- 50 minutes ago
Google’s new Googlebook lineup aims to bring premium laptops to Android users, and the big story is how tightly these machines connect with your phone. I got hands-on with five models from Acer, Dell, Asus, Lenovo, and HP, each with its own design, but all sharing the same Googlebook software and signature glow bar. Prices start around $900, putting them squarely against premium Windows laptops and MacBooks rather than budget Chromebooks.
Inside, the Googlebook runs a familiar Chrome OS-style interface with a stronger Android foundation, Material 3 Expressive design, Play Store app support, and new AI features like Create My Widget, Magic Pointer, Quick Insert, and smarter voice typing. The hardware is just as serious, with aluminum, magnesium, or carbon fiber builds, 2.5K or higher touch displays, Intel Core Ultra or Snapdragon X processors, at least 16GB of RAM, and up to 10 years of automatic updates.
Google says these laptops are built for productivity, content creation, and everyday use, not hardcore gaming. I also spoke with Google’s laptop lead about the idea behind the light bar and why Gemini is meant to help only when you need it. For anyone searching for a Googlebook review, Chromebook alternative, Android laptop, premium laptop hands-on, or Google AI laptop demo, this is the key first look at Google’s newest laptop category.
Inside, the Googlebook runs a familiar Chrome OS-style interface with a stronger Android foundation, Material 3 Expressive design, Play Store app support, and new AI features like Create My Widget, Magic Pointer, Quick Insert, and smarter voice typing. The hardware is just as serious, with aluminum, magnesium, or carbon fiber builds, 2.5K or higher touch displays, Intel Core Ultra or Snapdragon X processors, at least 16GB of RAM, and up to 10 years of automatic updates.
Google says these laptops are built for productivity, content creation, and everyday use, not hardcore gaming. I also spoke with Google’s laptop lead about the idea behind the light bar and why Gemini is meant to help only when you need it. For anyone searching for a Googlebook review, Chromebook alternative, Android laptop, premium laptop hands-on, or Google AI laptop demo, this is the key first look at Google’s newest laptop category.
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TechTranscript
00:00So I had the chance to check out the Google book laptops Google's new lineup of premium laptops and here's
00:05everything you need to know
00:06First off these aren't directly replacing all those Chromebooks
00:09I mean instead they're a more premium tier of laptops that you can get and there's not just one model
00:14to choose from instead
00:15There are five different ones from five different manufacturers each with its own design spec sheet and features
00:21But the software is still pretty much the same across the board and they've all got a glow bar on
00:26the front of the laptop
00:27So you can tell that it's a Google book. So when I was there, I got to see all the
00:30different models
00:31There's an Acer one that's basically a full convertible so you can flip it around and use it as a
00:35tablet
00:36Dell has a really nice one too with a really clean looking design similar to their XPS models
00:42Asus had the lightest laptop of the bunch weighing around one kilogram
00:45Lenovo brought a nice minimal design and they even created an AI mouse to go along with it and HP
00:50just kept it really minimal and simple
00:52So the hardware really ranges across the board, but what they all have in common is again the software
00:56Inside of it and that glow bar now
00:59I'll get to the specs towards the end of the video
01:01But they're all starting around 900 bucks
01:03So they're clearly going up against premium Windows and MacBook laptops rather than cheap Chromebooks
01:08And I'll even try to link them in the YouTube cards so that way you can check them out for
01:12yourselves
01:12Now on the inside for the software
01:14They're all running that familiar Chrome OS look but with a much heavier Android foundation
01:19Like it now has that material through expressive design it connects way better with your Android phone
01:23Which I'll get into it still supports millions of Play Store apps
01:27And there are some pretty neat new exclusive AI features built inside which I really loved
01:30Here's one of my favorites
01:32All right
01:32So one of the coolest new features on the Google book is create my widget where you're able to create
01:37Your own widgets essentially so right here is a button you're gonna try that you click it
01:42You can see all the items and explore categories that you have here weather important dates, but we're gonna start
01:47from scratch
01:48So I'm going to describe a widget that works best to be able to create it
01:51The widget I'm going to do is going to be create me a widget
01:56That lets me know
01:59When to wear a sweater based on the weather when it's too cold outside
02:07Okay, so let's do that. Let's see. Let's see what it comes up with
02:12Just sweater weather oh look at that no sweater needed
02:18Okay, and then I'm going to add it to the home screen. I like the shape that it made actually
02:22I'm going to drag it over here
02:25Wow really well
02:27Wow, so you're able to like resize it
