Chromebooks aren’t supposed to cost a lot of money. That’s a big reason we like them! They’re always good enough, and they’re always cheap—think under $500. But the Pixel Slate, which carries the newest build of Chrome OS, has made a near perfect case for a pricier chromebook. This tablet, which turns into a laptop with the addition of a $160 to $200 accessory, starts at $600 and often works
Chromebooks aren’t supposed to cost a lot of money. T hat’s a big reason we like them! They’re always good enough, and they’re always cheap—think under $500. But the Pixel Slate, which carries the newest build of Chrome OS, has made a near perfect case for a pricier chromebook. This tablet, which turns into a laptop with the addition of a $160 to $200 accessory, starts at $600 and often works so well as either laptop or tablet that it feels like its almost always worth the price.
Which isn’t normally the case! Google has a bad habit of making devices running Chrome OS that are too expensive for what you get. The price of Chrome OS devices like the Pixelbook (which launched at $1,000) and earlier Pixel Chromebooks has been especially egregious. We’ve liked Chrome OS devices in the past because they’re really good little computers for really low prices. Spending more for a Chromebook—even a fantastic one like the Pixelbook—just hasn’t made sense.
What’s changed with the Pixel Slate is Chrome OS itself. It’s gotten so good that it stands up well to iOS and even, to a lesser extent, to Windows. Slowly but surely, Chrome OS is becoming an operating system worthy of the expensive devices Google produces for it—even if $1,000 is still too much money for a Chromebook.
Which is why I should note that the specific Pixel Slate unit I reviewed is the $1,000 8th-gen i5 version with 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. At $1,000 I don’t think the Pixel Slate is worth it. For most people, the $800 version with an m3 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 64 GB SSD or the even cheaper $700 version with an Intel Celeron CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 64GB SSD, is worth considering.
That’s because the Pixel Slate’s competitors aren’t other Chrome OS devices like the Pixelbook or the wonderfully affordable Samsung Chromebook Plus v2, but tablets with laptop aspirations like the iPad Pro and tablet-first 2-in-1s like the Microsoft Surface Pro, which start at $800 and $900 respectively. Like those devices, the Pixel Slate is sold as a tablet, with a keyboard case offered for extra. Like those devices, it’s not that great to use on your lap. (There’s an optional $160 keyboard accessory that improves on lap performance versus the official $200 keyboard case, it just uses Bluetooth instead of the Pixel Slate’s magnetic keyboard connector.
