Hey what's up it's Jared with State of Tech. Today we are
going to talk about the Pixelbook Go. I opted to get
the maxed out pixel but go and check it out. And you're
wondering maybe Chromebook. Interesting choice guy being,
that I am typically using a Mac or I've talked a lot about
building extremely powerful pieces for video editing. So
why on Earth Am I messing around with a Chromebook. Well,
I have loved the idea of a chromebook for the longest time
because Chrome books have had a few things typical of them
which they are lightweight.
They are easy to connect to. They are simple because the
Chrome OS is usually pretty simple and the battery life is
really good. So if I want something for a writing device
or something that's just easy for me to go and Web browse
from a chromebook has always been really appealing but
Chrome books typically have been really cheap and like they
are slow sometimes and there's just issues. I've reviewed a
chromebook in the past and it's right now we still have it. It
is a pain in the butt to use and we utilize it almost never
because it's just so underpowered and it just
doesn't run very well.
And a lot of new things have come to Chromebook over the
last few years and most recently being the ability to
run Android apps on them which is great. And so being that you
can utilize Android apps on most of your Chrome books now.
Is huge. And so when the pixel book Go was announced I
absolutely fell in love with the look and the design of it.
I thought wow that is simple It's lightweight. I love the
way it looks. It looks like something that I could just
carry with me when I need I don't need my full MacBook Pro
16 inch with all the power and everything I just want
something lightweight that I can utilize that's easy. And
And so when I got my hands on the maxed out which is the i7
version of the Pixelbook I waited for that because I
wanted the one with a four K display and I wanted a little
bit more performance so that it would last longer so that if I
utilize an Android app on it that maybe was a little heavier
that it wasn't going to bog down the system that everything
would just continue to run fine. So I wanted to talk about
why I'm using this pixelbook and just give you an overall
review of what my experiences have been so far because the
pixelbook though is definitely not the cheapest option that's
out there.
It's not the cheapest as far as 4 k displays go. It's not the
cheapest as far as performance goes but it is one of the
better looking one of the better build quality Chrome
books that are out there. And so we're going to jump into all
that. So I chose to use a chromebook because of
simplicity. Battery life is huge as well. My Mac is great
but I tend to have a lot of different things running and
that kind of hogs the battery life. I still get great battery
life on my Mac but the pixel book I know will last me all
day long no matter what that I'm doing on the pixelbook.
It's super lightweight so it's barely heavier than my iPad is
really when I have a keyboard case on my iPad and the apple
pencil and maybe another little accessory like a mouse or
something. The Chromebook the pixel but go Chromebook is just
it's lightweight it's easy to carry around with me it's
always ready. I mean you open the lid and by the time you've
opened the lid it's already powered on and ready to go
which is unlike any other laptop that's out there and
even cheaper Chrome books are not going to power up that
fast.
They may for the first few times that you use them but
after a month or so of using them they are going to take
forever you open the lid and you're waiting. And with this
pixelbook go open the lid boom it's good to go no matter what
even if I was previously using a heavier application like
Adobe Lightroom on the thing so instant tethering with Android
phones is also great because I can open up my pixelbook and
then it will automatically tether to my android phone. Of
course tethering to an iPhone isn't that hard either but if
I'm out and about being able to connect to it super easy is
just a simple process no thinking no going through the
menus on my android phone as long as you have a supported
Android phone it's gonna be super easy to connect.
So what are some of the features that I think make this
pixelbook stand apart from others. Well the four K display
was definitely something that I wanted. I knew that I wanted to
try photo editing on the pixel and see if the pixelbook would
allow for that. And it definitely does so I wanted the
higher resolution screen because I do a lot of like
photo editing and stuff. And I wanted to be able to see more
on my display. So I went with the four K option and it has a
standard like you HD for K which is 38 40 by 21 60 and the
pixel depth is three hundred and thirty one PPE which is
really high for a laptop that's like smartphone level pixel
density you typically don't see that type of pixel density on a
laptop even what is considered retina displays on Macs
typically are not that high.
