Google announced on Wednesday that its new Chromebook Pixel will incorporate two USB Type-C ports in addition to two USB 3.0 ports, with an improved Chrome software and battery life as compared to its predecessors. It will also have a microSD card reader and headphone jack.
More apps, such as Skype, will also be available on the new Chromebook Pixel.
Mac users will probably be familiar with USB Type-C ports: they caused quite a fair bit of chaos when it was announced earlier this week that they would be incorporated into the upcoming MacBook. And according to Android Authority, we have Google to thank for working with the USB Implementers Forum to create the new industry standard.
The Pixel comes in two variants: an Intel Core i5 model with 8GB RAM and 32GB storage will come at a starting price of $999, while the higher-powered model, priced at $1300, runs on the Intel Core i7 with double the RAM and storage.
Adam Rodriguez, Product Manager at Google, hinted at their plans to make this available to all Android devices. This is exciting news for Android users, as the port will provide 100W of power, 10Gbps of high speed data as well as output display. Moreover, it is reversible, so you will always be able to plug in the USB on the first try.
To put things into perspective, this means it’ll fill your empty laptop battery to the brim in 1.5 hours, enable file transfers at double the speed of present USB Type-B ports, and save you the extra effort of untangling yet another wire to plug into a separate port for display output on a second screen.
With the USB Type-C, Mac and Android users will also be able to borrow chargers from each other, unifying multiple cables across various devices into one. Aww…look at us finally finding common ground.
The Pixel is clearly a winner in many ways, but the USB Type-C port is just the icing on the cake.