Chromebook Pixel (2015) review

Unless you’re intimately familiar with the original Pixel, you wouldn’t be able tell the new one apart from it. Google has decided to stick with the same basic, boxy design — and honestly, I still love it. The case is still entirely metal with a plastic hinge and glass screen, and everything is right angles with softened corners. The horizontal light bar on the back that glows with a rainbow when it’s on is still the most prominent sign that you’re using a Chromebook instead of a prop from an avant garde sci-fi movie.

If I had to pick one word to describe the design, I’d choose "solid." Unfortunately, "solid" also implies "dense," and the Pixel feels heavy at 3.3 pounds. That’s less than half a pound heavier than the 13-inch MacBook Air, but a lot of the Pixel’s weight is situated in its large 3:2 touchscreen, so overall it feels a little more unwieldy.

That’s a minor issue, though, because I still love the look and feel of the Pixel. Keeping the design the same also sends a signal: this isn’t a new kind of thing for Google, it’s still the expensive, top-end laptop you have already heard of.

But two years between models is a lot of time, and Google has added some subtle design tweaks. The top function row of the keyboard now has standard keys instead of the weird, clicky buttons that the original Pixel had. The hinge has been tweaked to make it stiffer, so the screen doesn’t bounce around as much when you touch it. The backlight settings on the keyboard have been tuned so it only turns on when your hands are actually over it.

The new Pixel’s display is still a super-sharp, 12.85-inch, 2560 x 1700 touchscreen. Google says it’s increased the sRGB color gamut, but I wasn’t really unhappy with colors on the old Pixel. I will say that although Chrome OS has gotten better with basic touchscreen responsiveness (especially on pinch-to-zoom), I am not at all convinced that the Pixel needs a touchscreen.

The only reason the touchscreen makes sense is when you consider what the Pixel is actually for: letting Google test out advanced features for Chrome OS. The company tells me that the reason that touchpads on other Chromebooks are as good as they are is because of the Pixel: Google got to use it as a testing ground to optimize the drivers and so on. A recent leak had a Google employee quoted as saying "this is a development platform. This is really a proof of concept. We don’t make very many of these." So if you want to know why the Pixel is so expensive, there’s part of your answer.

One last design touch: when the laptop is closed, you can "knock" on the top of it to get the lightbar to show your remaining battery life. And let me tell you about the battery life: it’s out-of-this-world good. The last Pixel was a disappointment in that regard, and most other Chromebooks are serviceable, but not stupendous. Google rates this Pixel as good for 12 hours, and in our own battery test, it clocked in at 14. I’ve been using it for many hours at a time without worrying about charging it at all. I’m usually the guy who dives for every power jack I see even if I only have a few minutes to top off. Yet right now as I’m typing, the charger is sitting just out of arm’s reach. I’m down to 55 percent battery life and I can’t be bothered to lean over and plug it in.

But if I could be bothered, I’d be able to plug it in on either side of the laptop, because there are two new ports: USB Type-C. Just a couple of days ago, we saw Apple aggressively endorse this new standard by making it the only port on the new MacBook, and now Google is also getting behind the standard. I could wax on about how I’m weirdly excited about this jack-of-all-trades port that works equally well for power, USB connectivity, and displays. Instead, I’ll just point out that it’s another sign that the Pixel is as much a development platform as it is a consumer device. Adding these ports to the Pixel should mean we’ll also see them on other, cheaper Chromebooks down the road. Unlike the new MacBook, Google is keeping the legacy ports on the Pixel, which means you’ll also get two USB 3 ports, an SD card slot, and a headphone / mic jack.

The new Pixel is fast. It has an Intel Core i5 processor with 8GB of RAM and 32GB of storage (plus the 1TB of cloud storage that you get from Google Drive for three years). The extra RAM means that the Pixel is less likely to bog down when you have lots of tabs open. While reviewing, I’ve never had fewer than 10 open at any time, and many of those were fairly heavy web apps. And even with all those tabs, loading web pages is still stupid fast. The only thing I’ve seen that compares is Safari on a top-of-the-line Mac. Every time I load a page on this Chromebook, I stare daggers at Chrome running on my MacBook Air.

The new Pixel is one of the first laptops to ship with USB-C ports

For $300 more, you can get the Chromebook Pixel LS, which has a faster Core i7 processor, a staggering 16GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. In typical lighthearted Google fashion, the LS stands for "Ludicrous Speed." (I wasn’t able to test that model, so I don’t know if the wallpaper is plaid.)

In general, Chrome OS feels like it has filled out a lot more in the last year or so. There are no huge updates to go along with the new Pixel, but if you haven’t used it in awhile, you might be surprised at how much better it is compared to early versions. Google is quick to point out that there are some Android apps you can use on Chromebooks now, but it would be charitable to call the selection spartan. Really, it’s only a tiny handful of apps like Vine and Evernote. But there are other ways in which Chrome OS is much closer to being a legitimate primary OS than it was before: Docs works offline really well, and it can even "natively" open Microsoft Office files when you’re online or offline without having to convert them (another trick I wish Chrome on my Mac could pull off).

Chrome OS is still too limiting for most people

So yes, Google is chipping away at the pain points that might keep you from going all-in with a Chromebook as your only computer, but even so, it’s nowhere near where it needs to be to really make that case. Basically, you could talk yourself into the idea that you really won’t need "advanced" apps like full-featured games, photo editors, or video editors. And you could convince yourself that even if you do, you are willing to do something weird like streaming Photoshop over a browser. But if you’re the kind of person who is willing to jump through those hoops, you’re probably the kind of person who should just get a traditional computer in the first place.

All that said, the core experience of using the browser, web apps, and even the occasional Chrome app or game is really solid and, in a lot of ways, superior to using equivalent apps and services on a desktop. Basically, the stuff I spend 70 percent of my time on is as good or better on the Pixel than it is on my two-year-old MacBook Air. But I need that other 30 percent too much to suffer through missing it or hacking my way toward a solution.

When I started reviewing the new Chromebook Pixel, I figured it would be a good idea to check our review of the original from two years ago. Here’s what we wrote: "Everyone should want a Chromebook Pixel — I certainly do. But almost no one should buy one."

Still true.

The new Chromebook Pixel isn’t meant to outsell other laptops or even to expand Chrome OS' marketshare. It's a development platform, one that will eventually make all other Chromebooks better. It’s also a premium laptop for people who can afford to spend a lot of money on the best thing, even if they don’t use it as their main machine.

The new Chromebook Pixel is slightly cheaper than its predecessor, at $999, but it’s still wildly more expensive than other Chromebooks. It has almost the exact same design as the original, and thus is a beautiful machine. It still runs Chrome OS, which has advanced significantly in the past two years, but not enough to be a real replacement for what you can do on a Mac or a PC.

But the improvements in battery life and speed are both huge. When you use it, the dichotomy between what your heart wants and what your brain says is almost bittersweet. It’s an amazing laptop that I want to use all the time, but when I really need to do more intensive "computer" things, it’s not quite enough.

They should have called it the Chromebook Paradox.