And the pixel density so the super lightweight magnesium
chassis is also nice. It's a very durable the build quality
is just great on it. I don't feel like I have to baby this
thing even though I do take care of my devices. I'm not as
worried about it as I would a more plastic laptop. So being
in the back of one of my camera bags you know being smushed in
between my back and some cameras with a little bit of
padding definitely I'm not as worried about it as a plastic
laptop.
This particular model is the I seven it does have a Y series I
seven see you but it's definitely more than powerful
enough for what I'm doing and I have seen no signs of slowdown.
It's an absolute beast of a machine with that ice seven
processor in it. The battery life is consistent lasting in
me all day I don't have issues. I've gone start to finish
through my entire day utilizing it basically with the screen on
all day long and the battery life. I have more to spare at
the end of the day which is absolutely great.
This particular model also as 16 gigs of ram and 256 gigs of
storage. Those were also two things that I found to be
really important when deciding because I've had Chrome books
with eight gigs of storage and like one 128 or less gigs of
ram and I knew I was going to be editing photos and doing
stuff where I wanted a little bit of storage and I wanted a
little bit more performance and I think it doesn't matter what
kind of laptop you're on these days. Sixteen gigs is just it's
a good place to be at a minimum.
And so I went with this model because I absolutely knew that
I wanted the 16 gags of course on top of the four K display.
The dedicated Google assistant button. That's something that
is pretty much rolling out on all Chrome books pretty much
there. Removing the cap locks and giving you that Google asst
button. So a search button. You hit the button Google assistant
is ready to go you're ready to type in a search. Kind of like
the Windows Hello key or I guess command space on a mac so
you instantly have access to that and of course you could
still access your cap locks by holding down all and then
hitting that button that typically was your cap locks in
and a little notification will pop up in the right hand corner
letting you know that you have your cap locks on.
Also frequent updates Chrome OS is always getting updated with
new security updates and new little features and bug fixes
and so there's always new updates coming out so you know
that you're going to get the best experience. So I use this
Chromebook in a variety of different ways but the top four
ways that I use this is for writing. It's a nice
writing experience. The key travel is a little shallow but
if you like the Mac experience of a keyboard you're going to
absolutely love this.
The key travel is fine. The typing experience is really
nice. The trackpad is really nice on it. I wish it was a
little bigger especially when I'm editing photos but it is
nice I do like that. I use I've been using it a lot for editing
photos and Lightroom because a lot of times I will go and use
Lightroom on my Mac and it's kind of a heavy application on
there using Lightroom mobile which runs on this particular
Chromebook or pretty much any Chromebook that will run
Android apps and I've really come to love Lightroom like the
cloud edition which also works with mobile because I can get a
couple of photos in and edit them really fast if I have
bigger batches of photos I typically still use Lightroom
Classic which only runs on a Mac or a P.C.
but for a smaller batch editing you know 50 photos or less I
definitely utilize my chromebook for that or maybe
even my iPad but most of the time the Chromebook just makes
it a really easy experience. So I've been utilizing Lightroom a
lot in that and I'll probably do a tutorial over on ditch
auto on how I'm using a Chromebook to edit my photos
because when I say that to people are like wait what? How
do you edit photos on a Chromebook Social Media
Management is also a huge one for this device for managing
these you can utilize the Android app versions.
For example, if you use Instagram you know that pretty
much you can only use Instagram on a phone or even a tablet and
it's a horrible experience on a tablet but you can use full
Instagram on a Chromebook like this run Instagram you can even
post photos you can run an Instagram live from the web cam
on this device so there's you can use the entire aspect of
Instagram including multiple accounts right from your
Chromebook which makes the experience much better for
somebody who is managing multiple multiple accounts
who's managing accounts for their business and needs to be
able to update and type a lot.
It's a lot easier to type on the keyboard than it is to
thumb it out on a phone and so utilizing Instagram on this is
just absolutely it makes it worth its cost and being able
to do that and it's a fast process because this particular
laptop has plenty of performance to do everything
else that's doing including running Instagram which is just
great. And then there's also other Android apps that I use
as well on here. There are a couple of games that I like to
play but most of the time I'm utilizing other apps that are
Android apps and you have the entire play store so you can
access all of those apps and a lot of them actually do go full
screen and look really well and perform really well on this
laptop.
