News - The £1,049 Pixel: Google’s new Chromebook is unveiled

[TheAnimus]

Also who the hell would use google drive for 1TB!?

SkyDrive is cheaper!

[pp05]

True, but when you 3 years are up then what? 1TB GDrive is $60/month, or you lose the cloud storage and the chromebook becomes pretty much useless. If you want to keep the data you can download it all (you can right?), but up to a 1TB of stuff in such a short time period? Not going to happen quickly.

You can't resell it easily, as the person buying would need to pay monthly for a new google drive account.

The lifespan for the average consumer is fixed, and that alone puts me off buying. The fact that it is also more expensive than a Macbook Air is also a pretty big deal breaker.

Google Drive offer a basic 5GB account that anyone can have for free.

It has USB ports so one can backup important files locally on an external hard disk.

The only thing stopping this kind of product is that we're reliant on wireless networks that simply don't provide the bandwidth to fill 1TB in that time. I suspect the 1TB is to make people stop sweating if they will run out of storage.

[pp05]

Also who the hell would use google drive for 1TB!?

SkyDrive is cheaper!

Which is why MS are potentially in driving seat if they get this right.

[rabbid]

ok but so we really need that kindof resolution on only a 12" screen?
its more like a moderate ultrabook with a fancy touchscreen?
kinda nice but seems a rather a gap between actual product and price point...

[watercooled]

There's a limit to how many PPI the human eye can see from a given distance, beyond that you're pointlessly increasing a number for marketing and making everything far harder to run. It's debatable where that limit is, of course, but does the difference from say a 1440x960 screen really warrant the cost difference? And of course, screen quality is about far more than how many pixels you can cram in a given area...

[Phaz0r18]

I don't understand why anyone would actually buy this at this price level ?

I though Chromebooks were invented to be in-expensive's laptops, at that price you could just about get an Alienware...

[Noli]

Like everyone else, it's a bit of a mish mash of specs. But... but.... what an awesome *aspect ratio*.

I have dreamed for a while of how someone might bring out a 4:3 laptop again that, you know, you could actually be productive on (and no, 2 windows side-by-side on 1080p is not *that* good).

Still, 2560x1700 is overkill for 12.5 inches. As others have thought, can you upgrade the (presumably) msata drive? Can you dual boot to windows easily?

The great thing is that at least there is competition and innovation occurring. It's not quite right for many but I can't wait to see variants (whether google or other OEMs) that make much more sense for myself and others.

[mikerr]

There's a limit to how many PPI the human eye can see from a given distance, beyond that you're pointlessly increasing a number for marketing and making everything far harder to run.
It's debatable where that limit is, of course, but does the difference from say a 1440x960 screen really warrant the cost difference? And of course, screen quality is about far more than how many pixels you can cram in a given area...

IMO it's not solely about screen quality - more pixels means larger workspace in windows - especially vertical;
one of the reasons a netbook's 1024x600 resolution was so awful.

[watercooled]

But again, beyond a point, you don't get much for your extra resolution.

[aidanjt]

But again, beyond a point, you don't get much for your extra resolution.

Yeah, extra workspace isn't much use if you have to squint to see it.

[GazP172]

Chrome OS is a whole OS that boots into chrome - and you can install it direct on a USB drive:
http://www.squidoo.com/build-a-chromebook

Bit of a delayed response - I know Chrome is a whole OS but what does it offer that the Chrome browser doesn't in Windows?