We’ve not been shy about reporting on the Pixelbook Go’s appeal since it was released a little over a month ago. I have zero issues telling anyone I talk to that it is the best Chromebook experience on the market right now even if the asking price is a tad bit high in some people’s opinions. I have no problem proclaiming that it is my favorite Chromebook ever made and that until some of the upcoming ‘Hatch’ Chromebooks hit the market, I’m not even considering buying anything other than it for my daily workflow.
But we’ve also been pretty blunt about the one big flaw the Pixelbook Go shipped with: the dreaded screen flicker. When I started seeing it at first, I thought I might be imagining things, but it was soon confirmed that I wasn’t. From our individual experiences here in the office and others online, it became quite clear that there was an issue with the Pixelbook Go and it wasn’t really getting better with any of the offered workarounds.
Up until yesterday, all we had was a promise that a fix would arrive in Chrome OS 79 and I’d actually pinned quite a bit of hope on those promises. After all, the bug didn’t cause anything to be broken, but when you are using a premium device you don’t expect to be distracted by your screen glitching out on a consistent basis. The stress of using the Pixelbook Go like this was was only compounded by the fact that I still felt like it was the best Chromebook out there and was still recommending it based on the fact that a fix was inbound very soon.
On both sides of the coin (as a user and one recommending this device to others) I’m overly excited to report that after a full day of testing, Google has erradicated the screen flicker issue from the Pixelbook Go with Chrome OS 79. Before the update, I’d see the flicker at least once every 5 minutes and I’ve now gone a full day without seeing a single issue.
The fix remedies the singular complaint I’ve had with the Pixelbook Go since launch and serves to make using it feel like a seamless, fully-enjoyable experience again. I know it is functionally a small thing, but seeing a visual fault over and over every day has a way of stealing the feeling of reliability of any device. With this removed, I feel so much more comfortable relying on my Pixelbook Go as my go-to Chromebook and it makes me want to recommend it to anyone interested that much more.