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In this video I give my full impressions of the 2015 Chromebook Pixel. Enjoy!!!
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[Music]
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hey folks Robbie Payne with chrome
0:18
unboxed here coming at you today with a
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full review of The One and Only 2015
0:24
Chromebook Pixel Chromebook Pixel 2 uh
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not the official name of it just another
0:29
pixel
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a lot of people referring to it as that
0:32
though um we're going to take a quick
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look around the hard way here to start
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off the review um for those of you who
0:38
are part of the channel hopefully you've
0:39
seen the unboxing I went around and and
0:42
kind of spent some extra time on this
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device uh because of its uh uniqueness
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and the fact that it's U I guess one of
0:50
the first it is the only technical
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Chromebook that's had a successor a real
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successor not just kind of a spiritual
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and the Samsung Chromebook kind of had a
0:58
a repeat but it's not exactly the same
1:00
thing so um before we get started let's
1:02
look around the hardware here a little
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bit uh for those of you who are not
1:05
familiar with the Chromebook Pixel all
1:07
aluminum build front back and sides um
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all kind of carved out of single pieces
1:12
basically the Bottom's all one piece uh
1:14
tops all one piece um across the top you
1:18
get the LED light bar which is really
1:20
neat if you give it a tap tells you how
1:22
much battery I just came off a charger
1:24
so completely full U battery life
1:27
amazing we'll talk about that in a few
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minutes across the side over on this one
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we've got the SD card slot and as you
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can see uh there is an SD card in there
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and it's almost perfectly flush let me
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get my hand behind that so you can kind
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of see barely barely sticks out don't
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even notice it um you have the first of
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two USB type-c ports here and for those
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of you who have not seen these in person
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they're roughly the size of a micro
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USB on the other side here we've got
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another USB type-c we've got two
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usb3.0 combo headphone microphone Jack
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cross Ross the back all we have is that
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felt hinge with chrome and blazed on the
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back across the bottom there's nothing
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save for the feet uh that instead of
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having four small ones uh there are
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these raised portions here here here and
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here and the rubber bar that goes across
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the bottom uh sits pretty well very
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nice um of course the the pixel has a
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premium price this is the I5 model um
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begins starts at at $9.99 and then um
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$12.99 for the LS which is ludicrous
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speed i7 16 gigs of RAM this one is
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packing 8 gigs of RAM uh with a 32 gig
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solid
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state open it up here and you'll see
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that gorgeous
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screen um again all aluminum build all
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across the top etched glass trackpad
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which feels marvelous um the only
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branding just Chrome right up there at
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the top Keys have great travel zero give
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whatsoever obviously things made out of
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aluminum um very very stiff very firm
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you pick it up there's no flex there's
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no Creek this thing is absolutely
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premium um and so you can go take it to
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your coffee shop and sit next to your
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MacBook Pro friends and uh not feel like
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uh you're inferior in any way shape or
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form because of the build quality of
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your
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device it stands right up there with it
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um and in some ways I think is actually
3:30
um Superior to both uh to all the
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MacBooks right now I think it just got a
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really unique look it feels great um
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it's not a lot of bad things to say
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about this device uh like I said the
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keys travel really well there's zero
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Flex in the keyboard um they did replace
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the upper row of keys this time around
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they had like the stiff weird keys on
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the first pixel they're just regular old
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keyboard Keys now uh which is works a
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lot better for me personally um you can
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see and it's hard to catch this on on
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reviews and stuff but man this thing is
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just thin um just really really thin I
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don't really have anything to um give
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you any perspective on but a lot of the
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reviews it tends to look a little chunky
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um I think that's just because it's so
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square cut um but it's just it is crazy
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thin hold it see if we can get it it
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just doesn't do it any justice on camera
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it really doesn't um hopefully those of
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you checking this out will either I buy
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one if it work a buy one if it works for
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you or uh some point get be able to get
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to a store and check it out um it is
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rocking 2560 by 1700 pixel uh display
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and that is basically Quad HD stretched
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down this way so Quad HD would be 4720
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displays if you want to think about it
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that way Quad HD would be 2560 by 1440
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and so obviously we have 1700 so we have
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quite a bit more pixels down across the
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bottom but if you were to chunk some of
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this off the bottom you basically have a
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Quad HD display shoved in
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12.85 diagonal inches with relatively
