Chromebook Pixel: Spoiling me for other chromebooks

I have been using a Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook since picking it up last year. The Samsung is a great laptop that happens to run Chrome OS, something that works very well for me. I like everything about the Samsung. Then Google sent me a Chromebook Pixel and spoiled me.

The Series 5 550 Chromebook works very well for me. It runs Chrome OS nicely and is a super work machine that meets my needs. There is not really anything I don't like about the Samsung, but it's no longer enough.

The culprit is the Chromebook Pixel, the expensive laptop from Google that costs almost three times what I paid for the Samsung. The Pixel hardware is as good as that on any laptop, even better in some ways. Using the Chromebook Pixel is sheer joy and it's not often you can say that about a laptop.

The Pixel keyboard is great, the trackpad is outstanding, and then there's that screen. The high resolution, even higher than the famous Retina display, is simply wonderful to use. Text displays razor sharp and graphics pop. The integrated long-term evolution (LTE) is so darn convenient when wi-fi is not available. Then there's the touchscreen. This has come in handy far more than I thought it would. Chrome OS is not fully optimized for touch, but what it can do with it makes the Pixel even better than without.

Given the high price of the Chromebook Pixel, surely I'm not thinking of getting one? As you have probably guessed, that's exactly what I am considering. My Samsung Chromebook that I liked so much is just not cutting it now that I've used the best Chromebook.

Chromebook Pixel
(Image: James Kendrick/ZDNet)

I haven't pulled the trigger on the Pixel yet, as it was not in my budget. I recently bought the MacBook Pro and another similar purchase is not in the budget. But I admit I've come very, very close to doing so.

The Pixel I am using now is going back to Google shortly and the thought of going back to a regular chromebook is not appealing at all. Stepping down on the hardware, the build quality, the integrated LTE, the gorgeous display, the touchscreen...

You may think I'm crazy to be considering spending this much ($1,449) for a Chromebook Pixel, and you're not far off the mark. I don't know anyone I would recommend to do so. But the fact is I use Chrome OS, it works well for me, and I want to run it on the best hardware available to run it. It's my money, after all.

That in a nutshell is the narrow audience that the Chromebook Pixel is aimed at: Someone who is already convinced that Chrome OS will work fine for them. The price is too high for those not sure about Chrome OS. But for those like me who know it's good, and want to run it on the best hardware available to do so, the Pixel is it.

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Acer C7 Chromebook: 4GB RAM, 6 hour battery, and 320GB hard drive (hands on)

Summary: When Acer debuted its $199 Chromebook it was unusual as it included a hard drive instead of flash storage. The new refreshed model still has the HDD, but doubles the memory and offers increased battery life for a higher price tag.

Acer set the price record for Chromebooks with its C7 that debuted for just $199. The 11.6-inch laptop was average for the genre, with the exception of a 320GB hard drive instead of flash storage. The four-hour battery life was short for a Chromebook, marring an otherwise decent budget offering.

(Image: James Kendrick/ZDNet)

Since the company refreshed the C7, I've been using one for a short while. Acer doubled the RAM from 2GB to 4GB and added a bigger battery delivering a respectable six hours of run time on a single charge. The 320GB hard drive remains, making it still the Chromebook with the most local storage.

Hardware specs:

Model number: Acer C710-2055

Operating system: Chrome OS

Processor: Intel Celeron 847, 1.1 GHz

Display: 11.6-inches, 1366 x 768

Memory/storage: 4GB/320GB hard drive (5,400 rpm)

Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n

Battery: 6 hours

Ports: 3-USB 2.0; VGA; Ethernet; HDMI; Audio in/out

Dimensions: 11.22 x 1.09 x 7.95 inches; 3 pounds

The new C7 has good performance on par with the similarly equipped Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook. The 4GB of memory keeps things running smoothly without lags or stuttering. The display is not the most vivid, but it's not bad. I must admit I am spoiled in this regard by the outstanding display of the Chromebook Pixel, so that's a factor in my perception of this Acer screen.

(Image: James Kendrick/ZDNet)

Some folks will be happy with the inclusion of a 320GB hard drive, but it's overkill for me. I am happy with small flash drives for internal storage on Chromebooks, especially given how well Google Drive cloud storage is integrated with Chrome OS.

(Image: James Kendrick/ZDNet)

The chiclet keyboard on the C7 is not the best I've seen on Chromebooks but it is adequate. Key placement is as expected and there is a top row of small keys for controlling the laptop and Chrome functions. The trackpad is good, although not as good as those on the Chromebook Pixel and the Samsung Chromebooks. It's still better than the trackpads found on most other laptops.

Extended battery. (Image: James Kendrick/ZDNet)

Acer increased the battery life of the C7 from a paltry four hours to a more reasonable six hours by going with a larger battery. This battery sticks out of the bottom of the laptop, forming a nice ergonomic tilt for typing. The battery is removable which is unusual in small laptops. This might be useful for international travelers who can get a second battery for up to 12 hours between charges.

The Acer C7 is available for $279.99 from retailers including Amazon. The $80 price bump over the first generation C7 is reasonable for the doubling of RAM and the increased battery life.

