The Chromebook Pixel Review
by Jason Inofuentes on May 31, 2013 8:00 AM ESTInput
A high pixel density isn’t the only thing special about the display. A capacitive 10-point touch layer is built-in, and though the OS isn’t exactly touch-centric, it is nice to have the option. The reality fo the market, though, is that touchscreens are inevitable. As the price of the technology drops and users become more accustomed to them the barriers to inclusion become nil. It feels gimmicky at times, and the keyboard/mouse schema has never seemed to me like one waiting to be disturbed. But including touch doesn’t detract from the experience, and I found myself putting it to use way more than I expected. Does a site render text too small to read? Resize in a flash. Scrolling through Google Maps looking for something? It’s probably quicker to do it with one finger on the screen than two on the trackpad. Even on-screen buttons are quicker to hit with your finger than by dragging the cursor to them and then tapping, provided the action area is large enough. It wasn’t long after I started using it that it just became the natural reaction. All sorts of buttons are just waiting to be pressed, and it becomes so instinctive that you will spend days after reaching up to lesser equipped screens.
Scrolling and other touchscreen gestures were at one point quite choppy. In the course of this review, though, updates to the software have drastically improved performance to the point I almost prefer it to the touchpad. That said, you’re often not sure what you’ll get when you open up a given app. Sites where a pinch to zoom gesture can have a useful impact, say Google Maps, can implement the appropriate APIs and often are. In sites with responsive designs, zooming can alter layouts for readability, though often that ends up feeling like two processes competing with each other. Pinch to zoom does simply that in less responsive designs, or sites that lock onto a particular layout, such as GMail. These features are hidden behind chrome://flags because they remain a work-in-progress, but I urge any users to turn them on and try them out. You’ll likely forget about that touchpad before long.
Speaking of that touchpad, it remains frustrating that so few players in the notebook space have nailed touchpads. It should be particularly embarrassing to other notebook manufacturers that this is Google’s first attempt, and they’ve done an excellent job. The large glass trackpad offers a novel tactile experience after so much time with Apple’s units, but is no less well performing. Taps and clicks are registered without fail and the scrolling experience with the touchpad is smooth and easy. Once again, the settings to activate more complex gestures on the touchpad are buried deep within chrome://flags/ so they’re not quite ready for primetime. But they offer something that Chrome has dearly needed, real multitasking.
Before I leapt into the world of OS X, or Linux for that matter, I was knee deep in Windows 7. Dozens of tabs spread across four or five browser windows and a few other applications, all in one space. OS X showed me that windows management was distinct from workflow management. The early days of Chrome OS were an experience that, then, felt all too familiar. When the hardware was incapable of handling more than a few tabs, it was easy to be diligent about culling the fat and closing unused pages. Better hardware made clear that something in software needed to be done to better manage the myriad of web apps and pages I could now keep open.
The technique that Google chose is familiar to OS X users, and revolves around that capacious touchpad. Buried in chrome://flags are options for three-finger touchpad gestures. Three finger swipes left and right let you scroll through a given window’s tabs, and three finger swipes up and down let you scroll through the available windows. The window switching is particularly useful and unique; unlike OS X, swipes don’t shift one position at a time, rather allow you to scroll through the open windows like a stack of cards. The gesture is not yet refined and requires some amount of practice to get right. The difference, though, makes this a multi-tasker’s tool.
We’ll end our input discussion with my favorite of all, the keyboard. If the design of the Pixel advances the experience of an all aluminum notebook, the keyboard similarly moves the goal posts. This isn’t a revolutionary component; the keys are a little squarer but the layout isn’t novel. The CapsLock key is once again usurped by the dedicated Search button, which I might actually use more often if it sat where the Start/Option key did. Instead the CTRL and ALT keys are broad on the left side, which does make them easy targets when switching tabs/windows. I was surprised by the mechanical action of the keys. One of the compromises of thin notebook designs is the depth of the keys, and their motions. Laying your fingers on the Pixel’s keys they feel slightly wobbly, and I was expecting a quite squishy typing experience. Instead, though shallow, the keys action is quite refined, with an easy to discern and trigger point that makes precise typing a breeze. The broad palm rests made for a very comfortable typing experience and overall I had no problems clicking away for hours at a time. This fountain of praise for the keyboard ends with the row of function keys. Controls for volume, brightness, window switching and dedicated back, forward and refresh make up this row, and you’ll make haste to find ways to avoid them. The keys are remarkably stiff and their action ill defined so lighter depressions don’t have any effect. Can’t have it all, I guess.
