WEBVTT

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yep that's me i bet you're wondering how i

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ended up in this situation well let's just say the world is a tough

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place for a tablet trying to be a laptop i'd explain why but i think the better

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person to tell that story is the guy that just threw me away

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well at least i landed on something soft

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believe it or not this is only the third chrome os powered pixel device that

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google has released like i know right

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so first we had the chromebook pixel way back in 2013. it looked very similar to

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a macbook and it was positioned as a high-end option for google's chrome os

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which until then was a fixture on 150

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laptops and not much else it was supposed to

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lead the way forward clearing a path for

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chromebooks to become a real alternative to Windows pcs and macs

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but while chrome os did continue to develop

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that vision never really came to fruition and we wouldn't see chrome os

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on another pixel device until a whopping four years later with 2017's pixel book

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now our verdict on that device was about

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the same as the original chromebook pixel pretty good hardware

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bad software and too expensive

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not to be deterred by its past failures though google has now added the pixel

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slate to the lineup seemingly thinking that maybe chrome os with its ability to

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natively run Android apps would work better as a tablet that could also be

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used as a laptop than as a laptop that can run tablet apps

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and well actually they are partially correct

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as a tablet the pixel slate is

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surprisingly pretty great the 3000 by 2000 resolution lcd display is bright

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and decently color accurate it's thin it's light and the dual front-facing

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speakers are simply put

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incredible like there's way more lows

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and mids than you'd expect to hear from a mobile device seriously these speakers

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are sick and it's got some other features that

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are notably absent from the ipad pro that really hurt apple's case for the

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ipad pro as a laptop replacement one the

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pixel slate has mouse support kind of a big deal apple

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two usb type-c ports

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that is to say it has two usb type-c

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ports not the usb type-c ports are point number two

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well i mean it is that too anyway anyway both of them can be used for charging

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which opens up the accessory possibilities a fair bit three it has

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support for external storage external storage like come on let's get

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a round of applause here yeah yeah yeah

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and four you can set the screen at more than two angles

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nice but comparing devices based on their specs and features won't get us

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the whole story here so we need to dive a little bit deeper starting with

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pricing some of the loadouts of the pixel slate look pretty decent until you

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look closely here and realize that are paying a thousand us dollars for a

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device with a mere 128 gigs of storage that's kind of rough

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with that said at least the i o is decent and the 48 watt hour battery had

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no problem lasting all day with pretty heavy use making the real question here

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would i want to use this thing all day

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if the answer were going to be yes i would start by attaching the

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pixel slate keyboard and then drowning my regret in its sort

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of rubbery felt material like

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i don't know how to put this other than that this thing is just plain

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not good enough for the price

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the palm rest for the keyboard is plastic and it attaches to the back of

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the slate with magnets but the magnets slip when you're trying to maneuver the

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thing making it feel just like kind of

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cheap in the hand as you're as you're carrying it around like it moves around

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and even though once you've got it set up the angle can be adjusted quite a bit

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with the magnets locking it in place across this whole range of motion

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the keyboard is just downer it's mushy with no real

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tactile feel the round kind of weird feeling keycaps wiggle without actually

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activating and the hinge well

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it's less of a hinge so much as it's like kind of a flap of material making

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it a hassle to use the pixel slate when it's in your lap now the trackpad is

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better it feels nice and smooth and the multi-touch gestures work well

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but unfortunately it almost single-handedly defeats what was left of

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the pixel slate's lap usability as

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slightly flexing the keyboard

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will click the trackpad discovering which was probably the single most wtf

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moment during the creation of this review for those of you who are wondering

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making this whole situation even more confusing is the fact that the google

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store lists the bridge g-type wireless keyboard which is more of a traditional

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plastic laptop keyboard on the google store for 40 less than the slate

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keyboard and reviews of the bridge keyboard almost unanimously recommend it

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over the slate keyboard but anyway anyway anyway it's a tablet right so

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let's change gears here and talk about touch input i'm like what

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about the available 100 pixel book pen

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yeah it's it's mostly cool it's powered by a