But also there are a lot of apps that run in a web browser
for example. I utilize Notion for a lot of actually my
outline for this video is in Notion and I'm utilizing it
right on the Chromebook which I'm looking at right in front
of me and notion just tends to run better in the browser on
this Chromebook but you can utilize things that run in the
browser you can utilize things that run and Android apps. And
so it's just an overall like really nice experience. I'm
glad that they went down that road of utilizing Android apps
and the Google Play Store on Chrome.
I think that's a huge focus area for Google right now. And
so we'll probably see a lot more amazing things coming. I
do wish though there are a few things that I wish that this
Chromebook had and I do wish that it had some sort of
unlocking feature like a fingerprint or a face unlock
something like the pixel phone has so that I can unlock the
device. I don't have to type in my password all the time. I
tend to just not have a password because it's kind of a
pain in the butt to have to type it and all the time. I do
wish that it had some sort of two and one capability.
It opens up pretty wide for a laptop but it has a touch
screen and I don't utilize the touchscreen too much because it
doesn't fold into a full tablet. If it did I probably
would utilize it a little bit more. So I do wish that it did
have two and one capabilities. It also has a 16 by nine aspect
ratio which is the same as like for K video or HD video
depending on the screen model that you get. And I feel like
the display is just a little short compared to what we're
used to most laptops are like at least 16 by 10.
They're a little bit taller gives you a little bit more
reading space you don't have to scroll as much. I do wish that
it was a little bit taller but I also do love the fact that it
is compact as it is so it's one of those things where I don't
know if I would like it until I actually got to experience it
but sometimes I do wish that it did have a little bit taller of
a display. So the bottom line is it worth it because this is
not the cheapest Chromebook out there it is a more expensive
Chromebook. It's one that's directly from Google so you
know you're going to pay a little bit more for it.
But I think that there are a few reasons that it is good for
the price even though it's a little bit more expensive.
Number one the build quality I don't have to worry about this
laptop nearly as much as I have to worry about other ones that
are more plasticy that have finicky ports and stuff like
that on them. My like huge charging bricks considering
it's just a small little laptop. I charge the pixel but
go either with a small forty five watt adapter that it came
with or I have an even smaller sixty one watt adapter I
believe it is you SBC super small it's that size like a
size of a small Brownie bite and I can easily charge my
chromebook from it and get a fast charging time all day
battery life.
It's just great. So something like this would also be a great
buy for the student that wants something that's a little bit
more durable. They're going from class to class putting it
in their backpack. They don't want something that's going to
end up cracking and breaking super easy. This is a very
sturdy device and the build quality is just great. It is
solid. It is sturdy. It is made out of a solid piece of
magnesium and then built out. And so it's something that's
going to last. And getting it with a little bit more
performance not buying the base model but buying maybe you with
the midline with the I 5 or even the top of the line I 7
means that it's going to last longer because it has the
performance to handle the more intense apps that will become
available with time the more requirements that Chrome OS
will need with time.
And so even though you spend a little bit more money upfront
it's still not nearly the kind of money that you would have to
spend to get this kind of build quality and performance out of
a full P.C. or Mac laptop. So I do think it's worth it in those
aspects. One last little note on something that I wish that
was better is the webcam that's on there I forgot to mention
that one the web cam is better than some but still pretty
poor. You can definitely use it in good lighting situations but
in lower lit situations it totally falls apart and is not
that useful.
So that's gonna do it for my review of the Pixelbook Go.
This is definitely something different. I don't do a whole
lot of laptop reviews but the Pixelbook Go is something that
just stood out to me as something that's different and
useful in a space that I typically write off because
most of the devices are lower quality and lower performance.
So let me know what you think. Down in the comments section
below is a chromebook something you've ever entertained are you
looking for a Chromebook. Have you used one in the past. Share
with me your thoughts down in the comments section. I would
love to hear them and chat with you about it there.
I've got links in the description below to this
Chromebook as well as the others that are available so
you click on those links. If you make a purchase it
definitely helps support the channel here and I greatly
appreciate that. But that's gonna do it for the video
today. Thanks so much for checking it out and I hope to
see it back in the next one. Take care.