Google Pixelbook Chromebook Review

[Redaktion]

The Chromebook poster child. The most expensive Chromebook available is unsurprisingly also the fastest and most versatile. Just be prepared to bring all your USB Type-C adapters along for the trip.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Google-Pixelbook-Chromebook-Review.262418.0.html

[MPM]

How did you get nearly 14 hours of battery life?!  I have a pixel book and am lucky to hit 7 hours. What was screen brightness set to when you got nearly 14 hours?

Thanks

[Alex Bass]

The Pixelbook doesn't use the UV series processor that you wrote in this review everywhere. It uses the i5-7Y64 & i7-7Y75 which explains why it doesn't have or need a fan.

[Alex Bass]

i5-7Y54*

Sorry, typo in the last comment.

[digitalguy]

And the weight is definitely not 2.76 pounds / 1,25 KG, I don't know where the author got those data from...

[jeff bellin]

I don't know why/how this happens with some - admittedly, a minority of - NBC reviews but this is one of those where it appears to anyone who has used this device as if you had an entirely different device for review!  While I can't comment on your measurements I can say that the user experience of, say, the keyboard and track pad do not match my experience nor that of the multitude of professional reviewer's online.  (Which is to say, this is one of the most satisfying keyboards and track pad's of any of the best ultra-thin sub notebooks of late 2017.)  Your battery run times are similarly bizarre, and call into question your testing methodology for all devices.  Leaving my own experience aside - though it is very similar to a remarkably uniform consensus of published reviews - most published sources get around 6-8 hours on a full charge.  14 hours is just nuts.  (Another criticism of NBC, of which I am really a great fan overall, is that when you get counter-intuitive results, which are many deviations away from the average of all professional reviews, you neither attempt to validate your own results by, say, getting a second sample of the device, nor do you even mention that your results appear to be anomalous. 

Overall, what bothers me most about this review is that your conclusions do not provide a coherent sense of why you like or dislike the device nor do you make it clear for whom this might be a worthy choice and for whom it would not be appropriate.  Finally, an overall score of 86% normally describes a good product with perhaps a few notable flaws whereas the text of your review does not sound like you find much at all to like about this device.  Strange.

[JAE]

     I would have to mirror your exact thoughts and feelings put forth and an explanation after seemingly outlandish results from what by on the surface appears to be methodical testing would be nice. I would liken this to producing what appears to be a great widget, but having no support for that widget once it leaves the factory. I see both sides, as someone who's worked online for yours, it would be impossible to address everything every time a subscriber finds issue, but some times it just becomes imperative that you do. Some one like myself and it appears, as yourself, will find fault and without additional explanation, one has to disregard all observations and data put forth. As such, I will no longer take the time to read or travel to the website, which is how the site pays the bills, so to speak.
     In the last six months, I've purchased three expensive laptops, the least expensive being the Google Pixelbook. I work online and use my laptops a minimum of 4 hours a day every single day of the year and it's usually more like eight to twelve hours a day on a normal "work" day. I know without a doubt that my Pixelbook can get six to eight hours of mileage out of a full charge (brightness at 100%). I not only use Chrome a lot, but I do significant amounts of photo editing with the Pixelbook. If I use Chrome a lot, accessing various web apps, I get closer to six hours than the closer to eight hours I get when just using apps. Even when dialing down brightness to 50% (which is the minimum I can go for most use cases), I can stretch those times one to two hours. I've repeated results multiple days over and over since the laptop was released late 2017. If I had based my purchase on this article, I would minimally be disappointed and most likely angry I spent $1000 USD and getting not even getting 50% of what is claimed here. As well, I am lucky I did not base my purchase on specific assertions and claims made in reviews of the Dell XPS 15 9560 and others. As mentioned previously, it's not the entire reviews, it's specific individual results that seemingly could only be different hardware or potential issue with methodology in testing that I to feel need addressed and followed up by NCR.