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small bezels Gorilla Glass here and uh
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full multi-touch uh capacity on that and
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so that's basically the hardware let me
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give you some of my thoughts um cuz if
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you watch the unboxing they they're the
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initial just shock and awe of picking up
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a pixel and and opening it and looking
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at it because it's just flat out
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gorgeous um it boots insanely fast um it
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does everything insanely fast it's um
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it's pretty awesome that way um I'm
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going to go to the verge here the only
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other thing Hardware wise and I hit on
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this in the unboxing um I'm not going to
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play anything right now
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um because it it's it you honestly can't
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hear it on the camera anyway um the
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speakers are definitely a step down and
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the point I made in the unboxing and
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then I'll make again here is that they
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knocked 300 bucks off the price added
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some pretty cool ports um it made the
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screen even better so they had to cut
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some money somewhere my guess is they
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probably put cheaper speakers in here
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it's just the way it works um and for
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most people that's just not a deal
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breaker if they had sounded like bows or
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something coming out of there and then
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they went to sounding like regular
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laptop speakers yeah I get that but they
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went from sounding like really good
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laptop speakers to very moderate laptop
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speakers that's they're still loud uh
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they still work but to be honest with
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you it's just not worth getting upset
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about um
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touchcreen Works beautifully you can
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tell Chrome OS is actually starting to
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build in some really good touch
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sensitive stuff hopefully uh they'll
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have a lot of this stuff sorted before
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um the the new Asus
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um flip Chromebook comes out um by that
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time um obviously it'll need to be ready
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for full tablet mode but you can see um
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if you need to um pinched Zoom works
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just perfectly it's fluid we even get
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some scrolling
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around here which is really
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neat so even on a Content heavy sight I
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mean there's no Checker boarding going
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on here stop Zoom no problem um so very
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very much feels like a tablet experience
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in that
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spot um but speaking on the display this
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is uh the one area probably that um I
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don't care for in the pixel and I'm
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finding out that it's the same
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across some other notebooks as well some
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of the high resolution windows and even
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MacBook Pros um the MacBook Pro 13in and
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um the uh 13-inch Windows PCS that have
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really high
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resolutions so when I unplug this device
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and go to sit down at a desk for
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instance like my typical scenario is
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actually working at a standing desk I've
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read enough about sitting all day and
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that it's killing us so I'm I'm doing
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standing desk and have been for a little
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bit now but it is nice a couple times a
8:02
day to be able to kind of unplug take
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the laptop with me sit down at a desk
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table something like that and just get
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my legs a rest for 30 minutes or so so I
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like to do that a couple times a day um
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sometimes I don't get around to it but I
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like the opportunity to do it I also
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like the opportunity to say you know
8:17
what I'm going to go work at Panera
8:19
Bread or I'm going to go work at XYZ
8:22
coffee shop today um in order to just
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get out of the office get out of the
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kind of same thing doing every single
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day it's the reason that a chrome box
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doesn't completely fit my needs and so I
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was really excited about that uh having
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the pixel kind of coming from a chrome
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box going going back to uh a laptop
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again and what I found is that taking
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this off uh the 1080p screen and getting
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it into uh a mode where I'm just sitting
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in front of it and it's the only thing
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I'm working on it honestly feels
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insanely constricted um it it feels like
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I'm crammed into a small space and I
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don't have any room to work and perhaps
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that that's just me perhaps that's um
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you know and that's a subjective thing
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again not everybody's going to use their
9:04
device in the way that I do not
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everybody's going to be having multiple
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tabs open and multiple windows and this
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kind of thing I get that I get that
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that's not a normal use case however uh
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for me personally uh it's become uh a
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very difficult thing to work on uh to
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the point where I'm not completely sure
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that I'm actually going to stick it out
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with the pixel uh we'll see uh we'll see
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if my habits can change and that's
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something that we can work on um
