Playing with a Pixelbook

I’ve never been tremendously happy with the Tab S3 I got before leaving Samsung; it’s never been tremendously performant (which I’ve always found rather strange; the older 8″ Tab S2 I use for reading has always been quite snappy), and Samsung doesn’t have the best track record for timely updates of its tablets (or its phones, frankly, but particularly its tablets).

So when Google discounted the Pixelbook by 30% as part of its Thanskgiving sales, I decided to pick one up. I considered waiting a few weeks for a Pixel Slate instead, but I’m more interested in the Pixelbook as a device I can use for work instead of my 15″ laptop when traveling (the thing is, quite frankly, a brick). With the Pixelbook, I get a real keyboard instead of a more limited keyboard cover. Plus I can set it up with both work and personal accounts, so I can bring a single device and use it for both purposes (previously I’ve traveled with both a work laptop and a personal tablet).

So far setting up the Pixelbook has been pretty smooth. Google has good instructions on setting up a personal Chromebook to access work services, and the Android integration with Chrome OS is fairly good so far (although I haven’t really pushed on it too much yet). I installed Linux and set up Android Studio so I can prototype. And I’m working on making the transition to Kotlin, so I installed the Kotlin compiler too.

I’m still working on finding the right balance between web services and Android apps; I suspect it’ll be an evolutionary process as I get more experience. So far I’ve been leaning more heavily on web services, but that’s largely because I’m mainly been using the Pixelbook for work so far.

Oh, and so far the keyboard is great.