Pixel Slate #2: Why No Review Yet?

I've been trying to wait until I receive this complete Pixel Slate Chromebook system before even thinking about posting my thoughts on it and that hasn't happened yet.  I've received the Slate itself and the Google Pen but not the keyboard.  It's Monday, June 1st as I write and post this and a Best Buy help desk employee claims I will receive the keyboard tomorrow on Tuesday.  Tracking info online for this item has been non-existent.  Like, literally, UPS tracking info claims they haven't even picked up the item yet while Best Buy says it shipped last week.  That employee swears I have nothing to worry about and that I should just give it another 24 hours.

In the meantime, my use of this tablet has been mostly wonderful.  Watching videos of the device before I received it, the tablet itself looked kind of chunky and thick to me.  Because it's almost 12.5 inches, it also looked a little unwieldy.  Was that because I've never held in my hands a tablet that large?

As it turns out, probably.  Using this tablet for the past week has been great and is often the case, the camera was adding 50 pounds to this device's girth.  In person, it's sleek, sexy and most important, light.  It's exactly 25.6 ounces or 1.5 pounds and actually feels lighter than that while holding it.

Another thing I worried about was the Intel processor inside.  We're talking about the M3 CPU, a chipset I knew nothing about.  Despite coming with 8 GB of RAM, would this processor be enough to power this large tablet with the breathtaking 3,000 x 2,000 resolution display?  From my early use, it seems yes.

While the model does offer i5 and i7 Intel variations, I chose the less powerful M3 for two reasons:

1)  This 2 in 1 portable Chromebook was not going to be my main computer system and in fact, be used mostly as a portable tablet.  All I wanted was for something that would demolish any mobile app I threw at it.  

2)  Best Buy was offering a deal on this specific model that was impossible to refuse: the tablet alone at almost half price with the $300 keyboard and Google Pen accessories thrown in for free.  An $1,100 computer system for less than the cost of a mid-range iPad Air.  Yeah, it was an offer I couldn't refuse and after actually holding the tablet in my hands, looking at it's high resolution display with my own eyes and watching it run lots of different programs and apps from the Play store, I've not regretted taking that deal.  Like Fredo in the boat, something can still sneak up on me and surprise me violently but... I don't think so.  The thing runs almost like a dream.

Other off-the-cuff thoughts:

The tablet holds a charge for a long time.  Like, a long, long time.  After charging it to 100% when I first received it, it's at 50% after a week of performing every kind of task: browsing, downloading and installing and running fairly demanding games and apps.

It shuts down and restarts up to front desktop like nothing I've seen.  Seriously, doing either feels almost instant, faster than my beloved Amazon Kindles, even.  But as the core of an $1,100 system, I guess it should, right?

Mini FAQ's

Why did you get a Chromebook?

Price; see above.  Also, I wanted a new tablet and this was the smartest choice in my price range.

What could you possibly do with a Chromebook?

How many people do you know that never leave their browser window when using a computer?

Personally, when I get a new piece of electronics, the first thing I do is try to push it to its maximum performance.  How easy is it to find something to run that causes this device slowdown?  I ran Asphalt 8 and the most recent XCOM.  Having received the Google Pen in the package deal, I ran lots of note-taking apps and tried to take down the goddamned thing with scribbling.  Nothing I threw at it caused the slightest dip in framerate.

So I installed Linux on it.  Because what the fuck all else am I going to do with the country still closed and my hair looking like this, huh?