Getting my Pixel Book Tomorrow

[ChuckG73]

The last Chromebook I owned was the OG Chromebook Pixel. I loved that thing, battery life starting going so got rid of it and have missed having a Chromebook.

Get EXCITED

 

[B. Diddy]

You are gonna love love love it!

I gave my OG Pixel to my parents, which was a welcome upgrade from the old HP Chromebook 14 I had given them a while ago. They leave it in the kitchen plugged in, so battery life isn't an issue.

 

[pkcable]

I've often thought about getting a Pixelbook. Good luck with it Chuck!

 

[dc52ltr]

Got mine Wednesday ...it`s my 1st foray into Chrome/Pixelbook. This machine is just gorgeous and so bloody fast too. I`m finding it pretty straightforward to use Chrome/Android mix,taking a little getting used to but this Pixelbook is such a pleasure to use,I totally love it

 

[ottscay]

I'm 2 weeks into owning my Pixelbook, it's a fantastic device, easily the best laptop I've ever owned.

 

[Mike Dee]

Got mine Wednesday ...it`s my 1st foray into Chrome/Pixelbook. This machine is just gorgeous and so bloody fast too. I`m finding it pretty straightforward to use Chrome/Android mix,taking a little getting used to but this Pixelbook is such a pleasure to use,I totally love it

Got mine Wednesday also.. . Love it so far.

 

[dmxjago]

I've had mine since Nov. 4th and absolutely love it. I use it everyday and coming from a surface pro 3 I don't regret switching not even one bit.

 

[Mike Dee]

I've had mine since Nov. 4th and absolutely love it. I use it everyday and coming from a surface pro 3 I don't regret switching not even one bit.

I just love that you turn it on and in seconds you are up and running

 

[o4liberty]

Just picked one up tonight and I am pleasntly suprised how well this laptop operates !

 

[applejosh]

Joined the Pixelbook bandwagon today. I've been toying with the idea for a while now. Aging MBP (2011) that is not handling latest macOS very well (haven't even turned it on in weeks) plus recently acquired Pixel 2 and figured what the heck. Had an older Chromebook that I've been using in the evenings quite regularly and had a chance to play around with one at BestBuy a few weeks ago. Really a nice machine. I think it is a tad over-priced, but it really is great hardware. Might get a "pen" someday, but we'll see how well I get along without it.

 

[ChuckG73]

Nice AppleJosh. I love my pixel book and have the pen. I use it but not as much as I thought I would. Squirm is a great app if you want to use it to take notes, other than that I do not use it for much else

 

[Kizzy Catwoman]

Joined the Pixelbook bandwagon today. I've been toying with the idea for a while now. Aging MBP (2011) that is not handling latest macOS very well (haven't even turned it on in weeks) plus recently acquired Pixel 2 and figured what the heck. Had an older Chromebook that I've been using in the evenings quite regularly and had a chance to play around with one at BestBuy a few weeks ago. Really a nice machine. I think it is a tad over-priced, but it really is great hardware. Might get a "pen" someday, but we'll see how well I get along without it.

I got mine yesterday for nearly half the original price £549. It was on an offer for £750 and I traded in my own MBP (2011) for £200 against it. It was worth trading that laptop in as it hasn't been used in about a year.

I love the Pixelbook and it is so fast. The hardware is lovely and I find it simple and intuitive to use. Does everything I want it to do.

I am glad it was not full price, because I could not justify spending that much on a laptop again (my MBP was the most expensive laptop I have owned).

Happy happy owner.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Congrats Kirstein! I too recently bought one. Here in the 'States, Best Buy is selling them for $750. They have an additional 10% off for anyone with an .edu email account. Stacking some additional coupons, I was able to pick it up for $470 (out the door, tax included). I bought the Pixel Pen from walmart.com for $75.

I had already "kicked the tires" on a convertible chromebook (Acer R11) and determined that a 2-in-1 chromebook could replace my Macbook Air and iPad Pro. (I still have my iMac for heavy lifting of video encoding, etc.)

The Pixelbook is fantastic. I just need to continue to work through my various workflows to see what apps (Chrome OS and Android) are best to accomplish the tasks I previously performed on macOS and iOS. So far, the results have been surprisingly good.

