So Google just released a laptop that is actually better than an MBA and you think Apple shouldn't take Google seriously? Good thing you're not running Apple.
Okay, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. The Chromebook does have a nice screen, but...
- The Chromebook is almost half a pound heavier that the Air.
- It only has USB 2.0, not 3.0 like the Air.
- It has just a 32GB SSD, the Air has 128GB/256GB/512GB.
- It has just 5 hours of battery, compared to 7 hours with the Air.
- It only has Bluetooth 3.0, not 4.0 like the Air.
- It still starts at $100 more expensive that the Air.
And you know why this works? Because Apple puts sufficiently high specs in their machines so the user doesn't have to think about it, because it doesn't stall or perform tasks slowly.
Besides, this is HN. It's an objective discussion, not a marketing one.
>beauty and slickness and the UX of its software which is where the Pixel does indeed shine
I can't speak for the Pixel here, but OSX is the best OS I've ever used so I would be surprised to see a browser-only OS match that.
As for hardware, the Air is by far the best-designed laptop I've ever seen. I know people are praising the Pixel in this regard but to me it just looks like another ThinkPad. And as far that grey bar jutting out? Come on.
>As for the 32 GB, the Pixel comes with 1TB of google drive
I knew this would be brought up but I didn't want to bash Drive in my last reply. But here we go...
Somebody shared a single .png imagine with me this morning on Drive. I went into the Drive folder they shared it in, it's empty. I reload the web interface, folder is still empty. I try to search for the file name, it's not there. I reload the page again, still can't see the file in the folder, type the file name in the search box, and it finally appears in the search bar and I can open it. When I'm done I go back out, and it still doesn't appear in the folder it's in. The only way I can access this file is now to memorize the file name and search every time.
Not somewhere I'm willing to put hundreds of GBs of data just yet.
And something that's not brought up enough: data privacy. Google employees can view hundreds of GBs of your personal files, photos, documents, etc. on Drive.
With an SSD you know exactly who can access your files, and you can still choose to back up to a cloud service that actually offers encryption if you so wish (which I do).
Drive will most likely never offer encryption because Google makes its money from knowing as much about you as possible.
The pixel is just a web browser.
The correct thing to make the comparison to is the iPad, but even the iPad is more functional, since it can run apps that aren't browsers.
From a usability viewpoint, the pixel is kinda laughable... it's so arbitrarily limited, it isn't even really usable unless you're on a network.
Stated by someone who obviously hasn't used Chrome OS.
Also, it's trivial for a developer or semi-technical user to install Crouton and setup a build environment or whatever else.
(It's Google's 'Chrome')
My point is that Google has a history of being unable to ship anything properly. And until we see them do so and with a sizable profit margin then they shouldn't be considered in the same league as Apple. And the important skill is not making the laptop it's in the supply chain management.
And we are talking about hardware here. They have consistent failures in shipping hardware.
That's not what taligent is talking about.
Apple ships tens of millions of devices in a quarter.
Google's never had a hardware hit, not even close.
That said though, they are starting to do what matters most, build great products... and that is what is the start to market acceptance. Guaranteed success? No... but certainly looking like they are figuring it out.
The iPad costs about 1/3 the price, and it does more and is better made.
Comparing this to the MBA is like comparing a feature phone to a netbook.