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single quadruple a battery and

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using it right after reviewing the ipad pro with the apple pencil

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did not do this any favors it has a slightly larger diameter so it felt kind

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of you know novelty sized in the hand and

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google says that the pen has

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virtually no leg but um

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i don't know i must just have like super amazing eyes because i can pretty

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clearly see the uh stroke trailing

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behind the pen tip here and you guys probably can too like it is not

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like the apple pencils i mean some of this probably feels like

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nitpicking but to the kinds of people who use styluses

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styli stylized style styluses

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it's actually really important that it

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feels natural now remember i said that the apple

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pencil experience was the most compelling reason to consider the ipad

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pro as a laptop replacement so

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the thing is is that given that this is a similarly priced solution

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why settle then for anything but the best stylist experience

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another issue is that there is no way to attach the pen to the tablet like

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you can uh put it in this little groove

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but but i mean

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calling that a stylus resting point is kind of like saying

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that this car has ten cup holders in it

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in my opinion they should have just used that space to

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allow the keyboard to snap up at an angle on the screen like the surface

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keyboard so that's the hardware all wrapped up how about the software

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how about the software ah yes chrome os

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it has certainly made progress over the years we're at the point now where with

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the combined power of chrome extensions and Android apps you can actually do a

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ton of desktop type stuff including file management connecting external displays

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and of course using the full desktop version of the chrome browser

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in fairness to google it is definitely

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more of a desktop operating system than iOS is the question though

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is is it just as much of a full desktop os as

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Windows or macOS and the answer is

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no no no what kind of stupid question is that of

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course not Android apps sometimes adjust well to being used in a desktop

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environment but at other times they act exactly like they do on your phone which

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can be pretty disappointing like it just doesn't seem right that i had an easier

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time using microsoft word on an ipad

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than i did on chrome os i just use google docs hey

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who said that i'll use whatever word processor i want

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now to be fair google doesn't seem to be

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making the same replace your computer argument that apple is with the ipad pro

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opting for more of a work and play message but my question in response to

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that is who exactly

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is working and playing with this the technology is cool and i understand

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that the engineers that are behind products like this are trying new and

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cool things and that's important like they might be thinking well

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we have Android tablets or iOS tablets for that matter and we also have laptops

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wouldn't it be cool to combine these things to blur the lines and the answer

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is yes it is cool when it works well but when it doesn't

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well the customer is just going to find themselves mad that they're a beta

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tester for a concept device that they paid

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just as much for as they would have paid for something that is frankly more

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polished maybe the problem here is that i'm just

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jaded i mean when you review as many tech products as i do it becomes easy to

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see the flaws and after using device after device

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after device oftentimes at the end of the day i just want something that just

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works well and does what i expect it to

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in an emergency if i've gotta throw together a couple video clips

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having some options for video editing programs i mean the thing's available

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with up to a core i7 like i should be able to do real work on it if it comes

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to that and it falls flat and maybe that

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attitude sometimes prevents me from recognizing the fact that

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the things i hold in my hand

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on your screen are the results of

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weeks months and even years of work by talented

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engineers and designers like they're out there trying to create something that

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could be the future of computing

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i just feel like right now for my money i'm better off

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with the present of computing rather than a promise of what's to come

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the ipad pro that has its own niche

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but like how about this for a general purpose two

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in one a reasonable price sturdy build quality a headphone jack

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maybe a desktop os a really good pen um

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maybe if we had something like oh right the surface pro we have that

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and yeah the surface pro isn't perfect either

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but what it is is a heck of a lot better than this

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so uh maybe in another four years google

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so that's what happened i guess this is my home now

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oh wait maybe he's coming back for me he's got hope that the issues can be

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fixed with updates no he's grabbing his water bottle

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so thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do but if

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it was awesome get subscribed hit that like button or check out the link to

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where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description also down there

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is our merch store which has cool shirts like the one i'm wearing and our community forum which you should totally

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join the fact that it like slips off like that so easily

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it's just freaking annoying like this

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this flappy doodle here is just not good enough