yep that's me i bet you're wondering how i
ended up in this situation well let's just say the world is a tough
place for a tablet trying to be a laptop i'd explain why but i think the better
person to tell that story is the guy that just threw me away
well at least i landed on something soft
believe it or not this is only the third chrome os powered pixel device that
google has released like i know right
so first we had the chromebook pixel way back in 2013. it looked very similar to
a macbook and it was positioned as a high-end option for google's chrome os
which until then was a fixture on 150
laptops and not much else it was supposed to
lead the way forward clearing a path for
chromebooks to become a real alternative to Windows pcs and macs
but while chrome os did continue to develop
that vision never really came to fruition and we wouldn't see chrome os
on another pixel device until a whopping four years later with 2017's pixel book
now our verdict on that device was about
the same as the original chromebook pixel pretty good hardware
bad software and too expensive
not to be deterred by its past failures though google has now added the pixel
slate to the lineup seemingly thinking that maybe chrome os with its ability to
natively run Android apps would work better as a tablet that could also be
used as a laptop than as a laptop that can run tablet apps
and well actually they are partially correct
as a tablet the pixel slate is
surprisingly pretty great the 3000 by 2000 resolution lcd display is bright
and decently color accurate it's thin it's light and the dual front-facing
speakers are simply put
incredible like there's way more lows
and mids than you'd expect to hear from a mobile device seriously these speakers
are sick and it's got some other features that
are notably absent from the ipad pro that really hurt apple's case for the
ipad pro as a laptop replacement one the
pixel slate has mouse support kind of a big deal apple
two usb type-c ports
that is to say it has two usb type-c
ports not the usb type-c ports are point number two
well i mean it is that too anyway anyway both of them can be used for charging
which opens up the accessory possibilities a fair bit three it has
support for external storage external storage like come on let's get
a round of applause here yeah yeah yeah
and four you can set the screen at more than two angles
nice but comparing devices based on their specs and features won't get us
the whole story here so we need to dive a little bit deeper starting with
pricing some of the loadouts of the pixel slate look pretty decent until you
look closely here and realize that are paying a thousand us dollars for a
device with a mere 128 gigs of storage that's kind of rough
with that said at least the i o is decent and the 48 watt hour battery had
no problem lasting all day with pretty heavy use making the real question here
would i want to use this thing all day
if the answer were going to be yes i would start by attaching the
pixel slate keyboard and then drowning my regret in its sort
of rubbery felt material like
i don't know how to put this other than that this thing is just plain
not good enough for the price
the palm rest for the keyboard is plastic and it attaches to the back of
the slate with magnets but the magnets slip when you're trying to maneuver the
thing making it feel just like kind of
cheap in the hand as you're as you're carrying it around like it moves around
and even though once you've got it set up the angle can be adjusted quite a bit
with the magnets locking it in place across this whole range of motion
the keyboard is just downer it's mushy with no real
tactile feel the round kind of weird feeling keycaps wiggle without actually
activating and the hinge well
it's less of a hinge so much as it's like kind of a flap of material making
it a hassle to use the pixel slate when it's in your lap now the trackpad is
better it feels nice and smooth and the multi-touch gestures work well
but unfortunately it almost single-handedly defeats what was left of
the pixel slate's lap usability as
slightly flexing the keyboard
will click the trackpad discovering which was probably the single most wtf
moment during the creation of this review for those of you who are wondering
making this whole situation even more confusing is the fact that the google
store lists the bridge g-type wireless keyboard which is more of a traditional
plastic laptop keyboard on the google store for 40 less than the slate
keyboard and reviews of the bridge keyboard almost unanimously recommend it
over the slate keyboard but anyway anyway anyway it's a tablet right so
let's change gears here and talk about touch input i'm like what
about the available 100 pixel book pen
yeah it's it's mostly cool it's powered by a
single quadruple a battery and
using it right after reviewing the ipad pro with the apple pencil
did not do this any favors it has a slightly larger diameter so it felt kind
of you know novelty sized in the hand and
google says that the pen has
virtually no leg but um
i don't know i must just have like super amazing eyes because i can pretty
clearly see the uh stroke trailing
behind the pen tip here and you guys probably can too like it is not
like the apple pencils i mean some of this probably feels like
nitpicking but to the kinds of people who use styluses
styli stylized style styluses
it's actually really important that it
feels natural now remember i said that the apple
pencil experience was the most compelling reason to consider the ipad
pro as a laptop replacement so
the thing is is that given that this is a similarly priced solution
why settle then for anything but the best stylist experience
another issue is that there is no way to attach the pen to the tablet like
you can uh put it in this little groove
but but i mean
calling that a stylus resting point is kind of like saying
that this car has ten cup holders in it
in my opinion they should have just used that space to
allow the keyboard to snap up at an angle on the screen like the surface
keyboard so that's the hardware all wrapped up how about the software
how about the software ah yes chrome os
it has certainly made progress over the years we're at the point now where with
the combined power of chrome extensions and Android apps you can actually do a
ton of desktop type stuff including file management connecting external displays
and of course using the full desktop version of the chrome browser
in fairness to google it is definitely
more of a desktop operating system than iOS is the question though
is is it just as much of a full desktop os as
Windows or macOS and the answer is
no no no what kind of stupid question is that of
course not Android apps sometimes adjust well to being used in a desktop
environment but at other times they act exactly like they do on your phone which
can be pretty disappointing like it just doesn't seem right that i had an easier
time using microsoft word on an ipad
than i did on chrome os i just use google docs hey
who said that i'll use whatever word processor i want
now to be fair google doesn't seem to be
making the same replace your computer argument that apple is with the ipad pro
opting for more of a work and play message but my question in response to
that is who exactly
is working and playing with this the technology is cool and i understand
that the engineers that are behind products like this are trying new and
cool things and that's important like they might be thinking well
we have Android tablets or iOS tablets for that matter and we also have laptops
wouldn't it be cool to combine these things to blur the lines and the answer
is yes it is cool when it works well but when it doesn't
well the customer is just going to find themselves mad that they're a beta
tester for a concept device that they paid
just as much for as they would have paid for something that is frankly more
polished maybe the problem here is that i'm just
jaded i mean when you review as many tech products as i do it becomes easy to
see the flaws and after using device after device
after device oftentimes at the end of the day i just want something that just
works well and does what i expect it to
in an emergency if i've gotta throw together a couple video clips
having some options for video editing programs i mean the thing's available
with up to a core i7 like i should be able to do real work on it if it comes
to that and it falls flat and maybe that
attitude sometimes prevents me from recognizing the fact that
the things i hold in my hand
on your screen are the results of
weeks months and even years of work by talented
engineers and designers like they're out there trying to create something that
could be the future of computing
i just feel like right now for my money i'm better off
with the present of computing rather than a promise of what's to come
the ipad pro that has its own niche
but like how about this for a general purpose two
in one a reasonable price sturdy build quality a headphone jack
maybe a desktop os a really good pen um
maybe if we had something like oh right the surface pro we have that
and yeah the surface pro isn't perfect either
but what it is is a heck of a lot better than this
so uh maybe in another four years google
so that's what happened i guess this is my home now
oh wait maybe he's coming back for me he's got hope that the issues can be
fixed with updates no he's grabbing his water bottle
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join the fact that it like slips off like that so easily
it's just freaking annoying like this
this flappy doodle here is just not good enough