ISSUE 44 • ANDROID ADVISOR 5the Chromebook essential in the same way the
smartphone is for most people.
Google’s answer is to make the Pixelbook
more like a smartphone. It joins the growing list of
Chromebook models that support Android apps.
It’s also the first Chromebook to support Google
Assistant, formerly available only on Android devices.
As you might guess from the Pixelbook’s name,
some of its features work specifically with Google’s
flagship Android phones. In the absence of Wi-Fi,
for instance, it’ll be able to tether automatically to
your Pixel phone.
For this review, I’ve looked at both the hardware
and the software experiences. The hardware is brand-
new and the software we tried was still in beta, so
not everything worked as planned. I can confirm the
Pixelbook is a fast, capable device, but that’s no longer
enough. Joining forces with Android is probably the
best shot Chromebooks have at becoming desirable
hardware to mainstream users. Whether this strategy
will work for the Pixelbook (and be broadly adopted
by other Chromebook manufacturers) is still unknown.
Design
Even if the Pixelbook didn’t have a bunch of Android
tie-ins, it would still be the nicest Chromebook
you can buy: thin, light, and full of forward-looking
features. You can see the specs and prices for all the
SKUs in our original Pixelbook news story, but below
I have details on our particular review unit.
Price: £1,
REVIEW