Thinking About the Next Pixelbook (Premium)

Google’s first PixelBook almost got me, but its smallish display and the immature state of Android integration with Chrome OS stood in the way. But with the heat of summer having crested, we’re now inundated with rumors for all kinds of products that will ship this fall. And among those are rumors of a second generation Pixelbook.

For those who are worried about a future in which even a long-time and die-hard Windows user and advocate such as myself will throw in the towel and switch to a rival platform, I have good news: I already know that the Pixelbook 2, as I’ll call it here, will not trigger this transition.

This is a personal thing: Like you, I have my own very specific requirements for any product or service. And the Pixelbook 2 just doesn’t make sense to me: It’s reportedly a 16:9 detachable PC, meaning that it will be lighter and thinner when used as a tablet than the current Pixelbook, which uses a convertible PC design.

Looked at more broadly—-and relying on 20 years of experience reviewing laptops and other hardware products—I will also note that that 16:9 aspect ratio is particularly terrible for a tablet. And that’s not my personal opinion, it’s a fact: For a tablet to look, feel, or work right in portrait mode, it needs a squarer aspect ratio, like 4:3 (iPad) or, even more ideally, 3:2 (Surface). Google didn’t just screw up that part of the design for me; it literally screwed up that part of the design, period. You know, assuming that the rumors are correct.

The Pixelbook 2, which is codenamed Atlas, aims to solve some problems for Google. Yes, the search giant arguably dominates personal computing today, thanks to Android. But where Android is indeed dominant in smartphones, it has been a lot less successful in tablets. So the new strategy is to adapt Chrome OS to run Android apps, and to make Chromebooks the new tablets. The Pixelbook, generally speaking, is Google’s Surface. And with Pixelbook 2, this is getting a lot more literal: Pixelbook 2 will be Google’s Surface Pro.

On the face of things, this is smart. After all, Surface Pro is, by far, the most popular Surface PC model, and its various incarnations have always topped the usage charts. Looking at the most recent AdDuplex data, literally from this past week, Surface Pro PCs (and Surface Pro form factor PCs like Surface 3) account for fully 88 percent of all Surface PCs in use today. And the top 4 Surface PCs in use are all Surface Pro models (and Surface 3).

But, again, this is where my personal needs and those of the broader market diverge. I understand that Surface Pro and Surface Pro-like PCs like the HP Envy x2, HP Spectre x2, HP Pro x2, Samsung Galaxy TabPro S, Eve V, Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet, and many others are popular with buyers. But I also know they are not for me: The displays, usually around 12-inches, are too small, and the form factor, while versatile, is not optimal for the way I work. I’m a writer, and I need an excellent keyboard mated to a bigger display. Preferably in the 14-inch range if possible.

That Google is so obviously targeting Surface Pro is understandable. The firm has a long history of undercutting—if not kneecapping—Microsoft at every turn. And Pixelbook plays a very similar role in the Chromebook market to Surface in the PC market: It is aspirational for customers, most of whom will really buy far less expensive alternatives. And it is inspirational for hardware makers, who will see these premium Chromebooks and try to duplicate their functionality at lower prices.

And we do see that in the Chromebook market. Last year’s Samsung Chromebook Pro and Plus were $500 to $600 devices that offered basically the same functionality as the Pixelbook. And this year’s HP Chromebook x2 is the first detachable Chromebook and will likewise undercut the pricing of the Pixelbook 2 by a wide margin.

But Google needs to look past a single form factor, like Microsoft eventually did with Surface. It needs to expand this lineup. And there is no reason that a future Pixelbook model with a larger 13-14-inch display and a non-detachable laptop form factor couldn’t meet my needs, at least on paper.

I write that somewhat selfishly, of course, and the data I cite above about the mix of Surface PCs out in the world is the perfect rebuttal to my idea. I know. But this really isn’t about me: There are important markets that need to be targeted by premium Chromebooks that are not tablets. And unlike in the PC market, no hardware maker has risen up to try and compete in the premium segment of the market. There are no $1000+ Chromebooks from Dell, HP, Lenovo, or others. Right now, this is all up to Google.

The other thing to consider here is that Pixelbook, like Surface, is designed to show what’s possible when the hardware and software are tightly integrated. And Pixelbook isn’t just about running Chrome OS, it runs Android apps too. Google has now spent over two years working on this integration. And while there is still much work to be done, and much app overlap awkwardness to address, this is really about versatility. And not just the versatility of a single form factor, but the versatility of a combined platform that, like Windows, can be used effectively across a range of device types.

So I have ideas for a future Pixelbook that combines the best of the original—the excellent keyboard, the thin and light form factor, even the look and feel of the device, which is quirky—but eliminates the problems. The too-small display. The complexity of a detachable or convertible design. Something that is more Surface Laptop than Surface Pro. More ThinkPad X1 Carbon, perhaps.

Others will, of course, argue that Apple’s iPad Pro represents a better vision of the post-PC future that Steve Jobs, our industry’s greatest-ever snake oil salesman, first promised in 2010. And there’s reason to believe this: Using my own “optimize for the every day, not for the occasional” logic, you could argue that a device that is consumption-first, productivity-second may indeed emerge victorious. And that the class of users who needs a full-sized keyboard and large display is smaller than those who do not.

Well, I’m in the minority on that one. Today, PCs and Macs fill a role that other lesser platforms simply cannot duplicate. And only Chrome OS has a chance to enter this competition on equal footing.

And Apple is, of course, playing both sides of the fence: That both Chrome OS and the Mac are at some stage of integrating successful mobile platforms with the desktop is likewise interesting. This is work that Microsoft pioneered, badly, starting with Windows 8, but that hybrid system failed for reasons so varied and numerous that it perhaps not worth side-tracking again here. Suffice to say that there is a secret sauce to making this work. And not having a successful mobile platform may ultimately be Microsoft’s Achilles Heel.

This is why Chrome OS is so interesting to me today, if only in theory. Apple will do a great job of integrating iPad apps into the Mac, of this I have no doubt. But Apple will also continue pricing Macs at levels the general population cannot afford, and that, plus the general blandness of macOS, makes this platform a lot less interesting. Chrome, meanwhile, is built on a PC-like model with a range of device types and prices. This is a platform for the people.

Anyway, I keep waiting for the post-PC apocalypse to kick off, and it keeps getting pushed back. Pixelbook 2 will not change this, not for me, and not for the broader industry, just as iPad Pro and iOS 11 didn’t so last year. But Google is, if anything, persistent. And they will just keep chipping away at this problem. And I feel like they’re going to get it right eventually.

Just not this year.