Google's Chromebook Pixel is bravely taking on the heavyweights of the laptop market, with its premium price tag, and premium-design putting it up against the leviathan MacBooks and a host of Windows Ultrabooks.
Google has taken the cloud-focused, browser-based Chrome OS and provided it with a showcase platform, designing and building the device itself, with a little help from OEM partners.
It's designed for 'people who live on the cloud', and to that end it's always going to have a tough time against its more established peers – Apple's Mac OS and Microsoft Windows machines that are still much more about local computing.
But at least it gives Chrome OS a device that is indisputably high-end, and confident enough to battle at the top end of the market.
Make no mistake about it, this is a beautiful looking device, not unlike a MacBook Pro but distinct in its own right.
The Pixel is gunmetal grey with a huge glass black touchpad, a black 'chiclet' style keyboard and corners that are sharper than Macs but still nicely rounded.
It's a very square slab of laptop, weighing in at a not-inconsiderable 1.52 kg; but the key difference is the wonderful screen.
Interestingly Google has gone against the trend for 16:9 or 16:10 displays and opted instead for 3:2.
They believe the extra height is better for those people that scroll through web pages – and you can certainly understand the sentiment, with the extra real estate noticeable and welcome.
But this screen is much, much more than an interesting aspect ratio. The 239 ppi makes this a stunning display – every bit as markedly impressive as Retina. It's been designed so that you cannot see, at normal laptop usage range, any pixels at all - and that is certainly the case. From the desktop picture to text, everything looks sharp and bright.
Last, but not least, this is a touch display – Chrome OS has been retooled to be touch enabled, and this gives the Chromebook Pixel another dimension.
It's still not clear if the world will come to love reaching over a keyboard to flip through screens or tick boxes, but many are confident that this IS the future, and the touch is certainly something you quickly adjust to.
It's a key differentiator, and one that moves Chrome OS another step towards Android – lines blurring between tablets, phones and laptops. We found in our use that for creation of content (like this hands on) we opted for the more traditional touchpad. But for the consumption of content we were more inclined to touch the screen.
It's worth mentioning the touchpad which has been loving crafted from special glass to ensure that it doesn't hurt delicate fingers.
In practical terms this means that means a silky smooth experience which seems responsive and doesn't lack for accuracy. Of course, there's USB ports for a mouse if you so desire, and the premium pricing does suggest that this is a machine that is designed to replace your desktop in the home, as well as becoming your travel buddy.
Which makes it ever so slightly strange that Google has decided not to include an ethernet port. We get that the world is on Wi-Fi, but when we're safely docked and in work mode, it's nice to have the option at least of a hard-wired connection.
Speaking of ports, there are Two USB, an SD card slot and a display-port, alongside a 3.5mm headphone socket.
The chiclet style keyboard is a joy to type on. Google has made a lot about getting the keys to feel responsive and, although it is not going to change your world, it's certainly up there with the best that we have used.
There are several lovely design touches - from a colourful light panel on the top of the device to the light up power plug and even the hinges. A lot of thought has gone into how the Pixel feels, and it's very welcome.
Onto the innards, and the Chromebook Pixel comes in two varieties: a 32GB WiFi version that will launch in the U.S. and U.K., and a 64GB US-only 4G LTE version.
There's an Intel Core i5 acting as the beating heart of this machine providing processing power and graphics, aided by 4GB of RAM and the speed of the solid state local storage.
That local storage is, of course, expected to be used alongside the cloud, and Google will provide a whopping 1TB of online Google Drive space when you buy a Pixel. This expires in three years, but Google insists that it will still allow read access even if you're not prepared to pay for the extra space.
Chrome OS is a more common site these days at the cheaper end of the market, but for those who are not familiar with the operating system, this is Google's attempt to reinvent Windows and Mac OS.
It's the Chrome browser that is at the base of this approach – this is a web OS, leaning heavily on web apps, websites and cloud storage.
The OS comes alive when it's connected, but even with some major offline strides (Google Docs is now a lovely experience even with a patchy network) it becomes significantly less capable when without signal.
At the low end, that has been tolerated – but when you're up against premium products it remains to be seen if people are less satisfied with the deficiencies.
High-end specs and design come at a cost – the top-end LTE version costs $1,449, with the WiFi only a $1,299/£1,049.
The Chromebook Pixel is a stunning machine, with a truly remarkable screen, a lovely industrial design and good specs – but it needs to be at such a big price, and it's going up against some truly impressive opposition.
For those who love Google apps and have been waiting for something premium, this will be a fantastic new arrival. However, for those that are choosing from scratch between Ultrabooks, Macbooks and Chromebooks there are still major doubts.
Most of those come from Chrome OS rather than the hardware, which is going to win a lot of admirers. This is an enchanting machine; a little heavy but a genuinely interesting entry into the high-end of the market.
The key question is; do you need a premium laptop for a web-based OS? MacBooks and Ultrabooks are powerful and expensive but run standalone, resource-intensive software. Chrome OS is all about web apps and harnessing the potential of the cloud, so why go for a powerful laptop at all, however beautiful?
We'll spend a lot of time with the Chromebook Pixel in the coming days and weeks, and we should be able to bring you a much better idea of whether this is a curate's egg, or a genuine reason so consider Chrome OS.
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