Google’s brand new Pixelbook is an absolutely stunning piece of kit

Chromebooks have never really had a no holds barred, balls to the wall flagship device, at least not one like Google‘s brand new Pixelbook. Coming in at a price you’d normally expect to see great Windows ultrabooks, does the Pixelbook have the specs to back up its retail tag?

Google thinks so.

I mean, you can’t really talk about the Pixelbook without addressing the most obvious thing about it — its stunning aesthetic. It’s square, and sleek, and minimalist, and absolutely gorgeous. It bears a lot of similarities, in design, with Google’s Pixel smartphones and that gives the Chromebook a really unique look.

It’s made fully out of aluminium with silicone palm rests so you can expect some stellar build quality especially since its coming out of Google. It’s also really thin, coming in at just 10.3mm thick and it weighs 1.1kg. What’s more, Pixelbook isn’t just a laptop, it’s a convertible.

This means it has a 360-degree hinge which will allow you to use it in four different configurations. Since it is a laptop, it does come with a full sized backlit keyboard with 0.8mm of travel on each key. The trackpad is glass.

But a good build is only the tip of the iceberg. Google’s Pixelbook also comes with a solid set of internal hardware specs. In front, you have a Quad HD 2400×1600 12.3″ LCD display that’s touch sensitive. Inside, the Chromebook sports either a 7th generation Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processor paired to 8GB/16GB of RAM and up to 512GB of NVMe SSD storage.

Google’s also quoting a 10-hour battery life on this device with quick-charging that can give you 2 hours of usage for just a 15 minute charge. Besides that, the Pixelbook charges via USB Type-C and 45W adapter that comes with the Pixelbook can also be used to charge your Google Pixel smartphone.

Now, we come to the most difficult (potentially) part about this device: Chrome OS. Google says that all your Android apps will work well on Chrome OS so you can move from working on stuff on your phone to the Pixelbook seamlessly. You can, for example, take a picture with your phone, edit it on Lightroom on the Pixelbook, then post it directly from your desktop to Instagram.

And that’s the core idea behind the Pixelbook and Chrome OS — it’s supposed to integrate effortlessly with your Pixel handset that’s running Android with Android apps. In fact, it’s so seamless that you can turn on your Pixel’s WiFi hotspot through your Pixelbook.

But that’s not all, Google is also building the Google Assistant right into the Pixelbook, complete with a dedicated Assistant key. One tap will bring it up and it works pretty much the same as it does anywhere else so you can ask it stuff like weather and search terms. What’s more, you can also opt to have it read what’s on your screen and provide contextual results when you tap the assistant button.

Google has also come up with a stylus called the Pixelbook Pen that you can use to draw and circle certain elements on your screen so that the Assistant can identify what you’re looking at.

As far as hardware for the Pixelbook Pen goes, it has 2000+ levels of pressure sensitivity, 10ms latency and 60 degrees of angular awareness.

Google’s Pixelbook is priced at USD999 (around RM4,223) for the base model with an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. Pay USD1,199 (around RM4,650) and you can get 256GB of internal storage. Finally, you can also opt for the top-spec USD1,649 (around RM6,971) that comes with an Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. Neither variant has a fan so you can expect silent performance throughout.

Pixelbook Pen is priced at USD99 (around RM419).