Gargoyle's Gear

My Opinion of the new Google Pixelbook….

To give you a bit of background about myself I am an IT professional, beginning in the early 1990’s for ICL as a field technician working on various PC based devices ranging from home PC’s to company servers. I supported and managed servers and large infrastructures for around 15 years before transitioning into IT Security, for the last 12 or so years I have worked mainly for financial and Telecom companies.

Through out my career I have had experience of supporting a wide range of computers but predominantly Windows based systems with Unix coming a close second, this mix is common in most of the world’s corporate infrastructures, more recently Apple Macs are making inroads into the every day work place where as previously they resided mainly in Graphic or Marketing businesses or departments due to their rich DTP and graphics software.

So when Google released the first Chromebooks in approx 2011 I treated them with scepticism, the new OS that essentially just runs a Chrome browser didn’t make any sense especially in terms of its usefulness when even at that time most modern phones were able to do the same and far more besides, but none the less I purchased one to try out, then at least that way my opinion would be based on real world experience and not just on reviews or what I had read. Most IT professionals are this way inclined, preferring to physically try new kit than rely on what they read or are told. After using the Chromebook for several weeks I concluded that it did in fact have it’s uses, coupled with the closed off eco system and server side processing it made sense for users that predominantly just require a device to be able to answer emails carry out light web browsing and the occasional document editing but with the bonus of a decent screen size, good battery life and the security of a compartmentalised OS which is immune to virus’s. The concept of running everything through a browser was a step too far for the more IT literate world to grasp and so the initial uptake was slow, it took the rest of the IT industry to adopt the cloud before it made sense to run everything in a browser, today it is so common place it is hard to imagine how we coped previously, similar to the pre mobile phone era.

After using the Chromebook for a few weeks and forming my opinion the device became my bed side browsing companion, although a tablet would probably provide more functionality and be easier I am a stead fast keyboard user having used them for nearly 30 years and so have built up considerable speed in navigating with short cuts and touch typing, the cheap and minimal Chromebook meets these requirements perfectly.

Having something like 6 laptops and 3 or 4 tablets around the house at any one time means I do not need to condense my usage to one type of device or one OS or one form factor and so I can use the most suitable device for whatever task I intend to undertake, also having worked for a major Teleco for a number of years affords me the luxury of having numerous mobile phones across all flavours of OS. Ever since the first Chromebook I have been keeping an eye on the platform watching it flourish with the numerous updates and more powerful devices being released whilst using other devices as my main machines, when the first generation Pixelbook was released I was eager to try the advancements that this super powerful (compared to the low powered Chromebooks) Chromebook would offer, having demoed it in a well known home electronics store I was totally dismayed, it provided exactly the same features and functionality as my low powered Chromebook but just operated faster. I couldn’t get my head around the idea of spending a thousand pounds on a device that offered no more than a device costing a few hundred pounds, yes it was faster and speed costs but it wasn’t that much faster until you started having more than about 15 tabs open in Chrome, then the Pixelbook showed an advantage, but in my opinion the advantage wasn’t a thousand pounds worth, if speed is that important to you then maybe it is.

A couple years later and the Pixelbook generation 2 (Or LS) was released containing even more powerful hardware but again offering no more features or functionality, this was getting silly, you don’t need an i5 or i7 to run a browser quickly, if anything the amount of Ram is the bigger factor. Another 2 years and enter the 2017 Pixelbook, yet more power (Seriously?) a smaller lighter form factor with better battery life, full stylus integration but with less ports than the previous incarnation. I have to say at this point that Google got the build quality and styling perfect, they along with the Microsoft Surface line of devices are now beating Apple at their own game, I don’t care what anyone says Apple are loosing the top spot in styling and build quality which was once the differentiator that was worth the extra cash. Now it isn’t.

In 2016 there were rumours that Google was planning to allow certain spec Chromebooks to run Android Apps, along with access to the Android Market Place, eureeka, a break through, now the added power could be fully utilised and more over the added features and functionality could make the Chromebooks a potential alternative to a Windows based laptop or Mac Book, or will it? Well at a high level yes it does but when you delve into the detail it’s not so clear, we have all been using Android and Apple tablets for many years both in the corporate and home environment so Android and IOS Apps have a good deployment coverage, they both also have App devs producing Apps purely for work related requirements so automatically this would allow the Chrome/Pixelbooks the ability to be adopted by the enterprise, sort of.

In parallel Google has been running Google Enterprise which is a version of Chrome that integrates into a corporate infrastructure allowing the devices to be managed in a similar way to WinTel devices, but, this is a subscription service for both the licenses and support which is primarily aimed at small business’s that do not need to have a full infrastructure with all the associated overheads. To make best use of it you have to fully sign up to the whole Google eco system.

