Google's new Pixelbook is a $1000 Chromebook you'll actually want

If ever there was any doubt about Google's commitment to Chromebooks, we can now say once and for all that it was misplaced.

Google's new Pixelbook, the first premium, feature-packed Chromebook ever, will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about Chromebooks.

With a starting price of $999 and $1649 at the high end, Google is clearly positioning the Pixelbook as something meant to compete with Microsoft's Surface Book and other laptops, rather than high-end tablets.

The outside of the aluminium Pixelboook is reminiscent of the two-tone look of the Pixel phones. There's a shiny white panel that stretches across the top of the lid.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

At 2.4 pounds, the Pixelbook is more than half a pound lighter than a 13-inch MacBook Pro and nearly half a pound lighter than a MacBook Air. That may not sound like a lot, but it's noticeable when you hold it (I'm guessing even more so if you spend a lot of time with it in a backpack or shoulder bag).

It's light enough that the thought of using it as a tablet doesn't seem completely ridiculous. I've used quite a few "convertible" notebooks over the last couple years, and they've all felt too awkward and unwieldy to use in "tablet mode" for anything other than watching a movie.

But the Pixelbook is both light enough and thin enough that normal people could conceivably hold it with one hand long enough to actually get something done. Magnets on the lid and bottom ensure that both sides actually sit flush against each other while in tablet mode.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Under the hood, the Pixelbook uses Intel's i5 and i7 processors (depending on which model you get), so they should be noticeably speedier than other Chromebooks. They also come with as much as 512 GB of internal storage (again, this varies based on what model you get, there are also 128 GB and 256 GB configurations). The Pixelbook is a Chromebook that could be legitimately useful offline, limitations of ChromeOS aside.

Google says the Pixelbook's battery will last up to 10 hours and 15 minutes of charging buys you two hours, which is pretty hard to beat. (By the way, you can use the same charger as you do for the new Pixel phones.)

But, as with so many of the new products Google launched today, the feature to beat is, once again, Google Assistant.

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Google Assistant on Pixelbook is similar, in some ways, to Cortana on Windows 10. The assistant lives in a menu on the left side of the screen and you can interact with it by typing queries into a box or using voice commands.

Where things get interesting is when you add in Google's $99 Pixelbook Pen. Assistant has a dedicated button on the side of the stylus that can trigger visual searches.

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Click the button and circle something on your screen and Google Assistant will tell you more about whatever you circled. Circle a word and you can get the definition (or translation, if it's another language), circle an object and the assistant will tell you more about whatever you circled.

In my testing, it was even able to surface answers based on my doodles and handwritten notes, which is not particularly useful but again shows off just how good Google's image recognition abilities are.

Again, as with its new Pixel Buds, Google is making a compelling case for its vision of combining its hardware with AI smarts to make all of its gadgets seem that much better than the competition.

Sure, spending $1,000 (or more) on Chromebook could very easily be a leap too far for many. But, if you've never considered a Chromebook to be a viable option before, the Pixelbook could, at the very least, make you reconsider.