 

[jsarino]

Joined the Pixelbook bandwagon today. I've been toying with the idea for a while now. Aging MBP (2011) that is not handling latest macOS very well (haven't even turned it on in weeks) plus recently acquired Pixel 2 and figured what the heck. Had an older Chromebook that I've been using in the evenings quite regularly and had a chance to play around with one at BestBuy a few weeks ago. Really a nice machine. I think it is a tad over-priced, but it really is great hardware. Might get a "pen" someday, but we'll see how well I get along without it.

Yeah, my aging MBP (also a 2011 that I maxed out spec-wise), after having its logic board replaced under warranty roughly two years ago, died again, this time due to the dedicated graphics card. I can turn it on, but all you see are a bunch of lines. Battery is also shot, only able to get 4 hours at a time if I don't have many tabs open. It is past warranty this time, and it just is too expensive to fix. So, if you saw the other thread, pulled the trigger on the highest spec Pixelbook model, and am salivating to start it up and get it through its paces.

For a number of you that have had it for the last few months, what are things you like about it? Any tips?

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Yeah, my aging MBP (also a 2011 that I maxed out spec-wise), after having its logic board replaced under warranty roughly two years ago, died again, this time due to the dedicated graphics card. I can turn it on, but all you see are a bunch of lines. Battery is also shot, only able to get 4 hours at a time if I don't have many tabs open. It is past warranty this time, and it just is too expensive to fix. So, if you saw the other thread, pulled the trigger on the highest spec Pixelbook model, and am salivating to start it up and get it through its paces.

For a number of you that have had it for the last few months, what are things you like about it? Any tips?

I like my chromebooks to look and feel like more traditional notebooks, these are my "must have" tweaks to accomplish that.... (note, there might be easier/better ways to accomplish this)

* Right-click on every icon in the app launcher and any one that has "open as window" I check that.

This will launch the app in a separate window with no browser controls visible. It's clean and uncluttered, maximizes the available screen space for the app, and looks and feels like a "native" app rather than a just another browser tab.

* install the "open-as-popup" browser extension. Even when all apps have been set to "open as window" any windows opened from that (like launching a Google sheet from within Google Drive) will launch in a browser tab. The "open-as-popup" moves that tab out to its own window.

The nice thing about these tweaks is that they carry over to using the Chrome browser on other platforms. So whether I'm on my Pixelbook, iMac, or Lenovo workstation, I can use Chrome apps in a similar way.

* Office apps... when I need to work with MS Office files with moderate to advanced formatting, I use the web version of MS Office. The Android version is extremely limited.

If you get the Pixel Pen, I recommend the Android notetaking app Squid (it was showcased during the Pixelbook announcement). Squid is free, but there are a few in-app purchases to add additional functionality. They offer a subscription model for it with even more features, but I find the few in-app features to be enough.

If you use Google Keep and will be using the Pixel Pen, I recommend installing the Android version of Keep (rather than the web version). The responsiveness of the Pen in the Android version is near perfect. With the web version, there's a bit of inconsistent performance.

The same is true for OneNote... for pen input, the Android version has the edge, but for keyboard input, the web version has more features.

The web version of iWork works great on the Pixelbook.

I recommend getting a USB-C mini hub. I picked one up that supports a few USB-A ports, HDMI, and SD cards.

Having spent years working with the Microsoft Surface and iPad (Pro and non-Pro) to get a mobile device that can be used as a tablet and notebook that can interact with cross-platform apps and data, I'm finding the Pixelbook to be the best solution so far.

ok, I've rambled enough, hope this gives you some ideas to explore.

 

[jsarino]

Willy, thanks for all the valuable info! I do have a Pixel Pen on the way, and I use Keep often, so I hope to use that combination much more. I will try out Squid and see what add-ons will benefit me.

Thanks as well on the must-have notebook kind of tweaks, and MS suggestions. I use a Lenovo ThinkPad for work, and use ALOT of Microsoft apps (Office, Teams, etc.) for what I do. When my MacBook Pro crapped out, I had to bring the ThinkPad home most evenings to do work, so I hope to avoid that when I get the Pixelbook up and running. I want to get it to a point that I can do just about everything on it, and some image editing on a pinch. It's a large reason why I went for the "baller" i7 version of the PB.

Edit: I did order a 5 in 1 USB-C hub (sigh, #donglelife ). That should alleviate my missing ports.