Googlebooks could give Android an ecosystem of its own You Should Know

Aside from a short-lived spell with the iPhone 5, every single smartphone I’ve owned has run Android.

I don’t regret it at all, and it’s proven invaluable in my time at Tech Advisor, especially during spells when I was switching on a near-monthly basis.

However, if there’s one area in which Android phones have consistently fallen short compared to the iPhone, it’s laptop integration. Every iPhone integrates seamlessly with a MacBook, making Windows’ clunky companion apps feel ancient by comparison.

But could the days of Android-laptop ecosystem woes soon be over? Google is betting big on a yes and, after trying the brand-new lineup of Googlebook devices, I’d be inclined to agree.

Every Googlebook price, release date & key specs

All about that ecosystem

Ask almost anyone why they use Apple devices, and you’ll hear the concept of the ecosystem repeated over and over.

Apple products are designed to work beautifully with one another, allowing you to start something on one device and seamlessly pick it up on another. The iPhone-MacBook relationship embodies this, sharing apps, files and settings without you even having to think about it.

While ChromeOS offers some Android integrations, the two operating systems have always felt worlds apart in terms of the day-to-day user experience. With Googlebooks, it’s clear that Google has made closing that gap its top priority.

I’ve only been playing around with the five-strong initial lineup of Googlebooks for a couple of hours. But the experience across Asus, Acer, HP, Dell and Lenovo devices feels reassuringly consistent, and makes me happy to have an Android phone to hand.

Many of the experiences Google is offering are exactly what I’ve been looking for in a laptop.

The first big one is as simple as it gets: instant file sharing. As great as Google Photos and Drive are, both require an internet connection to upload content and can compress images and lower quality.

By directly integrating your phone (all Android 17 handsets are supported), Googlebooks allows you to access your phone files at any time. Alongside an AI-powered search, it looks to be a massive upgrade on Windows 11’s File Explorer.

But it’s not only files – Googlebooks will let you natively run almost any Android app from your phone directly on your laptop within a few taps via casting. Google says it’s letting developers decide whether the experience would work better as a native desktop app, or one that still appears as a mobile app.

While no match for true PC gaming, it’ll offer an easy way to play high-end mobile titles on a bigger screen. Playing a quick demo of Asphalt Legends, the superb graphics really impressed me.

However, there are three exceptions – Phone, Camera and Settings – with Google citing security reasons. Instead of being able to answer a call from your phone directly from your laptop, as you can on the MacBook, Googlebooks will simply send you a notification and prompt you to pick up your phone. This is a real shame, and I hope Google adds it later.

Elsewhere, ‘Continue On’ is basically identical to Apple’s ‘Handoff’ feature, allowing you to resume exactly from the point you left off. Fair enough. When a feature is that useful, why wouldn’t you copy it?

With a fully-featured desktop operating system that feels like a natural extension of Android and adopts the same Material 3 Expressive design, Google has nailed the software experience on Googlebooks.

5 game-changing Googlebook features for Android users

The hardware problem

Launching with five very different devices from five established laptop makers is a great move. It means people can find a form factor that suits them without being overwhelmed by choice.

After trying the Dell XPS Googlebook, Lenovo Googlebook 15, Acer Googlebook 14 (the only convertible so far), HP Googlebook 14 and Asus Googlebook 14, I can see merit in all of them. All feature powerful Intel or Qualcomm chipsets and at least 16GB of RAM, which is great to see.

If I had to choose between them, the ultra-sleek (15.9mm) and incredibly light (1.02kg) Dell has my vote. Google is also advertising 14 hours of video playback and up to 16 hours of web browsing on a single charge across the lineup, so battery life shouldn’t be an issue.

However, all five have a frustrating problem in common, and it’s a big one for me: the webcam. To say the Googlebook makers have been unambitious with their front-facing cameras would be an understatement.

Regardless of the model you choose, you’re looking at either a 2Mp (Dell, Asus) or 5Mp (Lenovo, Acer and HP) sensor. With video calls seemingly a permanent fixture for many companies, this is very disappointing.

While the lighting in Google and Intel’s demo areas wasn’t ideal by any means, it accurately reflects the changeable conditions in which we often conduct video calls. Every single one churned out a washed-out, grainy image that struggled with exposure big-time. In other words, it’s something you shouldn’t rely on in a professional setting.

I wouldn’t mind so much if Google had introduced its own version of Apple’s ‘Continuity Camera’, which allows you to easily use your iPhone camera as a MacBook webcam. Even Windows offers a similar feature via its ‘Link to Windows’ app.

Google indicated to me that it’s something the company is looking at, but it means you’ll be relying on the built-in webcam or a dedicated third-party accessory at launch. The shoddy quality of the former, at least based on initial impressions, means you won’t want to.

MacBook Neo is safe… for now

When Google first announced Googlebooks in May, I had visions of it being a direct rival to Apple’s industry-disrupting MacBook Neo.

However, even with Apple’s cheapest laptop getting a £100/$100 price rise since then, Googlebooks are significantly more expensive.

The cheapest model, Acer’s Googlebook 14, will start at £999/$899, with UK customers paying much more than their US counterparts. Google hasn’t revealed pricing for the other models, but they’ll presumably be significantly more expensive.

Make no mistake, Googlebooks are premium devices through and through, at least for now. I can only hope that we’ll see a genuine MacBook Neo rival as the lineup expands.

Pre-orders for all five Googlebooks are live now, ahead of their release on 5 October. I can’t wait to finally have my version of an Apple ecosystem, but I still need some convincing that this is the future of laptops.