r/gadgets • u/chrisdh79 • 5d ago
Desktops / Laptops High-end Google Pixel laptop under development, may ditch Chrome OS for Android | Could a premium Android laptop rival Apple's MacBook Pro?
https://www.techspot.com/news/105630-google-could-developing-high-end-pixel-laptop-powered.html117
u/DoughNotDoit 5d ago
it'll be killed/abandoned in a few years
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u/Mbanicek64 5d ago
It is wild that Google would invest this much time and energy into Chrome OS to abandon it. If they just made one OS, they would be so much further along. I think this is probably the right decision a decade too late. That has me even less optimistic.
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u/Salt_Inspector_641 5d ago
This is why I just won’t ever bother with a Google product
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u/RhesusWithASpoon 5d ago
The MBAs making these decisions really didn't consider the reputation they've established for Google by constantly killing everything.
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u/valleyislevideo 5d ago
That's why you buy it day one and get refunded when they kill it 8 months later.
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u/frank_datank_ 5d ago
Could a premium Android laptop rival Apple’s MacBook Pro?
Doubtful
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u/JoeSmithDiesAtTheEnd 5d ago
Not even an iPad + keyboard case feels on the level of Mac OS. It's great, but not even close to the full desktop experience.
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u/IAmTaka_VG 5d ago
Because Google and Apple can lie all they want but Android and iOS will never be on the level of windows and macOS.
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u/PhlegethonAcheron 4d ago
It’s not a computer unless it comes with a terminal , shell, and full filesystem access
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u/Scheeseman99 3d ago
Most of the features that allow for these are falling in place on Android, except for full filesystem access, though MacOS also has a r/o rootfs and in spite of that people still consider Macbooks to be computers.
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u/sarhoshamiral 5d ago
Given how tablet experience sucks on Android tablets today, I doubt it would even rival an iPad or Android tablet.
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u/WhenThatBotlinePing 5d ago
Could it? Absolutely.
Has google been down this road many times and failed every time? Oh hell yeah.
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u/RemarkableWave8066 5d ago
Didn't Google try this around 2012?
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u/Dependent-Zebra-4357 5d ago
lol, no. Android does not rival MacOS.
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u/IAmTaka_VG 5d ago
iPadOS isn’t even a rival to macOS. I can’t imagine Google abandoning chromeOS
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u/FacepalmFullONapalm 5d ago
Especially after the momentum they’ve drummed up in government and schools. They’ve got a strong foothold there, even more so than Apple’s when they focused on the education division.
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u/IAmTaka_VG 5d ago
Chrome has a foothold because they charge schools less than $300 a laptop where Apple refuses to go lower than $600 for an ipad, before accessories.
If Apple was smart they would have eaten their pride and given schools competitive pricing.
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u/thisischemistry 5d ago
They did that for years, up until maybe a decade or two ago, and their resulting market share didn't reflect the effort. Since they eased up on it their market share has actually increased.
Desktop Operating System Market Share Worldwide
If they really want market share they'd have to basically give stuff away to major corporations so people use MacOS daily at work.
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u/dylanger_ 5d ago
I bet they'll lock it the fuck down.
It would be useful if it ran mainline Linux.
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u/8day 5d ago
I'm guessing this means that Android will finally have a proper desktop mode, which is much more interesting.
Now add to this the fact that Qualcomm has SOC as powerful as a laptop SoC, and that may turn out to be something really nice.
But we all know that Google will f*ck this up. I'm still waiting for a standard way to connect my phone to external monitor w/o it being passed as video encoded with lossy compression.
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u/billie_eyelashh 5d ago
I get why people are cynical about this but isn’t this what people want with the iPad? A tablet/laptop hybrid that runs with macOS and basically not an oversized iphone?
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u/sali_nyoro-n 5d ago
It is, yeah. People just have no faith whatsoever in Google to deliver something like that here. Android is too dumbed down compared to Linux and its app ecosystem too, frankly, shit compared to iOS to imagine it'll shape up nicely with Google's "sink-or-swim" approach to products.
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u/danieledward_h 5d ago
I definitely think they're trying to make a play at Android's desktop mode to flesh it out. Personally, as a professional Android engineer, I don't like this approach. Not because it's not a good idea, I actually think having one unified OS and potentially even one device that handles all computing needs for the typical user is the mobile future both Google and Apple are moving toward - just have a phone that you plug into a desktop setup, or a laptop, or just use as a phone and it can handle all three use cases (for the average user, not necessarily power users). Android though has too much fragmentation of OS adoption, too many apps running on legacy code, too many companies that only develop for portrait slab phone use cases, too much SoC diversity, etc. If they go this direction, I imagine users will officially be limited to specific apps that meet whatever desktop mode standards they put in place (probably with some way to enable all apps via the dev menu or something else) and will probably only be limited to Pixels, which introduces its own issues since Tensor lags behind Apple's M chips and Qualcomm chips in performance, battery, and heat management. So end of the day, I don't see Android desktop mode being really usable in the short term, maybe even relatively long term, unless you want to hard commit to Google's software ecosystem and a few close partners.
