It offers good design and performance for a better price.

- Melissa Riofrio

Google’s Pixelbook Go is a perfectly good Chromebook, and that’s exactly what the company set out to create.

Eight years into the Chromebook’s existence, the category is still dominated by small, super-cheap laptops. Google has previously tried to inspire greater things with halo models—the super-premium Chromebook Pixel of 2013, and the stylish Pixelbook of 2017. But most users couldn’t or wouldn’t pay for them. “We heard loud and clear that people loved the design and wanted a lower price,” said Matt Vokoun, Google’s Senior Director of Product Management for Create Hardware.

Enter the Pixelbook Go, a laptop with a careful balance of quality features and economical compromises. Its $649 starting price (via Google) is still somewhat high—and the top-end model will cost $1,399. Still, it could bolster a sparse “middle class” of Chromebooks that’s still struggling for traction. And it’s a darn sight better than the typical bare-bones model. If you’re committed to the Chromebook universe, this is a laptop worth buying.

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PIXELBOOK GO SPECS AND FEATURES

As befits a midrange laptop, the Pixelbook Go comes with good- or better-quality components in reasonable amounts. For instance, while many low-cost Chromebooks come with a measly 4GB of RAM, all versions of the Pixelbook Go come with at least 8GB. Also, low-end Chromeboo