Wagoner's points
about the competition, and firstly,
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Okay, now Ara's point.
The thing that kills the Pixelbook Go
for a lot of folks is value.
Go to the Chromebook part of the Google Store yourself
and set the price slider to the middle.
You'll quickly find that you can get
a Samsung Chromebook Plus with a stylus, tablet mode,
and a built-in 4G connection, and that Chromebook
is $50 cheaper than this one.
You could even use the difference in price
to buy yourself a microSD card to expand your storage
on that Samsung, which the Pixelbook Go cannot do.
And even that's expensive.
Ara carries the Lenovo C330,
which performs just as well as she needs,
as long as she doesn't overdo it on the Chrome tabs,
she tells me, and that can be had for 250 bucks.
With a competition like that,
it's no wonder some people take one look at this device
and call it Pixelbook No.
But if you've been watching my channel for long enough,
folks, you know what I'm about to say.
I don't want a generic machine,
some mass-market laptop that a manufacturer
pulled off the Windows budget production line
to flash Chrome OS on.
I'm willing to pay more for a thoughtfully designed,
narrowly tailored product.
If that product has great battery life
and a chassis that I can still call comfortable
even after having worked five days straight on it,
so much the better.
Do I wish it had built-in LTE?
Absolutely.
Or some of Chrome OS's pain points overdue for correction?
Absolutely.
I want Android apps to be more responsive on this platform,
I want the track pad to be more comfortable,
and I want a display that doesn't disappear completely
when I wear polarized sunglasses.
Seriously, that's crazy.
Do I think it's too expensive?
Absolutely.
But it's also, absolutely, the laptop that I would buy
if I were shopping for a Chromebook.
(upbeat music)
This video is made possible
by a Pixelbook Go review sample sent by Google,
which also provided travel and lodging
for some members of the media who attended
the New York launch event, myself included.
Mr. Mobile doesn't produce paid reviews, however,
and Google did not receive copy approval of this review,
which means they're seeing it for the first time
right alongside you.
If that's the kind of video you'd like to see more of,
please subscribe to theMrMobile on YouTube
and special thanks to androidcentral for its help
with this review, as well.
Until next time, thanks for watching
and stay mobile, my friends.
(upbeat music)