PC World - USA (2019-12)

DECEMBER 2019 PCWorld 79

benchmark to measure browser speed using
real-world applications and libraries. Shorter
bars are better here, and the Pixelbook Go
once again does better than most other recent
Chromebooks we’ve tested.
We aren’t showing a comparison chart for
battery life. A minor bug in Chrome 77, the
current OS version, prevented the Cr-XPRT test

we normally use from

running properly. We

tested battery life

manually instead, setting

the Chromebook display

to 200 nits and

connecting earbuds,

with the volume set to

50 percent.

We ran the Cr-XPRT

performance benchmark

a dozen times, then

streamed an hourlong

YouTube video over and

over until the battery was

nearly depleted. In all,

we got a little over eight

hours of battery life. Your mileage will vary, but

this is a decent duration, though short of

Google’s estimate of up to 12 hours.

BOTTOM LINE

When Google vice president of hardware

design Ivy Ross introduced the Pixelbook Go

on October 15, she said they set out to make a

laptop that would be “fast, last all day, and look

and feel beautiful,” but with a more attainable

price point. The Pixelbook Go achieves that

with very few compromises. We don’t yet

know whether users will flock to the Pixelbook

Go in a way they haven’t for Google’s high-end

Chromebooks, or other Chromebooks in its

same price range. But Google has once again

made a standard that may be hard to beat.

Google Pixelbook Go

BOTTOM LINE

Google’s Pixelbook Go is a laptop with a careful

balance of quality features and economical

compromises. 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.

$849

In Mozilla’s real-world Kraken JavaScript test, the Pixelbook Go posted one
of the faster scores.

HP Chrom(Core i5-8350U)ebook x360 14 g1

Google Pixel Slate (Core i5-8200Y)

Google Pixelbook Go

(Core i5-8200Y)

HP Chromebook x2

(Intel Core m3-7Y30)

Goolge Chromebook Pixel 2

(Core i5-5200U)

HP Chrom(AMD A4-9120C)ebook 14

Lenovo 500e Chrom(Celeron N3450) ebook

Kraken 1.1

(JavaScript)

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

999.2

1,464.2

1,323.8

3,580

1,211.4

3,021

1,435.3