Google Pixelbook Go 13.3" Chromebook - Intel Core i7, 256GB SSD + 16GB RAM - Just Black

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Multimedia, Budget Multimedia, Gaming, Budget Gaming, Lightweight Gaming, Business, Budget Office, Workstation, Subnotebooks, Ultrabooks, Chromebooks The Pixelbook Go's scores were average for its category of high-end Chromebooks, which includes models like the Acer Chromebook 714 and Lenovo Yoga Chromebook C630 in addition to steeds from Google's own stable. Less-expensive Chromebooks perform far worse—around 200 on WebXPRT and around 100 on CrXPRT.

Emitting up to 421 nits, the Pixelbook offers tremendous brightness, which enables strong colors at up to 75 degrees to the left and right. That beats the 290-nit category average, the 284-nit Yoga 920, the 376-nit Samsung Chromebook Pro and the 292-nit Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA. The iPad Pro (555 nits) shines even brighter. We do appreciate the inclusion of Google Assistant via voice or the keyboard, but again, this isn’t unique compared with almost every other modern Chromebook. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (21.8 ms).The Pixelbook is a convertible 2-in-1, meaning you can flip the screen beyond the traditional clamshell design in most laptops. Google followed up with the Pixel Slate which is a detachable 2-in-1, another word for a tablet with an optional keyboard that combines to make a laptop. The Pixelbook Go, then, is just a traditional clamshell laptop. In this sense, Google covers all three laptop styles under the Pixel umbrella. There's no denying that the Pixelbook feels great to hold and use. The chassis itself sits with the best that Lenovo, HP, and Dell have to offer in the lightweight subnotebook convertible category while remaining firm and surprisingly unyielding. It would be quite the competitor in the mainstream Ultrabook space in the unlikely event that we see a Windows-based Pixelbook. But if money's no option, the Google Pixel is the best damn Chrome OS machine you'll find because it provides a level of usability, performance and style you won't find on any other Chromebook. Although there are some other feature highlights, notably a 1080p webcam (that’s something not even Apple’s high-end MacBook Pro laptops have) there’s not a huge amount else to get terribly excited by on the features front.

The average temperature for the upper side under maximal load is 31.3 °C / 88 F, compared to the average of 30.2 °C / 86 F for the devices in the class Convertible.As a writer, my favorite aspect is possibly the 235-ppi resolution on the 12.3-inch screen, as text in Google Docs and the iA Writer app looked crystal clear. 4K video isn't abundant at the moment, but details in a 4K nature video I streamed on YouTube were wonderfully clear, allowing me to see every scale and bead of water of a luxuriating snake. However, both Google's video player and the VLC video app need a little more tweaking to support 4K video. Add “Go”, “Lite” or “LE” to a product’s name and the immediate assumption would be that it’s had its function or appearance curtailed in some way. That’s why I was surprised that Google chose to go with the Pixelbook Go as the name for its latest flagship Chromebook. Now, let’s discuss what you’ll spend your entire time staring at: the display. Short of the highest-end configuration, the Pixelbook Go utilizes a 1080p touchscreen, which we find to display colors with the vibrancy and accuracy we expect from laptops within the high-end price range. However, we do wish that Chrome OS could render at native resolution without scaling – the most legible scaling produces an effective 1,600 x 900 resolution, cheapening the impact of its 1080p standing somewhat. Surface temperature is largely symmetric down the center of the notebook. The gradient is very similar to a classic point source since there are no fans expelling and drawing away waste heat. As shown by our temperature maps below, the hot spots are towards the rear of the notebook directly above the first row of keyboard keys where users are less likely to touch when typing. It will, however, make tablet mode warm on the hand if handling in landscape mode. There’s no Chromebook quite like Google Pixelbook. Its horsepower and versatility overshadow most of the competitors in its class like the Chromebook Pixel, and make it among the best Chromebooks and the best 2-in-1 laptops out there.

The 128 GB SSD in the base configuration is very slow according to AndroBench. Its sequential write rate of about 120 MB/s is only a fraction of the speed of the UFS 2.1 SSDs in the Galaxy Note 8 and Huawei Mate Pro 10 smartphones. The slow performance is likely an attempt to bolster the upcoming 512 GB SKU that is explicitly advertised as a NVMe SSD. As noted earlier, AndroBench is not designed to run in a virtualized Android environment and the results may not accurately reflect the Pixelbook.Despite this solid build quality, the Pixelbook Go is featherlight. It weighs 2.3 pounds and measures 0.5 by 8.1 by 12.2 inches (HWD), extremely competitive dimensions for an ultraportable with a 13.3-inch display. Compare them with those of the MacBook Air (0.6 by 8.4 by 12 inches, 2.75 pounds) and the Pixelbook (0.4 by 11.4 by 8.7 inches, 2.46 pounds). In general, Google Assistant is just as helpful as it is on smartphones and executes in the exact same way, with an OS-level chat record as well as a voice response. Also, for its price, the Pixelbook Go's Geekbench 4 numbers aren't that much worse than the latest MacBook Air, at least with the configurations we’ve tested. That’s quite an impressive feat for a Chromebook – and, ironically, quite a feat for the MacBook Air. The Pixelbook Go not only sports a keyboard with comfortably spaced keys, but also top-firing speakers. Sure, they’re a bit small and, as a result, somewhat tinny in the high-end, but these speakers beat the vast majority of laptops of this size, normally found with bottom-firing speakers.