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but that is my only complaint and and
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that's an insanely subjective complaint
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to make um for a lot of people that's
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not going to matter at all uh they're
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used to working on something 1366 or
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1280 width uh to working inside that
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that kind of size space and so if that's
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the case this isn't going to bother you
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at all you're not even going to think
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twice about it it's not going to be a
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big deal at all so um take those sinks
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with a grain of salt um and but it is
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something we're thinking about uh if
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that's how your normal use case is set
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up your used to 1080P and that kind of
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screen real estate not just physical
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size but that that layout of pixels cuz
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again even though you're getting tons of
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pixels here you're actually getting 1280
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by 850 when it comes to actual working
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space so something to think about that I
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did not think about uh before I got this
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device save that comment if we if we
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took that part out I have zero uh
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complaints about this device none the
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thing is crazy fast um I'll run an
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octane real quick I am logged in with
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all my stuff going
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um and I don't know if I've got a yeah
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let me get out at least get out of
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uh um I've got Crouton instance running
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here so let me at least save that and
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get out of
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it Crouton and a window that's another
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thing thing that's a little weird
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because again the monitor is telling the
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OS that it's 1280 by 850 so that's what
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it's telling Linux it is so you kind of
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get some fuzziness uh to the layout
11:10
Chrome in a or Crouton in a window just
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kind of part of it uh for me I don't
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spend a ton of time over there um just a
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little bit dang it it is not what I
11:20
wanted to do uh just a little bit of
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time so uh for me it's not a huge
11:25
deal let's see it's going to bring my
11:27
instance back up
11:31
sorry about that
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guys right now we'll see we'll go and
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get into the test and then we'll do it
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again and just to let you know I've been
11:46
getting somewhere around 24,000 I think
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Octane on this so massive massive
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increase um over what you normally get
11:53
here we go let me shut this guy out here
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that's always fun there we go
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well my crew T in the window is having
12:16
issues so I'm going to run it with that
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running so keep that in mind um I don't
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want to go through a whole shut down and
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restart even though I guess we might
12:24
could do that real quick towards the end
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um but I don't have a whole lot more to
12:28
add to this thing um it is a brilliant
12:31
piece of Hardware aside from the screen
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limitations which is odd because that's
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one of the big selling points of this
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device right I mean it's just an amazing
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screen and it is it looks amazing colors
12:43
are amazing uh brightness levels are
12:45
amazing the darkness uh the the darks
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versus the lights the contrast ratio is
12:50
amazing viewing angles are amazing look
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it never changes it just looks the same
12:55
um it it is an amazing piece of Hardware
12:57
don't get me wrong please don't hear
12:58
hear me saying that I don't like this
13:00
one thing so it's it's worthless 215 um
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that's to be expected um we'll actually
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shut down and I'll show you how quickly
13:08
this thing boots up it's pretty crazy um
13:12
I have no complaints on this thing other
13:14
than that one thing so again if you're
13:16
used to that screen size and that kind
13:18
of real estate that's not going to
13:19
bother you at all
13:21
um I can say without doubt that uh the
13:26
Chromebook Pixel is is worth its money
13:29
um it's premium obviously look how quick
13:31
that is amazing um it's worth its money
13:36
me get the this off here while it's on
13:40
in and if you want a premium device if
13:44
you've looked at MacBook Pros and
13:46
thought man I wish I had a device that
13:48
was that nice this is that and that and
13:51
more um it's it's
13:53
amazing um and that's the only complaint
13:56
I have about it and so if you're
13:57
thinking about it if you're on the fence
13:58
and going I'm not sure if I want to
14:00
spend that kind of money um if you're
14:01
invested in Chrome OS and you feel
14:03
comfortable with Chrome OS and it's your
14:05
go-to thing man this this spoils you as
14:08
far as having awesome Hardware with it
14:10
um there's there's little bad I can say
14:13
about this device it's so wellb built uh
14:15
the hinge another thing I wanted to hit
14:17
on I forgot the hinge on it I mean you
14:19
can see that slight wobble barely but
14:21
using the touchcreen doesn't cause the
14:23
whole thing to be flimsy and yet it's
14:25
still U liftable with just one finger
14:29
perfectly weighted and just everything
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everything's premium the thing is just
14:33
awesome uh it really is and so it gets
14:36
absolutely uh two thumbs up it's an
14:38
amazing device if you're thinking about
14:40
it you want a premium Chrome OS device
14:42
this is it get it um all the things that
14:45
kind of hamstrung the first pixel are
14:47
all gone this thing is brilliant it's
14:49
amazing if they made this guy in a 15.6
14:52
in for a couple hundred more I would be
14:55
on it in a heartbeat um I wish that they
14:57
would do that I wish they' do this and
14:59
maybe do a 15.6 that's not quite as
15:01
Square maybe more the you know I think
15:04
the MacBook Pro the 156 MacBook Pro does
15:07
a equivalent of 1440 by 900 or something
15:11
like that um so it's still square-ish
15:13
not quite this Square U so they double
15:15
that whatever 2880 by um uh for by 1,800
15:20
but something like that um that size you
15:22
wouldn't really think about the lack
15:24
that you have um but um like I said if
15:27
you're thinking about it
15:29
uh fully say go for it it is an amazing
15:31
device I don't think there's any
15:33
necessity of going for the ls for most
15:35
people I push Chromebooks really hard
15:37
and this thing never broke a sweat they
15:38
never even thought about uh getting tied
15:41
up with anything I was doing any point
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in time so um that's going to be it for
15:45
this one um hopefully it didn't go on
15:47
too much longer than a one two here um
15:49
other than to say apart from that one
15:51
thing the constricted space this thing
15:53
is brilliant it's amazing it's a
15:55
beautiful device well worth $1,000 in my
15:58
opinion as a Chrome OS heavy Chrome OS
16:00
user absolutely worth its money um
16:03
thanks for watching guys if you haven't
16:05
already subscribe to the channel give it
16:07
a thumbs up and uh we'll see you around
16:09
for the next one
16:10
thanks
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