a nearly perfect Chrome OS device



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Chromebooks are not supposed to be very expensive. This is a big reason why we love them! They are still pretty good and they are still cheap – think less than $ 500. But the Pixel Slate, which contains the latest version of Chrome OS, is an almost perfect case for a more expensive chromebook. This tablet, which turns into a laptop by adding a $ 160 to $ 200 accessory, starts at $ 600 and often works so well as a laptop or tablet that the price is almost always worth the price.

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The Google version of an iPad.

Price

Starts at $ 600 (valued at $ 1,000)

As

As

Pixel Slate is cheap and Chrome OS is a perfect tablet. 19659005] No Like

The glbad of the screen is slippery and the keyboard cases could be improved.

Which is not normally the case! Google has the bad habit of making devices running Chrome OS too expensive for what you get. The price of Chrome OS devices such as the Pixelbook (which was launched at $ 1,000) and the previous Pixel Chromebooks was particularly disproportionate. In the past, we liked Chrome OS devices because they are very good computers at very low prices. Spending more for a Chromebook, even fantastic, like the Pixelbook, makes no sense.

What changed with the Pixel Slate is Chrome OS itself. It's so good that it resists iOS well and, to a lesser extent, Windows. Slowly but surely, Chrome OS is becoming an operating system worthy of the expensive devices that Google makes for it, even though $ 1,000 still represents too much money for a Chromebook.

That's why I must note that the Pixel Slate unit that I have previously examined is the version of the $ 1,000 8th generation of i5000 with 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. At $ 1,000, I do not think the Pixel Slate is worth it. For most people, the $ 800 version with a m3 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD or the even cheaper version of $ 700 with an Intel Celeron processor, 8GB of RAM and an SSD of 64 Go, deserve to be considered.

Pixel Slate's competitors are not other Chrome OS devices like the Pixelbook or the very affordable Samsung Chromebook Plus v2, but tablets aspiring to notebooks like the iPad Pro and 2 tablets in 1 like the Microsoft Surface Pro, from 800 USD. and $ 900 respectively. Like these devices, the Pixel Slate is sold as a tablet, with a keyboard case available for extra charge. Like these devices, it's not so great to use it on your lap. (There is an optional $ 160 keyboard accessory that improves lap performance compared to the $ 200 official keyboard.) It simply uses Bluetooth instead of the Pixel Slate's magnetic keyboard connector.) Also, as with these devices, you must remember that the actual cost is $ 150. 200 dollars more if you want to hit that damn thing.

The keyboard protection takes up a lot of space on your desk or on your lap, thanks to its hinge of a ridiculous size. Look at all this excess of fabric!

The case uses this magnetic connector that fits perfectly.

So it's very confusing to find that the alternative keyboard cover, which is much better on your lap, uses Bluetooth instead. [19659019] 1/4

But here's what separates the Slate from the iPad Pro and Surface Pro: it really works like a tablet or a laptop. The other two do not! The iPad Pro is a perfect tablet, but its keyboard case and focus on touch input make it a miserable substitute for a laptop, and the Surface Pro is a very cool device like laptop, but Windows continues to be quite abominable when used in the touch mode only used by the tablet. The Pixel Slate, for its part, switches so easily from tablet mode to laptop mouse mode that you'll wonder how much time it took to get things done.

I used the camera for hours. both as a tablet. As soon as I returned the keyboard, the operating system went smoothly to touch mode with all my Android and Chrome OS apps available in one click. As soon as the keyboard was put back under my fingers, the Pixel Slate returned to portable mode, to return to the more traditional Chrome OS layout for the mouse and keyboard. And unlike Windows devices, the transition has never been missed. And I really tried to ruin everything!

But the Pixel Slate just switched easily between the two modes, and it was so successful that I found myself interacting differently with the Pixel Slate and using the touch mode even when the mouse was available . Generally, when I'm in Laptop mode on a device, my fingers rarely come off to touch the screen. They remain on the keyboard and on the trackpad. On the Pixel Slate, I did not think about it twice before quickly typing on the screen to open an application or swipe to access the application drawer or the notification panel. The simultaneous integration of keys and mouse seems natural thanks to the way Chrome OS keeps the icons broad and user-friendly, even in mouse mode: a tactile design should consider copying.

