So I got a Pixelbook Go…
Did I return it? Read on to find out.
I’ve been pretty curious about chromebooks for awhile now. When they first started cropping up, their use-case was pretty evident. Cheap, faux laptops aimed at the education sector for students. Recently though, more and more of these machines have been getting the premium treatment from manufacturers like Samsung, Lenovo, and HP. I decided to dip my toe in the water with the Google Pixelbook Go.
I’ll be honest from the get go: I wasn’t expecting much from this machine. I already have an iPad Pro, a dedicated (if not bulky) gaming laptop, and a desktop. I wanted to try this as an alternative—when traveling—on which I could play Stadia games (it currently isn’t available to play on iOS devices), and a place to work on my writing, that would be easy to pick up and go anywhere in my home. The model I opted for was the low tier m3 processor, with a 1080p screen, and (a very measly) 64gb of storage, with 8 gigs of ram. You can opt for a version with a 4k screen, and 256gb of storage, but at that point you are spending well over $1,000.
Look and feel
Upon opening this thing, I think the first thing that struck me was how minimalist it looked. No huge branding, just a subtle Google ‘G’ on a corner of the lid, and a matte black finish. Next, actually picking the device up was a bit disorienting. Being used to my iPad pro with magic keyboard, this thing felt like a feather in comparison (the magic keyboard definitely adds some heft to the iPad pro). There are some ridges on the bottom, designed to keep the device from slipping around on certain surfaces.
Hardware
The screen is a 1080p screen as previously mentioned, and it looks great. It’s also a touchscreen, which is a bit odd given that this isn’t a 2 in 1 that flips, but I’m not going to complain about it. The front facing camera is top center...and get this… it’s a 1080p camera! I mean I’ve never really paid attention to webcams on laptops, but in a world where coronavirus has made online meetings a must for many, this is a welcome addition. If not, at least an added plus for video chatting with friends and family. For reference, Apple’s latest Macbook Pro’s come with a 720p front facing camera that is decent at best.
And finally, the keyboard. Unquestionably my favorite part of the hardware on this machine. It is a joy to type on. I wrote this whole piece on it, and honestly, I may continue to write everything for this site on it. It is back-lit, the key travel is satisfying, and it is a bit quieter than the iPad Pro’s magic keyboard. It’s honestly better than the magic keyboard, and arguably the best keyboard I’ve ever typed on.
Use-case
Well now that we have that out of the way, my use case for this thing: I think most who know me, know that I am an avid supporter of Stadia (Google’s cloud gaming platform), and honestly, cloud gaming in general. Much to my dismay, Stadia isn’t available on iOS. There is an app, but the most you can do on it is purchase games, and select which Chromecast device you want to play them on. I have a pixel 3, but the tiny screen is only good for gaming in a crunch, and not ideal. The iPad Pro has an option to view desktop websites in chrome, but that is hit or miss, and flat out doesn’t work with Stadia, most likely because the framework under all browsers in iOS is based on safari.
I had done some asking around, and some research, and didn’t find many people using a pixelbook go with stadia. Most of the ones who did, were using the i5 version or higher, not the low end model I opted for. Well rejoice cheapskates! Stadia works great on the low end Pixelbook, though to be fair, with cloud gaming, I would be surprised if it didn’t. All the heavy lifting comes from Stadia’s servers. The big factor in determining a good experience with Stadia is your internet connection. The last speed test I ran on the nest WiFi:
Seems fast enough =)
So realistically, there should not have been any issue with it. Yet I still found a few posts on reddit complaining of issues with higher spec versions of this machine, so I was actually relieved to not have that happen here.
I tried getting this to work with my day job workflow. That consists of using Citrix workspace to remote into my work desktop. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get it to work even though I have been able to on my Pixel, iPhone, and iPad. I’m sure there is a workaround, but I was honestly not too worried to explore it further. There are android apps that I can download, but truthfully, I prefer web apps—blasphemous! I know!
Conclusions
I am going to be honest here. This machine frustrates me. Not because there is any particular weakness, it’s not perfect by any means. 64 Gigs of storage for the base, is just inexcusable on phones, more so on a Chromebook. Not having a full OS, takes some getting used to, and apps from the google play store have a way to go on chrome OS. But in all honesty, I was not expecting to like this machine anywhere near as much as I have. I love writing on it. I can modify my website with the desktop version of chrome. I can play legit games on it with Stadia. I can watch my favorite shows. The battery lasts for a full workday and then some. There are more pros for this machine than there are cons—for me—and that’s the key piece. Your individual needs in a laptop will determine how this can fit into your list of devices. If you are a person who relies on heavy processing, intensive graphics, or video editing, this probably isn’t for you (unless you are willing to remote into another, more powerful computer to do so). But for the average Joe or Jane, who just spends time surfing the web, reading, writing, and maybe playing some Stadia, this Chromebook is pretty sweet. I’m totally keeping this thing.