Google Pixelbook
Shares rank 23 of 63 laptops by recommenders
Owners praise its build quality, hardware design and long life, with many still using it years later. Common caveats are ChromeOS limits and battery problems.
Owners praise its build quality, hardware design and long life, with many still using it years later. Common caveats are ChromeOS limits and battery problems.
29 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 19
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 66%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 9 years
Median of the 5 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 19 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.9 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Still works years later
“My 9 year old Pixelbook is still supported and will continue to get updates for one more year!”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook” “Somehow I'm still using the Pixelbook today and it chugs along.”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook” “I use my 2016 pixelbook every day. Best laptop ever made.”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Google ending ChromeOS support two years early” - Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook”
- Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook”
Excellent build quality and hardware
“Sure, ChromeOS is fairly boxed in but the Linux VM was reasonably good and the built quality was just something else.”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook” “I loved the hardware design and the taller aspect ratio screen”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook” “I loved my Pixelbook, fantastic piece of hardware.”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook” Reasonable Linux support
“Sure, ChromeOS is fairly boxed in but the Linux VM was reasonably good and the built quality was just something else.”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook” “You can install linux on the old PixelBook or Chromebook Pixel.”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook” More usable than expected
“it was surprisingly much more usable than I had expected”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “A History of IDEs at Google” “surprisingly much more usable than I had expected”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “A History of IDEs at Google”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Recurring hardware and software problems
“there was too many small annoyances like needing to fix the keymap every time I did a clean install”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook” “They all suffered from severe hardware issues that got never fixed.”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook” “Feels like a languishing product that's also not stable.”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “US Schools Are Ditching Chromebooks for MacBooks by the Thousands” ChromeOS limits what it can do
“Sure, ChromeOS is fairly boxed in but the Linux VM was reasonably good and the built quality was just something else.”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook” “it had a lot of limitations, ChromeOS being the major one”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook” Battery swells or needs replacing
“the battery has started to significantly swell pushing the back panel apart”
Comment from 29 Nov 2025 in “An update on the Farphone's battery” “I would still be using the Pixelbook if I could have replaced its battery”
Comment from 7 May 2026 in “I switched from Mac to a Lenovo Chromebook, and you can too”
Other laptops people recommend
The four most recommended other laptops, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple MacBook Pro | 928 | 688 | 57% | 13 | 5 yrs248 owners | — |
| Apple MacBook Neo | 707 | 355 | 66% | 9 | 1 mo8 owners | — |
| MacBook Air | 633 | 209 | 75% | 12 | 5 yrs130 owners | Approved |
| Apple MacBook | 499 | 348 | 59% | 12 | 9 yrs77 owners | — |
| Google PixelbookThis page | 19 | 10 | 66% | 4 | 9 yrs5 owners | — |
What people said
29 of the 31 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I use my 2016 pixelbook every day. Best laptop ever made.”
“Feels like a languishing product that's also not stable.”
“great little device as far as thinness”
“They've done it before with the original Pixelbook”
“surprisingly much more usable than I had expected”
“it was surprisingly much more usable than I had expected”
“I wonder why they think this will go better than the Pixelbook did”
“You can install linux on the old PixelBook or Chromebook Pixel.”
“My 9 year old Pixelbook is still supported and will continue to get updates for one more year!”
“still receives regular Chrome OS updates”
“Sure, ChromeOS is fairly boxed in but the Linux VM was reasonably good and the built quality was just something else.”
“where "AI" merely means Google Assistant”
“it had a lot of limitations, ChromeOS being the major one”
“there was too many small annoyances like needing to fix the keymap every time I did a clean install”
“They all suffered from severe hardware issues that got never fixed.”
“I loved the hardware design and the taller aspect ratio screen”
“I really miss the Chromebook Pixel / Pixelbook”
“confused branding that Google has marketed Chromebooks, Pixelbooks, and Googlebooks”
“these laptops were awesome and IMO well ahead of their time”
“there just isn't really demand for an $1000 chromebook”
“Original Pixelbook was amazing and my fam still uses it.”
“I loved my Pixelbook, fantastic piece of hardware.”
“Somehow I'm still using the Pixelbook today and it chugs along.”
“Google loves to just remake the same-ish thing again in hopes of adoption.”
“it was one of the best laptops I ever had”
“After the Pixelbook, I don't think I'm giving their hardware another chance”
“I would still be using the Pixelbook if I could have replaced its battery”
“still has a better trackpad than 99% of PCs (including ones that cost way more money)”
“the battery has started to significantly swell pushing the back panel apart”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.