02:29I'll bet
02:31Bring my widgets
02:31Plus like I said these new Google books work a lot better with your Android smartphone
02:35So normally the laptop has its own set of apps right but once you connect your phone
02:40You'll actually see this new app drawer that just shows you all the same apps that you have installed on
02:44your phone
02:45And then you can instantly open them on your computer basically casting them over and letting you control them really
02:50easily
02:50It's super nice, but even crazier. Let's say I snap a picture on my phone
02:54Literally a few seconds later
02:56It'll sink over that photo to the laptop so I can open it up right then and there too
03:00And that includes all the files on your phone. They'll instantly be synced over to the laptop
03:04So you don't need to constantly use something like quick share or plug in a cable to transfer everything
03:09It's right then and there ready to go
03:11Even if you're not close to your laptop to like you're out and about but your laptop's home
03:15Everything will still sync up
03:17There's also continue on
03:19Let's say you start doing something on an app on your phone and then decide that you want a bigger
03:23screen
03:24Like you're editing a google document
03:25Well when you open up your google book
03:27You can actually recommend that same app and bring you right back to where you left off that one's super
03:32nice
03:32There's also a couple of other amazing ai features that I loved on the google books
03:36You've got magic pointer basically whenever you have a question about something on your screen
03:40You can just wiggle your mouse cursor and gemini will appear so you can highlight and draw over the image
03:45or text or whatever
03:46You've got on your screen that you're wondering about and then you can literally ask gemini anything about it
03:52It's kind of like the same idea with circular search on android
03:55But this time you just wiggle your cursor and you can bring it up highlight something and ask away
04:00It's great and it didn't stop there
04:02There's also quick insert which is kind of like a universal search engine with quick access to your clipboard history
04:08Emojis images and a lot more and one of my top favorites is that it's got rambler built into the
04:13voice typing
04:14So you can basically talk to your laptop much more freely mess up your wording change your language
04:18And it'll clean it up into a nicely written message just like on the latest pixel 11 phones
04:23And then of course you're getting the google play store where you can access all the millions of apps that
04:27are pretty much already available on your phone
04:29Google even mentioned that they work closely with certain developers to just make sure that some of their apps are
04:33actually optimized for a laptop
04:35Instead of just stretching out that app
04:37So they'll properly work with things like your keyboard mouse and resizable windows
04:41These apps include adobe capca whatsapp netflix disney plus and hbo max and lastly these google books will get 10
04:49years of automatic updates
04:50Which is awesome. So that's basically the software on these google books
04:53Now whether all these ai features actually work as seamlessly as google made it to look during the presentation
04:58It's obviously something that i'm going to have to find out when these laptops come out
05:02I'm especially curious about app compatibility
05:04How good android apps actually feel with the mouse and keyboard
05:07What the battery life is going to be like in the real world and whether that magic pointer becomes something
05:12that you can generally use every day
05:14Now i'm not going to lie
05:15Even though gemini is a very powerful model that i'm more than happy to use on these google books
05:19I might find myself sometimes just jumping between different models to figure out which one can give me the best
05:24answer
05:25So to quickly access the best models in one place i've now been using mammoth the sponsor of this video
05:30Instead i can just type my question or command into this prompt and then i can choose which model i
05:35want to use
05:35I can use chat gpt clod gemini grok kimmy perplexity and more and these are pro models too
05:42So you'll need to pay 10 a month with yearly billing but it still comes out a lot cheaper than
05:47paying 20 to 30 dollars
05:49For each different subscription separately for each model and it works really well too spitting out the responses extremely fast
05:54And even if i pick one and i get a response that i'm just not happy with
05:58I can quickly re-prompt it with another model like chat gpt or clod right then and there from a
06:03drop down menu
06:04Plus i can even access image models like nano banana gpt image grok image and more and i can upload
06:11files too
06:11including pdfs spreadsheets powerpoints and more to just analyze and work with them easily
06:16There's even an agentic mode for more complicated tasks like deeper research or generating and editing documents
06:22So if you already use a bunch of different ai tools and want everything under one roof check out mammoth
06:27with the link down below
06:28Now what about the hardware side of things with the google books like how premium are these laptops actually going
06:33to be?
