Google Pixelbook – The high performance Chromebook, Starting from $999
Chromebooks mostly exist in two camps. The first is the education market, where an entire generation of students have been using cheap, low-end laptops to get their schoolwork done. The second camp is the direct-to-consumer market, where manufacturers like Samsung and Asus have been introducing higher-end models that creep up into the $500 range but don’t have the power or flexibility of a proper Windows or Mac laptop.
Now, for the first time since Google discontinued the Chromebook Pixel last year, it’s back in the top end of the market with the Pixelbook, a laptop that starts at $999 and can be priced all the way up to $1,649. And if you want, you can spend $99 more on the Pixelbook Pen, a stylus designed specifically for this laptop.
Pixelbook can definitely compete, at least on the specs and the hardware design. It’s just over 10mm thick and weighs just under two and a half pounds. Google hardware chief Rick Osterloh tells me that 10mm and one kilogram were always the targets, and Google basically hit them.