The Googlebook is available for pre-order today. I gave the product page a look out of curiosity spawned from the hand-wavy announcement at Google I/O earlier this year. Seems like the final product is just as meaningless as the announcement was.

There are three key points Google decided to focus on:

  • Hardware: Crafted for performance
  • Intelligence: Designed for Gemini Intelligence
  • Better together: Synced effortlessly with your Android phone.

It all strikes me as taking a Chromebook then taking every possible shortcut to make a MacBook equivalent for Android. But that comparison feels like an insult to the MacBook when you scroll down the page.

"Ready from day one with a full suite of premium Gemini services and 5 TB of cloud storage."

Off the bat, this statement tells me there are no customizable SSD options and that to even use the Googlebook requires a subscription—just what I want for my laptop. A quick perusal of all five starting laptops confirms that the only options potential customers have are the manufacturer, screen size, chip, and price.1 All pre-orders have only a 512GB SSD and 16GB of RAM. The screen sizes range from 13.4 inches to 15.3 inches. Two laptops come with an Intel chip and the other three have Snapdragon X Elite (say with hardcore enthusiasm) chips.

They all have the "Glowbar," which seems to be a requirement from on high in Mountain View. While it doesn't light up when you get a phone call, it does act as an "indicator of your battery life and charging status." I doubt it will be as elegant as the breathing LED status indicator found on Mac computers in the aughts.

The hardware section also touts a dedicated search key, fingerprint scanners, the ability to use whatever crappy webcam is installed to authenticate your face, and premium materials in the construction of the laptop.

Moving on to the "Intelligence" section, the showcase the most unique feature of the Googlebook's OS, a magic pointer that you wiggle to summon AI to select stuff on your screen to search for or prompt AI to mash together. The example of creating a poster for a kid's band is as tacky as you think it is. There are also examples of reminders, cleaning up dictation, etc. etc. The problem is all of this functionality most assuredly requires the internet and is not being handled locally. Footnote number seven on the Googlebook page says "Internet connection required. Works on compatible apps and surfaces. Results may vary depending on visual matches. Sequences shortened and simulated." Now, I can't actually find footnote seven's anchor point on the page. I found all the other numbers and based off where six and eight are, seven is squarely referring to the AI functionality. If I am going to need the web regardless, what makes the Googlebook "designed for intelligence?" If an internet connection is all that's required for intelligent design, my printer must be pretty intelligent.

Then there is the ecosystem pitch. You can mirror apps from your Android phone to the Googlebook, just like a Mac and an iPhone. I remember when Windows did this with Amazon apps in 2021. Turns out that was discontinued in March 2025. So much for a masterstroke. If you are all in on Android, I'm sure this will be a nice feature, but I don't think the Android app scene is really going to bolster your laptop experience. Of course, Google showcases all the Google apps, which work in any web browser. All the creativity apps are ones with better desktop apps or web experiences, same for productivity and streaming. Speaking of streaming, that's the gaming message. You can play mobile games or stream PC titles with Nvidia's GeForce NOW. If only Google had their own game streaming service...

As for what's powering these Googlebooks, it is Aluminium OS—now Googlebook OS—which they proudly announced at I/O as being built by prompting Gemini 3.5 Flash inside Google Anitgravity. I understand AI is prolific in software development these days, but if I wanted an agentic Linux-based OS, I think DHH has me covered.

Besides all that, I think the lineup is just ugly. No stickers in sight, but they all have the word "Googlebook" etched near the keyboard. Those glowbars are not in the same spot on each machine. I think it is the inherent inconsistency of having five manufacturers handling the image of the "Googlebook" brand. There's no opinion to the design except the poor copycat approach these brands have implemented over the last two decades. And if that is Google's approach, then their opinion is a flaccid one.

The price range for all these is $899–$1,299, which Apple matches with the MacBook Neo to the Air. If I am going to spend that much on a computer, I want one that can function as its own self-contained computing experience, not one that is nothing more than the physical manifestation of an Electron wrapper. The Googlebook looks like a computer only the Android and Google services diehard would even consider. I think that audience would just end up with a Windows machine first. Granted, not a much better option, but a familiar one.

Seang Chau, the Vice President and General Manager of Android, said on Twitter that they "took the best of ChromeOS and Android to create a brand-new category of laptop with Gemini intelligence at the core." Nothing I see on their website convinces me that this is a new category or that the Gemini experience is anything more than a tacked on webhook with some form of a UI slapped onto a tasteless laptop.

Footnotes

  1. I suppose color is a choice too, but each manufacturer only has one color, so that just gets bundled with the manufacturer. ↩