If you live on the internet, you need a Pixel and a Chromebook.
If you live on the internet, you need a Pixel and a Chromebook. Trust me, you do. “It’s not a traditional work laptop,” they may say. Of course I’m not looking for a traditional laptop, the color of this machine is Gold. Okay it’s marketed as Gold but really it’s Rose Gold. All the better in my opinion.
And yes, this is a Pixel. Not a Pixel 2. Maybe one day my start up will take off and I’ll be able to afford buying a new phone before my contract is paid off. But by that time I’m sure we’ll be talking about the Pixel 3.0 and I’ll be looking at trading in my baby for 25% off Pixel 2s.
Never have I felt so organized than I do having a Pixel and a Chromebook. Not since I had that combo with my iPhone 5 and my 2014 MacBook Pro. but this summer my iPhone 5 died and I traded it in to the Verizon store, in exchange for the [then] newest Google phone on the market! Finally, I could open Google Docs on my phone without logging in. I had a functional phone, just in time for my vacation. And it turned out, this fancy handheld internet box had a kickass camera. And all that other good phone junk. Switching to android from a lifetime as a Fruit smartphone user wasn’t nearly as painful as I expected and I acclimated almost immediately. Chromecasting, my primary mode of Netflix watching, was now easier than ever. My phone was officially better than my girlfriend’s. All my dreams had come true, or so I thought.
When the “E” key broke off my Mac at work, I had no idea that was the peak of a slippery slope into madness. ach time I opnd mor tabs, my machin would fanstorm angrily, whil my fingrs slippd past th non-xistnt “” ky. It was xcruciating. I bgan to scop out black friday dals in arnst. ultimatly, th machin I st my hart on, an Acr Chrombook 14 in [ros] Gold, was $20 off with fr shipping. BUT STILL. I got me a new baby and that’s when the magic really began!
Like me, you love your phone. Even when you’re on your laptop, you’re on your phone. You use your phone for all the important shit: Twitter, Facebook, texting “bae ❤”, Slack, email, your Google calendar, Two Dots, Animal Crossing, accepting calls from your mom, and also everything else you have to do to live. When you’re at work and you’re not supposed to be on your phone, you spend every second waiting until you can get back to your phone. Luckily for me, having a Chromebook is basically like being on my phone ALL THE TIME. The Chromebook and the Pixel talk to each other and sync up in real time. Having a chromebook is like having a giant phone, on which you can type without getting carpal tunnel. People say that “you can’t download any apps on a chromebook.” False. You can download most android apps, including Microsoft products. Today I found out you can actually play the aforementioned games on your phone. Goodbye productivity, hello high score.
Having the Pixel already makes my life that much easier. When Slack starts buzzing at 7:20 pm with another draft of the proposal that needs to be opened in Google Docs right now, my phone has my back, even tho I’m at Target. And during that Target run, I’ll likely be checking my list. Currently it says “Magic erasers, bathroom wipes, avocados, grey hoodies, gift for dad, and eyeliner.” and I know that all of that stuff is on there, because I added them to Keep — on my laptop — this morning during a meeting in which I was “taking notes”. If you’re the kind of person who allows Google to save your passwords or you use google to log in to things, voila, that’s handled now. you’re logged in on everything.
BEST of all, you can Chromecast ANYTHING from a Pixel. And anything that you can’t (like Amazon Video) you can cast from your Chromebook. Chromecasting “Man In The High Castle” from a Mac is a grainy, pixelated (pardon the pun) experience that does service to no one. Chromecasting from your Pixel, on the “cast screen” feature wont get more than 4 seconds into the intro. but casting Amazon Video from a Chromebook is a majestic experience that will open your eyes to true picture quality. Or at least, it doesn’t suck. At all. Like it’s really good. Okay, trust me, just try it.
Admittedly the Chromebook doesn’t have a ton of storage of built in. But you don’t need it. That’s what ~*~The Cloud~*~ is for. People keep asking me, “where are you going to store your music and photos?” To which I respond, “…um. On my phone, duh.” My pictures all live in the seemingly unlimited storage area that is Google photos and my music lives on Spotify. This isn’t 2011, Susan, I don’t need to actually store things, the internet does it for me. Duh.
When i told my dad and my uncles, three life time federal employees and all programmers, that I wanted a Chromebook, the scoffed and looked at me aghast. “You can’t even open a terminal window on that!!” they cried, over Thanksgiving dinner. “Right, that’s the point.” I’m 23 and I work at a start up as the office manger, customer support and marketing specialist, and linguist. We’re this close to really taking off, making some money, and hiring more engineers. If i play my cards right, the fact that I was born just too early to have coding skills be a mandatory part of my education won’t bite me in the ass. And then i won’t have to explain the whole sexism and gate-keeping thing to a bunch of dudes who all got comp-sci degrees.
But I digress. If your laptop usage only involves reading words, writing words, and using the internet for pictures, video and words, this combo will make your life so easy, for like a third of the cost of a similar Apple set up. It does all the things you need. It’s a ~$300, long battery life, actual keyboard having, pretty internet box. Rather than shelling out for another Mac that can’t do any of that technical shit anyway, just get this pretty cheap thing and it’ll last you at least as long as it takes to get to the next Apple launch.
BTW, I typed this on my chromebook. I’m gonna go edit it on my phone. Because they’re friends and they talk to each other.