Chromebook PixelYesterday it was Sony betting big on cloud storage and touch interaction with its PlayStation 4 console and controller announcement. Today, Google unveiled similar intentions at a press event in San Francisco with its cloud-based Chromebook Pixel– a personal computer that comes at a premium, incorporates touch technology and is aimed directly at Apple. The reveal gives credence to recent rumors of such a high-end laptop coming from the search engine giant.
Chromebook Pixel’s aluminum styling will look familiar to anyone reading this story on a recent Mac laptop. Its high prices are also similar. Google said Pixel laptops – which have 12.85-inch displays and twice as many pixels as a typical HDTV – will sell for $1,299 for 32 GB Wi-Fi version and $1,449 for 64GB 4G LTE version.
Google said no other laptop has higher resolution than their touch-screen machine. And the touch screen, which Apple has yet to embrace on its laptops, will be compatible with web apps right away.
You’ll be able to get one when they ship in the beginning of April this year. You can order one right now at the Google Play store and tomorrow at Best Buy.
When shipped it will come with an Intel Core i5, a dual-core 1.8GHz processor, and 4GB of DDR3 RAM – that’s flash storage instead of a hard drive, much like Apple’s Macbook Air line.
“Touch is here to stay and it’s the future,” said Chrome Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai. “We think this is a real game changer in terms of people living in the cloud.”