Pixel Book

The Pixel Book is a very reduced and smart product with a unique and iconic appearance

Pixel 1 World // Pixel Hub // Pixel Desk // Pixel Mouse // Pixel Keyboard // Pixel Book // Pixel VR // Pixel VR Controller

The Ultimate Mobile Solution

A mobile computer with no processing unit, memory and hard disk storage offers a more freedom in design than conventional devices. The Pixel Book is a very flat notebook with a simple hinge, a 16: 9 screen and the latest communication technology. As all Pixel World devices, the notebook accesses the computing power, programs and data of the Pixel 1 World. As a result, the Pixel Book consumes fewer energy while providing more space for the battery and allowing for way longer mobile working hours.

If you want to learn more about how Google Pixel World differenciates from the current situation, click here.

Full Size Arrow Keys

The keyboard follows an uncompromized design language. Usual keyboards without number pad include clinched, often half sized arrow keys, which is a real downside for small keyboards.

I developed a keyboard layout that includes full size arrow keys and adds four buttons at the side to serve special Android OS purposes like a Screenshot or a Switch Tabs button.

Interaction

The surface of the Pixel Book is covered with Jacquard by Google textile and provides touch sensitive properties over the entire fabric surface. Just like the Pixel Mouse, the Pixel Book is also equipped with Googles touchless hand tracking sensor Soli.

Sound Bar

Under the fabric surface, at the top part of the base unit, you can find the speaker drivers of the Pixel Book. The textile provides the opportunity for a rich sound experience since it allows for sound to travel without blocking. A wide open speaker grill covered with textile is the best way to hide speakers and enjoy high quality sound.

Universal Ports

The Pixel book is equipped with one USB-C port on each side. Both ports serve as data transfer or charging port.

Market Research

During my reasearch I found two products, that follow a similar idea. Nexdock is the pioneer on this behalf. The Nexdock notebook works with Android and a couple of phones from Huawei and Samsung that support a feature called Desktop Mode, which seems to come with the upcoming Android update Android Q, as well.

The second product is developed by Miraxess. The Notebook works with a couple of operation systems including Samsung‘s Desktop mode, Windows 10 Continuum, Raspberry pie, Windows computer sticks, Ubuntu and others.

Process

The Pixel Book is the last product that I designed for the Pixel World. The design language that was formed by the previous design concepts determined many of the Pixel Book’s appearance. It is a mix of different design elements that we already saw at the Pixel Phone, Desk, the Mouse, Keyboard, Hub and Pixel VR.

The keyboard layout is the same as the Pixel Desk Keyboard. We saw the touch sensitive Jacquard fabric and Soli inplementation at the Pixel Mouse and VR and the wide simple textile surface design on mostly all other devices, but especially on the Mouse.
The display design that is aligned to the top leaves some space underneath the display. This design decision has its origin in the Pixel Desk’s sound bar design.

The overall simple rounded design is part of the Pixel World design language and thus a part of all products including the Pixel Book.