
The Chromebook Pixel (2015) Review - davidiach
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9082/the-chromebook-pixel-2015-review
======
dagw
I get the feeling that these Chromebook Pixels aren't made for the public. My
theory is that they're the result of an internal Google compromise between
ChromeOS managers who want their team to dog food Chromebooks and ChromeOS
developers who replied "Get me a compromise free, top of the line chormebook,
and I might consider it". The only real customers they care about are Google
developers and they don't care about price.

~~~
mark_l_watson
Inside Google in 2013 the Pixels were very popular, across the company. I base
this on seeing what people carried around.

For the general public, I think that the Pixel is just a little too expensive.

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IkmoIkmo
The Pixel is probably a little bit like an overpowered Nexus line:

1) Set a high standard for build quality and all for all the other
Chromebooks.

2) Create a consumer perception that Chromebooks can be high quality devices
of substantial value

3) Create a powerful playground for testing with heavy Chrome apps & getting
native Android apps to work on ChromeOS and other such features that will come
to the cheaper Chromebooks a year later.

All leading to the $300 Chromebooks feeling like high-quality bargains with
ever increasing functionality.

Beyond that, the device seems ridiculous unless you put a different OS on,
you're either better off with a cheaper Chromebook, or an equally pricy
Windows Laptop (e.g. Dell XPS 2015) or Macbook. So I really think the Pixel is
more of a strategic asset (see above) than something meant to be a popular
revenue generating consumer device in and of itself.

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DrPsion
I wish Google had an official way of putting a Linux distribution on these
machines. I know they want people working in Chrome OS but for me it just
isn't enough.

If I could buy the Pixel and have an official way of putting Debian or
something on it to make it a proper laptop I probably would buy one. I love
the design, the specs are very decent and the display is beautiful.

~~~
JoshTriplett
There is an official way. Turn on developer mode, open a shell, run "sudo
crossystem dev_boot_legacy=1", then reboot and hit ctrl-L to boot a PC BIOS
(SeaBIOS) that can install Linux. Then install and run any Linux distribution
you like.

~~~
Scarbutt
I guess this is different from running crouton? just curious, if what you say
is possible, then why bother using crouton? for not wiping ChromeOS?

~~~
JoshTriplett
Right. Crouton lets you run Linux in a chroot under Chrome OS. This lets you
completely replace Chrome OS with your Linux distribution of choice. Both make
sense depending on what you're trying to do.

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guylhem
My only question: can you physically have a 512Gb ssd inside that thing?
Anything else is irrelevant to me. The previous Chromebook pixel had the mini
PCIe port used by the WWAN modem wired with only the USB lines, meaning you
couldn't do that:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0_u8bjQFzg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0_u8bjQFzg)

I won't buy a chromebook pixel until I can at least get a decent storage. It
doesn't have to be sold with this storage. The motherboard just needs the
right tracks to the mini PCIe and mSATA support so that I can do it. Google
might have saved 2 cents, but won't be getting a dollar from me and other
people from this thread who say "this laptop would be absolutely perfect for
me if it had more storage"

~~~
notsony
> * It's likely that it's still soldered to the motherboard which makes
> replacing or upgrading it impossible. Given that the Pixel can only be
> disassembled using suction cups and a great deal of force I'm not able to
> actually look inside to check. *

So it seems this "review" didn't even attempt to open up the laptop to check
out the motherboard. Disappointing.

~~~
tedunangst
That's how reviews usually work. They evaluate a product to see if it does
what it's supposed to do. They don't tear it apart and attempt to to repurpose
it for some other use entirely.

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nextos
It's really irritating that:

* It's difficult to open/service so you can't flip the switch which allows flashing Coreboot that easily

* You can't upgrade it's minimal storage, and there's no LTE

* The keyboard is non-standard: no super key (great for WM) and no dedicated home/end

~~~
dublinben
You can actually upgrade the storage quite easily with an SD card.

~~~
rifung
Would this be fast enough though?

I'm not too familiar with hardware constraints but I remember when people were
comparing microSDs on phones vs built in storage one of the big issues was
that the speed on microSDs was way worse.

~~~
nextos
Yeah, and in this case it seems it has a USB 2.0 connection?

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rayiner
The battery life is great, but the thing that worries me about all non-Apple
laptops with sealed batteries is the lack of an official battery service. If I
buy an Apple laptop, I know that for $130-200, they'll swap out the battery
pack once it's capacity goes down. That does wonders for resale value. What's
the story with the original Pixel?

~~~
gygygy
If that is your only reason for selecting an apple produce over something
else, then that's just a little naive.

~~~
karmicthreat
Thinking about the problems you will have with something you buy is naive?
Considering a wide variety of parts on a laptop are proprietary I think
serviceability and turn around time are big considerations.

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akhilcacharya
I've said it before and this review really cements my view - this laptop would
be absolutely perfect for me if it had more storage.

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cwisecarver
I just ordered the LS model because it's what I wanted the new MacBook to be.
Good build quality, decent processor, 12", HiDPI display, more than one port,
and 12 hours of battery life. I fully intend to install ubuntu the second I
get it and boot off that for the life of the machine. My hope is that for
everything but vector/raster editing it can replace my 15" MacBook Pro for
daily Python dev work.

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stevecode
$1299 for 64gb ssd ? I wish it had atleast 500gb ssd :(

~~~
spinchange
This! Yes, it is a "netbook," but 64gb is becoming my minimum requirement for
a mobile phone. Even a 128gb option would be appreciated.

~~~
superbaconman
Genuinely curious. How do you occupy all of that space on a phone? I've had my
8GB nexus 4 for almost two years, and I'm just now hitting space limitations.