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Crono - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
I don't mind when reviews talk about design aspects or aesthetics. But the focus on the subjective seems out of place on AnandTech. It's not a bad review overall, and I don't want to sound too negative (I appreciate the effort it takes to write reviews), but when we start to factor in whether a piece of hardware or a computer is a "status symbol" or not into review, I think we're in danger of losing sight of the tangible, quantifiable elements of computing and well-built machines.themossie - Saturday, June 1, 2013 - link
"Status" is the only way to judge this computer - that and a premium (albeit minimalist) experience.Judging the Chromebook Pixel from a purely technical standpoint would be silly - it's not based on offering superior value for money or superior functionality. There is no direct economic justification to buy this computer.
But some will buy it anyways. It's all about 'feel' - the OS as much as the physical machine itself. If a consumer can live with the pure web functionality, you get a bulletproof OS with a gorgeous screen and case - for a pricetag which can only be justified by "status" and a luxury experience.
For the right person, this could be the ultimate minimalist laptop.
I'm sure Google doesn't expect this to be a high-volume product; if they did, they would have cut the price significantly. Instead, they were looking for a truly premium halo product to - a nice looking piece of kit which puts Chrome OS out there as something other than a cheap, crappy modernized netbook.
SomeNiceGuy - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
It would be nice to know the latency and the accuracy of the touch screen. iOS devices excel at this, others don't. Even if you haven't measured it, do you experience the touch screen laggy compared to an ipad? I think this can make or brake a touch centric device.mfenn - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
"Once revealed, the grey slab is irresistible. It wins you over before it does anything but sit there. The exposed hinges are masked by a silver barrel that runs the width of the device. The aluminum is cold to the touch, and the only flourish is the LED strip lower down the lid, dormant, but nonetheless exciting for its potential. It’s lighter than you expect when you lift it, and feels solid; not simply in the sense of its rigidity, it feels like a block of aluminum weighing just north of 3 pounds. Right angles abound but are softened with chamfered edges making it comfortable to hold and touch. Its meager thickness is uniform across its length, and the weight is similarly balanced, avoiding the rearward bias of other notebooks. Almost without thought I find myself torquing and flexing against the device; my hands struggling to elicit a single creak or bend from the frame. Setting it down and lifting the lid, it boots in a breath, and reveals an image so rich with detail I’m drawn closer to get a better look. Chromebook or not, the Pixel is a status symbol. And I want it."Is Engadget or Anandtech?
neo_1221 - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
"50 shades of Chrome"themossie - Saturday, June 1, 2013 - link
Made my day!lmcd - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Chrome is great, but...The biggest problem is Java. There haven't been efforts to put Java on Chrome. Android, ironically (and expectedly), is holding Chrome OS back. Hopefully efforts are made to replicate Android's provided resources with Dart or C++, then bindings added for Java.
Google is currently its own devil. Dalvik needs to become an extension to PNaCl, or needs to move towards it. If Google doesn't have a hidden repository where they're pushing to this (regardless of their short-term plans and their visible work) they are risking their whole web business model.
wffurr - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link
Are you talking about Java applets? Aren't those dead by now?Or do you mean running Java desktop apps like Eclipse? There are no desktop apps on Chrome OS except Chrome.
bji - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
The review had alot of good detail but too much superfluous chatter. I think you need to work on understanding when brevity is more appropriate than verbosity. You'd do better to use the florid language as a highlight where needed instead of being present in nearly every sentence in the article. Just sayin' ...bji - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Forgot to mention - the review should be more objective and less subjective as well. This is a tech review site, and I think the numerous comments about how enamored the reviewer is over subjective qualities of the laptop are out of place.