Android was designed for phones, but that hasn’t stopped Google from trying to adapt the OS and its apps to larger machines over the years. Googlebooks are just the latest attempt after tablets, Chromebooks, and foldables induced little change in how people interact with Android software. These new Android-powered laptops are designed to pick up where the web-focused ChromeOS left off, offering premium hardware and native support for Android apps.
Google sees Googlebooks as an alternative to Windows and macOS, but these platforms are entrenched with decades of software and UI conventions that keep users locked in. Googlebooks have to offer something very special to steal users away from either of the dominant operating systems. For devoted Android phone users, there are some cool things in Googlebook OS, but the Android roots of these machines are impossible to miss.
Sometimes it feels like using a Chromebook, and sometimes it feels like using a giant phone. It almost never feels like using a premium laptop, and that’s the problem. While there were a few premium Chromebooks, the platform was really only successful in the budget segment.
With Googlebooks, the company is almost conspicuously ignoring lower-cost options. And as most of the lineup clocks in at well over a thousand dollars, Googlebooks are not just a new take on budget-oriented Chromebooks. All of the launch Googlebooks have excellent touchscreen displays, aluminum and magnesium bodies, biometric unlock (fingerprint or face), and big trackpads.
There’s also the Glowbar, which doesn’t do very much right now. It lights up in Google colors when Gemini is activated with the wake word and during boot-up. It also shows the battery level when you plug in a Googlebook.
The latter is modestly useful, but it’s not really a selling point.
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