Whilst having a browse around my local home electronics store looking for a new fridge freezer I came across a new Pixelbook on display, rather than look at anymore fridges I decided that undertaking a spot of research was more preferable, if you are not aware Chromebooks have a Powerwash function allowing you to quickly and fully reset the device to it’s factory fresh state, happy that I wouldn’t be leaving behind any personal data I signed into the device with my Gmail account. If you are not confident that you understand what this means then do not sign in to any unknown device with a personal account. Once signed in the Chrome OS started to download all the Android Apps associated with my account, quickly I was able to use the Apps and see how they fared running on Chrome OS, remember this is not Android so most of the Apps at this time are not optimised for this OS, they will either run in a vertical letterbox size screen as on a phone, some can be expanded to full screen but due to the default resolution they are stretched out, and some can be sized to any size, these have been somewhat optimised for the Chromebook screen size. I was shocked at the speed at which they opened and the crispness of the UI, remember that I come from a back ground of being able to use the most powerful hardware available, so when something surprises me which is a rarity it is a pleasant experience. I was smitten with this little machine that quite frankly would be able to hold it’s own up against the best that Intel has to offer running Windows, I arrived home made a brew and contemplated that there maybe a bona fide contender as an alternative to the run of the mill laptop. For a few days I did some research on forums and read a few reviews of the device, it quickly became apparent that this move by Google could be a milestone event. Anyway after thinking about it for a few days I decided to take the plunge and purchase one. It was still a hard decision to drop a thousand pounds on a device that wasn’t fully rounded and new to the market.

First Weeks

I spent the first week using the Pixelbook as I would any other laptop, this would be personal browsing, online shopping, emails and some light documentation but nothing too taxing that any competent laptop would not be able to handle. What did surprise me was that I started to use the Apps that I have installed on my phone more and more on the Pixelbook, the ease of using a full size screen and keyboard but with the speed of an Android App became my defacto way. Now I am well aware that a tablet with a keyboard case would be exactly the same (such as Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S3) but for some reason it isn’t the same and I find myself at a loss as to why this is, I have about 4 android tablets dating back several years some with keyboard cases (Sony Xperia Z2, Samsung Tab S3 for example) and yet they are different, one difference is the lack of a track-pad, most expect you to use the touch screen for mouse navigation and that is perfectly acceptable. I am sure that the difference is due to me and not the device but none the less there is a difference, I prefer to use the Pixelbook with an Android App than use an Android tablet with a keyboard and an Android App, odd but true.

One of the first hurdles for me was the lack of ports on the device, containing only two USB -C ports, I extensively use USB drives to transfer files rather than using a cloud or sync service, on occasions I use a wired Ethernet connection (for example administrating my home NAS box), I also use SD cards to transfer pictures from a Panasonic GH4 and several DJI drones (I am a CAA certified drone pilot), I also make use of HDMI to mirror screens to TV’s and larger monitors. All these ports generally come as standard on most laptops or Ultra-books, now I am not saying that these are the best ways to transfer data and carry out tasks but these are the ways that I do things and so these are the ports that I make use of, it is also the way that my other devices are geared up for, I don’t disagree that USB-C is the way forward and it is a great port but until all the ancillary devices adopt this port then only having one type of port on a laptop is a hurdle, for around £50 pounds at the time of writing you can purchase a single dongle that has all these ports and more all in a small form factor, it also allows for pass through charging. Yes it does mean that you will be carrying another dongle but to be honest this is not a problem, how often do you really make use of the ports on a laptop even in a business environment, which then validates Google and Apples reason to omit them but there will be occasions when you will really will need them, the problem is more to do with remembering to carry it with you all the time in case you do need to use a port. If it was my decision I would have included at a minimum an SD Card reader and a HDMI port, and maybe one USB standard port but due to the slim case I suspect a standard USB port would not fit. Its too early in the USB -C adoption to force a change by omitting these standard ports on a laptop, I know Apple have gone one step further by only having one USB -C port on their Mac Book Air but then Apple have always been arrogant and forced a change and some times not for the greater good.

The Pixelbook in my opinion has a somewhat Jekyll & Hyde personality, in the way that you can install both the Android App version and the Web App version of the same App, in a recent update Google has placed a tiny marker in the icon of the Web App version so that you can identify which is which, this is a welcome update as before you would not know which version you were about to open. At present this is an un-cohesive situation, some Android Apps have greater functionality than their Web App counter part and some Web Apps have greater functionality than the Android App, some Android Apps have the ability to work off line and save data locally, some Web Apps also have this functionality but there are far less of them in comparison that have been optimised to do this.

