Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “The Chromebook Pixel: Explained!”.
Hey what’s up guys mkbhd here and how about those chromebooks huh. Many of us have thought that chromebooks were a dead or dying breed, but one of them has been the number one best-selling laptop on amazon since the first day that it was introduced. So, what’s going on here, chromebooks have been doing really well as very cheap, but also very easy to use laptops they’re, basically a 250 laptop that you can get for mom or grandma, or something like that and it just runs. Google, chrome, you can use all the chrome web apps and everything like that, and it’s been doing pretty well just as a basic product like that. A couple of weeks ago, a very interesting video came out that sort of showed a high-end looking chromebook with a sort of a retina display, and all these really interesting things that we would have loved to see but never really happened. But it was sort of dismissed as sort of a non-real product, but yesterday google came out with announced and made available the chromebook pixel. It’S real and uh looks sort of a bit like a squared off macbook pro.
It looks good and the specs are actually high-end. So start off with the display: that’s basically the highlight of the hardware. This thing’s called the chromebook pixel, because it is a 13-inch 2560×1700 display which gives it a pixel density of 239 pixels per inch.
That makes it the number one highest pixel density, on any laptop display out there. It’S also a three by two aspect: ratio which you might think is a little bit weird, especially if you’re going to do media consumption on this thing. But when you think about it, it’s a chromebook you’re going to be using this thing entirely for web browsing and media consumption, and for that extra vertical pixels are better than not enough, especially when pretty much every website scrolls down.
You want to be able to fit as many things as possible on that display, so the extra pixels are definitely helpful and then it’s a 400 nit display. That’S the brightness level. This here happens to be a 300 display and it’s a high-end display, so the display on the chromebook pixel is already very high-end and it’s touch screen. So the touch screen layer adds a whole new level of interaction and sort of immediate experience. You can, you know tap it just like it was sort of an android tablet. You can tap to play and pause videos.
You can tap to actually click the way. You’D use a mouse, the sort of the same way we’ve seen. Windows 8 touchscreen laptops. So this is absolutely a really high-end display and that’s probably why they named it. The chromebook pixel inside is a dual core: 1.8 gigahertz core i5 processor, with integrated graphics and around the outside. It does look pretty good.
It’S made of anodized aluminum. It has two usb 2.0 ports, a mini display port and an sd card reader and up top is an hd webcam. There is a wi-fi, only version of this guy for 32 gigs and that’s basically 1300 and there’s an lte version of this guy that has 64 gigs of storage. All the links for that will be down below right below the like button on this video.
So it seems like in terms of pure specs. This thing is shooting at the 13-inch retina macbook pro plus a touch screen, but then you consider the fact that this entire package fits in a 3.4 pound body. That’S just 16.2 millimeters thick, which is actually thinner and lighter than that 13-inch macbook pro there’s been a lot of talk about the price of the chromebook pixel at thirteen hundred dollar base price. It seems a little bit high very high actually, but when you think about it, it still seems very high. Let’S take a step back and consider the purpose of this machine, the real reason it actually exists right now, and for that we take a look at a quote from google’s blog, which says this brings together the best in hardware and software and design to inspire the Next generation of chromebooks, this is a halo product.
This is the nexus 10 and the nexus 4 of chromebooks. This is the inspiration for the next hardware manufacturers to start making chromebooks that are actually high-end and from high-end specs. Right now, all we’ve seen so far is 250 and 300 cheap plastic, hp and sort of basic chromebooks.
This is the inspiration for the next generation of high-end chromebooks. So in its creation, it’s not even really made for the typical consumer. It’S not made to sell. Well, it’s not a flagship, it’s just a chromebook. So what is the real purpose of this chromebook pixel? Well, gene lewis guyan on google plus put it best in his post. The chromebook pixel is really just an experiment, but it’s one.
That’S crucial for chrome os. It may not sell well at all, in fact, it probably won’t, and the chrome team may not care how well it sells. After all, what they will watch closely is what happens next, specifically in the chrome web store. This is similar to what this nexus one did for android. Consider the two biggest complaints you’ve heard about chromebooks in the past few years, one it’s cheap hardware and two it lacks powerful apps, so the critics have called it just a glorified web browser and to them the chromebook pixel looks exactly the same as the rest. Most early reviews will conclude that it’s too expensive or the hardware is premature, but, as we’ve seen repeatedly in blog posts and videos from google, the pixel really is for what’s next, what today’s announcement shows is.
Google has chosen to address hardware first in doing so on its own they’re, not relying on samsung or acer or hp, or anyone else and they’re doing so. Boldly no longer are chromebooks synonymous with budget hardware, they can be cutting edge and specs are no longer an excuse. Now we have high end hardware. So now the hardware is out of the way.
Chrome os really needs to step up. It needs cutting-edge applications to make it more than just a glorified web browser. The chrome team has known this for a while, and they certainly know it today. It’S the missing element.
What they need. It’S what consumers have said are keeping them from adopting chrome, os or switching completely from windows or mac. Users need powerful productivity, apps and games and even photo and video editing, apps and the web store has to be better. It has to offer that the groundwork has now been laid over all these years with the cheap, chromebooks and google needs the developers to make the rest happen.
They also need a chromebook to get excited about. That’S the pixel, so over the next few months, you’ll see google doing its best to get the pixel in the hands of and the minds of as many developers as possible. In fact, the pixel will probably be given out for free to developers at google.
I o this year. Meanwhile, the chrome team will continue to push development until the web. Is all users really need reducing hardware dependencies and bringing in things from android like notifications and google? Now so when the apps become powerful enough and the pixel is powerful, enough, chromebooks will become more than just a glorified web browser in the eye of the mainstream consumer, and that is the gamble that google made today.
So, in the end, the chromebook pixel is a halo product. It is sort of a beginning and a sort of an entry into a new market that doesn’t really exist yet, but it’s google pioneering away where it wants others to follow. It’S paving that path that it wants manufacturers of other chromebooks to start to follow, to make high-end new generation of chromebooks and the reason, sadly, that it is so expensive is that touchscreen, it’s that better, be a really good touch screen in order for it to be So expensive, my biggest problem with touchscreen laptops was actually pressing it the hinge would bend and it would wobble back and forth. This needs to be a great touch screen to justify me paying 1300 for it.
Now all that being said, i still haven’t held one. Yet i haven’t actually held it so expect a video on it coming up in the next few days. When i get my hands on one until then, i will leave you with my chrome. Os explained video, which is down below first link in the description, but yeah. That’S it so, hopefully i’ll see you guys in the next article – and this was the chromebook pixel explained. Thank you for watching and i’ll talk to you guys later peace. So you .