Okay, Google… What happened? - Google Pixel Slate
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
1,959 words · ~9 min read
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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