Chrome OS is still Chrome OS

Like Chrome itself, Chrome OS is all about small, gradual improvements. Look at the Chrome Releases blog to see how frequent these tiny updates are. The core of Chrome OS is the same as ever; it’s designed mostly to be used with an Internet connection, and most of the “apps” you’re going to run are ones that run in a browser.

Google has slowly been adding to the number of ways developers can develop more traditional apps for Chrome OS, things that feel more like Windows or OS X programs than Web apps. Chrome Apps still use HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript, but they lose the standard Chrome UI and look and act like self-contained applications. Google services like Docs and Sheets have gradually changed to work better when you don’t have an Internet connection. Even if you don’t have an active connection, you can launch Docs, create a new document or edit a document you had saved for offline use, and your changes will just sync the next time you’re back on the Internet.

Virtualization is another possible fix, though it’s geared more at schools and businesses than regular people. Chrome Remote Desktop is one way to use standard desktop apps on your Chromebook, and Adobe has even been experimenting with a virtualized version of Photoshop.

More recently, Google has been working with Android app developers to bring some existing Android apps to Chrome OS using the App Runtime for Chrome. That runtime is still in beta and supports just a handful of apps, and running mobile apps on a laptop isn’t a cure-all. Not all Android apps look or work great on large screens. The Android ecosystem has many of the same holes the Chrome OS ecosystem does, particularly high-quality audio, video, and photo editing apps.

As the runtime supports more applications (or once it’s opened up to allow the installation of pretty much anything), it will be another partial solution to Chrome OS’ biggest problem as an OS for current Windows users.

Internals, performance, battery life, and charging

The Pixel upgrades all the way from Ivy Bridge to Broadwell, leapfrogging Haswell entirely. The majority of our general CPU and GPU benchmarks don’t run on Chrome OS, but these Broadwell U chips are also in PCs like Dell’s XPS 13 and Lenovo’s X1 Carbon. You can see those reviews for general performance, though we’ve run a few browser benchmarks to compare it to other Chromebooks too.







More important for Chrome OS than performance is battery life, which was a primary focus of both the Haswell and Broadwell architectures; the Ivy Bridge to Haswell jump was particularly good for battery life in Windows and OS X laptops.

We don’t have an original Pixel with a healthy like-new battery to test with, but in the tests we did in our original review we got a little under five hours in light, mixed usage at 50 percent brightness. Google’s own figure was exactly five hours. The new Pixel far outstrips that. Google says it will last up to 12 hours, and our tests show that's not too far off.





It’s an impressive leap, and it brings the Pixel in line with other similarly priced and spec’d hardware from competitor laptop makers. We're so used to incremental change in our hardware refreshes that it's nice to see such a drastic one.

The USB Type C adapter included with the laptop can provide up to 71.5W of power to the Pixel if you're charging an empty battery, and Google claims that you can get "two hours of battery life with just 15 minutes of charge." If you've got a Type C cable and any other USB charger, you can still use it to charge the Pixel, it just won't be as fast. Depending on how much power your adapter can provide, you may need to put the Pixel to sleep or shut the lid to actually charge the battery.

Nice, niche

The new Chromebook Pixel is an improvement over its predecessor in every important way—it’s the best kind of upgrade, the kind that keeps what worked about the previous model and upgrades everything else.

It’s still the same kind of computer the first Pixel was, though. Its quality is excellent, but its operating system combined with its price makes it a nonsensical purchase for most people. This is doubly true in the price-sensitive education and low-end PC markets where Chromebooks are the most popular. The big question is still “who is this for” and the answer is still “die-hard Chrome developers, people who get them for free at Google I/O or whatever, and tinkerers who like the design and buy Chromebooks to put Linux on them.”

That’s a pretty small group, and Google knows it—Google’s Renee Niemi had a few things to say to that effect in a (since-pulled) video spotted by OMGChrome.

We will be selling [the new Pixel] but I just have to set your expectations: this is a development platform. This is really a proof of concept. We don’t make very many of these — we really don’t. And […] our developers and our Googlers consume 85 percent of what we produce.

This is not a practical mass-market product, but it’s not really intended to be. People who liked the first Pixel will love the new one. People who didn’t care about the first Pixel can continue not caring. This laptop will attract a specific kind of customer, but it still feels like hardware that’s begging for more versatile software.

The good

Outstanding build quality and an attractive if boxy design.

Great keyboard and trackpad.

Sharp, bright, colorful screen.

Excellent battery life.

The price comes down while the specs go up.

Two USB Type C ports mean you can plug your power brick and your monitor in on either side, a small but handy upgrade.

The bad

Chrome OS, while always improving, is still limited compared to Windows or OS X. That’s not a big deal at $300, but it’s harder to justify for $1,000.

Chrome OS doesn’t do much to take advantage of the excellent trackpad or touchscreen.

Don’t forget your USB Type C dongles.

The ugly