November 10, 2017 update: We incorrectly stated that the Pixelbook ships with a 15 W Core i5-7200U. This has been corrected to the 7 W Core i5-7Y57.) However, one huge flaw in the Pixelbook Pen is that it doesn’t attach to the laptop in any way, not even via magnets, like the Surface Pro. This oversight makes it that much easier to lose this stylus that cost you so much money. Plus, it runs on AAAA batteries, whereas a rechargeable solution would’ve been much more worthy of the price tag. Add “Go”, “Lite” or “LE” to a product’s name and the immediate assumption would be that it’s had its function or appearance curtailed in some way. That’s why I was surprised that Google chose to go with the Pixelbook Go as the name for its latest flagship Chromebook. A recent developer flag suggests Google is at least exploring the possibility of adding more versatile instant splits.

The internal 41 Wh battery is smaller than the 59 Wh battery in the original 2013 Pixel Chromebook. Even so, battery life is significantly longer this time around at nearly 14 hours of real-world WLAN use. The less intensive operating system also leads to longer runtimes than most - if not all - Windows notebooks with U-class ULV CPUs.The Pixelbook earns the ‘pixel’ when it comes to the 3:2 display. At 235 ppi with accurate color reproduction, the Pixelbook display rivals some of the best around, Chromebook or otherwise. It’s in the same class as the 227 ppi 13-inch MacBook Pro and the 267 ppi Surface Pro 6. In addition to the weight-saving glass construction, part of the reason for the Pixelbook Go's light weight is that it doesn't need a lot of room to cool powerful, heat-generating components. My review unit is equipped with an Intel Core i5-8200Y CPU, a dual-core processor that consumes just 7 watts of power, compared to the 15-watt CPUs common in today's thin laptops. The base model is equipped with a Core m3 CPU, while the top configuration boasts an Intel Core i7. Other component options include either 8GB or 16GB of memory, and 64GB, 128GB, or 256GB of solid-state storage. Update: We added a durability and drop test section (see below) with results from our Chromebook drop test . In general, Google Assistant is just as helpful as it is on smartphones and executes in the exact same way, with an OS-level chat record as well as a voice response.

The Pixelbook has the older chips: Intel’s seventh-generation i5-7Y57 or i7-7Y75, depending on the configuration. The Pixelbook Go is the newer device, therefore it has newer Intel processors with an added third option: The eighth-generation m3-8100Ym, the i5-8200Y, and the i7-8500Y. In real-world numbers, the Go has one of the best battery life endurances we’ve ever tested on a Chromebook. It lasted over 13 hours in both our web browsing and video loops tests. We saw good performance in the Pixelbook battery too, but the Go was our clear winner in this scenario. The Pixelbook Go is no Pixelbook 2 Overall, with its different design and cheap build quality, the Pixelbook will remain the go-to for high-end Chromebooks, at least for now until the Pixelbook 2 arrives, while the Pixelbook Go seems better value in its cheaper configurations. Multimedia, Budget Multimedia, Gaming, Budget Gaming, Lightweight Gaming, Business, Budget Office, Workstation, Subnotebooks, Ultrabooks, ChromebooksLasting for more than 16 hours on our battery rundown test, the Pixelbook Go is an excellent choice for a laptop to accompany you on your next flight, or even just a day of meetings with no chance to visit a power outlet. The Pixelbook Pen works beautifully as a stylus, offering plenty of pressure response as well as tilt support, which makes drawing on the display a pleasure. The display’s snappy response helps the digital ink follow close enough behind the pen that any delay is indiscernible. That “Y” denotes the use of extremely low power on mobile devices. This translates to fanless designs because the chips aren’t generating lots of heat, but that doesn’t mean they’re slow or underpowered. For Chromebooks, the Pixelbooks represent the high-end in terms of performance because of the light and efficient design of Chrome OS. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.2 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 95% of all devices are better.

The aluminum chassis and very thin design are the primary highlights of the Pixelbook. Its matte silver surfaces detract fingerprints and feel almost identical to the outer lid of the XPS 13 in terms of texture and rigidity. The notebook feels stronger than the Lenovo Yoga 900 series down to its corners and even the hinges. Applying pressure on the outer lid or keyboard center results in very minimal warping as does twisting the base or lid with absolutely no audible creaking. The Pixelbook is proof that it's possible to create a very thin convertible notebook while remaining inflexible. In the benchmarks, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the Pixelbook Go is about the same speed as the Google Pixel Slate we reviewed last year, then. That machine was built around the same processor and had the same amount of RAM installed. It’s a little less speedy than the Dell Inspiron Chromebook 14, however: Emitting up to 421 nits, the Pixelbook offers tremendous brightness, which enables strong colors at up to 75 degrees to the left and right. That beats the 290-nit category average, the 284-nit Yoga 920, the 376-nit Samsung Chromebook Pro and the 292-nit Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA. The iPad Pro (555 nits) shines even brighter.I’ve been working on the laptop for nearly a week now with no issues at all. Tens of tabs open in Chrome, with multiple large Google Sheets spreadsheets running, don’t seem to faze the Pixelbook Go at all. I suspect the Core m3 might struggle a bit more when you really load it up but it’s clear you don’t need anything faster than the Intel Core i5-8200Y or any more RAM than the 8GB supplied with the review device.

Screen: 12.3-inch QHD (2,400 x 1,600, 235 ppi) LCD touchscreen (400 nits, 72% NTSC color, 3:2 aspect ratio) This will be an incredibly useful tool for students, particularly, but users in general will benefit. In both cases, however, we tend to find that Intel Core processors feel zippier, maybe even overkill, for basic Chrome OS functions. It’s when you dive into the Android and Linux aspects that you may feel the pinch of these “Y” chips. Chromebooks aren’t meant to run AutoCAD or Destiny 2, but you should see good performance using web applications and non-graphics-heavy Android apps. Portability The uncommon 3:2 12.3-inch display carries a native resolution of 2400 x 1600 pixels to be slightly less dense than the display of the Surface Pro tablet. Even so, images are still very sharp with contrast and brightness values comparable to the Microsoft tablet. The overlying glass layer is thin enough that colors appear vibrant and close to the surface. We can notice no graininess issues on the glossy display that can often occur on matte panels. The Pixelbook Go not only sports a keyboard with comfortably spaced keys, but also top-firing speakers. Sure, they’re a bit small and, as a result, somewhat tinny in the high-end, but these speakers beat the vast majority of laptops of this size, normally found with bottom-firing speakers.Likethe recently launched Huawei MateBook X and certain SKUs of the Surface Pro 2017, the Pixelbook is completely silent. The Pixelbook Go can get up two hours of battery charge from just 20 minutes connected to the outlet. (Image credit: Future) Battery life The 128 GB SSD in the base configuration is very slow according to AndroBench. Its sequential write rate of about 120 MB/s is only a fraction of the speed of the UFS 2.1 SSDs in the Galaxy Note 8 and Huawei Mate Pro 10 smartphones. The slow performance is likely an attempt to bolster the upcoming 512 GB SKU that is explicitly advertised as a NVMe SSD. As noted earlier, AndroBench is not designed to run in a virtualized Android environment and the results may not accurately reflect the Pixelbook. My most serious gripe about the Pixelbook Pen is that it requires AAAA batteries. They're the kind that are nearly impossible to find in local stores, forcing you to buy them in advance online.