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Save $299 to $549 on a certified, refurbished Pixelbook at Best Buy

Got a Pixelbook on your wishlist? If you’re OK with a certified, refurbished Chromebook, Best Buy has all three models available with savings ranging from $299 to $549. You won’t find these in retail stores, so you’ll have to order online if you’re interested.

Here’s the rundown on the models and pricing currently available:

  • $699.99 – Core i5 with 8GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage
  • $849.99 – Core i5 with 8GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage
  • $1,099.99 – Core i7 with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage

All models share the same 12.3-inch touchscreen with 2400 x 1600 resolution, folding keyboard for 2-in-1 mode, Pixelbook Pen support, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, 720p webcam, a pair of USB-C ports, headphone jack, backlit keyboard, expected 10 hour battery life and a 15 minute fast charge that adds up to 2 hours of run time.

Google is currently selling these at full price on its Store with the costs at $999, $1,199, and $1,599 respectively, so this is a significant savings from those prices.

Pixelbook angled

There are some things to keep in mind, however. The Google Pixelbook line uses seventh-generation Intel processors, and while they’re still very capable, there are newer Chromebooks with more recent CPUs. And while Google says all Pixelbooks use SSD for storage, only the highest price model uses a fast NVMe drive; the other two store data on slower eMMC memory.

And of course, these are refurbished devices. Here’s how Best Buy describes such products:

Occasionally, technology misbehaves right out of the box. Other products work as expected, but need some sprucing up (such as a new screen, battery or casing). Refurbished products are repaired and restored to a like-new state (may have minor scratches), either by one of Best Buy’s in-house repair centers, the manufacturer or a third-party refurbishment company. The products are verified to work properly and include all essential parts and accessories (original or comparable substitutes).

For these prices, there are several other very good, new Chromebook choices that have different features – such as larger displays, more current processors or more ports – such as the Lenovo Yoga Chromebook C630, Acer Chromebook Spin 13 and HP Chromebook X360, for example. So the real draw here is simply wanting Google-designed and branded hardware at a discounted price.

Make no mistake, the Pixelbook is a great Chromebook. I’ve owned every model of Google’s own Chromebooks and have been happy with all of them. And the automatic update expiration date for the Pixelbook is June 2024, so you’ll get another five years of Chrome OS updates. Still, it’s entirely possible that we see a newer Pixelbook model debut this fall, so keep that in mind before making the purchase decision.

author avatar
Kevin C. Tofel

3 thoughts on “Save $299 to $549 on a certified, refurbished Pixelbook at Best Buy

  1. $700 is still too much for a Pixelbook, which lacks both a card reader slot and a USB Type-A port. I wonder if the refurbs fix the notorious Bluetooth issues that have plagued these devices since they were introduced.

  2. It’s usually only wise to spend this kind of money on Google products straight from the Google Store. Unless best buy has a good extended service plan idk.

  3. These sound like either just meh deals or outrightbad deals, depending in part on a few issues:

    1) What kind of wtty is provided? If it is 90 days or less you’re sure to better buying from a highly rated seller on Swappa or even eBay.

    2) Are the batteries new? If not, these machines are likely to have 80% or less of their original battery capacity. Note that few if any use cases yielded Google’s promised 10 hours. I’ve had my Pixelbook (which I adore) for 18 months and I averaged 6-7 hrs with fairly conservative use in the beginning, but now it’s down to 5.5 hrs.

    Keep in mind that the base model has been on sale frequently for $750-$800 new so many Swappa sellers would be happy to sell a mint condition 1 yr old one for $550 or so.

    As for the Pixelbook vs newer models, it’s not clear to me that the “average” user will notice improvements from newer cpus, though in benchmarks the 8th gen quad core i5 15w Intel cpus are as much has 70% more powerful than the 4.5 watt 7th gen cpus in Pixelbooks for applications that are cpu-intensive and make use of 4 actual cores. For basic productivity tasks – including Chrome browsing with 20 tabs open – the base Pixelbook is lightning fast and feels snappier than Windows machines with i7 8th gen cpus. If one intends to use their Chromebook for cpu-intensive Linux apps, I’m sure the performance gain would be noticeable. But if onw is a power user, for equivalent money you could buy an 8th gen Windows laptop, like the Lenovo 730.

    I do at times miss an SD card slot at times, rarely a USB-A (both of which other Chromebook have.) Plus the poor back lighting of the PB has always irritated me, but it’s far from a deal killer.

    But here are important points to consider if you know you want a chromebook and you are willing to spend up to $700:

    1) the PB is the thinnest, lightest 12.3″ laptop of any kind

    2) The PB’s design and usability are, IMO (and many, many other owners) superior to any other laptop made – before or since. It is a gorgeous, pride-worthy piece of kit designed and made to more precise tolerances than any Mac ever made. The keyboard and trackpad are world class and the screen – while identical to several other premium CBs is 400 nits bright, 1440p resolution, nearly 100% s-rgb color gamut and a sheer delight. Some complain about the large bezels and audio quality is “fine,” but not great (though there are chrome and Android extensions/apps that improve audio substantially) but, beyond those minor (in my book) deficiencies, there is precious little to fault. In sum, the Pixelbook is the device that Apple would aim to make if it wanted to add a keyboard and trackpad to the iPad Pro. I doubt they would equal the design and quality benchmarks, though it would be awesome to mate Apple’s awesome internal hardware, superior app library and traditional endurance with the Pixelbook’s extraordinary design and user experience. As it is, the Pixelbook is the device I grab for nearly 9 times out of 10 for routine productivity tasks (which comprise 90% of what I use a computer for these days), though I have my pick of the newest, finest tablets and laptops available in 2019!

    This is a marvelous device and I strongly advise you try one out before spending $500-$800 on another chromebook. As nice and powerful as the Acer Spin 13, Lenovo 630 and other recent premium CB’s may be, I am hard pressed to recommend any over the Pixelbook as daily drivers for “typical” Chromebook usage. That goes for far more powerful – and costly – Windows laptops, the MacBook Air or any iPad Pro, as long as your application or performance requirements don’t exceed the Pixelbook’s still impressive performance and versatility. As a gadget freak with so many “toys,” I just keep going back to this awesome invention!

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