06:33Well apparently google is also being pretty strict about what can even qualify as a google book
06:37First off here are all the specs for each laptop as you can see they all vary but they have
06:42a lot of similarities as well
06:44Like every model uses premium materials like aluminum magnesium or carbon fiber
06:49And the displays are all 2.5k resolution or even higher with both really bright lcd and oled options available
06:55They're all touchscreen too which i really like because they make the whole experience feel a little closer to using
07:00your phone or tablet
07:01And depending on which laptop that you go with you'll either be getting an intel core ultra 3
07:065 or 7 or qualcomm snapdragon xle processors
07:10Google also says the mpus inside can push more than 45 tops for handling ai tasks locally
07:16And every google book starts with at least 16 gigabytes of ram with some models being upgradable
07:20to 32 gigabytes
07:22And they will also have 256 gigabytes to around 512 gigabytes or more
07:27of ssd storage so these definitely aren't meant to be little chromebook style web machines google
07:33clearly wants these to be powerful enough for things like development content creation and heavy multitasking
07:37However for gaming these aren't going to be the best choice to begin with they don't have a dedicated standalone
07:43graphics card
07:44built inside of them so i wouldn't buy one expecting rtx level performance or anything like that
07:49But still it'll come with all those thousands of games on the play store
07:52So it should be able to handle those titles at the very least
07:55Battery life sounds pretty solid too google is claiming around 14 hours or more of video playback
08:00and 16 hours of web browsing
08:02Now those are definitely numbers i want to test out first for myself before getting too excited because
08:07Real world battery life is obviously going to be a completely different story depending on what i'm actually going to
08:13be doing
08:13But in my full review i'll be sure to let you guys know so make sure you get subscribed so
08:17you don't miss out on that
08:18From there at the event i also had an amazing opportunity to interview john solomon who's the general manager for
08:24laptops and google books at google
08:26And here's what he had to say we're at google's event for the google book i'm here with john solomon
08:31uh
08:31He's the general manager for uh google books uh super excited to be here great to meet you you know
08:37This is an important really important moment for us
08:40Yeah absolutely i mean you guys are pushing the market now with with google books being the premium laptops
08:46Yeah absolutely i mean i think for the longest time there hasn't been a premium laptop
08:52For your android phone user i've always had to make kind of compromises on what laptop they used
08:58So we're super excited to serve this market with a with a laptop that we think really delivers on the
09:04modern
09:06Possibilities and you know the thing that we've tried to do with gemini and i really feel like the team's
09:11done a great job is
09:12Nobody likes ai to be like in your face
09:14But we wanted to be there when you need it so for example on that magic pointer or on the
09:21quick insert
09:21It's just you it's the right click away and it's like hey
09:26Can i help you or something but if if i don't need gemini's help gemini is not going to be
09:32Available yeah not when you need it
09:34Just when you need it when you need it
09:35What would you say the google book is more geared towards you think it's more towards uh creators students uh
09:43businessmen
09:44I mean you can look at it different ways right i we already talked about the fact that it's for
09:49people to use an android file
09:50Right so that is a broad set of people um but i would say it's a gen what we've built
09:55here is like a general purpose computer
09:57Right it's not a if you're an extreme creator
10:01Right it's it's probably not your device right if you're an ex if you're like a hardcore gamer
10:07It's not your device but that's those are like tales of the
10:11The average jane or the average joe right once a computer to get productivity shut down
10:18Okay, yeah, they want to be able to be like you know what
10:21Open it up. I need to like I need to do a spreadsheet like I need to like map all
10:26this stuff up
10:26I gotta plan my vacation right right i need to do my taxes you know
10:31I gotta do something i got it i want to look at my photos and do a little photo editing
10:35I want to do a video right absolutely
10:37That is like that's what we built for one last thing then um with the light bar
10:42What was the idea behind you guys designing the light bar and yeah putting it on every google book
10:48device you know there were a couple of things um the first is we wanted a
10:55a symbol uh of like something unique so that when you walk into a coffee shop and you know meeting
11:02a friend or just like walking down or going in an airplane we wanted to be able to subtly show
11:08this is a different computer this isn't just like another windows device you know another
11:15something else so we were like we want something that is across all google books that you know
11:21this is one of these this is a remember this is a new category of laptop this isn't just like
11:26the next iteration of a chroma this is a whole new category of laptop right it's different thank you
11:34so much sean i appreciate it thank you for chatting and yeah i'm looking forward to see you using it
11:39and
11:40enjoying it yeah absolutely thanks so much awesome so overall i do really like the google books
11:44especially with how well they bring the android ecosystem together they just seem to work really
11:49well with android phones they also have some really smart useful ai features that i can't wait to try
11:53and the premium hardwares look amazing but of course the big question is are these laptops going
11:59to work as smoothly in everyday use as it did during google's demos especially when you're paying around
12:04900 or more for one of these things and at that price there's there's some seriously good windows
12:10laptops and macbooks that you can get but i'll definitely be getting my hands on one of these
12:14so make sure to get subscribed so that way you see my real world use and review also pre-orders
12:18have
12:19already opened up and they'll be on shelves on october 4th 2026 so if you've been wanting an android
12:23focus alternative to a traditional windows laptops or macbook i would definitely keep my eyes on these
12:29anyway if you want to keep watching tap this video right here where i go over 15 useful tech gadgets
12:33under 100 bucks that'll make your life even easier thanks so much for sticking around to the end and
12:38i'll catch you guys in the next one kapow