PC World - USA (2019-12)

74 PCWorld DECEMBER 2019

REVIEWS GOOGLE PIXELBOOK GO

Enter the Pixelbook Go, a laptop with a

careful balance of quality features and

economical compromises. Its $649 starting

price (via Google) is still somewhat high—and

the top-end model will cost $1,399. Still, it

could bolster a sparse “middle class” of

Chromebooks that’s still struggling for

traction. And it’s a darn sight better than the

typical bare-bones model. If you’re

committed to the Chromebook universe, this

is a laptop worth buying.

PIXELBOOK GO SPECS AND

FEATURES

As befits a midrange laptop, the Pixelbook

Go comes with good- or better-quality

components in reasonable amounts. For

instance, while many low-cost Chromebooks

come with a measly 4GB of RAM, all versions

of the Pixelbook Go come with at least 8GB.

Also, low-end Chromebooks tend to use

inexpensive and slower eMMC storage, and

not much of it, while the Pixelbook Go uses

speedier SSDs, with capacities ranging from

64GB to a fat 256GB. We’ll detail the

different versions first, then list the specs

common to all.

A note about the CPUs: These are Intel

Amber Lake mobile processors (go.pcworld.

com/ambr), designed for thin-and-light

laptops. Even though they sip a mere 5 watts

of power, they use high boost clocks to

deliver a jolt of extra speed. They’re a

noticeable improvement over the bargain-

basement CPUs you’ll find in many low-cost

Chromebooks.

The first two configurations are available

for preorder:

$649: Core m3-8100Y, 8GB RAM, 64GB

SSD, 1920x1080 display.

$849 (our review unit): Core i5-8200Y,

8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, 1920 x 1080 display

The next two are coming at an unspecified

later date. At the time of this posting there was a

waitlist for the Core i5 (but not the Core i7 yet):

$999: Core i5-8200Y, 16GB RAM,

128GB SSD, 1920 x 1080 display

$1,399: Core i7-8500Y, 16GB RAM,

Google’s Pixelbook Go will offer two colors: Just Black, and on some models, Not Pink.