“We’re excited to announce our newest laptop — the Chromebook Pixel — which brings together the best in hardware, software and design to inspire the next generation of Chromebooks,” Linus Upson, Google’s Vice President of Engineering, blogs for The Official Google Blog.
“This Chromebook has the highest pixel density (239 pixels per inch) of any laptop screen on the market today. Packed with 4.3 million pixels, the display offers sharp text, vivid colors and extra-wide viewing angles,” Upson writes. “The body of the Pixel is made from an anodized aluminum alloy to create a smooth and durable surface; vents are hidden, screws are invisible and the stereo speakers are seamlessly tucked away beneath the backlit keyboard. The touchpad is made from etched glass, analyzed and honed using a laser microscope to ensure precise navigation. The Pixel also has powerful, full-range speakers for crisp sound, a 720p webcam for clear video, and a total of three microphones designed to cancel out surrounding noise.”
“Powered by an Intel Core i5 Processor and a solid state Flash memory architecture, the Pixel performs remarkably fast,” Upson writes. “The Pixel has an industry-leading WiFi range thanks to carefully positioned antennas and dual-band support. Long-term evolution (LTE) is engineered directly into the machine, delivering fast connectivity across Verizon’s network, the largest, fastest 4G LTE network in the U.S. (LTE model optional). It also comes with 12 free GoGo Inflight Internet passes for those times you need to connect while in the air.”
Upson writes, “Since this Chromebook is for people who live in the cloud, one terabyte of Google Drive cloud storage is included with the Pixel. This enables you to save, access and share photos, videos, documents, and all of your stuff from all of your devices, from anywhere… the Pixel will be available for purchase starting today on Google Play in the U.S. and U.K., and soon on BestBuy.com. The WiFi version ($1,299 U.S. and £1,049 U.K.) will start shipping next week and the LTE version ($1,449) will ship in the U.S. in April.”
Full blog post here.
“$1,300 is MacBook Air territory,” Nathan Edwards writes for The Wirecutter. “Hell, for $1,500 you can get a Lenovo X1 Carbon Touch or a 13-inch Macbook Pro with Retina display.”
“Know what those things have in common? Robust, complete operating systems with huge ecosystems of apps that can use that powerful Ivy Bridge hardware even when there’s no Internet connection available,” Edwards writes. “Know what the Pixel doesn’t have?”
Edwards writes, “Maybe someday Chrome OS will really be enough of an operating system to replace Mac OS X or Windows on a productivity machine. But at $1,300, the Chromebook Pixel is just too much machine for the software. If you have the money to spend on the Pixel and you need the kind of hardware it’s packing, you have so many other better options.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
The problem is google thinks it is apple.
Long term this thinking will ruin google because google isn’t apple.
Don’t matter how much google copies apple they can never achieve what’s in apples DNA.
Let the copiers come… All apple needs to to is keep creating simply insanely great products.
Regarding the google chrome book – all it is is a data mining device so that google can steal even more info from your life and sell it to advertisers.
I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole as I value my family’s personal information and identity.
Gotta love Googles impulse reaction to Apples retina displays. “Well we’ll just make our displays have even higher pixels per inch than Apple. So what if the human eye can’t detect the difference.”