Review: New Chromebook Pixel is still lovely hardware with limited appeal

Chromebooks are cheap. They work best that way. It's rare to find one north of $400, and the sweet spot is between $200 and $300. While they've got shortcomings, the cost is reasonable for what you get. In some cases, the limitations are even desirable.

Only one Chromebook has truly gone against that grain-the Chromebook Pixel. It was the polar opposite of every other device bearing the name. The Pixel was high-quality hardware where others are low-rent, but even though it cost five times what you could pay for a regular Chromebook it didn't really do much more. It's a laptop as nice as it is niche.

Now, two years later, Google is back with a second Pixel. The outside is mostly the same, which is a good thing. The inside gets a big upgrade courtesy of new Intel Broadwell processors, also a good thing. And even though at $999 the price remains high relative to other Chromebooks, it's still $300 cheaper than the original. That is certainly a good thing.

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