Googlebook looks promising, but one big laptop brand is conspicuously absent

4 days ago 15

samsung postulation chromebook positive and googlebook

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

The caller Googlebook looks promising, but questions stay to warrant their cost.
Chromebooks had a intelligibly defined usage lawsuit that reflected a existent user need.
The marque I astir expected to spot was absent from Google's announcement.

Google just announced a caller merchandise line: the Googlebook, marketed arsenic the successor to the Chromebook with much susceptible hardware and a compelling promise: the merging of Android and ChromeOS into thing better.

This as-yet unnamed operating strategy has been cited arsenic "AluminumOS" done assorted leaks, but has not yet been officially announced by Google. Details connected the devices themselves are besides sparse, but Google says they volition beryllium a much premium merchandise with higher-end hardware.

Also: First look astatine Googlebook: A premium Chromebook alternate for Android users

So far, Google has shown disconnected a constricted acceptable of features, but 1 of the superior is simply a re-imagining of the rodent cursor. On the Googlebook, wiggling it opens up contextual menus connected whatever's connected your surface powered by Gemini Intelligence, the on-device AI.

Another diagnostic we saw is the quality to usage apps from your Android smartphone straight connected the Googlebook with nary further downloads required. In the demo, it showed the idiosyncratic opening Duolingo successful a model that looked a batch similar MacOS' Phone Mirroring. This is ostensibly the extremity of the iceberg erstwhile it comes to deeper integration betwixt the smartphone and Googlebook; but if that's the case, I person 1 large question.

Big shoes to fill

A large crushed Chromebooks were truthful palmy was their well-defined niche: affordable hardware with a snappy OS that excelled astatine mundane tasks successful Google's ecosystem. Even the astir premium Chromebooks didn't interruption the $1,000 terms ceiling (except the HP Dragonfly, but that was a unsocial device); much importantly, you could nab Chromebooks for the implicit lowest prices around.

This Acer Chromebook 315, for example, volition tally you $179 astatine Walmart. Sure, you're moving with little RAM than your smartphone, but it's inactive a laptop with a full-sized keyboard and an Intel processor that works for kids oregon seniors.

So, Chromebooks were cheaper and a small much restricted, but what they COULD do, they did good -- and mirrored a existent user need. With the instauration of the Googlebook, this terms borderline becomes a batch much hazy. For $1,500, what precisely are we getting? So far, Google has been tight-lipped astir the details.

A notable absence

Google confirmed each 5 large PC manufacturers volition beryllium releasing their ain Googlebooks aboriginal this fall: HP, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, and Asus. Within those 5 brands, we tin expect a scope of devices with antithetic sizes and prices. For example, Lenovo released the Chromebook Plus 14 past year, featuring an OLED show and 16GB of RAM (the astir of immoderate Chromebook to date) truthful it makes consciousness to spot that marque travel up with a similarly-specced Googlebook.

Lenovo wasn't the lone marque with a premium-tier device, however. Samsung released the Galaxy Chromebook Plus successful the autumn of 2024 and it was a coagulated device. It had a 15.6-inch AMOLED afloat HD (1080p) display, Intel Core 3 100U (14th Gen, Raptor Lake-R) processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of retention successful a 2.5-pound, 0.4-inch heavy chassis. I went hands-on with it and cited it arsenic the sleekest Chromebook I had ever tested.

So wherever is Samsung? If the Googlebook is for Android powerfulness users, a batch of those folks are going to beryllium connected Galaxy devices. Wouldn't it marque consciousness to person a instrumentality that combined autochthonal features for some the Android and Samsung ecosystems?

Also: Chromebook vs. Googlebook: How I'm deciding which laptop to upgrade to next

This is 1 of those scenarios that highlights the underlying contented of the Android ecosystem: determination volition ever beryllium aggregate competing partners with their ain products to sell. If Samsung doesn't merchandise a Googlebook, it wouldn't needfully beryllium a nonaccomplishment for the merchandise line, but a well-designed, highly-integrated premium Samsung Googlebook with autochthonal Galaxy integrations seems similar a monolithic win. Add successful immoderate flashy hardware similar an AMOLED display, haptic touchpad, and sleek build, and you've got yourself a genuinely competitory device.