Google recently unveiled the Chromebook Pixel, a touch-screen-enabled laptop in the Chromebook family. As its name implies, the Chromebook Pixel has a lot of, well, pixels– 4.3 million pixels to be exact, which roughly translates into 239 pixels per inch, something Google noted is more than any other laptop screen on the market and twice as many as that found in a typical HDTV.
In addition to that, this laptop also runs an Intel Core i5 processor and the Chrome operating system while having Google Search, Gmail, YouTube, Maps and Google+ Hangouts integrated into the system. According to Google’s Vice President of Engineering Linus Upson, “With the Pixel, we set out to rethink all elements of a computer in order to design the best laptop possible, especially for power users who have fully embraced the cloud. The goal of the Pixel is to give people the best Web experience.”
The Pixel is currently available for purchase on Google Play in the United States and the United Kingdom and will also be for sale at BestBuy.com soon, though Google has yet to give an official release date for it. “The Google Chromebook looks to be a sporty laptop,” said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. “From a configuration and performance standpoint, it looks like a solid system. It also has some useful frills too, like a high-quality webcam, three microphones and plenty of ports.”
Other features include five hours of battery life and the touch screen, though there is one problem, according to Olds. That problem is the price, which Olds believes is higher than he would have expected. The WiFi version of the Pixel is currently priced at $1,299 and is set to start shipping next week with the LTE version priced at $1,449 and shipping in April.
According to Olds, “Other Chromebooks list for $350 or $250, while Google is listing the Pixel at $1,299 for the cheap model. That’s a big number.” In addition to that, Olds said that there are reasons the Pixel is priced so high, mainly because of the touchscreen, higher resolution, increased RAM and its lightweight build. He added, “I think the price puts it into a new competitive category. “It’s going to be competing heads-up with traditional Windows-based laptops, primarily Ultrabooks, now.”
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