Just today we heard rumors that Google was planning a touchscreen Chrome notebook to add to its Chrome OS line of computers. The rumors, stemming from a Wall Street Journal report, offered no indication beyond 'this year' as far as a release date was concerned. However, we now know exactly when this laptop is going to launch, because Google itself has let the cat out of the bag.
The company announced the Chromebook Pixel via the official Chrome blog this afternoon and the touchscreen functionality is not the only difference. While previous iterations of the Chromebook have been very competitively priced, this one costs quite a bit. Priced at just under $1,300, the Chromebook Pixel packs 4.3 million pixels into a 12.85-inch 2560 x 1700 display for a PPI of 239. Google boasts that this is the highest pixel density of any laptop on the market today.
Display aside, the laptop runs on an Intel Core i5 processor (dual core, clocked to 1.8GHz) with integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000, 4 GB DDR3 RAM
32 GB Solid State Drive with 1TB of free cloud storage (though it's only good for three years), 2 x USB 2.0 ports, HD Webcam, a clickable glass trackpad, a backlit keyboard, dual band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n 2x2, Bluetooth 3.0 and optional LTE.
Though it's nice to see the Chrome product line evolving, we're not sure the public opinion of the cloud has reached the point where people are willing to spend $1300-$1500 on a laptop that more or less requires a constant internet connection. That said, if you're all about the cloud, the Pixel is available to buy today on Google Play and will hit BestBuy.com in the near future. The WiFi version will cost $1,299 and will start shipping next week. The LTE version will ship in the U.S. in April and is priced at $1,449.
Check out the Pixel in action in the video below:
