I'm still trying to figure out what the point of these Chrome books are. So, they are basically a glorified web browser that is limited to cloud storage? What can you install on it? Any photo/video editors, heavy games, etc?
Seems like a lot of money for a computer with such extensive limitations. For just a little bit more you could get a retina MBP and have the ability to do so much more with it. What you are paying for with the Pixel is the screen. Well, the Nexus 10 has similar resolution, with a higher PPI, same amount of storage space, more mobility, and access to all the apps on the Google Play Store, longer battery life, all for more than half the cost. Buy a BT keyboard and you basically have the Pixel for more than half the price.
You can do what you want, but personally, I would save the money.
ChromeOS has come a long way. I think it still has a long trek ahead of it to become a real threat to MS or OSX, but it's really about going a different route than going into head to head competition with "ours is better than yours" the way OSX and Windows compete.
In my mind I figure the Pixel was designed to create a top end to the product line of Chromebooks. People typically see them as cheap computers with little power. The Pixel has changed that by offering an i5 and 4GB RAM (while I think it should have 8GB minimum for that price...or more). While the Pixel is somewhat attractive, especially for web use due to the aspect ratio and screen quality, it should have a bit more local storage for the event that someone wants tons of extensions and some local storage on top of that 1TB Google Drive storage (which works great!). In my mind that's a $999 machine but they're setting the bar to allow newer entries to fill the void between bottom end Acer/Samsung/HP machines and new ones with more horsepower.
Check out the number of extensions for ChromeOS. There are even offline devoted ones in quite a large number. But the best feature is remote desktop. If you're out and about enjoying your Chromebook but face a piece of workload needing a desktop app, just remote into your Macbook Pro or Mac Pro and use its power and capabilities to get your work done. THAT is an awesome feature for anyone concerned the machine is not capable of doing much (aside from true power users who require the top end of power for heavy processing...Chromebooks are simply not for those users).
I have the cheap C7 Acer and it's awesome. It runs cool, lasts about 4 hours on a charge (with the cheap 3 cell battery it came with...for $50 I can get a 6 cell and 7-8 hours use). It only has 2GB RAM but Google has enabled zRAM (open a terminal by ctl+alt+t just like in Linux and enter "swap enable 2000", then restart) which is basically like a swap partition on Linux or virtual memory on Windows. Speed increase is dramatic and so easy.
You have to experience it in depth to make judgment on what a Chromebook is and what it can do. I find myself needing a more powerful machine less than one time per month, and in those times I grab a Macbook Pro. I should just remote into it but I forget that feature is there because I seldom need it.
I'm excited by the new machines coming for ChromeOS. Adblock Plus works great in it, no known security threats, automatic updates, speed, light weight and low cost. As they get more expensive I expect to see some more capabilities, but there are tons of apps/extensions available to make a great deal of work possible on what is really a thin client riding on a modified/dumbed down Linux. Loving mine so far but I keep a Macbook Pro nearby for now just in case.
