New Chromebook

Google’s original Chromebook Pixel strode boldly toward a brighter, more Web-centric world—and left most of us behind, unfortunately. Google’s new Pixel still tries to lead the way, but with apps and services to help justify its updated, premium hardware.

Google launched two new Pixels—not the Pixel 2, but the “new Pixel”—on Wednesday, with a $999 base model and a $1,299 “Ludicrous Speed” (LS) version. You’d be hard pressed to tell the new Pixel from the original one; set side by side, the two clamshell notebooks look almost identical. Both go on sale today from the new online Google Store, together with a few accessories.

But the “new” Pixel improves on the older model in a few key ways. Google included two USB-C connectors, doing one better on the solo reversible USB connector that appears on the new Apple MacBook. And inside, thankfully, is a new fifth-generation Core i5 “Broadwell-U” chip, which will help extend the Pixel’s battery life from a woeful five hours to a whopping twelve.

As before, the Pixel is powered by a combination of Google’s Chrome OS and Google’s cloud services, which include Gmail, Google Drive, and the Chrome browser, as well as something new: a small collection of apps, which can run on top of the Chrome OS and add functionality the original Pixel lacked. Hardware aside, it’s these services that will make or break the new Pixel.