Every surface feels sturdy from every angle. Which is a shame, because build quality is excellent. The lack of obvious branding and featureless surfaces may be a boon to some, but they keep the system from looking as expensive as it should. All of this cumulates in a design that works, but has a whiff of engineering prototype. The boxy and flat display lid, featureless interior, and full-width hinge are elements reminiscent of older PCs instead of today’s latest and greatest. The Pixel looks like a modern incarnation of a laptop built in 2006. This excellent equipment helps justify the Pixel’s starting price of $1,299, but is Chrome OS ready to support a premium laptop? Runway competition The Pixel comes equipped with a 2560 x 1700 panel, the highest-resolution display on any laptop today (Retina is 2560 x 1600). All of the expected specifications are here: Core i5 processor, Intel integrated graphics, 4GB of RAM, solid-state drive – but the display is the start of the show. So, can Google do quality? The answer looks positive on paper.

It puts a banner in the ground and shouts “Google can do quality, too. Pixel, however, doesn’t rely on that excuse. The entire Nexus line leans strongly on value to sell units. Until now, Google has been happy to promote hardware through cut-rate pricing. And then, out of nowhere, came the Pixel. The company which re-defined the word “beta” often offers services well in advance of their “official” release, and though hardware can’t follow this trend by its nature, the press is rarely blind-sided by a product.

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