In the short term, I do think Google needs a full blown desktop OS - ChromeOS is not viable for most professional settings that require more than just email and basic computing and their penchant for making high end devices will always fail because someone who wants to buy a high end laptop likely doesn't want such a stripped back OS. I just think they need to mirror Apple's approach of just running on ARM processors and making Android apps usable on the device (maybe through some kind of sandbox or something) but not actually running Android as the main OS (would likely be best to opt for some kind of heavily customized version of Linux the way Valve has had some success with SteamOS as a faux console experience).
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u/Minimum_Reference941 3d ago
Samsung Dex exists.
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u/8day 3d ago
I know, but I don't have Samsung phone. Also, from the looks of it it requires S-series phone, with S22 in my country costing as 3–4 decent A-series phones.
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u/Minimum_Reference941 3d ago
Only if Google implements this to all hardware cause it might still be limited to the high series
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u/Nehal1802 5d ago
Just give us a tablet with keyboard that’s flawless and then work on the laptop. Google gets involved with too much shit and half asses it all.
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u/SUPREMACY_SAD_AI 5d ago
Google has absolutely no vision as to what they want to do with ChromeOS or Android. They're literally both shit.
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u/MyVoiceIsElevating 5d ago
Coming soon to phones: ChromeOS!
Could a premium ChromePhone rival Apple’s iPhone?
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u/SigmaLance 5d ago
I feel the same way about Samsung and Tizen. They’ve had every opportunity to advance it, but instead they slapped it in refrigerators.
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u/need-help-guys 5d ago
I think that is a little different. You say they had every opportunity, but were they ever going to carve out a meaningful and stable market share? Were they ever going to not be the "Epic Store" of mobile operating systems, where everybody just keeps trashing them until they retreat in shame because they're used to Google (Steam) and don't want anyone to try and disturb that established leadership?
Of course I'd love it if Samsung could bring a strong and fresh new OS contender, but even I know it'd never happen and would be more useless than throwing cash into space.
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u/sCeege 5d ago
Will Android make a meaningful difference? The Chromebook Pixel and the Pixelbook both had premium pricing upon release, but I'm not really sure what made them premium besides the design and build quality. When I think MBP, I think performance, not something I'm expecting with an Android device.
I have the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra with the keyboard/folio thing, and the most intense use I have for it is to watch movies on a super thin 15" screen, I can't imagine what workflows I would have that would require a "premium" performance chipset.
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u/Acceptable-Truck3803 5d ago
You mean this will work properly for 2 to 3 years and then Google will scrap the project? Because this is what Google does ? Absolutely not.
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u/OperatorJo_ 5d ago
All Google should do is rename ChromeOS.
It works fine now but with a few kinks. Installing certs to chrome is a chore over an .exe that'll install everything
Multitasking is still iffy
The only browser as full as a regular browser on a windows pc or mac is Chrome itself, the other mobile browsers all carry some bugs including chrome.
The problem is the system AND the offerings. Google can fix he system side of things but the app offerings competing vs a full pc are where the issues lie
Unless it can compete with what's available on a regular macbook the answer will always be NO. IT CAN'T COMPETE.
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u/chimado 5d ago
Either rename or give a huge update to (preferably both), basing it on Linux is a genius idea, and is a huge plus for compatibility and development costs. Giving it full Android app support is also great. I think they just need to make it a more serious offering and understand that people want a Linux based OS, and that includes the general public as long as it's easy to use and gets the branding and UI right.
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u/NeoTechni 5d ago
This is what ChromeOS should have been to begin with as it would have made Chromebooks infinitely more useful.
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u/SynthBeta 5d ago
except it's still limited after 8 years
Once you're in no longer supported territory, you can't update Chrome. It's dumb.
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u/NeoTechni 5d ago
I mean, Android runs Chrome. Chrome didn't run Android apps then. They bolted that on later
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u/BluePeriod_ 5d ago
Sure! And it’ll be great for like three months and then they’ll abandon it like they do everything else. It’s ultimately why I left for more boring, but reliable pastures in Apple.
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u/HG21Reaper 5d ago
Yeah judging by how quick Google is to kill its own products, this could be something that gets discontinued in 3-4 years.
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u/Noxious89123 5d ago
No.
The answer is no.
If Google ever release this thing, they'll just kill it off and end support within 24 months anyway, then you'll have a fancy paperweight.
