Front of Just Black Pixelbook Go.
Light, fast, and cheap – but with an odd omission. That’s the tl;dr for Google’s latest incarnation of the Pixelbook.
After using the 13-inch Pixelbook Go for the last week, I’m left to wonder if Google hasn’t passed Apple on light laptop design and if Windows 10 is necessary for many new laptop users.
The Go is remarkably light, almost a half pound lighter than the MacBook Air. But what’s also special about the new Pixelbook is that a lot of Google’s goodness isn’t in the hardware but in Chrome OS. In 2020, I would argue that, for a lot of people, Chrome OS is a better choice than macOS or Windows 10.
My unit, priced at $849,has an Intel Core i5 8th gen processor, 8GB RAM, 128GB of storage, two USB-C ports, and full HD (1,920-by-1,080) display. The $649 model has a Core m3 chip and 64GB of storage.
Corrugated bottom of the Pixelbook Go.
The good stuff
Chrome OS is capable: The reason Chromebooks are relatively plain (and cheap) is because the hardware isn’t that important. You don’t need a fast processor, lots of memory, or a big hard drive – Chrome OS runs fast on “poky” low-power Intel processors, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD. In short, Chrome OS renders the hardware almost irrelevant. My original Pixelbook – released two years ago – is still more than fast enough today.
Performance: it’s almost redundant to break this out as a separate bullet item. Let’s just say, for what I do, Chrome is very fast. It feels faster than even high-powered Intel laptops running on Windows 10 or macOS.
Design: this time around Google went clamshell instead of the tablet design of the late-2018 Pixel Slate (see image below). That’s a good thing. The clamshell is more practical in day to day use than the Slate with its optional Slate keyboard. And while the industrial design isn’t as novel as the original Pixelbook, I like the all-black magnesium chassis – it grows on you the more you use it.
Magnesium – lighter than (the) air: how light is 2.3 pounds? Well, I feel it every time I pick it up or have it on my lap for an extended time. In laptop design, 0.35 pounds makes a difference. An airy 2.4 pounds is at the lower edge of how light a practical 13-inch laptop can be. By comparison the Retina MacBook Air is a heftier 2.75 pounds. The light magnesium chassis also feels as sturdy as aluminum. (Hey Apple, you might look into magnesium.)
Battery life good and maybe very good: definitely all-day for what I do – and I typically have my display (a big factor in battery life) brightness turned up to 90 or 100 percent. And I’m seeing better than all-day battery life in some of my usage scenarios. My workflow includes Microsoft Office/Google G Suite, CMS, a variety of photo editing apps, between 12 and 15 tabs active in Chrome, Apple Music, and live news streaming in Firefox.
Caveat: though a fix is imminent, Chrome OS release M77 has problems reporting accurate battery life on the Pixelbook Go. This will apparently be fixed on the upcoming M78, according to Google.
Keyboard/trackpad improves: I like the original Pixelbook and Pixel Slate keyboards/trackpads a lot. The Pixelbook Go’s is as good if not better. I say better because the trackpad is more responsive and as good as the gold standard – the MacBook Pro. On the downside, all thin laptop keyboards these days (think Apple’s butterfly mechanism or Dell’s maglev on the XPS 13 7390 2-in-1) don’t have a lot of travel, i.e., they’re not as easy on the fingers as the laptop keyboards of, let’s say, ten years ago.
Speakers – best yet on a thin-and-light: In a word, amazing. Even better than the amazing sound on the HP EliteBook X360 1040 (which I didn’t think was possible). The Pixelbook Go has a ton of bass and good mid-range. But make sure to install an equalizer from the Google Store, which will make the sound even better.
Price: starting at $649, it’s a pretty big departure from the late-2017 Pixelbook, which started at $999. The $849 config is the sweet spot though Chrome runs fine on the Intel Core m3 and 64GB in the $649 config.
The bad stuff:
No biometrics: no fingerprint or face recognition. This is a head-scratcher of a design decision to make for a laptop release in late 2019 when just about every quality laptop on the market has either fingerprint or face recognition – or both.
Will Chromebook users care about lack of biometrics? We’ll see.
Display: this is a minor downside. The FHD (1,920-by-1,080) is good (and bright) but not as good as the very-high-resolution displays that were standard on the original (albeit pricier) Pixelbook and Pixel Slate. That said, most will be perfectly content with display, considering the downright awful displays that come on cheaper Chromebooks.
Google also offers a $1,399 config with a 4K Ultra HD Molecular Display, which, based on the Molecular display on my Pixel Slate, is, I’m guessing, very good.
Design – more ordinary: I like the new design but it’s more pedestrian and not as groundbreaking as the original Pixelbook was in 2017. I suspect some will prefer the novelty and all-aluminum chassis of the original Pixelbook (which is still available, by the way).
Pixelbook Go (left) and late-2018 Pixel Slate with Slate keyboard. The Pixelbook Go has an FHD ... [+]
Summary / verdict:
Many reviewers will not understand the Pixelbook Go. Like most of the world, they are wedded to Windows or the macOS. So, anything different is confusing, weird. Luckily, young users don’t care what reviewers say (including what I say) and will get the Pixelbook or a Chromebook anyway because it’s cheap and runs everything they need it to run.
Chrome OS is coming dangerously close to Windows 10 and macOS. All of my workflow – which I mentioned above includes Microsoft Office, Google G Suite, CMS, a variety of photo editing apps, Firefox, iCloud, Apple Music – now runs on Chrome OS. And note that Microsoft Office keeps getting more capable on Chrome. Throw in all of the Android apps that run on Chrome and you have a very formidable OS – and laptop.
If there’s any single reason to buy the Pixelbook Go – or any Chromebook – it’s the Chrome OS.
