Google, as you’ve probably noticed, has become a hardware company. It’s designing phones, tablets and even laptops.
Its Chromebook laptop concept has some extremely compelling aspects. As I wrote in November, it’s a fast, silent, light, beautiful laptop â€" for $250.
The catch, of course, is that a Chromebook has no hard drive and very little storage; it’s exclusively for online activities. It’s great for Web, e-mail, YouTube and apps like Google Drive (free online word processor, spreadsheet and slide show programs). For $250, many people might find a fine value propositio in the Chromebook as a second computer.
But what if it cost five times as much
That’s the baffling news from Google’s latest offering, the Chromebook Pixel. It’s a high, high, high-end version of the earlier laptop that made so much sense at $250.
What does the additional money buy you Not much, really. The Pixel looks and feels better. It’s made of metal â€" sleek, crisp-edged aluminum. The trackpad feels nicer. The keys light up in the dark, and there’s a colorful light that comes on when you wake the Pixel or put it to sleep.
The beautiful screen distinguishes itself twice â€" once because it has extremely high resolution (239 pixels an inch, slightly more than even Apple’s MacBook Retina screens), and once because it’s a touch screen.
But why does it have a touch screen Web sites aren’t designed for finger operation â€" links are generally too small. So the addition of the touch screen is a little superfluous, and of course it adds thickness, weight ! and cost to the laptop.
And it’s a lot of weight: 3.3 pounds. For a stripped-down, online-only laptop, that’s ridiculously heavy. Why would you give up a hard drive, DVD drive and a full complement of ports, if not because you wanted a superlight laptop
(Speaking of ports: $1,300 for a laptop that comes with USB 2.0 ports instead of the much superior USB 3 What is this, 2009)
There’s also a $1,450 version of the Chromebook Pixel that includes a built-in 4G LTE modem, so that you can get online almost anywhere. That’s a delicious luxury â€" if you’re willing to pay $20 to $50 a month, or $10 a day, for the privilege.
But in the end, the screamingly obvious argument against the Chromebook Pixel boils down to two words: MacBook Air.
The Air costs $100 less. It weighs 12 percent less and has four times as much built-in storage, 128 gigabytes vs. the Chromebook’s 32. Its battery lasts longer, six hours vs. the Chromebook’s five. It’s thinner. At the Air’s hinge, it€™s one millimeter thicker, but it tapers down to almost nothing, so it feels much thinner than the Pixel, which is a solid, non-tapered block.
Above all, the Air, or a similar ultralight Windows laptop, runs real desktop software â€" Photoshop, Quicken, iTunes, games â€" that the Chromebook can only dream about.
If you’re going to spend $1,300, why on earth would you buy a laptop that does nothing but surf the Web
At $250, the Chromebook is an easy recommendation as a homework computer or TV couch accessory. But at $1,300 or $1,450, the same concept just doesn’t make much sense. The Chromebook Pixel is lovely, polished and just a little bit silly.
