Google Pixelbook Chromebook Review

The aluminum chassis and very thin design are the primary highlights of the Pixelbook. Its matte silver surfaces detract fingerprints and feel almost identical to the outer lid of the XPS 13 in terms of texture and rigidity. The notebook feels stronger than the Lenovo Yoga 900 series down to its corners and even the hinges. Applying pressure on the outer lid or keyboard center results in very minimal warping as does twisting the base or lid with absolutely no audible creaking. The Pixelbook is proof that it's possible to create a very thin convertible notebook while remaining inflexible.

If we are to nitpick some aspects of the design, the white rubberized palm rests and the glossy white strip across the top of the outer lid may not be to everyone's liking. The purpose of these surfaces is to provide grip when typing, handling, or changing modes, but the white palm rests in particular will indubitably become worn, gray, and oily over time not unlike on the Alcantara fiber of the Surface Laptop and detachable Surface Pro keyboard. The plastic white strip is likely beneficial to the internal wireless radio too, even though its glossy surface can feel out of place in an all-aluminum matte build.

Lastly, the bezels are very thick (~1.5 cm from the sides and ~2.0 cm from the top) when compared to most newer mainstream notebooks like the Yoga 920, Spectre x360 13, XPS 13, or Zenbook 3. We imagine that the larger footprint was necessary in order to reduce flexing and avoid overly cramped keys on a 12.3-inch screen size.

The Pixelbook joins the small group of ultra-thin notebooks that ship with only USB Type-C ports including the Zenbook 3, Spectre 13, MateBook X, and MacBook Pro 15. Thunderbolt 3 is not officially supported here, but either of the two USB Type-C ports can output to 4K via mDP or be used for charging.

It's very disappointing to see no integrated card readers or USB Type-A ports. The HP Chromebook 13 G1 includes all ports found on the Pixelbook in addition to USB Type-A and a MicroSD reader.

WLAN supports 2x2 802.11ac speeds as confirmed by our transfer rate tests that show very similar results to the common Intel 8260. Bluetooth 4.2 is integrated and works without issues.

Our WLAN experience with the machine has not been perfect. While we can't speak for every unit available, our test unit would randomly disconnect from our Linksys EA8500 router once every couple of hours or so of non-stop use. This occurs without warning and can be remedied by reconnecting to the network.

There are no GPS, NFC, or WWAN options on the Pixelbook unlike on certain Lenovo ThinkPad or Dell Latitude models.

There are no included extras outside of the AC adapter and charger. In fact, the standard packaging is devoid of any paperwork as well. It's also disappointing that the notebook includes no USB-C to USB-A adapters. In contrast, HP included a free adapter with the initial launch of the Spectre 13 since the manufacturer was aware that its users will want to use USB Type-A devices.

The Pixelbook Pen stylus is sold separately for another $100 USD.

There are two T5 Hex screws on the bottom panel similar to the screws used for the XPS 13 and Razer Blade. The panel is latched very tightly along its perimeter and we are unable to reliably remove it even with a sharp edge. It's clear that easy serviceability is not a selling point of the super-thin unibody design.

The standard one-year limited warranty applies for North American users while users in the UK are covered for two years. Please see our Guarantees, Return Policies & Warranties FAQ for country-specific information.

We've also decided to run Android-based benchmark tools on the Pixelbook and have recorded the results below for the sake of curiosity. Note that these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt as the Play Store apps are not designed to run in a virtual Chrome OS environment or test Chrome OS performance.

Results are inconsistent from most of the Android benchmark apps. For example, Ice Storm Physics and Geekbench single-core benchmark scores are 70 percent and 100 percent higher, respectively, than the Exynos-powered Galaxy Note 8. Meanwhile, the very high PCMark Storage score rivals the Huawei Mate 10 Pro while AndroBench favors the Huawei smartphone by over five-fold. Interestingly, graphics-intensive benchmarks show the Pixelbook struggling against current flagship smartphones while most CPU-intensive benchmarks show the Chromebook to be well ahead.

A small handful of Android apps would refuse to run. Aside from GPS-dependent apps, both Epic Citadel and 3DMark Slingshot 3.0 Unlimited would crash upon launch.

The 128 GB SSD in the base configuration is very slow according to AndroBench. Its sequential write rate of about 120 MB/s is only a fraction of the speed of the UFS 2.1 SSDs in the Galaxy Note 8 and Huawei Mate Pro 10 smartphones. The slow performance is likely an attempt to bolster the upcoming 512 GB SKU that is explicitly advertised as a NVMe SSD. As noted earlier, AndroBench is not designed to run in a virtualized Android environment and the results may not accurately reflect the Pixelbook.

For a Chromebook, 128 GB is a healthy amount of space and certainly more than what cheaper chromebooks offer where 16 GB or 32 GB can be common. This may or may not make up for the overt lack of a SD reader depending on the demands of the user.

Like the recently launched Huawei MateBook X and certain SKUs of the Surface Pro 2017, the Pixelbook is completely silent.

Our test unit exhibits slight electronic noise at all times similar to our last XPS 13 unit. However, the noise is inaudible from a normal viewing distance and can only be heard when placing an ear very closely to the keyboard.

Frequency Comparison (Checkbox selectable!)
Graph 1: Pink Noise 100% Vol.; Graph 2: Audio off

Power consumption behavior is very strange on our unit despite triple-checking our instrumentation and results. Normally, a notebook at full charge will still draw power from its connected AC adapter. On the Pixelbook, however, we can record no such consumption when idling or even when browsing. Only during very high loads would we begin to record significant AC adapter activity. Streaming three 1080p videos simultaneously, for example, would draw about 17 W at full battery charge.

If the Pixelbook is not at full charge, then we can begin to measure higher consumption rates. The notebook would draw between 10 W and 15 W when idling and up to 24 W when under heavy load. The very small 56 W AC adapter (~6 x 6 x 3 cm) is more than sufficient for the Chromebook and can also be used to Quick Charge (15 V 3A, 20 V 2.5 A) smartphones and other devices should they support the feature.

The internal 41 Wh battery is smaller than the 59 Wh battery in the original 2013 Pixel Chromebook. Even so, battery life is significantly longer this time around at nearly 14 hours of real-world WLAN use. The less intensive operating system also leads to longer runtimes than most - if not all - Windows notebooks with U-class ULV CPUs.

Charging from near empty to full capacity will take about 90 minutes with the included AC adapter. It is indeed possible to charge the notebook with a power bank or another USB port as if it were a smartphone, but the process will be significantly slower and the unit would have to be shut off.