Google's new Googlebooks went on sale October 4, and early reviews are now landing. The Verge spent about 24 hours with all five models and came away with a mixed first impression: the laptops feel a lot like Chromebooks, but with a new emphasis on Android phone integration that is both exciting and underbaked.
The strongest feature is how naturally the laptop works with an Android phone. Setup is simple, and actions like casting apps, transferring files, and moving a task from phone to laptop with one click generally work well. However, many of these integrations are inconsistent. Continue On, which pins a phone app to the laptop taskbar, only worked reliably with Google Docs and Sheets in testing. Casted apps can look pixelated, feel sluggish, and duplicate apps appear across separate drawers. Google's new desktop ratings for Play Store apps also seem loose: Apple Music is labeled optimized but doesn't support right-click, and Firefox is marked compatible yet ignores common keyboard shortcuts.
The Glowbar, a light strip on the lid, adds personality but little utility beyond showing approximate charge level. Overall, The Verge concludes that Googlebooks currently feel like a speedy Chromebook with nifty phone integrations, but with a long road ahead before the experience feels fully polished. For a business audience, the takeaway is that Google is making a serious push into the laptop market with Android at its core, but the software ecosystem still needs significant refinement to compete with mature desktop platforms.