Chromebook Pixel laptop a better deal for heavy Google Drive users

Google came out with its own laptop computer last week, but critics quickly blasted its hefty price tag of $1,299 to $1,449.

Though the Chromebook Pixel is far from being the only computer to cost that much, other laptops in the price range offer far more capabilities. It also has a big drawback; user’s can’t install software. Instead, all programs run in the cloud and users have to access them through the Google Chrome Web browser.

For many, the hefty price tag and the limited capabilities are two key factors against buying the laptop.

But for at least one small group of Google Drive cloud-based storage service users, buying the laptop could mean a savings of $500.

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With the purchase of the Chromebook Pixel, Google includes 1 terabyte, or 1,000 gigabytes, of storage in the cloud for three years.

Currently, Google offers that much cloud storage through its Google Drive service at a price of $50 per month.

That means existing Google Drive users that pay for 1 TB of storage per month would pay $1,800 over the course of three years.

But if they were to buy the $1,299 laptop, they would have the same storage for three years for free, saving them $500.

Of course, users can save a lot more if they were willing to give up the convenience of a cloud service and just buy a $65 1 TB Toshiba external hard drive.

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