I have also used the Pixelbook for work, I have two options open to me, I can either remote in to the company using our remote access solution which utilises Citrix or due to the fact that we have migrated some users to Office 365 I can use the native Android Apps and Microsoft’s cloud anywhere connectivity. It depends what I am doing as to which solution I use but both of them work faultlessly but each has its limitations. Using the Microsoft Office 365 Apps allow almost full functionality which is enough for most people, yes there are ommissions from the full blown desktop version but I beleive most users will not notice that these are missing. Using the Citrix Receiver gives access to the full suite of desktop software with full functionality giving the greatest productivity. Also with the Citrix remote session users also have full access to all resources within the company infrastructure such as Sharepoint and the corporate intranet. So far in the first week I have covered most of the tasks that I use a laptop for, I have been able to do most things without any research and on the whole it has been a good experience. The issues that I have encountered so far are – Bluetooth has issues with connecting to periferals, most of the time it is unable connect or constantly dropping the connection, periodic crashing of Apps, the Pen latency is terrible in most Apps other than Squid. In summary on the whole it has been ok, is it better than Windows, in some ways yes and in other ways no, I am not one to sit on the fence but in this case it is a balanced outcome, many of the Apps are familiar and are indentical to the full desktop version offering nearly the same features, and I suspect in time this will only get better. If and when Google releases their new OS (currently called Fuschia) which as far as I have seen is the convergence between Chrome OS and Android then Chromebooks / Fuschia books maybe an alternative to a mainstream laptop, this remains to be seen but I am quite confident that this will happen, the trouble is they will have then moved away from what was their original USP and become what could be just another player in the already competitive laptop / computer market. They will need to maintain a differentiator with the other manufacturers especially if they want to continue to be able to charge the kind of prices that they are currently charging.

Whilst using the Pixelbook as a main laptop I have experienced some issues with the Android Apps, I realise that it is early days in that most of them have no optimisation for the Chrome OS and also the new hardware, so it would be wrong to be too critical but I still think its worth mentioning, especially if you are intending to be an early adopter. I was editing a 5 page document using Google docs to edit a docx formatted document, all seemed to be going well when the App crashed leaving the document corrupt, even using the native Word app to try and open the file proved fruitless, in the end I had to recover the document to an earlier version which resulted in all the editing to be lost, not the end of the world but annoying none the less. Various Apps crashing has been noticed on several occasions resulting in differing levels of impact to the task being undertaken. The more I use the Pixelbook the more I notice small issues in all the different areas, none are show stoppers exactly but they become a frustration that can ruin the experience.

On the flip side this morning using Skype for business I was able to conduct a conf call with two other parties located in Hyderabad, it worked perfectly, the audio was clear and the ability to share a desktop worked well with little or no latency, this could be put down to the quality of the software but it still shows what the Pixelbook is capable of.

I purchased the Pixel book pen with the Pixelbook and thought I would see how it compared to what is the industry standard in Pen input namely the Surface Pen, I have been using Pen input since its general release in roughly 2004 with the HP PC tablets beginning with the TC1000 culminating with the current Surface Pro 4, the ability to take electronic notes on a laptop has been very useful especially in meetings and to jot down To Do’s etc although early adoption proved to be a test of ones patience. Microsoft have a very polished product and class leader in their Surface line of products now becoming the standard that other manufactures are trying to match, so I thought that with Google being late to the Pen input world they would have had plenty of time to perfect their offering, unfortunately this is not the case, the latency in general is very poor, almost distracting in most Apps, Google Keep is adequate and so is Squid but the others suffer from very poor latency and instability. So if you are expecting great things from the Pixelbook pen you maybe disappointed especially as it is priced at a premium level. General navigation using the Pen is good so it seems to me that it isn’t a hardware issue which means it should improve with software updates, hopefully.

One more annoyance, why is it that a manufacturer produces a product such as a laptop and then some time after its release they then release a case for it, why not get the case into production at the same time that you have the product in production and then release them at the same time, you could then offer it as a value add or as a bundle. Why would you think that someone is going to spend a thousand pounds on a product and not want to buy a case for it at the same time.

In general use the Pixelbook has been a capable machine, the short comings can usually be worked around, for example if you need to run a piece of Windows specific software that does not have an Android or Chrome OS alternative then running the software in a VM maybe the future, Crossover is a Chrome OS specific VM for running Windows software on Chrome OS, at the moment it is in Beta but if it does what it purports to then this could be the answer to all of its short comings in a single App. Any other limitations can usually be worked around using an alternative from either Android or the Chrome Web Store.