Google has just unveiled an absolutely mystifying new product apparently created by insane millionaires, for even crazier millionaires: the Pixel, a $1,300 Chromebook with a Retina-like display. Although it’s attractive and well specced, it might be the most inexplicable product announced this year.
For a Chromebook, the Pixel has some impressive specs: it boasts a 2,560 x 1700, 12.85-inch display with a 239ppi pixel resolution. Inside, is a dual-core Intel Core i5 chipset clocked at 1.8GHz with 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and 32GB of SSD storage. And it’s attractively designed.
Here’s a video of it in action:
https://youtu.be/j-XTpdDDXiU
It’s a well-made video, evocative of Apple’s recent styles. And the Pixel itself does look beautifully designed and minimalistic.
But as the whole frickin’ world is basically screaming on Twitter, who the hell is this for? It only runs ChromeOS, which basically means this computer can run web apps and only web apps. You can’t install or even store locally anything on it.
There’s a lot to scratch you head over about the announcement, but here’s the biggest one: for $499 plus the price of a keyboard, you can buy yourself a 32GB iPad with a Retina Display and LTE support. Or for $1500, you can buy yourself a MacBook Pro with Retina Display.
Who exactly does Google think is going to buy the Pixel at $1,299? It’s not just a stripped down Retina MBP clone that you can’t install anything on; it’s inferior to an iPad that sells for $700 less.
Has Google gone nuts? Unless you absolutely lose your mind any time you see a thin strip of rainbow LEDs light up, there’s just no reason to buy this.
Source: Google