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James Kendrick has been using mobile devices since they weighed 30 pounds, and has been sharing his insights on mobile technology for almost that long.

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The misunderstood Chromebook: Why few get it

Odds are you haven't tried a Chromebook, laptops that run Google's Chrome OS that make getting on the web the primary focus of the user experience. The numbers show that you are not alone, as not many buyers are picking up a Chromebook. After all, it's just a glorified web browser. 

First of all, it's not exactly true that Chromebooks aren't selling. Two Chromebooks have been selling well at retail giant Amazon. The Samsung Chromebook has topped Amazon's best-selling laptops since it debuted last year. The $199 Acer Chromebook has been toward the top of that list since its launch. Amazon doesn't share sales numbers, but when you consider the number of laptops it offers, a significant number of shoppers are choosing these two Chromebooks over the rest of the laptop playing field.

Top selling laptop on Amazon

The fact is, given what the Chromebook does, it's not going to appeal to the vast laptop market. That market is entrenched in the belief that any laptop they use must be running a familiar OS like Windows to be useful. They need to run any program they want, not just the IE web browser.

That's also the problem buyers have with Windows RT. They can't load any program they want on systems running Windows RT, so those PCs are widely shunned by the buying market. It's no surprise that the Chromebook doesn't appeal to those buyers when a variant of Windows, which they already use, doesn't do everything they want.

So what's the point of the Chromebook and the Chrome OS it runs? Why would anyone in his/her right mind buy one?

Every bit of software in Chrome OS, and every single hardware component in the Chromebook, is optimized to make using the Chrome browser the best experience it can possibly be.

Let's exercise our imaginations to answer those difficult questions. Imagine you spent over 95 percent of your time on a laptop running IE10. It's a great browser after all, and it's what you find yourself running almost all the time. Maybe you are browsing the web, working with online services, even using Microsoft's online Office services.

Your online work has led you to be firmly entrenched in the cloud. Microsoft's Skydrive is a big part of your online laptop use as you store lots of your content in the cloud for access anywhere. It works well and fits your needs perfectly.

With all the time you spend using IE on your laptop, what if Microsoft made a Windows variant designed to make the best of that usage? They took the frequently misunderstood Windows 8 and stripped out every bit of the OS that doesn't directly optimize the IE user experience. Windows IE is what we'll call it.

All of the stuff that runs in the background on Windows is suddenly gone, making this Windows IE variant the fastest ever. The security and OS update system is completely removed from your view, as Windows IE does all that in the background without any user intervention. There is literally no user maintenance with Windows IE, a liberating situation.

The entire focus of the design of Windows IE is to do only one thing: make your heavy use of the IE browser the best it can possibly be. Supporting OS functions, e.g. the File Manager, are simplified to support that usage. Skydrive is integrated into Windows IE at a core level, and that is reflected in the file functions. All OS functions not dedicated to making IE fly are removed.

Windows IE works so well at providing the very best IE user experience that Microsoft and OEM partners take it even further. Good laptops are designed solely to make Windows IE run as fast and trouble-free as possible. Every bit of hardware in these laptops is tuned to that goal, and using IE is as good as it can possibly be. The entire hardware and software systems work together to make things work flawlessly. And the best part of this hardware is that it can be produced for less than $300. Not junk hardware designs, either, but nice laptops that are well worth the price.

These Windows IE laptops even have special keys on the keyboard to make common functions performed in IE as simple as a keytap away. Heavy IE users realize that for the very first time, the hardware and software have been designed to make the main thing they do work as flawlessly as possible. The software is tuned to provide the fastest, smoothest IE browsing experience ever produced. The hardware is carefully designed to work in tandem with that software to allow even cheaper components to deliver a better browsing experience than any other computer. It all works together to support that one task you spend 95 percent of your time doing on a computer.

This won't appeal to a lot of current Windows users, as the thought of a limited OS version is anathema to the power user's ideal. But the type of user that Windows IE is aimed at will see the benefits as soon as they use it. Removing all the overhead and fluff in Windows that the IE user rarely if ever touches is actually a benefit. The whole system makes IE pop on any system, and especially these new laptops designed to take advantage of Windows IE.

Windows RT was a stab at this, but Microsoft kept too much of the big OS to make it work optimally. Plus the hardware to run it is so expensive that it makes no sense to go Windows RT instead of the full Windows 8 package. There's no point in paying for absent features.

While it's almost certain that Microsoft will never produce Windows IE, the concept as described is exactly what Google has delivered in the Chrome OS and the Chromebook. Every bit of software in Chrome OS and every single hardware component in the Chromebook is optimized to make using the Chrome browser the best experience it can possibly be.

Google has also created an ecosystem of web apps that make the web browsing experience even richer than using Chrome alone. There are many apps designed to take the web experience to great heights, and Google Drive cloud storage is integrated into the Chrome OS at its deepest level.

It's not a case of being limited, it's a system designed to do the main thing you do and give as rich an experience as you can possibly get anywhere doing it. This is certainly not for everyone, but for those whose usage patterns fit the system, it doesn't get any better than this. And all for less than $300.

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