~~~
spinchange
Mostly photos and videos of my kids and their activities and whatnot. I do
auto-backup all of it, but I like having it local on the device. Music and
other media/content I try to keep and access solely from the cloud, but I like
having all the personal media locally. I've been using a 32GB Moto X for a
little over a year and am already getting close to the limit. I would imagine
as these devices become more and more of a primary computing device for
people, the space will be easier to fill up too.

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koverstreet
Does anyone know if they fixed the bug in the original Pixel where if the
battery died (or just got too low!) it'd lose the dev mode setting?

That was my main complaint with the original Pixel - I was running Debian on
it as my main machine, but after that happening for the 5th time at a
conference and having to reinstall...

~~~
TheCraiggers
Replying a bit late, so hopefully you see this.

That's not so much a bug but a known issue. The flag that you set at the
command line to enable SeaBIOS is held in RAM. Which means if you lose power,
that goes back to default.

To get around this, you need to disable the write-protect screw inside the
device. Take a look at [https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-
information-f...](https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-
for-chrome-os-devices/chromebook-pixel) for instructions on how to do this,
and where the screw is.

After that, you can modify the firmware, and update the setting in NVRAM. Take
a look at the Arch Chromebook wiki for the commands to use to do what you
want.
[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chrome_OS_devices#Boot_...](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chrome_OS_devices#Boot_to_SeaBIOS_by_default)

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TazeTSchnitzel
The Pixel is weird. It'd be a nice laptop if it had a decent amount of storage
(I'd be fine with 128GB - My MBA has that much and it can hold every personal
project I've ever had, plus my entire music collection - but some would prefer
256 of 512), and a proper keyboard layout (no Super? no Caps Lock?!).

But without those things, it's an overpriced netbook with a CPU far too
powerful.

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krillinetc
Google needs to develop and release their own IDE. I shouldn't need to mess
around with the terminal on what is supposed to be a developer's notebook.
Android, Java, Chrome/web apps, Go etc, if Google is serious about winning
developer mindshare from Apple then creating the proper tools is necessary

~~~
kh_hk

        > I shouldn't need to mess around with the terminal on what is supposed to 
        > be a developer's notebook
    

Really? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Still, I _might_ feel your pain. If I have to mess around with crouton to
install linux on one of these devices I would not call it a developer's
notebook. Which is a pity, given the ThinkPad line is almost dead.

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thoman23
I am in the market for a Linux developer's laptop. It looks like the System76
laptops have this beat.

Gazelle Professional: 15.6" matte display 2.8 Ghz quad core i7 16 GB RAM 250
GB SSD Wireless AC Price as configured above: $1477

The Pixel might have it beat in weight and battery life, but that's about it.

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awalGarg
Really like the new Pixel and see great potential in it.

My only wish is that the display was slightly wider. Not necessarily 16:9. 3:2
is too much squarish for me :P I do understand vertical scrolling and all but
it's just my personal preference, I guess. And also, 128 GB storage would
perfect :)

------
praveenster
tl;dr last line of article: "I really like the Chromebook Pixel, but I
personally just couldn't justify buying it."

------
resoluteteeth
The real review here seems to be by BittenRottenApple in the comments, rather
than the actual anandtech article. In particular I think this part sums up the
main issue I have with the Chromebook Pixel:

 _The entire conceit of Chrome OS is that it 's sort of a diet computer. It
does the basics, and just the basics. Chrome OS will give you internet, basic
word processing through Google Docs, video via YouTube, and the rest of
Google's web services including a free as in freedom lifetime direct hotlink
to the NSA. You can stick in Chrome extensions for added "apps" if you'd like,
possibly even a future NSA all inclusive backup app. But you're not going to
get any full software here, because Chrome OS isn't compatible with anything
outside of itself. And that's been OK, because Chrome OS laptops have been
very cheap: a few hundred bucks for the essentials is a good deal. Thirteen
hundred dollars for those same essentials is a very, very, hugely, wow-bad
deal._

I have an ASUS C200, and because lately I have a need for a word processor and
browser on the go, I love it despite its limitations. It's cheap and light and
has insanely good battery life with an operating system that stays out of the
way. I emphatically don't feel a desire to go out and buy a >$1000 chromebook,
though (if I bought the pixel I would probably go and replace the OS with
linux, whereas on my C200 I haven't even bothered to install a linux chroot).

~~~
sombremesa
You don't need to replace the OS with linux, it is already linux based. If you
enable developer mode you can get to the terminal, and if your linux-foo is
strong that should be all you need (and you'll still be able to use ChromeOS).

This is what made my (free) Cr-48 awesome. Does it make the (expensive)
Chromebook Pixel awesome? I don't know.

~~~
oliwarner
Technically, yes, but not in the way the parent meant. Getting access to a few
GNU tools is not the same thing as a real fully-featured desktop and software
repositories.

That's before mentioning proper support for closed-source x86 applications.
Most developers target Ubuntu, not ChromeOS.

~~~
iso8859-1
Official Docker support in ChromeOS would be awesome. Most applications also
work in dockerized Ubuntu.

