I've wanted Google to make a proper laptop OS for years, so I should be thrilled right now. Instead I'm a little grumpy. The first Googlebook laptops have been on sale for almost a month, the big reviews are in, and the verdict is pretty consistent: lovely hardware, smart phone tricks, and software that still feels like a beta with a $1,000 price tag. If you were hoping to buy one this holiday season, my honest advice is to hold off.
What is a Googlebook, exactly?
Quick refresher. Google said a couple of years ago that it would move its laptop platform off ChromeOS and onto Android. Googlebooks are the result. They look a lot like Chromebooks on the surface, but under the hood they run an Android-based OS built to work closely with your phone, with a heavy helping of Gemini on top.
According to The Verge, the first five models from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo went on sale on October 4th. This week, Engadget published both a deep look at the Googlebook OS and a review of the Lenovo Googlebook 15, and that's what pulled me back into this story.
The hardware is the easy part
Every review I've read agrees on this. The laptops themselves are nice. Engadget's Nathan Ingraham did most of his testing on the $1,299 Asus Googlebook 14, which weighs 2.2 pounds and has an OLED touchscreen with Corning's Gorilla Matte glass to cut reflections. HP's Googlebook 14 runs on a Snapdragon X Elite chip and costs $1,199. Dell has a compact XPS Googlebook at $999.
Lenovo's Googlebook 15 got a 7.9 out of 10 from Engadget, with praise for its 120Hz OLED screen, Intel chip and big haptic touchpad. The knock was battery life and, you guessed it, the OS.
The cheapest model you can buy right now is the Acer Googlebook 14 at $899. Read that again if you're a longtime Chromebook fan. The whole charm of ChromeOS was that a $400 laptop could handle your browser, your email and your kid's homework. Googlebooks start where a lot of MacBook Air and Windows ultrabook shopping begins.
The Googlebook OS still feels half-baked
Here's where my excitement deflates. The software has some head-scratching gaps, and they're not obscure power-user complaints.
The one that got me: Chrome tab groups don't sync to a Googlebook. They sync between Chrome on desktop, Android and iOS, but on Google's own new laptop platform, they just don't show up. Engadget says Google plans to add it in a future update. That's a basic feature on a product whose whole reason to exist used to be "it runs Chrome really well."
Installing web apps in their own windows also didn't work at first in Engadget's testing, though a later Chrome update fixed it. And a few handy ChromeOS bits, like the calendar and Google Tasks view you got by clicking the clock, are gone.
Ars Technica's review put it bluntly in the headline: Android on a laptop is still Android. Reviewer Ryan Whitwam, who has used Android since the start, said he didn't feel more productive on a Googlebook than on a Chromebook. When the target audience is "people who love Android" and a guy who has loved Android forever isn't sold, that's a signal.
The app problem never went away
This part isn't really new. Android apps on big screens have been a sore spot since the Play Store first showed up on Chromebooks about a decade ago. Lots of developers still ship apps that just stretch a phone layout across a laptop display.
Engadget's example is Slack. The desktop and web versions give you that multi-column view you need on a busy day, while the Android app shows one pane at a time no matter how much screen you have. Google's own apps like Keep, Calendar and Photos behave much better, and some third-party apps like Spotify and Todoist look right at home. But if your work depends on something like Premiere or Logic Pro, a Googlebook isn't an option at all.
The phone stuff is genuinely cool
I don't want to be all doom here, because the best idea in Googlebooks is a really good one. Google is finally trying to build the kind of phone-and-laptop teamwork Apple users have enjoyed for years.
You can open apps from your phone in their own window on the laptop and resize them. If you're halfway through a Gmail draft on your phone, an icon pops up on the laptop's taskbar so you can finish it on a real keyboard. Your phone even shows up as a drive in the Files app, which is great for grabbing screenshots or voice memos. Ars notes these "Better Together" features lean on an Android 17 phone, so older phones get less out of the deal.
There's even a "Link to iOS" app that pulls in SMS, RCS and iMessage conversations from an iPhone. It's limited, though. Engadget found group chats don't work and you only get text, no images. Still, I didn't expect Google to throw iPhone owners any bone at all.
The catch, again, is reliability. The Verge's take was basically that when this stuff works well, it's awesome. The word doing the heavy lifting there is "when." Engadget saw the handoff shortcut fail to appear at times, and Ars called out bugs with phone connectivity.
Gemini is along for the ride
The headline AI feature is Magic Pointer. Wiggle the cursor and you can select chunks of your screen, even several at once, then ask Gemini to do something with them, like turning a date in an email into a calendar event. Rambler cleans up your dictation, cutting out the "ums" and your mid-sentence changes of heart.
These are fine. Some reviewers liked them more than others. My favorite detail is that Engadget asked a Googlebook to build a weather widget, and it confidently claimed sunset in Massachusetts was around 9:51PM, in late October. AI, everybody.
Google is also throwing in a year of GeForce Now's Fast Pass tier, which gets you up to 50 hours of cloud gaming a month. That's a nice sweetener for a platform that isn't going to run serious games locally.
Should you buy a Googlebook right now?
For most people, no. Not yet. Here's how I'd think about it:
- Buy one if you're deep in Android, live in Google's apps, and you're the kind of person who enjoys early-adopter quirks.
- Wait if you mostly want a great laptop for the money. At $1,000 or more, a MacBook Air or a good Windows machine simply runs more software.
- Keep your Chromebook if it still does the job. Nothing here makes it obsolete overnight.
I'm honestly hopeful about where this goes. Running the same core software on phones and laptops should make Google's life easier and could make the two work together much more smoothly over time. Engadget expects Googlebooks to eventually replace ChromeOS entirely, which means cheaper models should show up down the road. When there's a solid $500 Googlebook with a few more software updates behind it, I'll be first in line to recommend one.
Right now, though, you'd be paying flagship prices to be a beta tester. Google should be the one paying for that.
Googlebook FAQ
Is a Googlebook the same as a Chromebook?
Not quite. It looks similar, but a Googlebook runs Google's newer Android-based laptop OS instead of ChromeOS, with deeper ties to your Android phone and more Gemini features built in.
How much does a Googlebook cost?
The cheapest launch model is the Acer Googlebook 14 at $899. Others include Dell's XPS Googlebook at $999, HP's Googlebook 14 at $1,199 and Asus's Googlebook 14 at $1,299.
Can a Googlebook run Android apps?
Yes. It runs apps from the Play Store plus web apps through Chrome. The problem is that many Android apps still aren't designed for big screens.
Do I need an Android phone to use one?
No, but you'll miss a lot of the point without one. The best features, like app casting and handoff, are built around a recent Android phone. iPhone owners get a more limited messaging link.
So what about you? Would you pay $900 or more for an Android laptop today, or are you waiting for Google to clean up version one? Tell me in the comments.
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