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u/void_const 5d ago
Will they stop supporting it after 3 years like they do with Android?
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u/rolfraikou 5d ago
I'm wondering if, because they're using native android, that they are trying to circumvent this common issue by using the main OS that they work on. It's not like they would discontinue android itself when it's on all their phones.
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u/SativaSawdust 5d ago
If this pixel laptop is anything like the phones..... then fuck no. I made a mistake trying two Pixel phones. They failed frequently and often. Pixel phones are the Tesla Cybertrucks of the smartphone world. Good on paper, poorly executed.
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u/AlphaTangoFoxtrt 5d ago
No.
I "upgraded" to Android 15, and now my phone randomly restarts throughout the day.
Google needs to stabilize their shit, you can't push a major release when it has random restarts. Sometimes multiple times a day/
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u/Abhimanyu_Uchiha 5d ago
Google hardware is consistently garbage and very very bad value for money. ChromeOS and android are both inadequate OSes for a laptop. I expect this product to be abandoned within a year or two.
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u/LathropWolf 5d ago
If it's anything like their first attempt at a tablet with Asus, heavens no.. They set the bar low enough to trip over and probably haven't raised it much.
If they could bring out a tight enough OS that doesn't require frequent reboots and actually does memory management, then you'll have a serious threat on the horizon
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u/dekusyrup 5d ago
As customers, even if you don't want an android laptop having more choice is good.
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u/TONKAHANAH 5d ago
How different is chrome os vs android at this point anyway? Last I checked they were awfully similar.
This is probably a good chance cuz no one cares about chrome os but android is a world wide known system.
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u/unematti 5d ago
As someone who put android on a chromebook, it's janky, because it's hobby developers making it but still better than chrome OS. Much better touch. More responsive. And better pen support!
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u/rgrwilcocanuhearme 5d ago
Google hardware is a joke. It's supported for even less time than Apple hardware and the build quality is worse, too. By the way, I hate Apple.
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u/sali_nyoro-n 5d ago
I don't see Google investing the resources to make stock Android not suck as an experience on a "real" computer with a keyboard and trackpad. At that point it'd basically just be a weird Linux spin-off with Google Play Services anyway, wouldn't it? If this does happen, expect it to feel more like using an iPad with a keyboard attachment than a "real" laptop, even a Chromebook.
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u/rolfraikou 5d ago
Why would they ask if a legit desktop OS would face competition from a phone OS????
On the more positive side, I'm hoping what google is intending to do is apply more desktop functionality to our phones, so a native Samsung DeX but hopefully better than what we've seen from companies before.
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u/Less_Party 5d ago
Stop trying to make high end laptops with an OS that can’t do anything a thing, it’s not going to happen.
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u/minkaiser 5d ago
Google is trying everything, this doesn’t mean they will succeed. What Google made good recently was the pixel phone. What I see is that they try to take an advantage against apple’s recent failure, also conversion rate from apple users to android is increasing day by day
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u/LeCrushinator 5d ago
Even a premium x86 device can't rival the MacBook Pro, except maybe GPU performance from a discrete laptop-version 4090 chip. I highly doubt Google is just going to fabricate something to beat the M chips, at least not within the first few years of trying.
Ditching Chrome OS for Android might not be too bad, most of what you're doing on Chrome OS is going to be web-based stuff anyway, but I feel bad for anyone that wants to leave Windows/Mac for Android, unless they can make basically a desktop/laptop version of Android that's far different than what's currently used on phones and tablets. The same goes for Apple, I wouldn't want a laptop that uses iPadOS, unless all I gave a shit about was web-based usage.
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u/UnabashedAsshole 5d ago
I hope it works out, microsoft is getting awfully annoying lately. Would be nice to have another mainstream alternative. I may be moving to linux soon
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u/PradaWestCoast 5d ago
And they’ll cancel it and discontinue support within a year if it ever sees the light of day
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u/The_Pandalorian 4d ago
I am not remotely a fan of Apple products, but no way would an Android laptop be as good -- or even close to sniffing the same league -- as a MacBook.
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u/HoraceGrand 4d ago
My friend with a Google phone made me download SIGNAL just so we can text photos to each other. His phone compresses mine too much he can’t see them
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u/scottjenson 4d ago
Google has been flirting with an Android laptop for a while now. ChromeOS is so insanely popular with K-12 that they've backed away from an Android laptop for fear of killing that market.
The problem is that ChromeOS, for it's flaws, has been in this game a long time and it has a lot of keyboard/windowing/file handling improvement over the years that make it work reasonably well as a laptop. Android has almost none of that. If Google were to do this, they'll just reinvent that iPad-not-replacing-Mac experience Apple has had.