Which is pretty impressive when you consider just the glbad is literally slipping on the Pixel Slate. It has a 12.3-inch screen with a resolution of 3000 x 2000 pixels and a resolution of 293ppi, more pixels per inch than the latest iPad Pro (the 11-inch and 12.9-inch models have a resolution of 264ppi) or the 12.3-inch Surface Pro (267ppi). The screen is beautiful, but the glbad that Google chose to record is amazingly slippery, the keyboard case slipping against it when it's closed and my fingers and the Pixelbook pen at $ 100 sliding on it a bit too quickly. The Surface and the iPad both opt for a slightly more textured glbad, so your pen or finger does not feel like it's skating.

It is powered via USB-C, much like the iPad Pro slightly thinner. .
Photo: Alex Cranz (Gizmodo)

In terms of performance, the pixel screen is doing well. More processor-intensive software than you can find on Surface Pro is not available – nor is the full version of Photoshop that we use to test the speed of storage on a laptop. But it's good because these applications are not available on the iPad Pro either. What is available, is WebXPRT 2015, a synthetic reference that runs the device through a series of tasks commonly performed in web browsers, such as resizing images and working on the Web. spreadsheet. It scored 485 points, which corresponds to other devices equipped with Intel chips of 8th generation, a little higher than the 453 Pixelbook, and much further than the iPad Pro 381. We have not yet tested the Current Surface Pro and we will update it when we do it.

Anecdotally, the Pixel Slate was more than fast. It can run multiple tabs and stream a video on my TV without ever really slowing down. Like a good tablet, it works simply. The battery life is solid too. The Slate Pixel that we tested lasted 10 hours and 48 minutes for broadcasting a YouTube video at a set brightness of 200 nits. This remains inferior to the iPad Pro, which has lasted exceptionally 12 hours and 37 minutes, but it's way better than the Pixelbook (8:53) or our previous favorite Chrome OS device, the Samsung Chromebook Plus v2 (7: 42). [19659028] Seriously, the keyboard takes up a lot of space on your desktop.

Photo: Alex Cranz (Gizmodo)

So, would I recommend it with an iPad Pro? For many people yes! Especially if you plan to buy the iPad Pro, which starts at $ 800 for an 11-inch model and $ 1,000 for a 12.9-inch device. The Pixel Slate starts at $ 600 and goes much more easily between laptop and tablet modes. It's an inexpensive tablet that doubles up nicely with a powerful device – though I suggest you spend at least $ 100 more to go from 4GB RAM to 8GB. The Pixel Slate does the job well. a tablet that Apple should take note of. And if you are a Surface Pro sidekick who does not owe Windows, then Slate is also worth it.

For people who just want a good Chrome OS device and want to spend a little more than the $ 500 needed for the Samsung Chromebook Plus … things are a bit more complicated. Pixel Slate may be great, but it's still a tablet! This makes no sense for notebook enthusiasts, especially as the price of last year's Pixelbook dropped for only $ 700. The battery life is not as good, but the Pixelbook is certainly a top quality device for working on a laptop, and much cheaper, considering the cost of the keyboard case for the Pixel Slate. But the Pixel Slate was not designed to be a laptop. It was designed to be a 2 in 1 that works best as a tablet and, in this respect, it does its job very well. If you want a tablet and you do not want to take care of Apple, then that's it – the Pixel Slate is for you.

But the cheaper Bluetooth case is quite nice.
Photo: Alex Cranz (Gizmodo) 19659034] README
  • Battery life and battery performance are good.
  • But the changes to Chrome OS and the smooth transition from tablet mode to laptop mode are much more enjoyable.
  • one is not good for tour and the other requires a Bluetooth connection.
  • Starting at $ 600, the Pixel Slate is a bargain compared to the iPad Pro.
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