What Features I Want For Pixelbook 2 (2019)

The rumor mill has started about the next Pixelbook (codenamed Atlas?) and I am super excited. In order to launch a few projects of my own I recently bought a Pixelbook 1 and while I love the device, I could be a bit happier if a few features were updated. Here is my wishlist.

Features to change

Updated screen

Rumor has it that a 4K panel will be coming on the Atlas device and I think this would be a bad choice. The current Pixelbook screen is a 2400x1600 (3:2) IPS display and I really appreciate the aspect ratio. Unfortunately, the industry completely disagrees and definitely prefers the 16:9 aspect ratio. With the iPad Pro remaining boxy even in its latest iteration I think asking the same of the Pixelbook 2 is acceptable. I am hoping for a 4:3 display somewhere around 250 ppi with a 15 inch diagonal.

Also why are we not seeing IPS screens with a matte finish? This should be an obvious improvement.

Screen Refresh

The newest phones are updated to 120 hz displays and I see no reason for the next Pixelbook to deviate from the trend. If you have never had the chance to experience a 120+ hz display, please go to your nearest technology store and scroll through this article. If you do not see a notable improvement on the faster panel, I would recommend looking into making the trip to an eye doctor to make sure everything is ok.

Larger form factor

Speaking of that 15" diagonal... this needs to happen. If a larger form factor is realized it would enable several enhancing features:

  1. Larger trackpad
  2. More wrist room beside the trackpad
  3. More room around the keyboard
  4. Active cooling for the CPU and PCB

My work computer is a 15" Macbook Pro and I love it as well. Productivity loves a bigger screen and a bigger screen opens up all sorts of possibilities.

Larger trackpad

I like the smooth feel of the glass trackpad but it needs to be about a half inch bigger on each side. The edge to edge-ness makes it feel crammed in the current Pixelbook chassis and that leads to a bit of uncertainty that my fingers won't just slide right off the bottom of the clamshell. Better palm rejection, better tap to click, and swiping gestures would be appreciated.

Full size arrow keys

Right now I need to look directly at the arrow key I want to press in order to hit it. Please please please fix this in the next Pixelbook. Please.

Active cooling for the CPU and PCB

Right now the processor is specced at a 4.5-7W chip. This is a huge testament to Chrome OS for the optimizations it has regarding low-power devices. That being the case though I think the Pixel team would help everyone out if the flagship Chrome OS device had a 4 core (8 thread) 15W processor with active cooling. The additional usable performance would be a great top line for the industry and would become even more useful when graphically-accelerated applications are enabled through Crostini.

Thunderbolt 3

USB-C is the future. Hidden in that message is Thunderbolt 3. I am expecting 2-4 TB3 ports on the next Pixelbook to enable things like external graphics and storage solutions. This is a bit counter-intuitive for a "cloud" device but I think as Crostini grows, more and more devices will have a use case for externally connected devices. At the very least this would enable more monitors to be used at once.

With WebAssembly support growing will we see Vulkan graphics support included?

Features to keep

As important as it is to add features it is equally as important to not break things that are not already broken.

Display that is not edge-to-edge

I cannot fathom the need for an edge-to-edge screen besides the ability to say you have an edge-to-edge screen. When an edge-to-edge screen is possible without decreasing the display and glass strength I will happily accept the feature. Until then I would absolutely prioritize the strengh of the display assembly so when I drop the device I will not have to immediately buy a new one.

Keyboard size

The keyboard size feels right (besides the arrow keys). I am sure that minor tweaks could made to make it just a bit better but even if they increase the size of the display and chassis I would not mind keeping the keyboard about the same size as it is currently.

Headphone jack?

The hype has gone but will never be forgotten. I just started using the USB-C headphones included with the Pixel 3 and I absolutely love them but I understand those who have very expensive headphones that need the headphone jack. I would recommend that they invest in Razer's USB-C adapter because it is excellent.

Eagerly Waiting

The original Pixelbook was announced October 4th, 2017. I believe that Google has harnessed the power of running its own launch events after watching Apple closely. For this reason I would not expect any trade show launches. While the "developer-focused Chromebook" is still a bit of an experiment, I would not expect an announcement at the next Chrome Dev Summit (November 2019?). The ChromeOS platform is user-agnostic and announcing a user-agnostic device at a developer summit would not make sense.

I would not be surprised if we need to wait until October of 2019 for the next Google device announcement event. With the amount of rumors we can see floating around about the device, it should be wrapping up development soon. I hope there is time to address some of this wishlist.