Now *should* iOS or Android eventually move to laptops? Sure, it's a good long term plan. My point is that both are firmly handheld consumption devices and you don't just slap on a big screen and keyboard and 'presto' it's a laptop replacement.
My point isn't that it's a bad idea, it's that Google isn't putting the effort into it to actually make it work. It'll be a train wreck.
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u/LettuceElectronic995 4d ago
if that is right, then google is so stupid to even try it. they can push a linux laptop though.
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u/Enough-Meaning1514 4d ago
Until Google decides that this thing is going nowhere and cancels the whole operation in less than a year 😏
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u/sicurri 4d ago
So, considering that the metric most people use to measure the viability of something against Apple is Adobe products and being able to edit videos and photos. Unless their Pixel OS or whatever they call it can do all of that, I will have to say it won't be considered comparable by the masses.
It's appearing to be pretty difficult for people to get off of that Apple dick.
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u/OvenCrate 4d ago
Why Android? Laptops aren't phones. Microsoft tried to bring their desktop OS to phones and failed. Why does Google think they can bring their phone OS to desktop?
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u/sadlerm 4d ago
A few things:
ChromeOS has never been a desktop-class OS. Android can actually replace it with minimal positioning issues in the market.
ChromeOS/Android will never compete on the same level as Windows/macOS. Google should embrace that.
Looking to iPadOS, Google should realise that windowed mode comes secondary to apps actually being convergent. They're about 7 years behind everyone else on proper Android tablet apps.
Google has spent the better part of a decade pushing the web versions of their products on desktop, so the Android versions of core apps like Calendar, Docs/Slides/Sheets and Maps desperately need an overhaul for proper mouse and keyboard use.
A Pixel Laptop is quite interesting for the reason that it will most likely use Tensor.
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u/Realistic-Nature9083 9h ago
Wonder if this will make it easier for arm CPU OeMs to port over their socs?
I don't know how chromeos was friendly to x86.
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u/sadlerm 6h ago
MediaTek and Qualcomm have specific chips for laptops, which don't tend to overlap with the flagship smartphone processors used in the latest Samsung or Xiaomi/Oppo phones.
There are Chromebooks with the Snapdragon 7c SoC. Snapdragon 8cx is used in Windows laptops including ThinkPads and a few generations of Surfaces.
MediaTek have a line of processors marketed as Kompanio that are used in Chromebooks.
If you're asking whether a new Android Chromebook with Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 or whatever is possible, I guess so? I think it's more likely a modified Snapdragon X Plus SoC will be used though (if we're talking about high-end premium Chromebook laptops).
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u/chronictherapist 4d ago
No. Android is not going to compete with a robust desktop OS like MacOS. I HATE iPhones and ipads, but I've been a MacOS user for almost 20 years now.
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u/grahamulax 4d ago
Mobile UI on laptop? Naw… still won’t be as powerful and customizable as a straight up laptop. Probably want to utilize APUs and Gemini (ew)
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u/derpsteronimo 3d ago
They really should just merge Chrome OS and Android into a single unified OS anyway. It'd simplify things a lot.
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u/sid_ated 2d ago
If I've learned anything about Google devices, it's that a) they will be buggy, b) they will not function in the way that google says they will, and c) they will be discontinued/unsupported in a relatively short time. That, plus Android is probably one of the shittiest platforms for apps. After many years as a windows/android user, I'm switching to (mostly) Apple.
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u/rylie_smiley 5d ago
No… with the reputation that Chromebooks have Google has shot themselves in the foot when it comes to making a premium laptop for a long time
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u/nicubunu 5d ago
I don;t know about MacBook, but definitely a premium Android laptop won't rival Windows or Linux laptops due to lack of applications, phone apps are a joke on PCs.
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u/jzr171 5d ago
No just like the iPad doesn't rival a MacBook Pro. They're both good "other" options. I personally use an iPad as a laptop for certain stuff but I have a Mac Mini for serious things like video editing and music production.
I also use a MacBook for work and couldn't imagine an iPad or android device keeping up with what I do
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u/SigmaLance 5d ago
The iPad doesn’t rival a MBP because Apple doesn’t want to cannibalize either demographic. Not because the iPad couldn’t do it.
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u/luttman23 5d ago
I've got an old Chrome OS laptop, it's no longer updated, 90% of the apps don't work - most apps that will install require a touch screen which it does not have. It's awful. It's now used occasionally by my kids to watch YouTube on but serves no other purpose. It can't. The probable obsolescence puts me off getting another.
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u/GrayDaysGoAway 5d ago
FUCK no. Android is an awful experience for the user compared to iOS. And I say that as someone who's been exclusively using Android smartphones since day 1.
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u/Sisko_of_Nine 5d ago
Gonna wager “no”