Google appears to be full-steam ahead with its Googlebook initiative, which is a new PC platform that combines the best bits of Android and ChromeOS into a single, unified desktop-class computing experience. At a recent media presentation, the tech giant unveiled the official name of the operating system — Googlebook OS — while also taking the wraps off of five hardware products running the OS.
These five devices consist of the HP Googlebook 14, the Dell XPS Googlebook, the Lenovo Googlebook 15, the Acer Googlebook 14, and the Asus Googlebook 14. Prices for these laptops start at $1,300, $1,200, $1,300, $900, and $1,300, respectively. Pre-orders for these machines are open as of September 21, with units making their way onto store shelves on October 4 in the US and October 5 in Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, and Australia.
“…every Googlebook features premium materials like aluminum, magnesium alloy, and carbon fiber. You’ll find responsive touchscreens with up to 2.8K OLED displays, haptic glass trackpads, and backlit keyboards. Under the hood, top-of-the-line processors from Intel and Qualcomm — paired with dedicated NPUs capable of over 45 TOPS — deliver snappy on-device performance and up to 14 hours of battery life,” says Google in a blog post.
By the sounds of it, this initial quintet of Googlebooks feature flagship-level components across the board, placing them in square competition with higher-end Microsoft Windows 11 PCs and Apple Mac computers. Each Googlebook also features a signature Glowbar positioned on the exterior, which lights up at startup, displays your battery charge level, and reacts as you talk to Gemini in real time (not unlike the HiLight feature found in Google’s recent Pro Pixel handsets).
The Googlebook platform looks promising
I can’t wait to try out Googlebook OS in person
The Googlebook platform is incredibly intriguing to me, as it melds together Android’s tech underpinnings with all the desktop work Google has done with ChromeOS over the years. This results in a hybrid computing experience that benefits from Android’s mobile efficiency and massive application support, while also supporting ChromeOS’ security architecture, its desktop-class Chrome web browser with support for extensions and plug-ins, as well as its 10 years of software update support in addition to regular feature drops.
Googlebook OS features full-fat desktop foundations, the native Android stack, the Linux Kernel, support for both x86 and ARM computing architectures, and Google Titan security at the hardware level. It also comes with out-of-the-box support for Gemini Intelligence, including Magic Pointer (for context-aware on-screen AI assistance), Rambler (for improved speech-to-text dictation) and Create My Widget (for building home screen widgets using natural language prompts).
Of course, Googlebook OS still has its work cut out for it.
By being built on a shared Android foundation, Google says that Googlebooks are designed to work with Android-powered smartphones at an overarching level with advanced integrations. For example, Continue On lets you switch between phone and laptop without missing a beat, the desktop Files app will display your phone’s files in-line, and Cast My Apps will let you beam your phone’s applications right onto your Googlebook PC. If these ecosystem continuity features work as advertised, they might just rival those found across Apple devices, which is an exciting proposition.
Of course, Googlebook OS still has its work cut out for it. Whether the platform is embraced by consumers or not will depend on if desktop-class programs like full Photoshop make their way to the Play Store, and I reckon it’ll take developers some time and some serious convincing to port over their Windows and Mac applications to an untested rival operating system. That being said, I’m happy to see some more competition in the PC space, and I hope that the Googlebook initiative is a success simply to inject some liveliness into the pre-existing Microsoft and Apple market duopoly.
