Pixelbook Go: Google finally made a reasonably priced Chromebook

For the first time, Google is making a Chromebook that actually approaches a reasonable price for most people instead of strictly catering to the high end. It’s the Pixelbook Go, a simple and clean 13.3-inch laptop that starts at $649 and has a total of four configuration options that cost up to $1,399.

I poked around at the Pixelbook Go for about an hour last week, and — true to the comprehensive leak 9to5Google posted last week — I think it’s a very nice-looking and nice-feeling laptop. It certainly needs to be, as it’s competing directly with many excellent Chromebooks that cost less. Google’s other big differentiator is the claim that the Pixelbook Go can last 12 hours on a charge

The main thing to know about the Pixelbook Go is that it is a dead-ahead laptop with a touchscreen. The top doesn’t rotate 360-degrees into tablet mode. After the Pixel Slate fiasco, Google scuttled its plans to make more Chrome OS-based tablets and just went back to basics.

The Pixelbook Go comes in two colors with Google’s typically cutesy names: just black and not pink. Of the two, I prefer the pink one, which is more like a slightly tinted sandstone (but it should have just called it pink).

As it has with Pixel phones in the past, Google has opted for a painted metal finish on the Pixelbook Go. The body is made out of magnesium instead of aluminum, and Google tells me that Magnesium apparently has a better strength-to-weight ratio, which meant it could use less material and keep the cost down.

The most noticeable physical attribute is on the bottom, which is ribbed for an easier grip. On the pink model, it is a loud shade of orange that actually looks great in person. Though it looks rubberized, it’s the same material as the rest of the laptop.

Set aside that design pop, and the most important design note is that the Pixelbook Go is defined by soft, rounded corners. The edges of the laptop curve into each other gently, making the whole thing a sort of giant, flattened lozenge.

Open it up, and you’ll find a 13.3-inch 1080p display surrounded by bezels that are reasonable in 2019 but certainly not small. There’s a 4K “Molecular Display” option at the very high end, but for $1,400, I don’t think it’s worth it for basically anybody. I used a 1080p version, and it looked like a fairly standard laptop LCD, but I haven’t had a chance to look at it in difficult lighting conditions.

I prefer the original Pixelbook’s 3:2 display to this more standard 16:9 panel, but the size does make the Pixelbook Go more portable. It weighs 2.3 pounds and is a half-inch thick, though, which is reasonable but not the thinnest thing you will find on the market. Because all of the edges are so curved, the whole thing feels smaller than it actually is.

The keyboard is flanked by two long speaker grilles, and when you’re looking at it open, it definitely gives off MacBook vibes — in an alternate reality where the MacBook had a good keyboard.

So let’s talk about the keyboard. I need to tamp down on my enthusiasm for it since I’ve only pecked at it for a very short period of time, but if I just let myself go, I would say that it is the best thing I’ve typed on in years. Don’t hold me to that, though. Let’s just say I’m very optimistic about it. There is still a Google Assistant key on the lower left, and it pops up that interface very quickly (with the default to letting you type right away, too).

It is a small iteration on the original Pixelbook, which was already excellent. Google found a way to make it even quieter than before. Compared to the clackety racket a MacBook makes, this keyboard seems virtually silent. The keys have a longer travel and are made of a softer material, so they feel much better to type on as well. My only gripe is that they kept the same gray color, which makes seeing the letters in dim lighting difficult.

The base, $649 Pixelbook Go has an Intel 8th Gen Core m3 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. That’s slightly better in some ways than the big group of near-identical Chromebooks that cost around $550, but it still isn’t especially impressive. If you step up to the Core i5 or i7, you will still be getting 8th Gen chips, and they’ll still be the lower-power Y-series variety. There are no fans, at least.

There are two USB-C ports — one on each side — and it supports fast charging. Google says you can get “two hours of use in just 20 minutes of charge.” There’s a headphone jack, too, which is a blessing given Google’s dicey history with Bluetooth on Chromebooks. I’m told the Pixelbook Go has a new and better module for Bluetooth.

You won’t find any storage expansion slots, which is a bit of a disappointment as microSD was nearly becoming an expected standard on other Chromebooks.

You also won’t find a fingerprint sensor, nor can you log in with your face as you can on the new Pixel 4, the iPad Pro, and many Windows computers. Google wanted to keep the cost down, but if you have an Android phone, you can use the fingerprint sensor on that to unlock your Chromebook. And there’s a Titan C security chip as well.

Performance seemed fine in my time with it. But then it should, as the combination of Chrome OS and Intel is fairly stable and mature these days. And since Google isn’t trying to extend Chrome to be a tablet OS on this particular machine, all the lag and hassle from those efforts is simply not here.

Google is offering four different configurations, which, to my mind, is one configuration too many. Here they are:

• $649: 8GB RAM, 64GB SSD, FHD, 8th Gen Intel Core m3
• $849: 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, FHD, 8th Gen Intel Core i5
• $999: 16GB RAM, 128GB SSD, FHD, 8th Gen Intel Core i5
• $1,399: 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, UHD, 8th Gen Intel Core i7

Normally, I’d say that the i5 is the one most people should get, but a $200 jump for that storage and processor is fairly hefty. My advice is to wait for the reviews to see how the base model performs.

Oh, and if you prefer the 3:2 screen or 360-degree hinge on the original Pixelbook, it’s not going anywhere. Neither, unfortunately, are its largish bezels and flaky Bluetooth. I use the Pixelbook every day and love it, but Google chose not to update it this year.

Oddly, Google has to stagger not just the release of the Pixelbook Go but also preorders. Preorders for the just black $649 and $849 configs open today for the US and Canada. The two more expensive configs are “coming soon,” and all of the not pink configs will have a waitlist. The preorders you can put in today should begin shipping within a couple of weeks.

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